I recently received an email from somebody looking to come back to coarse fishing, specifically to fish the tidal rivers Bure and Yare. They are looking for advice on what rods and reels would be most suitable. Instead of replying direct I thought it might be interesting to make it in to a post.

The River Bure and River Yare are big tidal rivers, at spring tides there can be a tide running at 3 knots in places so they are not the place for small light weight feeder rods. If you are feeder fishing, especially when targeting the large bream shoals you need a strong rod.

My advice would be it needs to be a minimum of 13ft long, if not 14 or 15ft, this allows you to set the rod high on a rest keeping as much of the line out of the tide as possible (the longer the line, the higher you can set the rod and more line is kept out of the water). This prevents the rod taking on a massive bend due to the water pressure on the line.

Like I previously mentioned the rod needs to be strong. Most suitable rods will be described by the maufacturer as heavy feeder rods. Ideally it will have a number of different sized quiver tips allowing you to choose the most suitable tip for the current conditions, the stronger the tide the heavier the tip. It is not uncommon for me to be using 2-3oz cage feeders just to keep the bottom so a strong tip will be required, quite often at least a 3oz tip. You will get no where with a 1oz tip, except for a huge bend in your rod and many missed bites.

Norfolk Broads river Bream are not shy so you can get away with a 5lb main line, sometimes all the way through but I often use a 3lb hook link.

I use a Tri-cast 14ft TROPHY DUTCH FEEDER rod, at £250 they are not cheap but they certainly do the job required. Also look at the Preston Dutch Master range or the Shimano Technium heavy feeder rod  If that’s out of your budget look at the Shakespeare Mach 1 XT or any heavy feeder rods by the likes of Preston, Daiwa, Tri-cast, shakespeare etc.  You will most likely strugle to find most of these in any tackle shops these days which are generally set up for carp anglers with 11ft rods that are no good for big river fishing.  not sure if they still make this but ebay is well worth checking regularly as these rods do come up.

As for a reel, I don’t think you can go wrong with a Shakespere Mach 3 XT 040 (again look on ebay where at the time of writing they are going for about £60). They are by no means the most expensive reels available, yet in my opinion they are top quality and you get a double handle option, spare spools and reel case. Just don’t opt for smaller match reels as after a while they just wont be able to cope with the strains of large river fishing.