After weeks and weeks of terrible weather it was a pleasure to go fishing and sit in the sunshine. Matt was determined to catch his first ever pike today, and we went to fish the moorland reservoir i have been fishing recently. We were accompanied by Phil, Neil and Big Dave and everyone had pike on their minds.
I had the honour of catching the livebaits, and as expected i caught 3 nice roach in with my first four casts. Matt was the first to get a live bait on his size 10 trebles, and i showed him exactly the spot where to cast to, only a couple of yards from the bank. Within seconds of casting in, his roach was taken by a nice pike of about 5lbs.
He is becoming quite an acomplished angler now, keeping his rod tip up, not allowing any slack in the line, and using his backwind to play the fish as it made repeated runs. The fish was quickly unhooked on Phils unhooking mat, a quick photo and Matt watched his fish recover and glide away into the deeper water. I dont know who was more thrilled, Matt or me.
Big Dave caught the next pike, a slightly larger one, again close in to the bank using livebait.
The session took on the same pattern as my previous two recent visits to this venue, with the roach bites drying up after about a dozen fish.
I think the Pike move in over the baited area and the roach back off. This point was proved by casting 20 yds either side of the original baited area where i was able to still pick up the occaisional fish. Phil had a dropped run later on, yet again close to the bank using livebait and Neil had a fish snap at a wobbled dead bait but was unable to set the hooks.
Towards the end of the session i started to get more roach again, but they were being attacked by the pike as i was retrieving them.
Dead baits dont seem to work on this reservoir, as Phil, Dave, Neil and Matt used dead baits throughout the day but didnt have any runs using them. I am not going to be able to get back to this venue for a while now due to other comitments such as my salmon quest and a couple of fly fishing trips before the trout season ends, but come the winter months i wonder how big a pike we can catch from this reservoir?
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Salmon Quest Part 2
Up at the crack of dawn to get a few hours in before work. I spent another 3 1/2 hours flinging my spinners and flying c around the pool but had no takes or pulls and saw no fish moving.
The water levels are slowly dropping now and are now only about 2 feet above normal levels. This made wading easier today as the flow wasnt as strong and the water had a little more visibility.
The pool i am fishing, apparently fishes better the lower the water levels as it cause the fish to hold there, unable to progress up the incline in the river bed due to the shallownes of the water. The higher the water the easier it is for them to run upstream. With level as they are right now, the fish dont hold in the pool, just head on straight through in their journey to reproduce.
So far its 6.5 hours without a sniff. However the scenery is stunning and its much better than working!!
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Salmon Quest Part1
There is a pretty good salmon pool on the beat of the Ribble for which i have a season ticket. I have never fished for salmon before, never caught one before and never even seen one caught by someone else. So over the next few weeks i intend to spend a fair amount of time trying to catch my first salmon. I knew i was going to do this at the start of the season so for the first time ever i splashed out on a migratory EA licence.
As i arrived this evening at my chosen spot the weather gods gave me another dose of English summer!!
I spent a couple of enjoyable hours flinging a flying c across the river, but had no takes. The highlight of my evening was seeing a salmon jump directly opposite where i was fishing.
The evenings are now starting to draw in, and i packed up at 7.30 just as the light was starting to fail. I will be back on Thursday morning for a few hours weather permitting. As always its the fishing not the catching – i have a feeling i will be doing a lot of fishing before i do any catching!!
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Powers Of Dissuasion
My original intention was to fish on the Ribble this afternoon, but Tony persuaded me to change my plans and to fish on a still water instead. The information we had was that the Ribble was in flood and highly coloured so it was probably a good idea to leave it alone for a few more days. Tony fancied taking a look at the reservoir i fished yesterday so a return trip to the Oldham Moors arranged.
I looked forwards to showing Tony this bit of water and after yesterdays essox activity i took appropriate tackle with me.
As i half expected i could see a Pike in my swim as soon as we arrived on the bank. Tony set up his fly rod and tied on one of his new home tied pike flys to see if he could get the fish to take. However after taking a long hard look at Tonys lure the fish backed away and slowly slid into the depths.
We set up our standard tip gear, with maggot as hookbait and swim feeders loaded with bread feed. I caught 4 roach with my first 4 casts, and after the last 2 of these were taken by Pike as i released them back into the lake i decided to get out my Pike tackle. As i was setting up, Tony had a roach snatched by another Pike further out into the lake, after a short time the Pike released its hold on Tonys roach, and a very damaged, bedraggled roach was landed, and set up on my trebles.
I cast in only 4 yards from the shore, and within 30 seconds it was taken by the Pike shown in the photo below.
It didnt put up much of a fight as it had a great big pot belly (probably from all the roach it had eaten recently).
