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Fishing For Big Perch At Bradshaw Hall

24th December 2020 by Mike Duddy

So – after a few sessions catching small canal perch on the drop shot – and a long hard blank session at Pilsworth I’ve had a few hours contemplation time – to think about where I might be able to catch a perch big enough to break my measly PB of only one and a half pounds.  In the middle of my last blank session at Pilly – the penny finally dropped. Even though there are plenty of good perch in Pilsworth, they are probably to be located in very small area of a very large lake.  I need to increase the odds in my favour, and at the back of my mind I’ve known for a long time that there are some good perch to be had at Bradshaw Hall Fishery  in Bolton, and that very few people ever fish for them.

Right – that decided it – a few sessions at a venue with a good head of rarely fished for Perch was needed So a week or so ago Phil and I headed off up the A666 (the devils highway to Bolton) for our first of three sessions.

A very cold morning saw us setting up in a likely looking corner of Lake 3 – and then the wait started – and went on and on… bloomin heck – it was chucking it down, it was cold, we’d set our hearts on a decent perch and it just wasn’t happening.  We were fishing half a worm, over a bed of chopped worm on a size 14 hook an inch over depth under a 5bb waggler. Great perch rigs. However, the fish thought otherwise and we had to endure another 3 biteless hours in the rain.

Once the rain abated, Phil had a little walk round the lake, and noticed that 4 pegs down from where we were fishing, the lake was alive with fish topping and there were bubbles coming up all over.

Less than a nano-second later, we had packed up our rain shelter, picked up our kit and moved ourselves into the two pegs on the lake that looked as though they had a few fish in front of them.

And bingo we were straight onto a few fish. Only small Roach, Perch, Ide and Chub to begin with – but then as the afternoon started to draw to an early winter close – I hit into a couple more solid fish.

I’m not someone who regularly takes a set of scales with him – if i catch a decent fish i put an object next to it and try to work out the length/weight later on at home — but I think i might in future have a go at weighing a few.

Anyway – 15 inches was the length on my best perch of the afternoon – If I had a roach of that length it would according to length/weight tables weigh around the 2lb 5oz mark – so surely this fish must be a new pb and I will claim it at 2lb.

I tried to look for a perch length/weight table similar to this excellent one that was compiled by Jeff Hatt a few years ago for roach (below) but couldn’t find one. I think i shall try to create one for perch over the next 12 months.

Jeff Hatts Roach Length Weight Chart

The float in this photo is a smidgen over 8 inches long – so the fish must be 14-15 inches by my reckoning.

Bradshaw Hall Perch

And we had a couple of fish this size and slightly smaller between us on chopped worm before it was time to call it a day.

Perch Bait

Our next session a few days later we arrived and it was a howling gale and driving rain. Oh God – Phil had left his brolly at home – so we decided to both squeeze in under mine – cosy. As the wind direction had changed – this time up the valley, we forgot about fishing lake 3 again, and fished Lake 4 with our backs to the wind.

Old Gits Go Fishing

Using the same rigs and bait as the previous session, it didn’t take too long for us to start getting bites and catching fish. Though it did take until nearly 3pm (again) until the bigger fish showed up. And I caught this cracker below – a similar size to the one previously on lake 3. Our hands were cold and wet – and we have a bit of trouble getting a decent photo – so another fish on a mat in a net photo followed. Never mind – I’d got no scales again – so this fish I reckon to be 15 inches – the weight 2lb — at a guess.

Bradshaw Hall 2lb plus Perch on Worm

Again – we had an assortment of other fish, mostly roach and ide.

Our 3rd session – we were joined by Kaden and Dave – who had by now heard that we were catching a few nice fish and wanted to join us.

Sadly for them – the day we chose – the weather was truly awful – a cold biting north easterly and squally showers. The two lads were keen and set up facing the prevailing wind (or foolhardy) into Lake 4, whereas Phil and I both took the much easier option of fishing into Lake 3 with our backs to the wind. It didn’t make much difference in the end – on this 3rd session the bigger perch just didn;t want to play – but we could plenty of smaller ones, some nice roach, ide and F1s.

