Last Sunday afternoon saw me spending a few hours trotting an big avon float down the Ribble. It was a bit of a futile exercise really, as I’ve found that a delicate approach has given far better results this season. A really strong and gusting upstream wind put paid to the delicate approach, and as i only had my light trotting rod with me, my only choice was to use a heavy avon float.
No bites until i made my way upstream to a big deep pool at a bend in the river.
I was thrilled to see a pod of Salmon crashing about in the water, making big bow waves in the water as they jockeyed for position in the flow.
I thought i would chance my arm, so dug up a couple of worms in the corn field next to the river, and was amazed to see my float disappear on its first run down the swim. I struck, felt a brief resistance and then reeled in to find only a large silver scale adorning my hook.
I stuck things out for a further hour, before admitting defeat and trudging my way back to the car.
Things havent gone too well recently fishing wise having had lots of blank sessions. Observing riverside wildlife has been ample reward for the hours I’ve put in though – Kingfishers, mink, butterflies,foxes, herons, buzzards plus many more have made my time on the riverbank most enjoyable. Its not always about catching fish (though just one fish, even a small one would be nice).
Barbel Quest Pt8
I spent a few hours this afternoon fishing the slow deep run behind the Cliff in Lower Broughton.
One rod with meat, the other with hair rig pellet. I didnt get a touch on either rod. I feel as though I’m flogging a dead horse with this one, so next weekend will be having a change of scenery, tactics and target species.
Barbel Quest Pt7
So this afternoon saw me continuing in my attempts to catch one of those ever so elusive Irwell barbel.
As I only had a few hours free this afternoon I decided to fish new swim a bit nearer to home. There is a deep pot of a swim behind the old Chloride Battery works which I’ve been meaning to fish for years now, and this was where tackled up just after three.
The wildlife was amazing – Kingfishers, wagtails, a buzzard and a fox. I didnt see a human being all afternoon.
The fishing was terrible – not even a twitch on the tip.
Lets see what happens next Sunday.
Salmon In The Irwell !!!!!
Salmon fishing in Manchester could become a reality by 2015 provided the Secretary Of State for the Environment approves the document below.
Whilst skimming through the latest EA River Basin Management Plans for the North West Region I came across these important lines.
“Mersey Life is an ambitious project that aims to realise the ecological and socio-economic potential of our rivers by bringing together stakeholders and partners, building partnerships and encouraging investment into the restoration of the rivers. One of the aims of Mersey Life is to reduce barriers to fish migration in the River Mersey and its tributaries. For this river basin
management planning cycle the project plans to deliver scoping, design and construction of 10 Fish passes in 6 priority catchments. (Environment Agency, Voluntary sector)
• Mersey Estuary, Irwell, Upper Mersey “””
This sounds like the EA are planning to build some fish passes on the Ship Canal & Irwell.
Am busy polishing my mepps already!
Main document can be read here http://wfdconsultation.environment-agency.gov.uk/wfdcms/en/northwest/Intro.aspx
Open the main document and the above info can be found on page 20.
Salmon have been running the Mersey since 1999 in ever increasing numbers. However they cant pass through the lock gates on the Ship Canal north of the confluence of the River Mersey – therfore all migratory fish have to run the Mersey up through Stockport rather than continuing up the Ship Canal, through Manchester and into the Irwell system.
As i’ve previously shown in earlier posts, there are some huge weirs on the Irwell which migratory fish would find difficult to negotiate. Hopefully these fish passes will open up the Irwell system to migratory fish.
Barbel Quest Pt6 Going Hi Tech!
Fishing – A Panacea For All Ills
I woke this morning with a headache and a really big dose of the blues. I considered going to work for a minute or two, then rolled over, determined not to surface till 11am.
After getting up and downing a variety of different pain relievers (which had no effect) I was still grumpy. The sun was shining for a change but did little to alleviate the dark clouds hanging over my head.
After lunch i began to feel as though i was wasting a day of my life, so i decided to have a trip out alone on the river where no one would get on my nerves and i could mutter and swear to my hearts content.
