NORFOLK BROAD AND RIVER FISHING. 357 



The fish frequenting these waters are chiefly pilce, bream, 

 and roach. Perch are found here and there of large size, and 

 are caught whilst spinning for pike, also by paternostering in 

 some of the reaches below Wroxham. There is no close season 

 in Norfolk, and when perch are spawning they resort in large 

 numbers to certain well-known spots, where, sad to say, the 

 Norfolk angler goes after them. An old tree partly fallen into 

 the river, which was until recently a prominent object just below 

 Wroxham Bridge, had always a crowd of perch around it at 

 spawning time, and the catches there made would be notable 

 ones to chronicle had they not been so unsportsmanlike. On 

 some of the Broads, particularly on Oulton, you may get among 

 the perch ; but it is not a branch of fishing which has any dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities in Norfolk. 



Of the three fish just mentioned the pike deserves first 

 place. In private waters in Norfolk (generally known as 

 'Jordan' in answer to too curious enquirers) the pike is not 

 only present in great numbers, but of great weight, and a dozen 

 fish from ten to twenty pounds is not an uncommon take, while 

 many larger catches are recorded. In the broads and rivers 

 the pike are numerous, but not exceptionally large, a seventeen- 

 pound pike in a broad and a ten-pound fish in a river being 

 considered good. The largest fish taken recently in the open 

 river was one caught at Cantley weighing twenty-four pounds. 

 Fish larger than this are well known to exist in several places, 

 notably two in the neighbourhood of Horning Ferry. I tried 

 hard the other day for one which was always to be seen in a 

 hole in a dyke about thirty yards long, ten wide, and twenty 

 feet deep. It is known to be at least thirty pounds in weight, 

 and I tried it with every imaginable bait up to a two-pound 

 jack, and for a whole day, without success. 



Another thirty-pound fish affects a shallow bay in a small 

 broad, where he is often seen with a five-pound bream in his 

 mouth. There is such a plenitude of bait that the big ones do 

 not apparently trouble themselves to seek the angler's. I am 

 inclined to think the large fish are not by any means so 



