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As the new game season is about to begin, i have been weighing up my options as to which rivers i am going to concentrate my efforts. My local river was once heavily polluted but now its tributaries support healthy populations of brown trout in their upper reaches, and as most of these waters are within half and hours drive of my office then it is only natural that i will be concentrating my early season efforts on this river and its tributaries.
I have not fished using a fly line on a river before so this is going to be an exciting couple of months for me as i learn to winkle trout out of these small rivers and brooks.

This afternoon i had a walk along a small brook, which runs from the Western Pennine Hills. I have fished this stream only once before, when i had half an hour in two swims without any luck. However next time with a little more stealth, guile, and experience hope to unlock a few of its secrets.

The rights to fishing on my local river are very fragmented with many areas being uncontrolled by any angling clubs. I have been told that one of the clubs is about to give up its rights due lack of interest from its members! Should i be so amazed that people dont want to bother with learning how to fish on the river when there are so many commercial fisheries available.

I have fished the upper reaches of the river with Matthew and caught some lovely brown trout on wet flies controlled by a bubble float, so i am hoping for similar success with a fly line. Once the clocks change at the end of the month i hope to get in at least two evening trips a week.

After chatting to Phil and Tony yesterday and listening to their views and experiences of different rivers in the North West, I have been convinced that joining Wigan & District Angling Club will give me access to a great stretch of a different, larger river which holds good numbers of both coarse fish and brown trout for a reasonable price. So its small brooks for midweek and powerfull river for the weekend – Bring on the 15th.

Mitchell Match

I was chatting to Dave a few weeks ago about the fishing tackle i had stolen from my parents house about 10 years ago. Of all the tackle I lost, the item I missed the most was a Mitchell 440a commonly known as a Mitchell Match.
Last Friday Dave called me at work and asked me to come and see him as he had something to show me. The daft/bugger had only bought me a replacement from Ebay! THANKS DAVE

So to give it a try out i went fishing for an early season tench at Broughton Park Lake in Salford.
I hadnt fished this lake for 20 years but it has a reputation for tench and was the location of the capture of my personal best roach (well over 2lbs caught on floating caster) way back in the 1980s when i was in my early teens.

However that was then and this is now, and the trip turned into a six hour blanking session. Ouch. The wind was akin something found in the roaring forties, and the only sheltered peg i could find was the boathouse swim which at 2ft deep is too shallow for good fishing in early March. I tried waggler, pole and feeder using hemp, caster and red maggot and didnt even get a bite, despite all the tricks of differing baits, hooksizes and hooklengths and different varities of presentation.
I think i will give this venue a miss until summer and with hindsight should have left such a shallow venue alone until water temperatures rise.

I intended to use the left over bait on Sunday at Maceys in Bury where i know i can catch no matter what the conditions, but decided to finish digging my new garden pond instead. I shall post the pond pictures sometime during the coming week as i wont be fishing this week due to a busy schedule at work. Weather permitting i intend to get some river fishing in next weekend before the season closes on the 15th.

A typical local stream

My first bream of the year.

After catching a few fish i am now looking forwards to another trip out this weekend, with heavy rain forecast for Friday i doubt that i will be fishing on the Irwell and i might try Ogden Resevoir for some roach and ruffe or Maceys in Bury for an early season tench.

Three hours trotting red maggots over hemp, not a bite. Used a float that took 7 grams to cock, but still couldn’t hold back against the flow effectively.
Its difficult to fish this river in the winter as the fish seem to want the bait held back hard which is difficult when you consider the strength of the flow.
So i swallowed my pride and went on the tip.
First cast – missed bite.
Second cast – struck into fish, snapped hooklength.
Third cast – Played chub of between 2-3lbs, shed hook as i was reaching for landing net.
I didnt fish on, and packed up in disgust.
Pass me the nine iron!

Am having a torrid time on the river this February.
I went down to the river this afternoon for an hour after work to see if i could put into practice what i had learnt earlier in the week.
However overnight rain resulted in an extra 3 feet of water and the river was running through hard. I was ok with this extra flow as i thought that if i couldnt control the float i would go on the tip. It was the volume of debris being washed down the river that finished me off, the line became covered in c**p every run through the swim. I spent longer cleaning the line than i did with my float in the water. It was the same on the tip, as the quiver slowly hooped over as more and more debris collected on the line.
I packed up after half an hour, and just as i left was gutted by a lovely roach rolling in my swim. Grrrrr.
There’s only a couple of weeks left to fish the river before the season closes and i am determined to stick at it until then.
Can things get any worse???

Rays net of Roach – about 20lb by lunchtime.

Salmon Parr?

