West and Fens Fishing: Decent mixed bags to be had at Shepherd’s

The lakes seem finally to be in form, despite the less than summer-like conditions.

Mind you, I did see the first sprinkler of the year driving through the Fens yesterday, so it must be on the way.

Shepherd's Port's on song, with all three lakes producing. Shepherd's Lake is producing good mixed bags with roach and rudd responding well to wagg and mag, feeder picking up bream and carp.

Bigger bream are showing next door on Queen's Lake, with samples to 7lbs on the tip. It's a different tempo on Bear Lake, where the carp have been well on the feed, pole fished meet to the far side doing the damage.

Good roach and rudd are coming from the Ken Hill creek, which you can also fish on a Lynn AA ticket. Tench should come on soon down there once the shallow water warms.

Talking of tench, Springside Lake's starting to dish up some better tincas in the 6lbs-plus bracket. If they spawn late, will this place do a whacker? It's produced them not far shy of double figures in recent summers.

A voluntary bailiff scheme run by the Angling Trust is set to be rolled out across the country.

A wide range of people volunteered their time to work alongside paid Environment Agency staff during a pilot scheme in the South-east.

More eyes on the bank can only be a good thing. But as members of the fledgling Riverwatch scheme in the Fens have found, gathering the information and passing it on doesn't always mean it's acted on, while when the powers that be do decide to have a crackdown, they often publicise the fact in advance.

The trust says it is now investigating how sea anglers can become involved with the VBS to gather intelligence about illegal netting.

Probably a bigger problem around Norfolk's coastline is anglers taking under-sized fish.