Venue Description:
The Ely Ouse describes the lower Ouse between the Cathedral City of Ely and Denver Sluice in Norfolk, it is one of the course of the heavily modified River Great Ouse and the River Cam, and plays a significant role in flood defence of the Eastern Fens. The lower end of the Venue is known locally as “Ten Mile Bank”.
The road runs behind all the pegs on the river, next to the flood bank. Parking is either behind your peg, or drop your kit off and park close by on a suitably wide verge area. (No walking any distance with your kit required)
The river is approx. 30 to 40 metres wide with a depth between 3.5m and 5m at 13m. The river is generally quite clear and has a slow flow towards the sluice at Denver; sometimes it can stop and may even “Back Up” slightly. The banks are generally comfortable and it is unlikely that a platform will be required. Winter 2013/14 however, has seen unprecedented rainfall, and the river has been coloured and running hard since December, although at the time of writing it has begun to slow down and become fishable again.
When coloured and running hard bream are the main target species on big flat floats held still, but in the slower flows roach play a much bigger part in the matches.
The fish in the river do migrate and tend to gather in areas at different times of the year, this match will be pegged to try and take advantage of this migration where possible, the final exact pegging will be announced close to the event.
The main species in the river are Roach between 30 and 150 grams, Skimmers between 50 and 750 grams some big bream from 1 to 3kg, along with Perch 50 to 500 grams and Bleak as typical targets, although at the end of the season some pegs can hold a lot of good tench to 2.5kg.
The expected main methods will be long pole, short pole for small fish in the edge on the harder pegs, and slider for both roach and bream, once introduced it is expected that bloodworm will dominate the event. There are a lot of bleak in the river and winter league events at Littleport have seen weights of bleak to 4.5kg with the fish averaging 20 to 30 grams on the right pegs.
On the long pole assuming the river is not carrying significant water rigs will typically be between 1.5 and 3g. Sliders of 8 to 12g will also probably be a good starting point.
Small club events on the venue have been won with 5 to 10 kg of roach with a few skimmers, bream weights on the feeder can exceed 25kg but the potential on the pole has not been fully exploited, the introduction of worm and joker over a couple of days may create an ideal situation for a weight of big bream on the pole.
The recent world club championships qualifying event at Littleport produced some astonishing roach fishing with 5 or more weights of roach over 10kg in sixty pegs, on both days. This was the right venue at the very best time of year but shows the potential of the river.
Pleasure anglers catch a lot of bream and roach throughout the winter at Ten Mile Bank, Littleport and the Pymoor Stretch close to the Lark Outfall, owned by Ely Beet Club.
Local Information:
Headquarters
Littleport Sport & Leisure Centre, Camel Road, Littleport, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 1EW
Section Locations
Pymoor Stretch, Below River Lark, Branch Bank, Littleport, Ely CB7 4UG, UK
Littleport Stretch (Low Numbers), New River Bank, Littleport, Ely CB7 4TA
Ten Mile Bank (Modney Bridge to Wissey), Church Road, Downham Market, Norfolk PE38 0HB
Match Coordinator for Sensas UK:
Rob Hewison (Sensas Mark One) rhewison1@googlemail.com Mob: +44 7711417624
Good local information can be found at Benwick Sports Angling Centre, Soham, Cambs from Adrian
Crane of Littleport AS. Tel: 01353 721009
Waters Courtesy of;
Ely Beet Club (http://elybeetclub.webs.com/elybeetfishing.htm)
Littleport AC (http://www.littleportanglingclub.co.uk)
Kings Lynn AA. (http://www.klaa.co.uk)