I made it out this afternoon for a couple of hours to a small lake close to home. The temperature was cold as you might expect at this time of year,, and the water temperature was a chilly 3 degrees so I wasn’t really expecting much other than a bit of fresh air.

This lake has a good head of tench and carp – but there wasn’t much chance of them feeding – so set up with a very light end tackle of size 22 hook to 0.07mm hook length. Bait for the session was some old maggots that had turned to casters. I tipped them in water and was disappointed to find that 3/4 of them were already floaters – so I didn’t have much loose feed to play about with. I had some crushed hemp at the bottom of the box – so i fished caster and hemp setting my stall out for a few roach…

Which for a while appeared to be a bad decision as it took me an hour to get my first bite – and then it was from a bream.

I then managed to bump two more bream in the next 10 minutes and predictably the bites then dried up.

I swapped to a different line at the edge of the far bank rushes and then thankfully found the roach – getting half a dozen fish to 8oz in the last half hour before home.

My fishing sessions seem to be coming in short sharp bursts at the moment – a stolen hour or sneaky afternoon out of the office. Today was my mate Petes birthday – and he wanted a bit of company – how could I not oblige…….. and to create a bit of extra birthday fun,,,,, I invited mutual friend and professional predator fisherman Ant Glascoe Jnr to join the birthday party.

Being the selfish so and so that I am, I inveigled the chaps into helping me knock a couple of species off my list for 2017.

Manchester has its own North South divide – Grayling are found in South Manchester rivers but not in the Northern ones.

So in order to strike Grayling off my species hunt – I headed south to the River Goyt.

I’ve never fished the Goyt before, so before tackling up – I had a good walk along the river bank at Woodbank Park in Stockport to search out any potential good swims….

It was great – a great section of river with plenty of variety – weir pools, shallow fast runs, deep fast runs, and slow glides.

So I tackled up the trusty old 15ft Drennan and Okuma Sheffield pin – a medium lignum stick and size 20 hook… Grayling love a maggot so……….

So do out of season brown trout – my first fish of the day was returned to the river without any fuss.

Working my way downstream swim by swim I began to feel as though I was struggling – water which I was convinced should hold fish appeared to be devoid of fish.

The gang of three reunited on a pool offering a great variety of swims – and none of us managed to raise a fish – until I started lifting rocks and scooping mini species (I am on a species hunt – in case I hadn’t mentioned it at least a dozen times before)….. a Bullhead and Stone Loach obliged within 5 minutes of each other.

Working our way downstream we finally started picking up Grayling in deep slack water above a weir.

Just love these fish – many thanks to Ant for his lovely pics

Great to see the River Goyt fishing so well – another urban Manchester river which has recovered from its polluted industrial past.

Have been given an all day pass this Sunday —- so many choices………….. lets see where I end up

Its been a while,  but today I caught a few fish.

A quick early morning whirl around 3 local park lakes saw me land 3 fish (2 perch and a pike) caught using the fishing rod I received for Christmas 2015 – which had been out on numerous occasions in 2016 but never christened.

Using a small white latex shad lure I blanked at Heaton Park Lake, but caught a small Pike at Broughton Park Lake, and then two perch from Queensmere Dam

I’ve a long standing relationship with all three of these venues, as they were the lakes where I first cut my teeth as a young angler…..

Maybe I look back with rose tinted spectacles, but all three of these lakes used to hold far more fish in the late 70s than they do today – a direct consequence of the current cormorant plague ??

I was joined for the morning by my mate Ant Glascoe Jnr, and we had a great few hours chewing the cud….we had a great time reminiscing about old fishing venues, so when we completed our circuit of the Boating Lake, we decided to have 20 minutes on Broughton Park Lake.

It was a great decision – I had a little pike after only a few casts which attracted the attention of the local teen gang who turned out to be quite sweet and not at all threatening.

They were incredibly interested in the fish we caught, and about fishing in general so we let them have a go.

As you can see from the pics below – they loved it

Species Count for 2017 Salford Friendly Anglers Society Challenge = 2

Pike, Perch

Back in October I wrote a post moaning about my inability to christen a drop shotting rod which I bought in January 2016 see A Bit Rubbish

This rod is called a Shakespeare Agility – I’m going to rename it the Shakespeare Inability

I have just returned from yet another short fruitless session which has also resulted in the loss of one of my favourite lures a little perch pattern Vibrax Minnow.

