Agecroft Regatta
Sketched by L.S.Lowry in 1948, fished by Mike Duddy 2011. When I was a little kid, my dad used to make us hold our breath as we crossed over Agecroft Bridge in the car. The river was still grossly polluted in the early 1970s and gasses and odours often hung like a shroud at the bottom of the valley at Rainsough Brew. Now the rivers getting cleaner, I chanced my arm for a trout or two yesterday in a nice streamy run opposite the old Agecroft Rowing Club.
I ran a gold head and a spider through the entire 200yd run but didn’t get a touch, but if i give it a bit of time I’m sure that I will get a Brownie from here at some point over the summer. I wonder what Mr Lowry would have thought about trout fishing on the Irwell?
Ruinous
Salford Friendly Anglers
A quick heads up for anyone whos interested in fishing any of the Manchester rivers such as the Irwell, Medlock, Irk and Croal. The next meeting of the Salford Friendly Anglers Society is being held next Tuesday the 19th April at 7.30pm at the Kings Arms, Bloom St, Salford, M3 6AN.
If you’ve never heard of the Salford Friendly then take a look at www.salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk it has a rather interesting history and is in the process of setting up some exciting new environmental projects in the Greater Manchester area.
Silvers In The Sun
I spent the afternoon at Kingfisher lodges enjoying the lovely spring sunshine. There were lots of fish topping when I arrived, so I set up to fish up in the water and used a top 2 + 2 sections of pole. I’ve had a few people tell me that they’ve struggled on Kingfisher in the past, but every time i go there it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem getting the fish on the feed. The key is to feed a couple of maggots (3 or 4) each cast, a small fine wire hook, a light hook length and a dotted down slim 0.3gram float as many of the bites are only a slight dip of the float. If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see I also put two bands of float rubber around the red tip of the float as this helps show up the shy bites. During the winter, I will fish with the bait just touching the bottom, bulking the shot low down about 18 inches above the hook and a number 10 or 12 shot as a dropper. In summer the fish are found much higher in the water column, so instead of the usual 5ft between hook and float, I shorten up to 2 ft and spread out the number 8 shot to fish on the drop.
A couple of fish touching 120z but the majority tiddlers – kept me busy. Leaves on the trees, and water temperatures rising – should see me out on the river next week chasing Brownies – I can’t wait.
Spring On The Quays
I love fishing Salford Quays in Spring. The Pike have been spawning, and the bream and tench making their annual migration out of the deeper docks into the three shallower docks in preparation for spawning in a couple of months time. Its the time of year when fishing the Quays is at its best – before the place becomes a canadian pondweed infested pit.
Stalking Carp – A beacon of hope
Attn All Bloggers
Hi everyone,
Will you please take a look at the following link, http://www.ourrivers.org.uk/
Please complete the letter to Richard Benyon, the minister in charge of Defra and tell him what you think. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
If you have a blog, would you also copy and paste this and post in on you blog.
Thanks
Mike
Happy Days
Back in the UK a couple of crazy days back in the office then a two trips out with members of the www.salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk Saturday evening was spent with Matthew, Paul and Derek on the upper river. Matthew is getting to be a bit of a dab hand with the centre pin, and had a few small brownies on maggots while trotting for chub.
And Paul had a couple too, until he switched to slower water and a big lump of bread flake, and he proceeded to winkle out a brace of chub just short of 3lbs each.
And despite acting as Matthews Ghillie for the evening, I managed to snaggle a little Bullhead out from underneath a rock which I can now add to my seasons species list.
A very pleasant evenings fishing in good company was followed by another evening on the same bit of river with Nick, Pete and Derek.
Nick and I trotted maggots and both had small brownies, while Pete who was trying out a new centre pin christened his new bit of kit with a cracking Brownie of 3lbs 4oz.
A lovely fish which i am sure would weigh at least 4lbs when its regained its mid summer condition after a few months of gorging on minnows. Pete followed this beauty up with a nice Chub well over the 3lb mark – hopefully I will get a photo to show you.
As darkness was falling about 6.30 we packed up and had a walk downstream to find Derek very pleased with himself after catching yet another 3lb+ chub (3lb4oz in the digi scales)
A great weekend was rounded off with a couple of pints in the pub – happy days, great fishing, good company and some very enthusiastic anglers looking forwards to the clocks changing and longer evenings fishing on the river. Bring it on!