I’ve just had a week in the North Of Ireland, touring round the Antrim coast and Donegal. An area with some fantastic scenery and equally excellent fishing.
The holiday was meant to be a treat for my mother in laws 50th birthday so fishing was not at the top of everyones agenda. Despite packing a travel rod and some little bits of kit, I only managed to get out twice – once for an hour on a beach with some big surf – where I blanked, and a short session from the end of a landing stage where i managed a small coalfish on a dexter wedge.
Not the best fishing but the scenery and whisky more than compensated.
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Rochdale Canal Tench
I’ve recently been spending a fair amount of time fishing on the Rochdale Canal – a venue where I spent alot of time fishing with my father as a child. Back in the day, our quarry was the incredibly large roach which used to inhabit the canals crystal clear water. I have forgotten now how many roach over 2lbs i caught from there but still have memories of catching one on a 9ft bamboo garden cane rod, after hiding myself in a tree.
Since the re-introduction of boat traffic to the canal, these mega roach seem to have disappeared, along with the crystal clear water – nothing stays the same indefinitely – some people call it progress.
Maybe at the expense of the large roach, the tench population seems to have soared over the last 20 years or so, and its these tench which i have been recently targeting.
I’ve been trying out various combinations of baits recently – starting off very successfully on maggot over micro pellets, then switching to hemp and caster which didn’t seem as productive, 6mm expander pellet over micros saw me catching a few fish but I’ve now finally settled on bread flake over 2mm and 4mm pellet as the killer technique.
Yesterday evening I had two cracking fish, and in the last couple of weeks I haven’t had a fish under 2 and a half pounds – which is amazing fishing for a canal.
The swims have also been interesting – some are much more productive than others – and also some are more homely than others – as this picture from last Thursday afternoon shows the contrast between my swim, and the 5* swim (including bench, flower beds and faux water pump) which Paul nabbed. My swim despite its rustic nature had tench in it though.
I’ve also had to uprate the elastic on the pole I’ve been using to a 16 – as the better fish fight like stink and are very canny at throwing the hook in the marginal rushes.
There seem to be definate feeding spells at the moment – its possible to sit for ages without a bite – then two or three fish come in a short space of time. Usually at the same time of day.
I’m not complaining though, i just cant get enough of this place at the moment.
8th October Match – River Irwell Old Course Irlam – Top Hat Optional
Were going to hold another match on the Old River at Irlam on the 8th October – you’re welcome to join us.
Draw 9am at the Boathouse Pub, Ferry Rd, Irlam M44 6DN.
Fish from 10 til 3.
Cost £10, £5 for juniors.
(Top Hat optional)
The EA are going to conduct a sonar survey of this water on Wednesday the 5th, so our match will tie in nicely with the work they are doing to revive this water as a decent fishery. There is even talk of money being available to renew the fishing pegs!.
The weights were low after the last match, but I reckon that now we’ve fished it our tactics will be amended and we will be more successful this time.
If you’ve never fished this venue before and want to give it a try – pls contact me and i will give you all the info I can.
Canal Tench
I had 3 tench in 3 hours this evening from the local canal.
5lb8oz, 4lb2oz and 4lb and I lost another cracker by trying to bully it to the net (idiot).
All fish fell to a strawberry jellet fished dead depth over micro pellets.
I’ve experimented a fair amount recently with hook patterns and baits and I’m nearly happy.
I’m going again one afternoon this week, as I’m sure now that breadflake over micros will be a more productive combination.
I’ll take a camera next time.
Pommie Bashing
After a couple of fruitless trips to various local venues, I decided to go to the capital of Bitterling fishing in North West – Pollys flash. The Bitterling (also known as the Pomerainian Bream) are a lovely looking fish, and it wasn’t too long before i bagged my first Pommie in over 30 years using a size 22 hook and half a pinkie.
I spent the afternoon fishing pinkies in the margin, and I had quite a few more, along with lots of micro roach, perch and rudd.
Paul on the other hand, was fishing big baits (maggots) and had a couple of crucians. We didn’t stay for long, as once the Bitterling was in the bag there was nothing really to interest us there.
I’m up to 31 species for the year now – the target is getting past 35
River Irwell Old Course Match Aug 2011
I dont fish many matches – its a form of angling that I’ve never really go into. However Salford Friendly Anglers Society are in the process of being granted the lease for the River Irwell Old Course in Irlam. Once a loop of the main river, now a still water after being chopped off by the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.
This water suffered a terrible pollution incident in July 2008 when raw sewage backed up from a drain and overflowed into the Old Course killing thousands of quality tench, bream, carp and silver fish.
As a consequence the controlling club, Boathouse Anglers lost the majority of its members and no longer controls the water. However – there are a few chinks of light – and local kids have started catching silvers on a regular basis, some big eels have been caught, and pleasure nets to over 10lbs have been reported.
Salford Friendly Anglers Society decided to hold a fund raising match on August Bank Holdiay Monday and we cleared out about 10 overgrown pegs a couple of days beforehand – together with the already accessible ones to give us a total of about 20 fishable pegs.
16 of us turned up this morning.
I drew peg 33 at the deeper end of the lake and had a little roach on single pinkie first put in on the 6m line. A few more followed and after about an hour i had a dozen fish in the net and was well out in front of the others. Sadly there was another 3 and a half hours to go where i didnt get another bite.
The Boathouse Pub
My 12 fish for 8oz!
