Extra terrestrial forces combined with the earth's rotation turned the tides of expectation on the River Yare match venue at the weekend.

Contestants in round one of the Nisa Feeder Saturday League and at the first leg of the Sunday Pairs challenge were hoping for a repeat of the massive bream bonanza taken on a flood tide on opening day. Instead, they discovered they were facing the challenge of a totally different environment.

With the high pressure dominating overhead and a North Sea ebb tide siphoning crystal clear drainage through the match length, they were met with a whole set of conditions that demanded a radical change of tactics.

Suddenly, it was a roach weekend all along the line, from the Beauchamp Arms to the Langley Dyke, and Glen Parker knew it.

The Nisa Waveney representative tackled his pole for float fishing and, offering red maggot or caster on a tiny hook and gossamer line, he lifted out a sparkling winning roach net scaling 15lb 2oz from peg 127 to set the pace in the Saturday tournament.

Airman Dusty Kidell completed his sortie with a runners-up catch of 14lb 3oz of roach from peg 114, then followed Mick Bartram (Daiwa AD) with 13lb 9oz from 108.

By Sunday morning, the penny had well and truly dropped. Feeder fishing was declared redundant and numerous poles protruded from the bankside vegetation from the first whistle.

Nisa sponsor Nick Larkin, who had won his Saturday section, triumphed with a mainly roach catch of 22lb 9oz from peg 110, including a bonus 3lb bream taken from the murky margins stirred up by a passing boat.

That fish gave him the edge over runner-up Will Freeman (Preston Innovations) with 21lb 2oz from peg 87 and Wayne Anderson (Daiwa AD) with 20lb from 127.

'It has been a great start to the River Yare season and these catches augur well for our main competitions on the river,' said Larkin.

While sport on the tidal rivers has been brilliant, the northern Broads, cooled by onshore breezes, have disappointed.

On Hickling, William Langham, of Potter Heigham, pre-baited his selected swim over three days, but after four hours of action he had but one tiny roach to show for his efforts and headed for land to fish the River Thurne bank where he netted skimmers, roach and perch.

However, a visit to South Walsham Broad paid off with huge bags of bream from the usual swim at the entrance to Fleet Dyke.

As expected, the River Bure at Upton was on form with mixed bags of bream, roach and perch.

However, the first round of the NDAA summer league there has been postponed until July 6. Instead, Tony Gibbons is staging a Sunday pairs match on the Thurne at Cold Harbour, where Paul Edwards fished hemp and tare to top the Wymondham club card with 17lb of quality roach. (Pairs match entry 01603 400973).

On the match lakes, there's no holding Paul Manthorpe, who scored at Bergh Apton with 127lb 1oz. But Zenith winner Paul Smith bettered that with 133lb 1oz.

Buxton's Jamie Turner completed the double with 99lb 2oz and 41lb 5oz at Cobbleacre, whose lakes, Mario and Adams, will be closed from Friday 8am-Saturday 6pm and Amy and Alex all day Saturday to accommodate the important charity event.

The Barford Sainsbury's Norfolk Games qualifiers were completed last week (see results page) from which teams of three will contest on Tuesday, July 1.

On the big fish scene, catch of the week was a 35lb 6oz common carp for George Nicholls, of Rollesby, with low 30s for Julian Miller and Paul Reevey. At Catch 22 dozens of carp over 20lb were noted, the best a 31lb 6oz common, while at Swangey full-time fishing has resumed for numerous double figure carp.

On the non tidal rivers, the Wensum at Taverham mill has produced fighting fit chub over 5lb with similar specimens reported from the upper river Bure.

It's been another good week at Nar Valley Fisheries. Fenn Lake continues to be the top venue for carp with double figure and 20lb fish well on the feed. Ian Allan took a personal best common carp of 25lb 4oz along with other commons of 13lb and 16lb bringing his total number of carp for the season to 21. His session was rounded off with an 18lb Wels catfish.

Darren Seal landed carp of 19lb 8oz, 19lb 4oz, 13lb, 9lb and 3lb.

Lake Geneva is also fishing well with Tim Smith taking the biggest carp of the week, a 27lb 3oz common to add to the 29lb 8oz mirror he had the last week. Bailiff Mark Reeve fished the margins to slip the net under a hard-fighting 22lb 12oz common.

Permits are still available in the local tackle shops or from Chris on 01553 636507.