Oh, the gallant fisher's life. It is the best of any, 'tis full of pleasure, void of strife and beloved of many.

Other joys are but toys, only this is lawful pleasure. For our skill breeds no ill but just content and pleasure.

This verse from an assertive eulogy for fishing, penned by that great angling master Isaak Walton in the 17th century, summed up the gush of goodwill experienced on the banks of the tidal River Yare on Saturday.

This was the second round of the Nisa King of the Yare League and, once again, Norfolk's major match river lived up to its national reputation, providing yet another huge bream bonanza for the majority of the sell-out field.

It was Broads bream fishing par excellence; a quintessential gift of nature that produced 32 catches over the 20lb mark.

Leading the field was Steve Kindlysides, the well-known, 55-year-old Norwich builder, performing under the Deben match banner.

His undoubted skills at unfancied peg 77 produced bream to almost 5lb in a total take of 50lb 12oz, beating narrowly other Deben dabblers Paul Hudson, just an ounce adrift from peg 116, and Rod Finch, a further 10oz behind from 61.

Recalling his action-packed five hours, the winner commented: 'Peg 77 was not fancied, but the bream were there waiting for me and prepared to take worm bait on both tides.'

Hudson, a 55-year-old tiler, added: 'I actually lost about 10lb of fish because I was catching along the far bank and two or three came off the hook.

'But I'm not complaining, I had a great day.'

League organiser Andy Wilson-Sutter added: 'In some pegs there were literally hundreds of tiny nuisance eels, an endangered species.

'The bream wouldn't stay with them, but we got over the problem by feeding the eight-inch wrigglers worms and the total bream haul was 1,400 lbs.'

The Environment Agency is concerned that fishing rods and keep nets of fish are being left unattended in our rivers and Broads.

The EA emphasises that this offence contravenes national bylaws and can result in prosecutions and substantial fines.