I think the penny has dropped for me regarding Perch – a few chats with Phil and we now have a little list of local waters with “perch potential” that we can explore over the next few months off lockdown. My next two targets – a set of weighing scales and a Manchester 3lb perch …..

Watch this space.

Bradshaw Hall Fishery Winter Sunset

 

A few things to note about Bradshaw Hall Fisheries

  1. Please take a look at their website – as opening times vary throughout the year.
  2. Speak to the staff, tell them what you are trying to catch – they are very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.
  3. No live baiting or lure fishing for perch – fishing from designated pegs only.
  4. There are good perch in lakes 2 3 and 4.
  5. Biggest I’ve heard of is nearly twice the size of the ones we caught.
  6. It has BIG potential to smash your PB

If you catch a cracker please let me know (and I will be back in your peg the next day lol)

 

Filed Under: Bradshaw Hall, bream, chub, Ide, Perch, roach Tagged With: Bradshaw Hall, Chub, Ide, Perch, Roach, Worm

Out Fishing Again

19th July 2020 by Mike Duddy

Despite the recent bad weather I’ve taken every opportunity I can to get out fishing again.

My species hunt is progressing quite well, and  I’ve been going out on a few sea fishing trips with Phil, and a couple of freshwater trips with the kids has seen me racking up quite a few more species.

After a nice chat about local fishing spots with my friend and master float maker Mike Cootes (who also has an excellent blog called Purple Peanut – click to read it) I was given heads up about a lake thats less than 20 minutes from home where I’ve never fished before… a small pond behind a factory, that Mike said was ideal for kids.

Tucked away behind a factory – a hidden gem

So Phil and I headed out one evening to have a look see — Phil with a pint of maggots …. Me with a tub of lovely lovely worm, my 13ft Drennan float rod, centre pin and a selection of Mikes lovely floats.

All set to fish with a selection of floats from Mike Cootes -aka “Purple Peanut”
Worm Salad — what fish can resist their charms?

Mike had told us that on a previous trip he had caught roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, crucian carp and tench … so we were quite looking forwards to trying out this new North Manchester venue. I set up fishing in a corner of the lake that was fringed with reed, and small lily pads, with a depth of four and half feet…. I set up my float rig about 3 inches over depth to get the worm bait hard on the bottom with the hope of a nice tench, and anything else that was interested. A small piece of worm section as bait with a size 16 micro-barbed hook, with plenty of chopped worm as a form of ground bait.

What fish can resist? I did snip off that ridiculously long tag once I’d cleaned my glasses and noticed it was there !

First cast — the float had hardly settled before a greedy little perch took my worm, then another, then another, then another then another ,,,, and so on until I was getting sick of the sight of them. So I upped the feed rate a little bit, to see if I could get any other fish species interested and to see if they might start to out compete the perch for the bait.

Good number of voracious small perch
I fed off the perch with plenty of chopped worm, and the silver fish started to move in.

After the first half our of nothing but perch, the over feeding of the swim started to pay off. Once I hooked my first small roach, the perch disappeared and I spent the next hour catching small roach and rudd, and then a few nice skimmer bream.

A nice fish,,, but not there was no sign on my target species of the evening

Then, as we were getting towards 8pm and light levels were starting to drop the float slid away and I hooked into something a little more solid. I was rewarded by this wonderful little Crucian Carp — my first of the year and another entry onto my species list.

Crucian Carp — lovely looking fish

And then, back to the roach — but they had started to get a bit bigger, with a few fish pushing the 12oz mark.

Roach Getting Bigger

And then, the float slid, I lifted into a fish, and my rod tip hooped over as a solid strong fish gave me the run around through the marginal reeds and lilies…. I had a hunch that it was a tench…. and after what felt like a couple of minutes (but probably a lot less than that) a lovely tench graced the net.

