Mill Pond Fakenham - Trout, Roach, Ducks!

So somewhere to try out the new fishing gear was the Mill Pond in Fakenham, Norfolk. This is just outside the Wensum Lodge Hotel. The River Wensum runs under the old Mill and creates a weir pool of sorts next to the bridge into Fakenham. As far as I know this is free fishing.

Wensum Lodge Hotel and Mill Pond

The pool has lots of ducks in it with some deep runs with fast water in the middle (probably about 2-3 feet) and lots of very shallow 1 foot areas around the edges. I could see some fish milling around under the bridge in the shallows and there was a lot of weed in the middle of the faster run.

I fished a 0.5g fat bodied pole float rig that I had from the last time I went fishing. This was held on the line by float rubbers at top and bottom and had a few shot a couple of inches down. I used one of the size-18 barbless hooks to try and alternate between casting to where I saw fish and to trot down the faster flow. Fishing single mixed maggots, it was easy to see the fish hitting the hook under the water. Almost immediately after the first cast, I was in to something in 30cm of water. It gave a good fight and I was surprised when it was in the net to discover that it was a small half pound brown trout. I was expecting it to be a chub from the shadows that I saw under the water.

0.5lbs Brown Trout

I kept throwing in a few maggots each cast as is customary with trotting and I caught a few more small roach and another brown trout all around 0.25lbs or less. It was fun fishing for an hour an a half even with a light drizzle of rain. The ducks kept chasing the float as it hit the water and also the fish as I was trying to land them. This did eventually get annoying and on hooking one of the ducks, which fell off the barb-less hook eventually, I gave up. Still nice fun location and I suspect there were some larger fish in there. I hooked into something better in the faster flowing water but lost it in the fight. I felt that the 8ft rod was making it difficult to pick up the line fast enough to strike some of the fish. Also the barb-less hooks made it more challenging to keep them on during the fight. Perhaps a self-cocking float rig would have been perfect but I would have had to trade-off the stalking of specific fish versus getting the bait down fast enough in the faster flows.

Still nice fun intro back into fishing!

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