I have concentrated on coarse angling this summer, neglecting the trout which inhabit the upper reaches of my local river as i had a few disappointing sessions at the start of the season. It seemed as though someone had fished the river through during the close season/winter taking the fish for the pot.
Last year it wasnt uncommon to catch up to 20 fish in a session ranging from 6oz to 2lbs. Earlier this year we counted ourselves lucky if we caught 2 or 3 fish in a session, with the biggest pushing 12oz.
As the trout season is closing at the end of September I decided to see if the situation had improved over the summer. Trout are really mobile constantly searching out the best spots to intercept the most food with the minimum of effort.
So 2pm saw me making my first casts into some fast streamy water just above the car park swims. Second cast a nice 6 inch brownie took my red copper hares ear fly.
This was quickly released and i then proceeded to catch a further 3 fish from the pool up to a pound in weight. Not a bad start and my personal gloom began to lift.
After fishing the pool through i made my way down to the bottom of the beat and crossed the river in the shallows, moving up alongside the old mill, i could only raise a single small fish from what last year was one of the best runs on the river.
Irwell Barbel Quest Pt5
1 bite each – i was still on banded pellet and missed mine. Phil was fishing his pellet on a hair and hit his one bite. I think its time I took the hint.
Bradshaw Photos
Irwell Barbel Quest Pt4
As the weather was fine, and the river fining down after recent heavy rains, I took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours after work fishing a deep gully on the river.
Fishing a straight lead to a banded 10mm halibut pellet i didn’t get a touch between 5.30 and 8pm.
Just as it was going dark – and I was thinking that this was a futile exercise, my rod hooped over twice and my heart skipped a beat (or two). I struck and back came lead, bait, but no fish.
10 minutes later I had the same experience – a great big rattle of a bite, but nothing to show for it.
At least it gives me some hope. My next refinement will be to use a hair rig rather than a bait band. Maybe this will increase the chances of hooking into a fish. The bite could have come from anything – but maybe it was a barbel and that was my chance. Hopefully I will manage to sneak in a few more hours this week as a blank with a bite is far more encouraging than a biteless blank.
In Pursuit Of Carp
The heavy rain we’ve been experiencing these last few days has knocked river fishing on the head for the time being – so as Matthew has yet to break the double figure barrier for carp we decided to make a return to Bradshaw Hall in Bolton.
It was chucking it down when we arrived, and for some reason it seemed as though every fisherman in Bolton had decided to fish Lake 2 where Phil and I were fishing last weekend. We could have squeezed ourselves in somewhere but i dont really enjoy fishing shoulder to shoulder with other anglers on what is really a small lake.
So we tackled up on Lake 4 where a match was taking place at the opposite end of the lake.
Phil started on a sprayed maggot approach – it didnt really work
I started on pellet feeder – it didnt really work.
Matthew started on a 6m pole line using 6mm soft pellets over a bed of micros – it didnt really work.
The rain was pretty persistant, so after a while Matt took refuge in the car. I was by this time getting pretty brassed off myself, so for a change of method i got hold of Matts pole, and instead of using pellet – I put on a 10p sized chunk of bread flake.
After about 30 seconds the float zipped under and I lifted into a real elastic stretcher of a fish.
A fairly dour encounter ensued as the fish made repeated slow runs, but after about 10 minutes of plodding around in circles I slipped the net under this 11.5lb beauty(pellet pig).
Matt held it up for photos (so he can show off at school) and set about fishing his swim with renewed vigour.
A constant stream of small roach and skimmers were his consolation prize for being in the car whilst his dream fish was rooting about in his swim.
I myself switched over to fishing a small cage feeder – which brought a steady stream of skimmers – but none of which approached the two pounder that Matt caught – his best fish of the day.
The rain eased off in the afternoon – as did the bites.
All in all – an enjoyable day in good company.
(once i sort out my laptop I shall upload the photos to accompany the recent bog entries)