Trout

Excitement Turns To Disappointment (again)

15th March 2020 by Mike Duddy

Ha Ha – silly me – Did I really go to bed last night thinking that I was going to have a great opening day but as so often happens pre fishing trip excitement often turns into post trip disappointment.

Whilst I was asleep – the heavens opened and local rivers were unfishable by the time I woke with at least 3ft on the Irwell and 2ft on the other smaller local streams.

What a disappointment.

So – with me being the martyr that I am, I took the family for a nice country walk instead. I should never have let my wife choose the destination – as she chose to visit Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge – and I had to spend the day next to some classic Northern pocket water… deeply tea stained by moorland peat, beautiful Hebden Water — chocca with Spotties

Beautiful Hebden Water at Hardcastle Crags - a great value day ticket stretch — Beautiful Hebden Water at Hardcastle Crags – a great value day ticket stretch – I wish I wish I could have had a cast or two.

Arriving back home late afternoon – I threw the wife and kids out of the car and hotfooted off to the River Roch near Bury, hoping that the rivers would have fined down a bit during the day.

Sadly not, but seeing as though I’d made the effort to get there I decided to have a few casts anyway, and I worked my way up this run.

RIver Roch near Bury - this run is usually good for a few fish — River Roch near Bury – this run is usually good for a few fish

I used my go to combo of a scruffy black spider on dropper and an Irwell Imp on point. But the river was tinged brown with urban runoff, still 18 inches up and faintly wiffy of something I’d rather not talk about in polite company.

Irwell Flies - a scruffy black spider and an Irwell Imp — Irwell Flies – a scruffy black spider and an Irwell Imp

I worked my way up the run, and did well to avoid the rocks thrown at me by local “youths” but the fish showed no interest. Rather than hang about and be used as a human coconut shy I made my way around the corner to fish the Irwell at Dumers Lane.

When I got to the bigger Irwell – the water was still 2ft up, and raging through. Rather than waste my time wafting a fly around I just had a walk 500 yards downstream and back, and what I saw broke the heart of an Irwell loving fisherman.

Wet wipes and tampons adorning all the trees and riverbanks, and massive amounts of fly tipped rubbish on the river banks. The people of Bury should be ashamed of themselves, the Environment Agency should be ashamed of themselves and our local water utility company should hang their heads in shame as they make massive profits but leave our river in such a disgraceful condition.

I shall leave these two photos with you – they speak for themselves.

A Sewage Outfall plus wet wipe tree — A Sewage Outfall plus adjacent wet wipe tree

Little gifts left hanging in the wind - nesting material for our rapidly declining bird population — Little gifts left hanging in the wind – nesting material for our rapidly declining bird population

So sad – I’m going to make sure something is done about this 🙁 fuming is an understatement 🙁

New Season Excitement

14th March 2020 by Mike Duddy

As the coarse fishing season on my local rivers finishes and one chapter closes another trout season opens and a new chapter begins.

Fishing Fiend Junior V3 has been showing lots of interest in accompanying Daddy on the river bank this spring.

Not that I’ve been encouraging her interest (pink rod, pink reel, pink line, pink flies etc) but tomorrow morning, weather permitting, I shall be accompanied by an excited 5 year old casting for her first trout.

Getting Fishing Tackle Ready For The Morning

hot pink fishing combo — Hot Pink Fly Fishing Combo

Pink & Partridge - a new pattern — Pink & Partridge – a new pattern

My Daughter already has skills, I hope the rain gods are kind overnight and the river is fishable.

Bring on the 15th !

Lets hope the trout are as obliging

Bringing Things Up To Date

11th January 2020 by Mike Duddy

Life sometimes takes over, and I don’t have as much time or inclination to write about my fishing trips as much I used to… that doesn’t mean to say I’m not going fishing anymore… I most certainly am … just in a slightly different manner than I used to before.

Most of my fishing over the last 6 months has been with family and friends, fitting in with others plans etc… And having a lovely young family I’ve no doubts that these demands on my will continue into the future… work, family life, kids football practice and regular Saturday morning matches, running and other family stuff is limiting my time on the bank.

Anyway enough waffle/excuses – here’s what I’ve been up to since my last proper post in June

In July – I organised a little fish-in on one of my favourite sections of the River Irwell – the river fished well for those who took part – with nearly everyone catching small roach, dace and chublets, and I had a couple of nice trout too – all on trotted stick float maggot.

Wonky Swims Adelphi — The Wonky Building Swims

Duddy Fishing Irwell — A Small Irwell Brown

Towards the end of July, I joined in the celebrations of my mothers 80th Birthday at the Low Wood Hotel at Windermere in the Lake District…. again family time as in the ascendancy but i did manage to have a few casts of the lure rod off the end of the pier outside the hotel, and managed to hook into a perch nearly every other cast. Nothing huge, with the fish all in the 6 to 8oz bracket.

