gareth22

They have been at the museum of the broads this afternoon, taking a trip on a steam powered boat. They were filming across the river from simpsons yard when we returned back after being out for the day.

Video is very good. We have been experimenting with different maggot colours. The youngest has a touch of luck and almost every time she dips the rod in she catches something. Bless her then proceedes to tell us all how to fish and what colour maggots we should all be using. It's suprising how quickly the time goes when you are fishing. We have had some really good days as a family. With the mrs with me there is no chance of chasing the skirt.

Seems to be more and more hire craft moving after they should. We were passed by a few on Saturday evening near how hill. I always remember being told by Royalls about being moored up in good time when we hired from them.

We have been out again this weekend. Saturday we set up just past How Hill in the mooring tucked off the river. Ellie had her new pole and line tht was kindly given to her. On Saturday she had a very fruitful day and caught 26 fish from tiddlers to fish up to 4". She was very keen all day and impressed with every fish she caught. By the end of the day she was de hooking the fish with wet hands and pitting back in the river. Charlie was less successful but still managed to catch 6 fish on Saturday. The wife and I managed a dozen between us and I caught a couple of nice bream. On Sunday we went back to Stalham to collect my mum. We then slowly cruised back down across Barton to a mooring just past Irstead. We didn't catch as many on Sunday but the Ellie caught 12, I scored a couple more bream and Charlie didn't catch anything. He is a little disappointed but keen to return.

We purchased our boat last year. But have for the last Oct and this Oct hired a larger boat from Royalls to go with the grandparents. Also the larger boat for the week is nice.

Kat (the wife) was very impressed with the fish, what you can't see in the picture is how happy she was. We have quite a system going, my daughter of 7 is very good at baiting up the hooks, she takes it upon herself to re-bait anybody when they need it. My son who hates maggots is very happy to watch the rod and reel in when required. If I could just get him to deal with the fish once in the net lol.

Update: We have been out a couple of times. Have even experimented with some ground bait. Caught quite a lot of small fish. The attached is the largest fish we have caught. This was landed by the wife last Sunday.

We hace awoken onboard CG2 at Stalham and the sun is out. Just a little bit if wind.

Eric. We were in a similar position about 3 years ago. We looked at syndicates and buying outright. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We had decided to purchase a boat but didn't know what we wanted. We spent 2 years looking and weighing up costs. We set our budget to buy, weighed up how much we would use and how much it would cost for a day boat for a couple of visits a year or if hired for a week or 2 if we didn't buy. We purchased an ex richarsons crown gem for under £10k and left a slush fund for any circumstances that could arise. When buying you also need to consider on going costs. Our boat stands us just under 3k a year. That includes mooring at moonfleet, insurance, service, breakdown, toll etc. Work never ends on a boat. There is always something that needs doing or something you want to improve. You can of course cut some costs and shop around. We live an hour and half away which makes it very easy to pop up and we have used the boat more than we budgeted for to make it worth it. It has been so much fun and has meant we have been able to go as and when we wanted. I suppose the first question is how far do the live from the broads and to weigh up how much they think they would use it to make it worth it. If they live fairly close and will use a lot. Do as we did. If further a field then as alan says syndicate. If they have any questions they are more than welcome to pm me or I can pm you my email address.

Before we went away I managed to get together a couple of rods with weights, hooks etc, a landing net and of course the fishing licenses ordered. Upon our return from Spain in the early hours of Thursday on our door mat was the licences. We packed the car up early on Friday and headed into Norwich to have the car mot'd. Car was done with out issue. Off to Wroxham to get some maggots. Once we had the wriggling bait we headed for the boat. We made our way down the river discussing where to stop and set up. We decided just past Irstead on the How Hill side on a righthand bend. After much cursing and hooks in fingers I got the Mrs, my daughter and myself set up with a rod. My son we still feeling tired so retreated to his bed. After nearly an hour and no bites the mrs had a spate of 4 that slipped the hook. Then 2 hours after setting up I hooked and landed my first fish. At this point my daughter seemed quite happy baiting up the Mrs's hook and holding the net the holding the rod. We continued and by the end of the evening when we retreated in for tea I had landed 6 and the Mrs 2. We moved up to Neatishead for Sunday morning. And all I caught was a tiddler. After having lunch we made away back across Barton and stopped halfway back to Stalham. There the mrs and myself caught 3 fish each. The landing net did make things much easier. One question I do have is does maggot copour make a difference?

£1.25 was an absolute steal. Will have to keep an eye for a copy for my son.

Thank you for sharing. Loved the video. Just noticed there is more. Have added them to watch later list.

Thank you for all the sound advice. I will keep an eye out at a couple of car boots after we return from our holiday in Spain at the end of the month. Got a couple of weeks to read the book and watch a few videos on you tube mentioned above.

Thank you all for the valuable help. I have downloaded the kindle version of the book. Will read as soon as time allows. Had a look and asked some advice at the tackle shop at Wroxham and now have a good idea now of what is what and how much items cost. Kids are really excited to go fishing. We are away on holiday towards end of month in Spain so will get bits sorted for our next trip on the boat in August and will get the licences sorted online. Branden. Video was a great help. Just a couple of questions. How do you know if there is a fish on the line? With a float I take it they bob? Do you have a video for float fishing?

We moored at Barton Turf last night. We arrived at 7pm and there was 1 boat down the side. Loads of room for more boats. Everywhere else like Neatishead and Gays Staithe was full. Even the moorings across the river was full. As a second level of safety we put our mudweight down. Had a lovely night.