Brrrrr minus 6.5c

I am at my best fishing still waters on the pole, tip or waggler and i am still relatively inexperienced at river fishing This being only my second year of attempting to catch on the Irwell.

Whilst its easy on the river to sit behind a quiver tip and feeder i dont find it particularly stimulating and often miss bites as my attention wanders. This business of trotting a swim is all consuming and i am sure its going to take me years to get to a level where i am happy with my degree of competence.

Its so easy in summer to drift your float between the streamer weeds and keep a good flow of loose feed going into the water, sometimes it feels as though the fish are queueing up to be caught.

However, this year i am making a concerted effort to explore more of the River Irwell and fish during all four seasons rather than just the height of summer.

I have now discovered – ITS NOT EASY IN WINTER.

So the best thing to do when you are struggling is go with an expert and sit and watch him build a swim and catch some fish and see how his approach differs from your own.

Thats the reason why i awoke at 5.30am on the coldest morning of the winter so far (minus 6.5c) and drove south past Chester to the River Dee at Farndon to meet with Ray.

Ray has a fantastic fishing brain and a wicked sense of humour.

By the time i turned up at just past 7am, Ray and his friend Dave had already set up and were fishing.It was so cold that the maggots froze solid and the ice had to be cleared from the rod rings after every cast.

The river was about 10 feet deep with a steady pace (no boils or swirlies). Both Ray and Dave were fishing Avon type floats about 10 inches over depth with bulk shot bunched together about 15 inches above the hook. Rays rig was slightly different in that he was using a heavier float and an olivette instead of buched AAA shot, and he also had a number 9 shot dragging the bottom to help him slow the rig down whereas Dave didn’t. They both fished about 20 feet out from the bank.Ray was using a 17ft trotting rod whereas Daves rod was only 12/13ft.

Whilst Ray was catching a roach a chuck Dave who was 20 yds upstream wasnt getting a touch.
Dave was feeding loose feed (hemp and red maggots), whereas Ray introduced his feed-hemp, maggot and aniseed and sweetcorn bread crumb based- via a swim feeder (he told me about 5 feeders full at the start of the session and then 2 whenever the bites tail off).

These guys were both so funny, their constant banter and chatter was making me laugh so much i forgot the cold.

Every time Dave loose fed Ray thanked him for feeding his swim.

As the morning progressed only Ray was catching out of the 6 or seven people who were fishing the stretch of river. It was obvious that Ray had either landed on the right peg by luck or had drawn them in by skill. When i asked him, he told me it was his skill – but also that he was a lucky so and so.

Ray was also a kind so and so and invited Dave to come and catch some fish in his swim when it became obvious that Dave was otherwise going to blank.

Dave was getting fish in the same swim, both guys fishing in the same 20yds of river on virtually the same line, Ray still caught at a faster rate the Dave and better quality fish to boot.

With them both in the same swim, it was easy to compare the different styles of bait presentation and why Ray was consistently outfishing Dave – PRESENTATION.

With his longer rod and heavier float he could control his bait in the flow. He could hold back at will and inch the bait down the swim, he could even get his bait stationary if he wished. He could do this as his rod was longer so that the angle of the float to the flow was lighter and therefore didnt swing in towards to near bank as quickly when he was holding back. The heavier float and use of an olivette rather than bunched bulkshot resulted in Rays hookbait not lifting too high off the bottom when he was holding the float back. Dave using a shorter rod and lighter float didn’t have the option of holding back as hard as Ken could and this lack of control of the hookbait meant he subsequently caught less fish.

Dont get the wrong idea that Dave is not a good fisherman – he had never fished this water before whereas Ray had, and Ray was also lucky enough to be in the right peg from the start.

As the sun came out and the day slowly warmed up, Ray went on to build a bag of 20lb of beautifully conditioned winter roach, averaging 3 fish to the pound. He also had a couple of chublets, dace and a salmon parr (i think).

I am glad i didnt take any tackle with me as it gave me the opportunity to watch a master at work (Ray runs a Chinese Chippy maybe i could call this post “Master at Wok”).

I was back in the office by 1.30pm.

Lesson 1. Fish shoal up in winter and can sometimes be concentrated in very small areas in the river. Mikes winter Irwell reminder – if you dont get a bite within 45 minutes, move to another swim.

Lesson 2. If bites are slow, make changes to depth, shotting and speed of the bait through swim before moving.

Lesson 3. Make sure that loose feed and groundbait is feeding the fish in your swim and not your mates 25yds downstream!

Lesson 4. Use a float that is up to the job. Let your tackle dictate presentation not the strength of the current.

Lesson 5. Dont blame the cold for not catching fish. It was minus 6.5c when i arrived and Ray was catching a roach a chuck.

Lesson 6. Good company keeps you warm.