Hello and welcome to Angling Monthly with me Gary Markham.

After having some lovely weather we now seem to be in a period of unsettled conditions with wind and rain. It’s not always a bad thing to have these sorts of conditions as the heavy rain can do wonders to oxygenate the lakes and rivers and get the fish on the move again. The wind can also be of benefit as it can put a chop on the water giving the fish a bit of cover, and if float fishing the wind can be used to trot the float through your swim and cover a bit of ground. It’s always worth seeing where the wind is blowing from and if it’s not to strong fish into it as a lot of natural foods will be blown to that end of the lake.

I walked the River Gipping at Bramford last month just before the start of the new season and at the time the water levels were a little low but there were signs of Roach topping everywhere and I saw some Chub hiding under the willows.

As the new season started several anglers ventured out on to the rivers and had some good catches of Roach and a few Chub on the higher reaches of the Gipping. The lower reaches from Sproughton to Ipswich seem to be choked with weed and there was lots of duck weed at the town end.

I was down at Sinks last week and there were some good bags of Silver Fish coming out along with Rudd and some Tench. When the sun shone on the water there were loads of fish swimming around, Roach, Bream and a couple of Tench and there were masses of fry in the water. Every now and again the fry went mad probably due to large Perch, which do frequent this lake, chasing them.

Most lakes in the county have actually been fishing very well for the time of year with the Suffolk Water Park producing some nice bags of fish from the match and traditional lakes, while the specimen lake has seen Carp up to 38lb 11 oz.

Alderson lakes at Needham Market which is run by the GAPS is fishing very well for their members with Tench, Carp and Bream being caught in good numbers.

All FMS waters are also fishing well. Sinks Pit is producing Tench Roach, Rudd Bream and Skimmers. Alton Water is also worth a try for the Bream, they tend to shoal up around the Lemons Hill area. Feeder tactics should be best with red maggot and caster the best baits.

The beach fishing has been better with a selection of fish to be caught like Codling, Whiting, Dogfish and Bass. The beaches from Felixstowe to Sizewell have all produced. Best baits are Lug, Rag, Squid and Crab.

Boat fishing has also improved with many Thornback rays, a few Cod and Smoothounds along with Spurdogs and some Bass.

There are some Garfish now starting to appear from around the coast. Try float fishing for these with strips of fish at a depth of around three to four feet. For best results, fish around piers, jetties and breakwaters. If you can find a jetty with a light on the end of it fish at night as they will be drawn to it.
Trout fishing has been good in the county on most waters. Best flies are epoxy buzzers, damsels. It’s worth trying mayflies and some of the modern dries like the bubble midge and the parachute fly or cdc buzzers.

Some waters in the area have reported blue green algae. The algae turns the water green and it looks just like tins of green paint have been thrown on to the water. You normally find that an orange fly is the colour to use.

Tight lines and good fishing for the next month