Chasing Perch On The Worm Dropshot

23rd November 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

While I have an ambition to improve my perch pb this winter, I’m not really that bothered if I achieve it or not. I just care about being out on the bank with a fishing rod in my hand, and having a bit of fun with my friends.

So with lock down 2 in full swing, I’m still doing my bit, working mostly from home, minding my own business and only fishing very locally.

I can’t get much more local than Heaton Park lake, and my local canals and I’ve snatched a few late afternoons off work to try my luck.

Heaton Park Boating Lake is a venue that’s always intrigued me. I have fished it on and off since the mid 1970s and sadly its a pale shadow of its former glory. It used to have specimen roach and perch, but in recent years these have been plundered by the cormorant invasion and only the bream and carp are surviving in any numbers. I had a session on there a couple of years ago, with expert lure angler Ant Glascoe Jnr (its a local venue for him too where he spent many a youthfull hour) and we struggled to find any perch. I think we had 4 smallish perch between us in a 3 hour session. I had two 1 hour sessions recently and blanked on both occasions. A very sad state of affairs – a great venue ruined by the black plague. Maybe it fishes better in warmer weather, so I’m not going to give up on it just yet despite my two blank visits last week..

A couple of hours on Heaton Park Boating Lake… blankety blank.

The park locks its gates at dusk — its like playing Russian Roulette fishing into the evening … will I be able to get out of the gates before they lock up or will I have to climb the fence

Last weekend I had a free pass from Mrs Fishing Fiend for a few hours late each afternoon. I spent the first afternoon on the Bridgewater Canal, first near Monton Lighthouse, and then a little further towards the Trafford Centre at Peel Green. I didn’t have any success at either location 🙁 and again – there were cormorant working the canal while we were fishing. Is it any wonder I didn’t get a sniff of a fish. I’ve fished both of these spots in summer months and always been able to catch plenty of fish — a different story now the water temperature has dropped.

Only 35 miles from the sea, the guy who built this was expecting global warming and rising sea levels to come faster than the rest of us.

We had a try casting near the boats, but again nothing. No fish, and cormorants working nearby.

On Sunday afternoon, Phil and I decided to have a try on the Rochdale Canal, I fancied having a go in the City Centre of Manchester, but Phil persuaded me to head a little further north and try the canal at Slattocks. Again, only a couple of miles from home, and an old stomping ground of mine over the years. The canal up here has produced some great fish of different species over the years, pike, perch, roach etc. I know this bit of canal well and we hopeful of a few fish. Unfortunately for me and Phil, quite a few other anglers had the same idea, and we counted well over a dozen other anglers out predator fishing, and another half dozen sat on boxes fishing maggots and bread for silvers. Its great to see so many anglers out – but not so great to know that they had already fished through the areas we were hoping to catch some fish from.

Undeterred, we cracked on, walked a mile or so without any action and then found a shoal of small perch lurking in the oxygenated waters of a sluice/race pool below a lock.

These perch were crafty little robbers, nicking our worms without grabbing the hooks. We had great fun striking and missing half a dozen times before catching a fish. At least it made us forget about the cold as neither of us had realised before setting out that temperatures had really dropped and we weren’t dressed for the cold.

Despite trying a few likely fish holding spots, and getting our worms nicked at a few of them we could only catch in the one spot, and the small perch there soon got wise to us after each of us had caught half a dozen of them. The light was dropping, as was the temperature and with was a relief and a welcome to get back to the car and a bit of warmth.

No idea where I will get to this coming week, other than its going to be within 5 miles of home.

If you’ve had any winter success on any of these venues please let me know in the comments section I always interested in other anglers success on local waters

Pilsworth Fishery Dropshot

9th November 2020 by Mike Duddy 2 Comments

My first trip back fishing Pilsworth Fishery in probably 15 years. Even though its less than 10 minutes drive from home, I just fell out of love with the place over time as the owner Eric just let the place turn into a big dump with loads of rubbish in and at the back of nearly every peg. Would it have been so difficult for him to walk round with a litter picker picking up the rubbish while collecting anglers ticket money every day ??

