SUFFOLK & WAVENEY VALLEY: By the weekend most of the deluge in centre steam had returned to a fishable state - and some surprises soon followed with rainbow trout appearing above and below the weir at Ellingham and in Beccles Quay.

By the weekend most of the deluge in centre steam had returned to a fishable state - and some surprises soon followed with rainbow trout appearing above and below the weir at Ellingham and in Beccles Quay.

Thought to be escapees from the flash flood, several miles upstream at Ditchingham Hall, via Belsey Bridge and Broome Beck, the six silver-sided streakers weighed between 2lb and 5lb 10oz, taking both a small spinner and red maggots.

With several hook length bottoms bitten off terminal tackles anglers were left wondering just how many trout were hanging about, but had little doubt as to their destination with the majority falling into the hungry must be fed category.

The absence of skimmers at Sternfied didn't put Bungay's Paul Dean off his stroke with his worm attack because they won a fantastic match with a bag of big perch totalling just over 18lb, including a 2lb 5oz tiger.

At Weybread Fishery over the last two weeks the bigger carp have started to show with several good doubles and the first 20-pounder. Match weights have been good with bags of 25lb-plus for the veterans, even when the owner has been forced to break the ice around the edges. Last week Harleston's Frank Kilbourne had 44lb - not bad for the end of February! Big perch, often cracking the 3lb barrier and coming to large worm baits, are still being caught and the better sized skimmers started coming regularly on the feeder out into 14 feet of water.

Looking at the last knockings on the river it is still Beccles Quay which holds the key to a lively spell with double figures always on the cards. The huge roach bags of earlier in the season provided some of the best fishing the tidal river had seen for years but have since remained elusive. Much of the thinking is that these were split up by cormorants.

It is likely they now reside in the four main off-river boat company culverts - edging out into the mainstream of the Town Woodyard stretch only on a full tide and at the very end of the evening. Certainly the number of fish rising, often 10 at a time, has led to that conclusion.

Nigel Bales' Fishery at Ellingham has boasted some weighty perch too and local Peter Aldous managed a couple of double-figure carp while an adjacent caravanner caught decent sized roach on bronze maggot to make a double figure bag.