Pike

Fishing Cures The Blues

26th October 2020 by Mike Duddy

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 !

In Search Of Pike

21st January 2020 by Mike Duddy

I caught some lovely small roach from a local canal recently as I’d promised to “bang out” half a dozen live baits for a pike session later that afternoon with a mate.

There hadn’t been a hard frost the night before, but the weather was typical winter Manchester, cold hard and grey. Conditions that a lot of anglers struggle with (noted by their absence from the bank)

So on arrival I set up 4 sections of pole, a 2g pencil shaped float, a size 20 hook – fed an almond sized lump of sloppy liquidised bread and sat back and waited for the fish to wake up for breakfast.

It took longer than I thought as this method of fishing can often produce instant bites – and after 15 bite free minutes I was started to have a bit of a panic that my bravado of “oh don’t worry I’ll bang out a few live baits in double quick time” was going to result in me having egg on my face.

Much to my relief, my float gave a micro dip — so I lifted and brought in a lovely little roach of about half an ounce.

The session then continued as expected with a bite every put in, using my smallest size of bread punch, and within another 15 minutes the larger 3 and 4oz roach had started pushing the micro roach out of the swim. If i had continued fishing for the rest of the morning I would have added a bit of crushed hemp to the liquidised bread and usually within the first half hour or so the roach of 8 to 12oz would again move in and bully out the smaller fish. But this was not to be, I only needed a dozen fish to share between the three of us pike fishing later that day.

The roach were in superb condition – with a lovely iridescent purple/blue sheen to their flanks, a bright red eye and not a scale out of place. Check them out in the pictures below. Small – perfectly formed – absolute beauties.

Roach - a perfect fish — Roach – a perfect fish

So – I took tremendous enjoyment from catching these small roach, but it got me thinking that only through having years of experience did I catch them. Casting my mind back to when I was a youngster I would have been on a certain blank session on a cold January morning like today. The reason why I caught over a dozen fish in less than an hour was quite simple. I used a float and shotting pattern that is incredibly sensitive and a hook length and hook that were a match for a roaches eagle eyes in the gin clear water.

I see so many anglers both young and old with an inch of thick float showing, hook lengths like tow rope and a hook big enough to be fishing paste on a commercial in summer. I with tackle shops would stop selling this stuff – or at least advise the anglers buying these floats on how to set them up properly.

So back to the fishing.. I then drove the 15 minutes further up the canal to our usual haunt to meet up with Phil and his new mate Dean. A new mate ??? is this some sort of piscatorial affair – should I carry on and ignore this turn of events – or demand a fishing divorce ? maybe a period of reflection and mate/marriage guidance is necessary – we obviously need some sort of counselling – probably best done in a pub over half a dozen pints lol

Anyway back to the pike fishing. I know a lot of people think that live baiting is a cruel form of our sport, but its something that’s never really worried me. I stopped using treble hooks many years ago, and when I live bait I used a single circle hook through the top lip of the bait. If I catch I catch…. if not the live bait is released and swims off to fight another day.

I also think that live bait out catches any other pike fishing method – and I’m out to catch fish.

I met up with Phil and Dean further up the canal and set up my my usual rig – see pic below. I’ve started using these Size 2 Sakuma Circle Hooks – and again I caught a nice fish with the hook lodged perfectly in the top of the fishes mouth.

Rochdale Canal Pike — Its a pity the sun wasn’t shining as the gold flecks around a pikes gill plates reflect spectacularly in the suns rays.

My Live Bait Kit is pretty standard – a bung, a weight, a wire trace (essential) and a single size 2 circle hook

As you can see – it didn’t take too long for the canal pike to oblige – and itch had been scratched – and after spending the rest of the morning chatting it was soon time to go home to the family for the rest of the day.

My next few trips out are going to be in search of cod – as its that time of year. There are quite a few marks to try on the West Lancashire Coast – and I’m also going to book myself onto a charter boat out of Fleetwood… looking forwards to sharing a few posts with you soon

A Little Perspective – Pike

30th December 2018 by Mike Duddy

I’ve been out today on my fishing clubs annual Christmas Pike Social.

Always good fun on the Old River Irwell (a still water created by the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal) in Irlam, which has a tremendous head of small to medium size pike max upper doubles.

I was a late arrival at 8am just as it was getting light. Others had been on since 7am but as yet no one caught any fish…. which was unusual as in previous years the most productive times had been the hour before and after dawn.

I set up a single rod, and had to wait until nearly 11.30am before I caught the first fish of the day. A small fish of no more than 2lbs

Here is is…. believe it or not…. the same fish….. firstly held by my pal Karol…. who pushed it out towards the camera lens and then by me held in towards my body.

Small Pike From The Old River Irlam — The same fish !

A startling difference – and as you can see from the second more honest photo – not really much of a Pike at all.

This year every angler caught a pike, and they were all caught between 12.30 and 1.30pm

By 2.30 we had all had enough and retired to the pub – to continue the more social element of the days “social fish in”

An Artists Palette

15th December 2018 by Mike Duddy

Look at these lovely flecks of gold….. like brush strokes from a classical artists palette.

I will never tire of being surprised by the beauty of fish…. each one a unique Faberge Egg, a priceless gift from nature. I was having a trawl through some old photos – and thought that this deserved sharing again.

A Pike from the Old River Irwell in Irlam – caught on a sunny winters day.