Cheer up, Charlie

While a fishing trip for chub on the Waveney is a blank for Negus Jnr, the sheer wonder of river-dwelling wildlife more than makes up for it

- Negus Jnr, RICHARD NEGUS

I am more than happy to enlist the help of others in my efforts to educate Charlie in the ways of field and stream. One such individual is Jason, the proprietor of Diss Angling Centre. Charlie and I popped into our local Aladdin’s cave of all things piscatorial to buy some maggots. While Jason tipped a pint of red and white wriggling beauties into my bait box, Charlie explained that we were in quest of chub.

This lit Jason’s blue touchpaper and we were treated to an encyclopedic half-hour lecture on tactics, locations, depths to fish and best baits for the River Waveney, in the sage and generous way that only true experts impart their knowledge. So my boy and I, with Jason’s wisdom ringing in our ears, travelled the handful of miles from our home to Scole.

This is a picturesque little stretch of the Waveney that twists along the valley that borders Suffolk and Norfolk. Scole Bridge is indeed attractive; it is also noisy. The A143 thundered to our right. This road, like the Waveney itself, makes for the sea at Great Yarmouth. Here in the headwaters, the river is a torpid affair — silt runs off the light land that is farmed for vegetables hereabouts and colours the water. If you picture a crystal-clear bubbling trout stream, then imagine the stark opposite and you will have the Waveney at Scole in your mind’s eye.

We tackled up by 10 am, the sun warming our exposed arms and faces. Arching crack willows and sallows provided shade for the fish over the far bank, or so we hoped.