A must for mudlarks

Rising before the sun to crouch in a water-filled ditch and wait for geese might not be everyone’s idea of a fun morning, but to the wildfowler it’s utter bliss

- RICHARD NEGUS

I used to dilute my precious fowling time by being a member of two clubs. After a pair of seasons in this polygamous state it started to dawn that I was in some way getting less by having more. To get the most out of this sport, I discovered, I needed to fully immerse myself in the mud of a single piece of coastline; to learn the vagaries of tides, winds and moon and the effects they have on fowl.

Thus like a heartless lover, I let my affair with the Great Yarmouth club dwindle and die and concentrated my passion on the foreshore and marshes of the Alde and Ore Wildfowlers. This is a fine old club with a history dating back to 1956, formed by the amalgamation of the Leiston and District and Aldeburgh clubs. It boasts 11 miles of shooting along the tidal Alde and Ore rivers. We also take our ancient rights over the Aldeburgh town marshes and ponds, where the wildfowler may enjoy his shooting in the near shadow of some of the most expensive real estate on the East Anglian coast.

Then there is the far-flung Lantern Marsh, accessible by boat or a lengthy trudge along the shingle sea wall. Barthorpes Creek on the Ore has a prison for a backdrop and mud aplenty for the mire lovers.

Our snipe-filled inland marshes at Geldeston and far up the coast towards Lowestoft can, when flooded in winter, act like a magnet to mallard, teal and wigeon. Finally, on the south bank of the Alde, we have the saltings that bulge out into the river. This promontory allows a Gun to shoot directly east towards the sea wall and the cold North Sea or, after a short walk, gaze westwards over moored boats and the grazing marshes on the inland side of Aldeburgh.