Most people caught, though the weights were low. Ken was the clear winner with 1lb13oz of roach on punch bread. In second was Chris Carr with an eel of 1lb3oz, then in 3rd Paul Carr with 1lb 2oz of little roach.
Not big weights, but people caught along the entire length of the venue.
The landlord of the Boathouse pub very kindly made a donation to the stocking fund and provided chips and sausage butties back in the pub after the match – many thanks.
To cap a great day – I had the pleasure of sitting next to Albert Morris in the pub after the match – a north west fishing legend.
Despite the low weights – most had a thoroughly enjoyable day – which we hope to repeat on Saturday the 1st October.
Road Trip
I’ve spent a couple of days on the road with Pete, trying to catch my first ever bleak, zander, motherless minnow and pumpkinseed. We nabbed 3 out of the 4 with only the zander evading us.
This takes me up to 30 species for the season – busting last years record of 24 – with four months still to go.
We started off on the Warwickshire Avon at Stratford where a fellow blogger Jeff reckoned we had a good chance of catching bleak and zander.
The bleak were quick to oblige, and it didnt take long before we got tired of catching them. Petes swim held a good shoal of perch and he must have had 2 or 3 dozen fish to about a pound and a half.
I got bored of catching tiddlers so filled a bag of PVA with 4mm pellets and a big 12mm pellet fished on a band had my rod tip crash round with this hard fighting little barbel.
We both had a decent eel – which was something of a surprise – but despite sitting it out all day with live a dead baits we couldnt get any action from zander.
The next morning we drove down to Viaduct Fishery in Somerset, which we knew contained Motherless Minnows – also called Sun Bleak. Fishing single pinkie on a size 22 hook it didnt take too long to catch yet another species to add to the list. A long drive for a couple of drams of fish.
The back up the M5 to Silver Springs fishery at Congresbury which we knew contained large numbers of pumpkinseeds. These pretty little fish lost all self control when faced with a maggot – so after about half an hour of pumkinseed bagging the novelty value wore thin.
So I swapped sides of the lake and sat facing into the wind, and filled my swim in with the rest of a bag of 4mm pellets and half a tin of corn. By the time I’d set up my Browning margin pole and plumbed up the carp were in a frenzy over the top of the baited area at the edge of the lily pads in the photo above. First put in saw me get a lovely common of about 6lbs followed by about 14 others during a mad two hour evening session. Great fun but a long run home followed up the M5 and M6.
This weekend its back to the Bitterling hunt, and the Salford Friendly Anglers Match at the River Irwell Old Course in Irlam.
On The Canal
A few snatched hours on the Rochdale Canal at Boarshaw was my reward for a tough week at work. I fished single maggot over a bed of micro pellets at the end of a bed of sedges and caught well for the first hour, a decent tench, a decent skimmer bream and some nice roach.
Then a jack pike moved in and I couldnt get a bite for nearly 2 hours (i eventually caught the little ****er and released it 100yds away down the canal bank). Then in the last hour had a run of a roach a chuck only interrupted by being smashed by another decent carp/tench.
Great fun.
Starlight Express
My time on the bank has been severely curtailed this summer, but over the next few weeks work and family pressures are easing off and I should be out and about a bit more.
My pal Tony has also been a shortage of fishing time, and has found that he is only able to sneak in the last few hours of daylight and into the dusk for fishing.
So Saturday evening saw us meet up on the banks of the Ribble for an evening session. The river looked perfect for barbel as it was dropping off after recent heavy rains.
Both of us tackled up a single barbel rod with a large feeder and hair rigged halibut pellet. Tony fished his feeder on a helicopter type rig, I fished mine on a loop within a loop method.
It wasn’t long before we were into fish. Nothing big but still exciting stuff waiting for the rod tip to bang over with an angry barbel on the end.
We caught steadily into the night, catching fish to about 5lbs, then at about midnight my rod tip hooped over and I was into a larger fish. It snagged me up twice, and I got the fish back under control by letting the line go slack for a minute then tightening back into the fish.
Just as i got the fish into the shallows where Tony reported to me that it was by far the best fish of the session, it made one last unfortunately successful lunge for freedom – as the 10lb hooklink parted just below the loop to mainline. Gutted.
No matter – it was a great session.
Bitter – ling
I often travel far and wide to go fishing – but yesterday evening I made my first ever visit to a lake which is less than two miles from my front door. A lake I’ve always heard people speak about, but one which I’ve always avoided as I’ve percieved it to be a trouble magnet.
However, a phone call from a friend who was reporting the capture of a dozen+ bitterling in less than an hour resulted in an instantaneous re-evaluation of the lakes potential.
So armed with half a pint of pinkies, some gossamer hooklength and size 22 hooks I sat on the lakes rubbish tip banks in the hope of catching my first bitterling in over 25 years.
A couple of small roach, then nothing for ages. So i mixed up some groundbait and threw in a few balls of slop. The float buried and my threes elastic pinged out to the max as a small tench made a successful bid for freedom.
Now i dont like losing hooklengths to fish, and if I’m going to try for mini species then I dont want to get smashed up all the time by their larger bretheren. So I swapped top kits to an 8 elastic and upped my hooklength from 0.08mm to 0.11mm.
A few more roach from the margins but no bitterling. Then again the float dipped, and my elastic stretched out. And again pinged back as another tench or carp smashed me up.
Its funny how when you want to catch a biggun all you get is tiddlers and vice versa!
As it was getting dark – (and very wet) I decided to call it a night – but now I know they’re there – I’ll be back!