Anyway — Pilsworth has been up for sale for the past few years, and this summer a new owner has taken over. Time for a trip back… and it felt great just being there again.

I have such fond memories of the place – stretching back nearly 50 years. I can remember fishing the place with my dad when only about 8 years old and meeting the Ashursts — who my dad told me were the best fisherman in the country. They were !

There were plenty of carp moving about in “perch corner” — but sadly no perch

I fished it plenty of times as a teenager for roach on the waggler – always had great days and caught plenty of fish, but never the same size as the ones that came from the Rochdale Canal at Boarshaw (it was always a mental toss up — lots of roach at Pilsworth — or blanks with the possibility of huge roach that the canal offered). Back in the day it was a match venue ,,, these days it’s been stocked with plenty of big carp and bivvy anglers are more prevalent.

So, back to last weekend — I had a few hours free, and decided to check the place out again armed with a small tub of worms and my drop shot rod. I completed a circuit of the main lake over 3 hours. I didn’t catch many fish, and the ones I did catch weren’t that big – but it gave me the opportunity to see how the place has improved in recent months, and I will certainly be back for the perch and pike this winter. Being there again felt like wearing a favourite old jumper or coat — a comfortable warm fit.

Pilswoth Perch — Nothing big but very enjoyable

I caught a few small perch, and two small jack pike — not a bad return for a cold windy morning. I’m sure that with all the feed the carp anglers are putting in there, and the lack of attention on other species – I’m sure that i can catch a few nice fish out of here over the next few months…. I’m going to be back soon.

Fishing Cures The Blues

26th October 2020 by Mike Duddy 5 Comments

I’ve been feeling a bit fed up recently, drowning under a mountain of paperwork and red tape in the office, unable to get out much doing the things I enjoy.

What better way of beating the blues than going out with your friends and catching a few fish.

They don’t have to be monsters to be worthy, and fishing certainly cures the blues.

Have a watch of the latest vid, and have a read below.

Last Tuesday evening, the football match I was planning to attend was called off at short notice (non-league), and rather than sit indoors watching rubbish on Netflix, we decided to head over to Wallasey Docks to see if we could tempt anything other than pin Whiting after dark…. sadly we couldn’t. I’ve heard reports of a wide variety of fish species coming from this venue, but for me its only whiting, whiting and more whiting.

Then as Greater Manchester Tier 3 lockdown has come into force we have decided to stay local, and hit two locations on our local canals the Bridgewater and the Rochdale. Both venues hold some good fish, but its a numbers game,as there is plenty of small stuff that will try to get to your baits first.

We caught a crazy little jack pike on the Rochdale, and had a whole bunch of small perch on the Bridgewater, all fished on drop shotted dendrobena worms.

My biggest perch is only about a pound and a half, caught many many years back on the Rochdale Canal at Slattocks, and maybe now lockdown has been imposed – its time I spent a little time trying to beat this rather paltry pb.

A typical Bridgewater Canal Perch – there are much bigger ones lurking I’ve yet to find them

Slums of the future?? I feel sorry for people living in these little city centre rabbit hutches ,, bright and shiny when new, but already showing signs of ageing and neglect by their management companies — but if I lived there, I’d have a spot permanently pre-baited.

I parked on Hulme Hall Lane (free) and then just fished the 300 yards in the direction of Castlefield Basins,,, it was a busy session

I parked on a road called “The Causeway” and then fished up the canal towards the lock gates behind Lees Brewery. This is a great section of canal that can throw up good fish of all species (as well as micro pike)

Over the next few weeks, I have a number of local venues that I intend to try out to see if they hold big perch — once I’ve gone through my little list – I will take on the advice that I’ve been given by a few friends and hit the tried and tested perch spots in Manchester…I could just cut out the trying and go straight to them, but its more fun finding your own fish !

Fishing Salford Quays – Smash And Grab

10th October 2020 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

Words and moving pictures !!

After Saturday morning dance classes for little girls, Saturday morning football for little boys, and with an early evening dinner birthday meal with my eldest (who can tolerate us between 5 and 7pm) to come, I only had a short afternoon window of opportunity to slot in a bit of fishing.