My next trip out was entirely different – at the start of August I had an odd day at work, a mornings meeting in Crewe followed by an evening meeting in Liverpool… so naturally I filled in the gap with a little cheeky session on the Shropshire Union Canal at Audlem… I’d never visited this bit of canal before.. I just had a look on google map and thought I’ll try there….

So i pulled up in the car park of the Bridge Inn, Audlem – payed for a few hours parking and had a nice session using hemp and corn. Sadly there was plenty of boat traffic but happily the roach were obliging – and I managed to catch a dozen or so decent fish up to about 12oz.

Shropshire Union Roach — Shropshire Union Canal Audlem

Shropshire Union Canal Roach — Plenty like this to around 12oz

I packed up after a few hours – some great roach fishing from a new spot for me.

Next up was a long weekend with the family to Holyhead in North Wales.. I only managed a single sort session at the Trearddur Bay flag pole. Using the remnants of a tub of denrobena worms, I set up a simple two hook paternoster rig and cast out into the bay. I was amazed by the results, school bass, pollack and about 3 or 4 species of little wrasse. It was a bite a chuck and I was smashed up twice!. I’d never considered using garden worms before for sea fishing but its quite obvious that the fish don’t mind

Flag Pole Steps Trearddur Bay — A Nice Little Pollack – one of many fish on dendrobenas

Alas family commitments that weekend only allowed for a single short session – I fully intend to come back to this spot next summer with a slightly beefier set up and see if I can hook into the much bigger fish that were smashing me up.

So October half term was spent on a Caravan Break to Devon Cliffs Holiday Park in Devon. As my in-laws were joining us I had free reign to do a bit more fishing. The weather was terrible for most of the time we were there but I managed a couple of good sessions. A nice afternoon on the beach at Budleigh Salterton on lures we caught some mackerel and garfish.

Kate is now 4 and she has loves her fishing with Daddy — Kate is now 4 and she has loves her fishing with Dadddy

Next up was a day trip to Brixham.. and ” I was amazed to find boats offering mackerel trips” lol.. which i suggested to my wife that the kids might like….

Just like a well baited swim and well presented bait… she took it hook line and sinker … so an afternoons mackerel bashing ensued..

I was delighted to catch my first ever pilchard ! – an added bonus

Plus then of course the mackerel arrived and we filled half a bucket full

Using the mackerel we caught – I then had a few sessions fishing into the night off the beach at Budleigh Salterton again…. Using my two 15 foot surf casters, and 2 hook flapper rigs I banged out strips of mackerel into the distance and sat back and waiting to see if anything was biting.

Beach Fishing Budleigh Salterton — A nice evening on the beach

It took about 30 seconds before my rod tips began to rattle, I thought it was crabs at first as the bites were just little rattles rather than more powerful pulls on the rod tips. I soon realised that Budleigh Salterton after dark is Pout city as I caught dozens of the cheeky little bait robbers. I soon gave up using 2 rods as the bites were just too frequent, and I was getting double hookups nearly every cast. And then eventually got fed up of catching Pout themselves, so rigged up a pulley rig with a dead pout on the end to see if could catch anything bigger

And it didnt take long to get a really positive pull on the rod tip. The culprit was of course a bloody dog fish…. not a bad one… but it signaled time to pack up and go home. That was the end of my fishing for this trip

I then managed a few sessions on the Fylde coast at Rossall with my mate Phil, but sea conditions and tides weren’t in our favour and we didn’t catch very much apart from some 3 bearded rockling and a couple of dabs and plaice.

And I finished the year by having a few sessions on Drinkwater Park Lake, but despite using a variety of lures, couldn’t get any takes,, and this despite taking my “lucky charm” with me

So the year ended with weeks of poor weather,, and I just didn’t fancy getting out fishing that much… and the year ended as a pretty damp squib.

To sumarise the year,,, I got out a lot, but mostly with the kids. I caught lots of fish, including a few brand new species (Pout and Pilchard) but other than a HUGE tench which I lost at the net, I didn’t manage any fish of note.

Imagine my delight when Mrs FishingFiend suggested we visit the Canary Islands for New Year …. 🙂

Read all about it soon!

Dace Fishing On The Irwell

27th June 2019 by Mike Duddy

After a tough day mulling over financial spreadsheets I wanted nothing more than a few hours of peace and quiet on the river after work. A quick trip to the tackle shop turned into a slog through the traffic, and a swift in and out at home turned into a chat with the wife and kids about their day and me being sucked into sitting down with them for tea.

I didn’t get to the riverbank until 6.30pm but when I finally arrived the excitement rose as it looked spot on.

