I sometimes wish i owned a set of scales – this one measured 27inches and came from a small river in inner city Manchester.
Full report to follow
One of my local rivers has been so polluted for so long that even by Mancunian standards its considered a lifeless sewer. However a few weeks ago whilst on one of my lunchtime walks i spotted a shoal of small roach from a bridge, and decided that i would give it a try some time during the next few weeks.
So this today i had a relatively light workload, so decided to take a long lunch.
The first run which i tried for about 15 minutes claimed two hooklengths so i decided to move downstream about 100yds to a deeper steady glide above a weir.
In this new swim my float buried on the first run through, and what i thought was a good chub smashed me after about 5 seconds. I stepped up my terminal tackle from a 0.10 hooklength and a fine wire maggot hook to 0.13 and a forged size 16 chub hook.
A fed another half dozen maggots then let the float follow them down the river, in exactly the same spot as my previous bite, the float buried and i hooked into what i at the time thought was a good chub. However, at the end of the fishes first run of about 20yds it leaped out of the water and i realised that i had a big trout on. The fish made at least 4 more strong runs, the last of which saw me running after it as my Abu506 seized up. After more than a few last minute surges away from the net i had this cracker on the bank.
By far and away the best Brownie i have ever caught, and to catch it from a river that has been so recently devoid of life is astonishing. This fish must have survived many pollution incidents on the river, the most recent being only 3 years ago when a local soap manufacturer let thousands of gallons of detergent into the river which resulted in in a 6 foot layer of suds covering most of the river. Amazing really.
I have looked up scales which show that a 27inch trout should weigh 7lbs, but i think it weighed rather less. I have never owned a set of scales to weigh the fish i catch and think that i am a good guesser. My guess when i saw it was 5lb so if we split the difference and call it 6 then i will be more than happy.
My first fish from that river – how can i ever go back? You know i will, and am looking forwards to sharing my secret river with you.
Mother of Mary, that’s the biggest wild river trout I’ve ever seen in the NW Mike!!
What do you reckon? 5,6lb?
Fair play to you, that is a real fish of a lifetime, well done!
M
Bagsy going on that glide with my fly rod in the new season first , fantastic looking beast if that had been caught on any river it would be a fish of a lifetime to think it’s on our doorstep and a lancastrian fish is well unbelievable well done!!
ps when are you taking me?
I will take anyone anytime they get in touch.
All you need is a fishing rod, a peg for your nose, and a hoody to fit in with the locals.
But i promise you Tony that your the next one on that swim.
OMG…jesus christ… that is one mother of a lunker!!! I’ve run out of superlatives to describe that fish… see you next ‘lunch hour’
I’ve just been staring at it open mouthed again – it looks like a bleeding Taimen!!!
Although I know you were fishing for chub on this occasion it puts you in a difficult position with the EA.
You need to careful if going there again with maggots as you could be accused of deliberately fishing for trout out of season!!!
What do you do???
I have thought about that Phil, and the fact that the fish i caught, wasnt the one i lost the previous cast, nor the one i saw leap out of the water a few hundred yards upstream. Makes me think that i have unwittingly found a brown trout redd.
So on that basis i wasnt going to fish that swim again until next March.
However there are lots of other interesting swims to explore, which may also hold surprises.
Being close to home i have walked the banks of this stream many times over the years and never seen anyone fishing. In fact most of the locals will laugh if they see anyone fishing there. So we have some virgin water to try, which hopefully will throw us a few more surprises.
Please bring hoody and stab vest with you.
A bit of a hard question the out of season one .It’s impossible to fish any river without occasionally catching Trout with the methods we use? ( float and fly ) seeing the EA have lengths of river which you can fish any method after they think migratory fish have run and we hardly ever see a EA officer I would say they have little concern for non migratory fish at the moment ? This is a issue left to true river fishermen we are the guardians of the waterways and I would say the fish Mike caught is now safer …. because he walks and now fishes the stream , he knows fish are present the next time a pollution incident occurs it’s the likes of him who will see and report it . We all know areas were trout are the only thing we are likley to catch and out of season these areas are not fished .
f**Knhell!!! you know its a monster when its back bows under its own weight!
ps. we’ud all rather see you see you catching an out of season trout than some cnut chucking a trolley in th’water
Cheers Nick,
Thing is i wasnt fishing for trout, i was trotting a size 18hook with a 2lb bottom for roach or chub. Its not my fault a greedy trout got my bait instead of a 2oz roach is it?
However, like i said, i think i might have stumbled across the loveshack of those big lunkers that we all know inhabit the ship canal. There are plenty of other runs in this river for me to target roach and chub so am more than happy to leave them well alone to do their business.
I cant imagine my capture of this fish would bother the EA at all, as they sell tickets to coarse fishermen to fish their best beat in the NorthWest the day after the salmon season closes, so that people can catch grayling using maggots. I have fished this beat with maggots twice this season now, and have caught more out of season trout than grayling. On that basis i dont think they can be bothered. If they are bothered then i’m in real trouble as i have already sent a picture, together with date and location of capture to Kevin Nash at the EA in Warrington who has a particular interest in the river system that we fish. Hopefully he wont beat me up with a big stick!
The thing I dont get with the breeding thing is migratory fish ,we actually only target them why they are in the river to breed and they to my knowledge are more endangered than Brown Trout or coarse fish . I very rarley take a fish these days and although the Seatrout look like they would go down very well with some white wine and crusty bread I would not take one especially if it was for example a Hodder fish they are sparse enough already .
I contacted Pete who is a fountain of knowledge with all things fish he does not think it’s behond reson that fish like that are in a lot of lightly fished streams and they are not in for breeding .
i'm with mike on the tip that these lunkers treat the shippers like some inland sea & go ferox for a while then tip up in the little tribs to scare the shit out of people trotting maggots for roach!!!
Bloody hell, Mike – that’s a biggun 😉 And out of that sewer? Blimey.
(Dad told me to come and have a look, so I did)
I don’t remember if I told you that I sometimes read your fishing exploits but if you didn’t know before, you do now. I think those magazine chappies should give you a column.
little blister
x
Hi Angie,
That would be like homework as rules would be attached. This is far more fun!
Fantastic fish Mike, and well deserved for all the detective work you have done on the local rivers.
Fair reward for knowledge you have shared with us all on this blog and in emails.
I’m made up for you Pal. Now let’s get those 18 fish ladders sorted and we can Salmon fish in Manchester!
Good god that’s a big brownie, from a small river too! Not sure I could have gone back to work afterwards.
Kev
nice fish…
Superb fish!
Retiarius
mike
i’m in argentina at the moment trout fishing the crystal clear rivers of patagonia. nice, but….
that lunker made me wish i was back in manc!
well done, that is the fish of a lifetime.
off to dump a trolley in the river now!!!
tom
Awesome fish Mike! * turns green with envy *
🙂
Alright mate
I know this post is late for this thread but i’ve just got in fron from the pub and looked at this pic for inspiration for my trip down to the mersey tomorrow. By the sound of the place you caught this it sounds very similar to the micker brook i mentioned too you a while ago. Some of these smaller streams hold the larger fish and never get fished that is why their there. I’ve heard people say some people have got on to the fact there are fish like this in the micker and have been keeping them. This makes me angry cause i know in the micker there must be only one or two biggies (maybe not that big) if that, in each of the few decent runs there.
Anyway as i said i’ll give you info on the micker but we’ll wait until the weather gets a bit bit better and maybe if you wanna have a crack you could come down.
Ste w