And then when that short window for a few hours fun presented itself … bloody hell … where do I go? There are so many venues within 20 minutes of home I’m spoilt for choice. Anyway, after last weekends great session at Salford Quays drop shotting with garden worms, I decided to go back and fish the same few swims with small soft plastic lures to see if how they performed when compared to worms. (and the fact that I’d been sent some lures to try by a manufacturer I know meant that I could give him a bit of feedback too).

The Pink and the White Long Paddle Tails worked really well on drop shot rig – we didn’t really have time to give the jig heads a chance

So, back to exactly the same swims as last weekend. But with lures not worms. Here’s a photo of the lures I was going to use, but I only ended up using the pink and white long tail lures and the yellow paddle tail. I didn’t get time to tie on the small sickle tail lures, but I’m 100% sure they would work really well.

We caught plenty on the hot pink long paddle tails

Not as many fish in the linking canals now the temperatures have dropped

Sad to say that once the redevelopment of Cotton Quay takes place, this part of the quays is never going to be the same again,, for how much longer will be allowed to fish here 🙁

After a week of cold weather and nearly constant rain, the fish which were in the shallower 7ft water of the canals, had moved into the deeper 23ft water of the main docks. And we found the fish in the bottom 3ft, and that they wanted a near static rather than moving presentation.

As soon as we sussed out how the fish wanted the baits to be presented we again had near constant sport for the hour and a half we had to fish.

The fish loved the white paddle tails too

I only had 3g drop shot leads (i need to replenish my tackle box) so had to pinch on a couple of SSG to get to around the 7g thats needed to get the bait down quickly and keep in touch with the bait – the hook is a size 6 Drennan super specialist

These white long tails worked really well.

We didn’t catch anything big (the perch run to 4lb in the quays) but it’s impossible to tire of that electric feeling in the rod tip once a perch grabs the lure and shakes its head.

Happy times.

Salford Quays Perch Fishing – most are small but perfectly formed

Hope you are enjoying the videos, don’t forget to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to the fishing fiend channel

Fishing Liverpool Docks

6th October 2020 by Mike Duddy 11 Comments

To be geographically accurate, I was actually fishing Birkenhead Docks. But everything down the western end of the M62 is classed as Liverpool to me.

My wife has been asked to do a few weekend shifts recently which has resulted in me taking the kids out fishing with me a bit more. They can usually manage a couple of hours before they get too bored and start misbehaving. Today was about par for the course. A bit of fishing, and a lot of Nintendo in the back of the car … we all had an afternoon doing what we enjoy.

I did actually try to fish this venue on Saturday evening, but as I was driving westwards from Manchester, the weather was getting worse the further I drove, so not fancying a soaking I just turned round and went home (via the offie).

So – with a bit of tesco raw prawn (frozen only £3.99 for a big bag- bargain !) as bait, I set up two rods, with what I call one up one down rigs and 2oz lead. Small pieces of prawn on size 6 hooks… one rod cast about 40 yards out, the other dropped in down the side.

Tesco raw prawn is an easy and convenient bait for someone living far from the sea

The venue is new to me, and I just fancied having a try. It was an easy place to go fishing and look after the kids at the same time. You can fish out of the boot of your car if you really wanted to. Species wise, I didn’t really know what to expect. Phil and I had fished the other end of the dock the previous weekend, and had a few small whiting. But I’d seen photos on various fishing forums of flounder, cod and even Lobster – but it was the Butterfish and Herring which really sparked my interest as I’ve never caught these species before. Liverpool Docks and the Mersey really does throw up some amazing unexpected fish and I was hoping for one of these for my species hunt.

Fishing Liverpool, Birkenhead, Wallasey or whatever you want to call em Docks …

It took about 5 minutes and the tip of the close in rod started to rattle, and we reeled in to find the first of many small Whiting on the end.

We had steady sport for the full two hours, without any lulls in the action.

Micro Whiting – this was as small as they got … but they didnt come that much bigger !

Most of the fish came to the close in rod, and only a few from further out.

Nothing big, but the kids were delighted with the constant sport.

Hope you enjoy the video, sorry about the crying child !

Hopefully a bit of pike action next weekend ….

