Anglers Cashing in at The Bank

This almost forgotten stretch of river has once again made a comeback as anglers visiting the venue on the opening days of the season have been recording some good nets of bream to 60lb.

The pegs have been re-set on the 5-mile North Bank, so where it used to be 1-400 it has now been changed. Pegs 1-30 have been cut out and are situated around 1000-yards from the Dog and Doublet sluice at the eastern end. These are the pegs to head to for the best action. As always here it is the groundbait feeder or balling-in approach which is paying dividends.  Use an open-ended feeder of around2-3 ounce filled with a sweet bream groundbait such as brown crumb and Van Den Eynde Gold Pro with plenty of loose offerings such as red squatts, casters and chopped worm. The red squatts work really well particularly if the smaller 1-2lb skimmers are feeding well and there are plenty showing at the moment.  The trick is to throw out 8-10 balls of groundbait around two-thirds of the way across or more at the beginning then fish the feeder over the top. Don’t be negative as the balls will help attract then hold the bream. It is an all or nothing approach to fishing on the North Bank these days as there are few smaller fish worth targeting anyway. Rigs can be fairly light with size 16 hooks but remember some of the bream go to 6lb or more. If you don’t want to fish the tip you can use the long pole which can also produce particularly on pleasure sessions. Do the same above but fish a rig of say 1-2 gram over the top with bulk-shotting to get the bait down quickly.

There are roach to be had in here as the summer wears on and these tend to be taken from the pegs on the gravels close to the Millenium Bridge. There are currently a lot of bream rolling here so these pegs may also be worth trying with the same tactics as above. The whole length fishes better when there is a little flow and colour to it so any rainfall before a session is a good sign. It may also be worth moving pegs if the one your on proves fruitless as the fish often move from one day to the next.

TIP: Take an array of different hook baits and keep trying different ones as the bream can be picky and one day will be different from the next.

River Nene, North Bank, Peterborough
Prices: £5 on the bank, Peterborough DAA or £4 from local tackle shops
Contact: Wades Tackle, 01733 565159 www.peterboroughfishing.co.uk
Location: North Bank, Peterborough, Cambs, PE6 0RW
Rules: No bloodworm or joker, no livebaiting, Fishing in river season June 16th to March 15th only