Expect Ouse to start with a bang

WEST & FENS: With just over a week to go until the start of the season, it remains to be seen how the drought's going to affect our rivers come the Glorious Sixteenth and beyond.

Expect some big bags from the lower Ouse to hit the headlines once anglers find the fish on the King's Lynn AA stretches.

Bream will be the quarry on Ten Mile Bank, with swims around the Wissey Mouth the ones many will head for.

As last season got under way, the infall was throwing up plenty of skimmers but the bigger slabs were further downstream, with the biggest weights coming down towards Denver.

With clear water and hardly any flow, tip or slider could have the edge over pole tactics, simply because the fish are in the deepest water.

Tench are often over-shadowed by the bream, yet there are fish in the 6 - 8lbs bracket caught every summer downstream of the railway bridge.

And while the Ouse stole the limelight with a cracking start last time around, the lower reaches of the Middle Level were quietly fishing their socks off.

If the drought continues, some of the drains are likely to suffer from algal blooms. Even bigger waters like the Ouse and Relief Channel aren't immune to the affects of low oxygen, which doesn't help the cause.

At least our rivers aren't suffering like those in the West Country, where many are seeing their lowest-ever recorded flows.

But a prolonged dry spell and algae could mean fish kills on some of the smaller, shallower drains if heavy rain 'turns' the water.

Pentney has been producing carp to 25lbs or so to Tom Callaghan and one or two regulars on the Cabin Lake.

Up on the coast Springside Lake continues to deliver some good days' fishing, with early pegs on both banks going well for bream, with tench and the odd carp showing.