A 2 O’Clock appointment cancelled on me at the last minute and I had some kit in the car so thought that it would be a great alternative use of my time to spend an hour in contemplative meditation throwing lures around a local lake..

When I got there the lake was 80% frozen, and I managed a whole 15 minutes fishing before I lost my lure and the will to live

Not a great start to my species challenge

Roll on sunshine and warmer weather

Happy New Year !

My 2017 species hunt has begun

In 2010 I managed to catch 24 species of freshwater fish in a calendar year, in 2012 I managed 31.

2 young children have put a serious dent in my fishing time for the last few years, but I have been blessed with a 4 year old who is rapidly developing a love for being outdoors with a “fissin lod” in his hand…..So I am now raring to go and just can’t wait for the weather to warm up and my fishing to begin in earnest.

After lots of trial and error on my previous species hunt expeditions – and with google as my friend I have a great list of locations for the more “difficult” species of fish.

So in 2017 I hope to bag the lot,, all 42 of them plus a couple of estuary fish such as Flounder and Mullet.

The sharp eyed reader will notice that there are a few fish on the list such as Vendace, Schelly and Shad which are on the protected species list – I have no intention of catching these species but will go and visit the locations where I know they exist and take a picture or two of the fantastic scenery and share them with you.

I wonder if anyone has completed this challenge before  ?

Whilst the weather is still cold I hope to tick Silver Bream off the list first. They don’t exist in the North West of England so a trip over the Pennines will be necessary to a lake near Barnsley which reputedly has a good head of these lovely little fish. I think a Grayling from the River Mersey near Stockport (oh how times change!) is also on the cards.

I have only caught 2 Silver Bream before – during my 2012 species hunt….. I was guided onto these fish by Jeff Hatt on the Coventry Canal.  A  remarkable stroke of luck saw me catch 2 Silver Bream on my first two casts followed by nothing for the rest of the day. I would bet against a repeat of that remarkable stroke of luck.

So here is the list of fish which I will be trying to catch this year

1. Roach
2. Rudd
3. Perch
4. Tench
5. Bream
6. Silver Bream
7. Pike
8. Salmon
9. Sea Trout
10. Brown Trout
11. Rainbow Trout
12. Char
13. Grayling
14. Vendace
15. Schelly
16. Dace
17. Chub
18. Gudgeon
19. Ruffe
20. Minnow
21. 3 Spined Stickleback
22. 9 Spined Stickleback
23. Bullhead
24. Stoneloach
25. Spined Loach
26. Barbel
27. Bitterling
28. Catfish
29. Smelt
30. Bleak
31. Shad (Twaite or Allis)
32. Eel
33. Lamprey (brook, river or sea)
34. Carp
35. Crucian Carp
36. Brown Goldfish
37. Zander
38. Motherless Minnow/ Sunbleak
39. Grass Carp
40. Ide/Orfe
41. Pumpkinseed
42. Sturgeon
43. Goby
44. Flounder
45. Mullet

I wonder if anyone has completed this challenge before ?

Its been a while since I opened my fly tying kit box – but pictures of friends fleas on facebook have inspired me to get the string, fur and feathers out again.

Being an avid upstream nympher I absolutely adore shaggy heavy point flies so naturally this is where my evening fumblings were focused.

Partridge hackle, hares ear body, gold tinsel and a size 14 curved hook, 3mm gold bead….. nothing too technical – but I like a bit of flash.

A bit rubbish – probably the most accurate description of my recent fishing trips

Family (baby and toddler) circumstances dictate that most of my spare time is spent on paternal entertainment duties. Recent fishing trips have been restricted to a couple of 30 – 45 minutes slots on the Rochdale Canal and Queensmere Dam in Swinton.

I’ve managed 3 quick trips out in October, each time trying to christen the drop shotting rod I received as a gift last Christmas. So far unsuccessfully.

Its a bit frustrating as I’ve been getting plenty of follows, but as yet no takes. I have a feeling that I might need to use smaller lures…

Lets see what this week brings as 10 months is an embarrassingly long period of time to have an un-.christened rod in my tackle shed