If you are interested in giving this spot a try — here’s a map

Artists On The Irwell

1st October 2020 by Mike Duddy 2 Comments

Those of you who have been regular long term readers of my blog will know that I just love stumbling across unusual links, information and quirky facts about my favourite River Irwell.

Over the years I’ve become quite the art connoisseur – especially when I can link other people art, to the places where I fish.

Back in February 2012 I wrote about “Impressionists On The Irwell” – have a read of these words and pictures from back in the day

Pierre Adolphe Valette was a French impressionist artist who came to live in Manchester in 1905. Finding our murky grey landscape to his liking – he stayed in the North West until 1928 painting many Manchester landscapes in the Impressionist style. He became a tutor at the Manchester Municipal School of Art and was mentor to L.S. Lowry.

Adolphe Valette Bailey Bridge 1912 above, Mike Duddy 2012 below

Adolphe painted many pictures of the Irwell in the impressionist style – today I did a good impression of an angler – and caught bugger all.

In 2016 I came across these two. an amazing sketch and a painting of the River Irwell at Agecroft by Valettes’ star pupil L.S.Lowry.

There were a couple of things that really grabbed me about two Lowry images

The first being that the location of these great pieces of art / Irwell history was just behind my house .. in fact less than a half a mile away, and somewhere I pass every day on my journey to and from work. I regularly fish at this exact location and love the fact that the trees in the distance are still there

The other thing that I love about these Lowry pieces is that as a child, I can remember watching rowing races here, with the old Agecroft rowing club, long before they moved to their current home at Salford Quays. I’m also proud to love the link local between Agecroft Rowing Club, which is one of the worlds oldest rowing clubs, formed in 1861 and the angling club of which I am chairman – the Salford Friendly Anglers Society – which was formed in 1817 and is the worlds oldest angling club.

I just love these old bits of history, and the art that has been created around the river.

So imagine my delight today when I came across these pictures from an artist I had the pleasure of meeting on the banks of the River a few years ago whilst working on the development of the new flood storage basin in Salford (more of that towards the end of this page).

First of all, have a look at this painting of Hulme Hall in 1770, a lovely riverside mansion.

And now 250 years later, look how its change ! Hulme Hall was demolished in the 1800s, sacrificed for a railway line.

The apartments are a 21st century addition, and line the banks of the Bridgewater Canal which flows nearby. The river has been changed by man so much over the past 250 years, it would be unrecognisable to a time traveler from 250 years ago.

And now the bit I love. @Kelzo has used is artistic skills to do a Hulme Hall mash up.

Hulme Hall lives 250 years on !!

I just love stumbling across these little river nuggets.

Anyway, back to www.kelzo.com

I first met him when he was commissioned to do the art work at the new Salford Flood Basin at Castle Irwell (now known as Kersal Wetlands). Salford Friendly Anglers have the fishing rights along the section of river that runs around the flood basin, and there are some good fish to be had.

While you are mooching about the river in this area, if you look around you will also find some of @Kelzo work. I love it, and the sharp eyed amongst you will spot lots of links back to Adolphe Valette, and L.S. Lowry.

Take it how you want, but in my view Kelzos work carries on the impressionist torch in a 21st Century style.

You can see the Lowry influence in a lot of his work – I’m sure he would approve.

Have a look below at some of his work on the flood basin. Check out his website for even more.

As I walk the banks of our local rivers, I see lots of places where artists have recorded. I think I shall do a few more posts like this in coming months.

Drop Shotting Wallasey Docks and Salford Quays

29th September 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

Have a look at the video, have a read below. Please subscribe to the Fishing Fiend video channel and give me a thumbs up!

It’s been on my mind now that after 7 consecutive blanks I need to catch a fish or two. The words “Mick the blanker” have been posted on my facebook page and even though I enjoy trying out new methods its always good to have a little confidence boosting session at an easy venue. Over the years, my go to easy venue has been Bradshaw Hall Fisheries in Bolton, and a few other local easy waters where i can catch for fun (Drinkwater Park on maggot fished shallow, Sainsburys Pond on punch bread for example) but today I fancied using up some worms I have in my shed so decided to go drop shotting at Salford Quays for some perch.

