May half-term found our whole family (two adults, three kids, one friend and one dog) trouping off to north Norfolk for a week’s holiday. We’d rented a lovely barn conversion in Langham and had a full week’s activities ready to pack in. However, I found a little spare space in the car to squeeze in some minimum fishing gear (rod, small net and bag), just in case. I’d managed to find a small fishery not too far away, Narborough Fishing Lakes, which was coincidentally featured in the last edition of Total Fly Fisher. It offers a range of small lakes (large ponds) for both course and trout anglers with one dedicated catch and release trout lake. At £18 for catch and release, this is reasonable value for an afternoon’s fishing.
We had decided to spend the morning at Kings Lynn and, as Narborough was almost on the way back, I decided to take a detour and spend a couple of hours fishing. I was quite surprised when my eldest daughters (9 & 18) asked to come along. It was a lovely afternoon with very little wind, mostly cloudy but with the odd outbreak and sun and reasonably warm. I’d spent some time in the car managing the kids expectations about catching dozens of fish as a I didn’t want them to get despondent if it took a while to get any interest.
The C&R lake is quite small and a little weedy but perfectly fishable by 5-6 anglers at one time. With four anglers already there, we moved around to the south side of the lake and tackled up with a simple rig; floating line and single fly on a nine foot leader (the lake is quite shallow so didn’t need anything longer). Even with the weed, the water was quite clear and given the shallowness, it looked like a perfect venue for naturals – buzzers and nymphs were the order of the day. My middle daughter, Katie, had been pestering me for a while to tie a fly, so I’d helped her tie up a black and green buzzer a few weeks before hand, which I decided to try first.
Typically, with an audience, my first cast was awful but my second cast shot out through the rings with a lovely turnover and landed gently on the water. I’d slightly turned my head to explain how to fish a buzzer when I saw the line tighten out the corner of my eye and struck by instinct; second cast, straight in! It was a good, fighting rainbow which took a while to land but with one child manning the net, we finally got it in. It must have been a good 3-3.5lbs and looked in very good condition. Everyone had a quick look before we released it gently back into the water and watched it swim away.
What a brilliant start; but, unfortunately, that was it for the day. I gave everyone a chance of retrieving a selection of flies and the eldest even had a go at casting as ‘it looks easy enough’. After realising its not as easy as it looks, and not catching anymore fish, the kids got a little bored and retreated to the car and their phones. I carried on for a little longer but without any luck.
On the way back to the car, I had a chat with a guy who had been pulling fish all afternoon. He’d been pulling a selection of bright lures through the top of the water, with a floating line, and watching the fish hook themselves! So much for a perfect nymphing venue. I still can’t get exciting about fishing with lures but maybe its time to give it a proper go.
Narborough is a nice little fishery for an afternoon or morning fishing but probably a little limited for a whole day and I expect it gets a little weedy and humid for the fish in very hot weather.