A Tench on one of Mike Cootes Tinca Sticks

I was thrilled. As the light started dropping as the evening drew to a close, we changed tactics and fished up in the water, spraying maggots and watching good roach swirl and pick up the baits less than 12 inches below the surface. We had a few more roach nudging the pound mark – but they didn’t photograph well with the flash of our cameras in the growing gloom.

I was delighted with the discovery of this little lake, my first ever visit despite its proximity to home. It just goes to show how theres always a surprise near to home if you are prepared to give small venues a try.

It was so good, I took one of my two little apprentices back the next day for an hours entertainment. I can’t think of a better venue to take kids for an hours fun.

My Little Apprentice

I’m now up to 19 species for the year to date , as during the sessions on this little lake, I caught Perch, Crucian Carp, and Tench.

It’s great to be out fishing again after lock down ruined the spring. As you can imagine .. there are plenty more sessions and write ups on the way.

My progress can be checked against my Anglers Challenge page click the link here

 

 

 

Filed Under: bream, Crucian Carp, Fishing, Perch, roach, Rudd, tench Tagged With: Bream, Crucian Carp, Perch, Roach, Rudd, Tench, Worm

Bitterling and Bream

6th June 2020 by Mike Duddy

Now that we are enjoying nice long evenings I made the most of it and visited Pollys Flash (aka Kingsdown Flash) in Abram, Lancashire in search of a Bitterling to add to my species tally for the year.

Pollys Flash – my swim for the evening – I fished only 4 metres out between the reeds and the lily pads

I set up nearest to the car park (lazyness) but then the wind was right in my face blowing food down the lake into my swim (craftyness)

Before I’d even wet a line the bailiff was around asking me if I had an unhooking mat! and I was sitting no more than 10 yards away from the rules board — oops

Abram Fishing Club
Abram Fishing Club — DON’T forget your unhooking mat !!

To my shame I didn’t – and my protestations that I wouldn’t need one, as I was fishing for a species that grew to a maximum length of 2 inches  fell on deaf ears…. I wasn’t allowed to fish without a mat. I’d even taken my mat out of my bag as I was leaving home, thinking that it was a waste of time taking it with me.

Seeing my rig – a size 22 hook and the tiniest piece of bread punch I think the man felt sorry for me, and he offered to go home (as he lived just around the corner) and bring me a mat from his garage. You might feel, as I did that this was a bit of overkill, but he assured me that using that rig and bait, in that swim I was likely to hook into a bream and he didn’t want me to put the fish at risk.

Fair play to the man…. I waited for him to nip home and bring me a mat before fishing..

Tiny hooks and tiny bait are needed to catch tiny fish

First cast I hooked a Bitterling !!  I should have put it on the mat for a photo as it would have been funny, but in my excitement I forgot.

Anyway — here is a pic of the smallest and prettiest freshwater fish in the UK…

Bitterling – lovely aquamarine sheen along its flank — one of the UKs prettiest fish

Bitterling are a very unusual fish, in that they lay their eggs inside live swan mussel shells, and you can see the spawning protuberance in red (also called an ovipositor) which they use to deposit their eggs in the mussels in the photo above.

I was delighted to catch one so quickly and thought that I was going to be in for an evenings bagging up on mini fish.

Sadly that wasn’t to be.

Next bite nearly an hour later  saw my elastic stretching right out and I landed this nice 3lb Bream — now I see why the bailiff was so insistent on me having a mat. It was a great scrap on very light tackle.

A nice 3lb bream – on very light gear

And then, apart from half a dozen small roach that was it for the evening

I was highly delighted to add two new species to my list for 2020 – Bitterling and Bream and it takes my total species on The Anglers Challenge up to 11 for the year.

Next weekend – I plan to have a nice long drive,,, and to try for a species I’ve never caught (or even seen) before. Hopefully I will squeeze in a midweek evening session somewhere — we’re in June now and I haven’t caught a tench yet …

And I won’t forget my unhooking mat!

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Bitterling, bream, Fishing Tagged With: Bitterling, Bream, Pollys Flash

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