This would set me up nicely with a few fish on the bank, so that I could then head off down the motorway to the other end of the Ship Canal, and have a try for the unknown by fishing the drop shot at Liverpool Docks, a venue I’ve only ever driven past before, never stopping, never looking, and certainly never fishing.

I got to the quays early doors, and the sky was blue, and so was the water (the quays management dye the water to suppress weed growth – health and safety for the swimmers and other water users). I set up my 7ft 0.5-9.0gram drop shot rod, loaded with 6lb braid, 4lb flouro and a size 12 hook. Got my worms out and hooked up half a worm.

Salford Quays — Please don’t fish from the boardwalks when the swimmers are out

First drop in, I slowly retrieved and could see a shoal of small perch flitting about around the worm – first cast — the fish were there, it was going to be a good session!

A 6 inch Perch – the average size at the Quays — but the odd one grows MUCH larger.

And so it proved as I caught perch after perch for around two hours. I started off on the boardwalks near the Beefeater, but once the open water swimmers started their morning session I moved off Ontrario Quay onto one of the side canals. The angling club and the water sports centre have a very good relationship and for health and safety reasons the club ask anglers not to fish when people are open water swimming. The Quays is a shared space, plenty of room for all. The swimmers are over and done in 2 hours,,, so please just leave them to it.

So I started out fishing the canal between Ontario and St Peter Basin. It was stuffed with perch – all hungry for a bit of worm ,, and I caught plenty of greedy 6 inch perch. As we moved round into St Peters Basin, I was hoping for a few bigger fish from near the rafts of floating debris — as the big perch love a bit of cover.. however it wasn’t to be – I just kept on catching the small ones. Very welcome as well after a run of trips with no fish.

Once Phil arrived later in the morning, we stayed on St Peters Basin for another half hour or so, banging out small perch for fun.

We then decided to head off West down to the other end of the Manchester Ship Canal, and have a try in the salt water of Liverpool Docks. I’m slowly getting into my sea fishing, and especially my species hunting, but due to the geography and built environment here in the North West — LRF/drop shotting opportunities in the North West are in short supply on our local coastline. I’ve wondered for quite a while if Liverpool Docks would be a good venue, but there isn’t that much info online. So it was a bit of a step into the unknown. But on the premise of if you don’t give it a go, you’ll never find out – we drove out to Wallasey Docks, and once we found somewhere with parking and access (Tower Rd) we set up our drop shotting kit again, and loaded the hooks with garden worms.

Liverpool Docks – a very welcoming place

The water looked very inviting and clear, we could see huge growths of mussels and anemones on the dock walls, and the odd prawn flitting about but not fish.

First drop in we found the water to be 23-28ft approx deep, and after a while of jigging about down the side with no interest from any fish we started to flick our drop shot leads a bit further out into the dock.

Initially we were worried about debris/snags at the bottom of the docks, but these proved unfounded, as it turned out to be snag free.

The after a couple of plucks and stripped hooks, Phil hooked into the first of quite a few micro whiting.

The bites were no where near as frequent as Salford Quays, and all we caught in the hour or two we spent fishing were a few small whiting. However, Phil had a cracking bite/pull down on his rod tip leading us to believe that there are other, bigger fish in there, and that a return visit with a bigger variety of baits, and heavier drop shot leads might be worth while.

I say we needed bigger leads, as our 3.5g weights were really too light for the job in hand – when I come back it will be with 10g – 30g weights and with lug/squid/sand eel as bait.

Checking out a new venue is always good fun, but figuring out the fishing and catching a few is always better so we will be returning soon.

At the close of our day, we headed over to the Liverpool City side of the Mersey and had a look round the docks near Brunswick and Mariners Wharf. However parking was terrible, as was fishing access. And where there was access there were hoards of tourists/day trippers enjoying the nice sunny Sunday afternoon.

I apologise for the poor camera/shaky video. Next time out, I am going to be using an antishake camera holder, and will start trimming, and adding music and other fiddly bits to my videos.

In the mean time, please remember to give my new videos a thumbs up like, and please please please subscribe to the Fishing Fiend video channel.