I set up with 15ft Drennan float rod, my trusty old Abu 506, and a 5bb stick float – bait…. just to see what was there… a single maggot on a size 18 hook. Having fished this swim a few times over the last couple of years I wasn’t really expecting too much as I’ve still never had as much as a bit from it (despite recent reports of chub and dace being caught from the opposite bank). Over the years I’ve been present at the stocking of more than 40,000 fish into the Irwell,, many of them going in at this exact spot… I’ve still to get a bite here,,, but god loves a trier !!

And my luck hadn’t changed from previous visits, as an hour and 15 minutes later I still hadn’t had a bite.

Now in recent times, fishing time has been limited and I didn’t want to be wasting a whole evening on a swim that might be devoid of fish…. so a move was in order…… upstream/downstream decisions decisions….

Downstream was the choice .. and I settled down in a fast pacey swim where I’ve previously caught good nets of roach.

First run through in the new swim resulted in a smashed maggot, second run through a fine plump dace of about 6 ounces.

I had a bite a chuck for the next two hours – packing up on the dot of 10pm – as the bells of Manchester Cathedral tolled in the distant back ground (take that as a hint).

The dace were aggressively but cunningly attacking the single maggot as it ran through the swim… if I let the bait run with the flow, the bites didn’t register and I came back with a smashed maggot…. If I held the bait back to about half the speed of the flow then the fish self hooked themselves, especially as I moved a size 6 shot to within about 4 inches above the hook.

Mixed in with the dace were the usual aggressive trout – I landed two decent fish of about 2lb, and got smashed by one much bigger, that just hurtled off across river like an express train. My light silver fish gear not really being up to the job of hanging on to a big bucking bronco brownie.

I reckon that I had close to 20lb of fish in the last 2 hours – and might go back again in the next week or two with a keepnet and get a nice net of fish and share the picture.

Here’s the smaller of the two browns that I landed – a lovely fat fish.

New Kit

6th January 2019 by Mike Duddy

I’ve just put a bit of new kit together for my daughter who turns 4 years old next month…. she’s as keen as mustard.

Pink 6ft 2 weight, matching pink line and reel….. so now I need some flies to match

We’re lucky to have lots of small streams that are stacked with trout in Greater Manchester which I have no doubts will produce the goods once the new season starts in March.

Now I need to tie up some pink flies to match the rod, reel and line combo.

Any suggestions on patterns that suit hot shocking pink ?

New Kit

Black Death On The Irwell

30th November 2018 by Mike Duddy

Here are the observations of a North Manchester Angler written in 2009 – it gives a great insight as to the impact Cormorants have made on my local River Irwell. (and I’ve added a few observations of my own to conclude)

“I’ve run Wickenhall bottom lake in Newhey for around 8 years now. It was a chance remark by one of the regular anglers about fishing the river Irwell in Manchester. loads of roach, most of them between 6 ounces and a pound he said, and on some days we get maybe 8 or nine chub up to 3lb or so, we’ve even had a couple of bream too.

After probing the said angler on areas to fish, he said ,”don’t go on your own cos it can be a bit rough, and swims are hard to find but worth the effort if you find the roach shoals”.

a couple of months later and after talking my daughter into a pre Xmas shopping trip, (on the condition that we have an hour looking at the river for possible access points, I was stood high over the Irwell on the impressive Trinity bridge, fish were regularly topping a few hundred yards upstream, nothing massive, but definitely fish. Anyway plans were made for me and Pete Healy, to go and have a go the following Sunday.

We arrived 30mins or so before first light. Fish were topping everywhere. We both started on maggot feeder. My first bite came before I put the rod down, a perfect roach of 10 ounces. I turned to tell Pete, who was fifty feet further upstream, only to find him with a similar fish in the landing net.

The next few hours were ridiculous. Fish after fish came to the double maggot baits. In fact at one stage we both stopped fishing for half an hour to have a brew and a butty.

Without going through every session we had in a period of 4 years, I’ll just say that the place was incredible. On numerous occasions, Pete, my daughter Abbie (9 to 13 years old at the time)on many, and I mean many days had at least 50 or sixty pounds of roach, chub, perch and dace. we only ever saw another four or five lads fishing over all that time and all of us kept it pretty quiet. Stickfloat was probably the best method with maggot, caster and hemp. But we caught on big baits like bread and meat too.

You’ll have noticed by now a lot of this article is written in the past tense.

These glory days of the Irwell have now sadly passed. After speaking to one of the regulars last year and finding out the fishing had gone downhill we decided to have a couple of sessions in the old swims,(we hadn’t been down for over 10 months). I can tell you it was a total waste of time, conditions were spot on for trotting, the water was perfect, but not a single bite in four trips.

now it’s quite normal for shoals of silver fish to hold up all winter in city centre rivers. whether it’s the lights or maybe due to it being a tad warmer I don’t know, but it happens in lots of rivers in the UK.