We carried on catching roach on the tip, Tony even caught a Ruffe, a species of fish i havnt caught for many years. An hour or so later, Tony saw yet another Pike lurking in the margins, waiting to pounce on fish which we were releasing back into the lake. Again a roach was mounted on the trebles and within 3 minutes or so of casting in, took the bait. This fish fought much harder, making repeated runs, and spectacular surging runs on the surface of the lake. The size 10 trebles held neatly in the scissors of the fishes jaw and this lovely fish graced the bottom of my landing net. I was chuffed at catching this one as its definately my best Pike for quite a few years.
In exactly the same manner as yesterday, the bites slowly dried up on the tip, and black clouds closed in. We packed up quickly but couldnt beat the rain. Hopefully the river will have returned to fishable levels by Tuesday afternoon, as Tony said after we had packed up “its a nice change fishing still water but you cant beat the magic of the river”. I couldnt agree more.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Old Haunts
When i was a teenager my father used to take me fishing to the water authority reservoirs of the Piethorn Valley, which are situated on the moors above Oldham. I caught my first fish aged 7 (a brown trout) in one of the upper reservoirs and have spent many happy hours both coarse and game fishing in this area.
As the weather has been so wet recently, and the rivers close to bursting their banks, i decided to try these lakes again, where i havent been fishing for over 20 years.
The sun was making a rare appearance as i was setting up, and the fishing was as bright as the weather. Using standard tip and feeder tactics after baiting up an area about 25 yds out where the water was about 30ft deep i caught a roach a chuck for about 2 hours using red maggot as hookbait.
All the roach activity resulted in drawing pike into my swim, and fish snatched off my hook as i was landing them, and also pike taking fish as i was releasing them. At one point, i could see a pike of about 15 – 20lbs sitting in my swim waiting for me to put back a disorientated roach so it could have an easy lunch. ( i then started to release the fish i caught 10yds further down the bank).
I didnt have any pike gear with me otherwise i would have had a few of them out. However as i was sitting regretting leaving my pike tackle at home, the dad called me, moaning that all the horse racing had been cancelled for the day, when he found out where i was and what i was catching, it only took a moment to decide to come and join me and bring some pike tackle with him.
When he arrived, ,my dad was interested in the tactics i was using on the tip, right on cue i hooked into a larger fish, and 5 minutes later this slab hit the bottom of my landing net. When the bream move in, you normally catch a few but today i was unlucky and this was the only decent one which i caught.
Dad tackled up some plugging gear, and fished the dam wall in close proximity to where i was fishing, and where the pike that had been plaguing me had been coming from. Despite using a variety of plugs and spinners he couldnt get a take. Meanwhile, the pike were still launching themselves at the roach i was catching, so i set one up under a bung for dad and told him to cast about 15 ft out in front of me.
It didnt take long for him to hook into this small jack which gave him a pretty good scrap for its size. However the sunshine had now gone, replaced by dark clouds blowing in over the moors, and dad quite rightly made a run for the cover of his car whilst i did the same shortly afterwards.
I think Matt will enjoy fishing here next weekend, i reckon we can get him a good double figure Pike if i can get the roach going again. It been his aim to catch one for a few years now, hes got close a few times but hopefully he will fulfil his ambition between now and the new year if he spends a bit of time on the bank with me.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Water Torture
It seems as though every time Lucia chooses a destination for a day out, it involves a visit to a top class fishing venue. Our latest day out led us to Malham Tarn in North Yorkshire, a very difficult water but famous for the size and beauty of its wild brown trout.
As we were entertaining visitors from abroad, Lucia chose to take them on one of our favourite circular walks around the spectacular rock formations of the upper Aire valley.
Gordale Scar, Malham Tarn, Malham Lings and Cove are features unique to this area and helped show our visitors from Slovakia some the diverse countryside which we enjoy and sometimes take for granted here in the north of England.
On our last day out togther Lucia decided to walk around Cow Green Resevoir a real trout mecca, and today she decided to really stick the boot in by taking me for a walk along the river and then to the Aspinall Arms for my dinner!
I wondered why she was smirking all day – that girl really knows how to wind me up. I knew it would have been suicidal to mention that i had a travel rod in the back of the car as i think she suffers enough with my fishing, and to get up to my tricks when her parents are visiting would be a step too far.
However, Malham Tarn, the headwaters of the River Aire and Cow Green are all high on my list of venues to visit next season, and it does no harm to have a look around a venue before you decide to fish.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Trouting With Rugby Friends
I have been promising to take James, one of Matthews rugby friends and his dad Paul fishing for trout on their local river for ages now, and the last week of the school holidays was the latest time of the year that this trip could be realisticly done.
James and Paul have been to the local commercial fishery with me when Big Dave where we made sure that they caught more fish than they had ever seen before. However Paul was keen to catch some trout, and i think that he is eventually going to take up fly fishing.