Its Like February Again

26th September 2020 by Mike Duddy 4 Comments

No, I’m not referring to the temperature, I’m having a bad run of blank sessions just like I did in February.

7 trips. No fish.

I’ve had a couple more sessions experimenting with rigs on Drinkwater Park (that didn’t go well – but at least I’ve learnt what doesn’t work)

I then managed to fit in a half hour trip with my 5 year old daughter, and discovered that her interest in the river was purely all about throwing in stones, and skipping ahead to the next swim scaring every thing in sight including me.

Anyway — I’ve got a full day pass tomorrow, and am going out before light and returning home after dark. I’d love to tell you where, but then I’d have to shoot you. All will be revealed in my next blank? blog post.

Half an hour on the River Irk in Blackley

Drinkwater Park Again

20th September 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

After a few recent visits to my local Drinkwater Park Lake, I decided to have a try for the lakes larger residents. So the maggots were left at home, and the pellets and pop-ups were brought out from the depths of my fishing shed.

I’m not that much of a carper – as evidenced by my lack of carp fishing exploits on this blog — and I guess this lack of carp knowledge is proven in the video below, and the fact that Phil caught and I didn’t

It doesnt really matter, we had a few enjoyable evening sessions, and I threw plenty of bait in which will have cleared the bottom of the swim we were fishing of blanket weed until next spring.

Makes me laugh though, because as soon as we had cleared the underwater blanket weed, the floating surface algae drifted in and made the swim unfishable. lol Thats fishing.

Anyway have a click on the link below and watch Phil catch and me blank.

Pineapple Pop Ups — Pahhh

If anyone wants to give me any weedy lake carp fishing tips, please feel free to do so in the comments section

A Summers Evening Fishing Drinkwater Park Lake

1st September 2020 by Mike Duddy 2 Comments

Here’s the latest write up from my fishing adventures : video and written

I recently spent an evening with my mate Phil fishing Drinkwater Park Lake, one of our club waters, conveniently located 100 yards behind my house.

The lake has a good head of recently stocked small carp, plenty of tench and bream, and plenty of roach, rudd, perch and pike.

The lake also gets quite heavily weeded in late summer, so we had to rake swims out in order to fish.

After a good half hours raking I cleared a hole in the blanket weed and managed to get two rods in. The first rod i used a hair rigged worm on a small bomb rig, and the second a traditional float set up with a lovely quill float handmade by my pal Mike Cootes (aka Purple Peanut).

The evening started off very slowly with bites quite hard to come by for the first two hours, probably due to the disturbance caused by the raking. Then I started to catch small roach and rudd, very welcome after a slow start.

Drinkwater Park Rudd – Traditional Quill Float

I had nothing on the worm/bomb rig all evening, but as time passed my float line hotted up and I was catching a small roach or rudd every cast on maggot.

My catch rate increased massively as I cast 20 yards beyond the area that I’d raked, but all fish were palm sized. Not that I minded, they were all in pristine condition.

Phil and I were entertained all evening by a group of teenagers holding an outdoor rave in the woods about 100 yards behind us. They had their own sound system and were having a full on party. Good on em. Some of them came round later on in the evening and apologised for the noise, at which point we got to tell them that we loved their choice of music, and had no problem if they wanted to turn it up.

I’m still learning how to take video whilst fishing, it didnt go too well this evening, as I missed a great bite whilst filming my swim erupting in bubbles, also somehow i didn’t manage to pick up the sound of the rave behind us, despite it being bangingly loud. And i missed out so much stuff…. this video blog is definitely work in progress.

The evening ended as the light dropped, I must have had over 60 small roach and rudd – great to see. There were plenty of carp crashing about but they didn’t really show in my swim. It was also great to see pike chasing the silver fish – which raises my expectations for a bit of local autumn/winter predator sport.

I think my next session is going to be on a canal somewhere, I’ve got plenty of bait to use up. I will also go alone, and get myself better aquainted with my video camera and make a much better vlog of my fishing session.

Have a look at the video below of this fishing session.. It would also be great if you could subscribe to my video channel. – Thanks. Mike 🙂