It’s also normal for fish to suddenly not be there one year for apparently no reason, quite often though they won’t be that far away. So with that in mind we took my small rowing boat (normally used for piking) to have a look around with a fish finder. We did find fish quarter of a mile downstream in a couple of places and caught some on trotted maggot from the boat. These were mainly roach but we only had about six each.

There’s a word I’ve deliberately missed out in this article up to yet, well here it comes……

……..CORMORANTS………

In the last two years of fishing we saw a huge increase in the numbers of these birds, starting with one or two at first and then going up to dozens in the end. We saw them many times taking big roach, chub and dace all day long on some days.

It was heartbreaking to see and is the main reason we stopped fishing there. Previously unmarked, pristine fish, were now very badly marked indeed and the fishing dropped dramatically. The reason I decided to submit this article was to let the lads in the Manchester area, who fished the Irwell now or in the past, know about the situation.

2008 between Xmas and new year we took the boat onto the Irwell. At this time of year, centre of town should be solid with fish….. we spent ALL DAY looking in every nook and cranny from M.E.N arena all the way to Salford quays.

WE DID NOT SEE ANY FISH AT ALL IN MILES OF RIVER, OR ANY OF THE BASINS, ETC, THAT CAN’T BE ACCESSED FROM THE BANK.

So what’s happened to all those beautiful fish? Pollution would have turned some up for all to see but no one has reported any. Maybe they migrated further than we looked, but I doubt it, I think the black death is back in the country……..only this time it can fly.

As a footnote we caught from six swims in the centre of town. (are you ready for this):

ROACH TO OVER 2LB
BREAM TO 6LB
PERCH TO 3LB
SEATROUT TO 3LB
BROWNIES TO 2LB
PIKE TO 23LBS
TENCH TO 3LB
GRAYLING TO 1LB
DACE TO 12OZ
CHUB TO OVER 5LB
GUDGEON,RUFFE, AND I EVEN CAUGHT A BLUE ORFE ABOUT 2LB ONE DAY.”

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Fishing Fiends Opinion Below

Coming to the end of 2018 now – its interesting to see how the Irwell has changed – the roach have all but disappeared despite regular restocking by the Environment Agency.

The bream in the lower river have grown on to near double figures, carp started to show – some of them nudging 30lbs

Sea trout ??? do they really exist ?? or are they just smolted up brownies – which now grow to nearly 13lbs. The three huge locks on the Manchester Ship Canal are an effective barrier to migratory fish (though plans are being put in place to enable fish passage in the future)

Pike — well they are still present throughout the river from Bury down to Manchester, with lots of small jacks but the occasional big girl to 20lb.

Tench – I’ve never seen one from the Irwell.

Grayling – a recent stocking by the EA of 3000 tiddlers but an odd fish to 12 inches being caught in the Bury area. Dace are present but not prolific.

Chub to 6lbs,

Plenty of Gudgeon.

A smattering of Perch but they are not prolific.

200 Barbel were stocked at the waters meet of the Irwell and Croal in the early 90s by Farnworth Anglers – and the odd fish has turned up between Bury and Manchester to 13lb – however these fish are as rare as hens teeth, and its a real achievement to catch the mythical Irwell Barbel. The EA stocked 500 fingerlings in 2014, and again with 500 slightly bigger fish in 2017 and another 500 in winter 2018. However they don’t appear to thrive in Irwell waters and are still the Holy Grail for Irwell anglers.

As water quality improves – the fishing has without doubt declined from the halcyon days of the early late 90s and early 2000s. I too can remember catching 50lb+ nets of roach on hemp and maggot – but these events are now a thing of the past.

However,the trout fishing goes from strength to strength as water quality improves, and their fry are better suited to fast flowing water.

Without doubt the Gooseander which so effectively predate on fish fry, the Cormorants which so effectively predate on adult fish, mink and frequent pollution incidents have decimated our river.

I wonder what the future holds..

The Irwell Imp

22nd May 2016 by Mike Duddy

The Irwell Imp – a variation of the GRHE tied with red wire that’s a killer pattern on North Manchester Rivers – or a three year old who insists on going fishing with his Dad because its the best way to celebrate his Mum and Dads wedding anniversary.

My little imp loves his fishing – minnow traps, fishing nets, 3 metre whips and horrendous tangles are his speciality – a 5 minute attention span his fishing Achilles heel.

Nevertheless – in the 5 minutes of fishing we managed before his attention wandered we unluckily bumped two good fish on a size 16 Irwell Imp.

The Irwell Imp - a GRHE variant tied with red wire - always sorts out the better fish — The Irwell Imp – a GRHE variant tied with red wire – always sorts out the better fish

Then it was back to throwing sticks, stones and riding balance bikes….

On the trip home – my wife and I were discussing our work agendas for Monday – when little Tommy chimed in with “I don’t want to go to nursery tomorrow – I want to go fishing with Daddy” …….

I could’t think of a better way of spending a day.