As with all beginners its important to take things one step at a time, so this evening float fished maggots were the tactics employed as i think its important not to introduce to many new concepts all at once. Both James (age 13) and his dad are competant enough to set up there own rods and tie a few basic knots, but this evening i gave them some of my pre – tied rigs as i wanted to maximise their chances of success.
We only fished from 6 til 8 but i took them to a couple of good swims and they had lots of bites, lost a few fish and banked a few too.
None of the fish caught were over a pound, but beautifully marked and very plump. Paul in particular was amazed to catch such cracking little trout from a river once so heavily polluted.
As the evening drew to a close, we were joined by Derek, one of the few people i have met fishing the river. We met only a couple of weeks ago, when we were on opposite banks of the river. A shouted conversation and a few text messages were all i knew about Derek, but to see him close up i now know he isnt as scary as sounds (only joking Derek – hopefully we will get out fishing together soon).
Our two hours flew by and i reluctantly had to go home. Even though i didnt fish myself i thoroughly enjoyed showing two keen beginners a few of the ropes. James caught 3 and his dad two. The swims i chose to show them are close to their home, but they had never seen this part of the river before,and as we packed up i gave them a few of my pre tied rigs on winders which i am sure will be stretched out by some lively trout over the course of the next few weeks.
As they become more experienced i will be able to take them together with Matthew and maybe even do a little fishing myself. It will be good for Matt to have someone his own age to go off fishing/exploring with.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Return To The Weir
I revisited the weir pool on the River Mersey that i first visited last friday. This time i chose to fish the riverbank closest to the car park standing on the lip of the weir , rather than the concrete platform on the far bank.
The river had only fallen 12 inches over the weekend and was still the colour of strong tea. Using my favoured tactics of 6BB avon float, centre pin reel and 15ft trotting rod, i was able to reach far enough across the weir to fish at line along either edge of the 3 main tongues of water flowing over the weir. Fishing a good 18 inches over depth and holding back hard i caught a fish or had a bite every cast.
Roach, dace, chub and gudgeon were todays fare but unfortunately i didnt need to use my landing net as none of them were bigger than my hand. After an hour, i put away my float gear and fished a variety of plugs, spoons and spinners across the river, but had no takes. There is a large back eddy on the near bank which i reckon must contain some decent pike or perch. Maybe next time a livebaited gudgeon or minnow might enable me to catch a bigger fish.
Whilst maggots seem to be a great bait on the Ribble, i am finding that they only take small fish on my local rivers. I am going to switch to hemp and caster for a few sessions and see if it makes a difference.
I am taking a couple of beginner anglers out tomorrow evening, hopefully they will catch some decent brownies. Whilst they fish i going to take a net and have a good poke about to see what river bugs i can find.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Exploring New Swims
I spent yesterday afternoon and evening with Tony on the banks of the Ribble. The river was up and our favoured two swims were unfishable.
This gave us the opportunity to try out different areas of the beat, and i am very pleased to tell you that we caught fish from every swim we tried. We both caught roach, dace, small chub and sea trout.
I wish the sea trout were like the one Phil caught a few weeks back, but none of them went over a pound. However the silver purple sheen they have on their bodies make them a very attractive fish to catch. I wish i could capture the irridescent colours i can make out with my naked eye on camera but havent yet found a way to do so. I have always thought that sea trout would be larger than the ones we have been catching, but Tony thinks that these fish have never really gone to sea, but migrated for a period to the rivers tidal area.
After the recent heavy rains the river banks were treacherously slippy, and i fell on several occaisions. On one occaision after slipping, i stood up only to smack my head against a low branch which had me seeing stars for a good 15 minutes.
As the evening drew to a close, Tony and i found ourselves in a swim beneath Duck Island, where we found that the quality of the fish we were catching dramatically improved. This renewed our enthusiam, and it was dark when we slipped and stumbled our way back to the car.
As always, a trip out with Tony, lifted my spirits, his enthusiasm is infectious.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Fishing On The Mersey
Yesterday evening i had my first ever session on the River Mersey. I haven’t really explored the opportunities that this river has to offer and so far i only know one swim which looks good to fish in. As i only really know the one swim a weirpool and i didnt have time to have a proper explore, i decided to fish water i already knew.
After the recent heavy rains the river was high and coloured, and the water was really flowing strongly over the lip of the weir, turning the normally gentle weir pool, into a boiling maelstrom.
Using my customary tactics of avon float and centre pin, i trotted double maggot down the inside line about 15 ft out.
I caught a succession of small chub and dace for two hours, but for some reason i felt freezing cold and decided to call it a day. It was thoroughly enjoyable fishing with all of the fish in fantastic condition and i think that i will be coming here more often over the next couple of months. The highlight of the day was catching my first dace of the season. I cant believe its taken me so long to catch a dace this year as all the local rivers are full of them.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout