Catch Up
A Greedy Perch
River Irk Pollution – Icebergs of Foam
Its been a while coming but the EA have finally got their man so to speak. Hopefully McBrides who have had a long history as polluters of the Irk will get the message at long last.
Some of you may think that the fine is small when compared to the £capitalisation of the company which is over £250mil but i guess a really big fine might persuade them to upsticks and move elsewhere, destroying jobs etc.
Here is the EAs press release on the matter.
The Environment Agency has been successful in prosecuting a company who were responsible for foam icebergs to form along the River Irk near Manchester.
The Environment Agency has been successful in prosecuting Robert McBride Ltd for a pollution incident that caused a large amount of foam to be seen on a five mile stretch of the River Irk in April 2009.
Robert McBride Limited pleaded guiltyunder the Water Resources Act 1991 to causing polluting matter to enter the River Irk. The company has been ordered to pay a fine of 6,600GBP and costs of 4,822.64GBP.
On 14 April 2009 the Environment Agency received over thirty reports of foam on the River Irk from members of the public. Environment Officers attended the scene and traced the pollution to a hole in the retaining wall of Robert McBride Ltd’s site, where a brown discharge was entering the river and causing large amount of white foam to cover the river downstream. Officers visited the site and requested the company take action to stop the pollution entering the river.
Officers took samples of the discharge and an ecological survey showed there was chemical pollution which had a negative impact on the invertebrates for up to three miles downstream. Officers also saw dead fish. The discharge was identified as bleach which is toxic to aquatic life.
In mitigation, Robert McBride Ltd indicated its guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and cooperated with the Environment Agency. In addition, nearly 70,000GBP has been spent by the company stopping the pollution, investigating the cause and improving infrastructure on site.
Gordon Whitaker, Environment Manager for the Environment Agency said,
“We have worked with Robert McBride Ltd to ensure that the necessary action was taken to prevent any future pollution. Hopefully this prosecution will remind Robert McBride Ltd and other companies how important it is to protect the environment from pollution through preventative measures”
A long day on the river
The list started off as a bit of fun, but it seems as though we all have a little competitive streak in us. For once in my life i was pleased to catch a minnow, as this little tiddler put me one ahead of Phil and a little closer to Tony.
During the summer Matthews rugby team still train every Tuesday evening, and I usually spend the evening running the perimeter of the pitches attempting to halt advancing middle aged spread. This evening, a bad back prevented me from jogging my 5 circuits of the training fields, but didn’t prevent me from taking my lure fishing gear to the lake which borders the training ground. Two jack pike of a pound or two each were my reward and now take me up to 18 species for the year so far.
Summer Nights
The evening was as delightful as you can get without catching a fish. Beautiful scenery, lovely weather, and the accompanying sound of a Curlew.
Terminal Tackle
Saturday afternoon, saw me back on the banks of the Ribble near Ribchester. I went back to revisit the beat which I fished on opening day, determined that a few tweaks to my set up, and a more promising swim would see me taking a few better fish than my opening day account.
A discussion with Tony in the car whilst driving up the M61 saw me changing from my favoured Drennan Carbon Chub spade end hooks to Drennan Specimen eyed hooks. Rather than using a traditional tucked half blood which i usually use with eyed hooks, i used a knotless knot with the line initially passing through the eye of the hook from the rear to the front. The result of this was that the hook point hung slighlty upwards away from the hooklength and would hopefully result in fewer missed bites.
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know by now that I have been having no trouble getting bites whilst fishing stick and pin on the rivers, but have suffered terribly from hook pulls and missing fish on the strike. I’ve tried a variety of hook patterns over the last few years, and have never really solved the problem. I think Ive now cracked it.
I shall add a couple of photos showing the differences with this new set up as soon as I can. The difference in the angle of the hook point when hanging in the water is remarkable using this new set up.
So back to the fishing – I started off in the peg Phil had plundered some cracking fish from on Wednesday – first cast i had a 4lb chub, second cast a brown trout of about a lb and a few casts later a Barbel of about 3lb. Not bad – and i didnt miss any bites or bump any fish.
After this initial burst of activity the swim settled down, and the bigger fish seemed to back off. It was only by resting the swim, that the fish regained the confidence to get switched back on to my maggots.
Tony moved in to a fast shallow swim 30 yds above me and took a succession of smallish barbel and some clonking chub.
As the light faded, we moved 200yds upstream to fish a deep pot of a pool, and again first casts saw me take dace and brown trout, before the swim died. Tony had yet again set up in a deep pool further upstream and took a nice grayling and a barbel of about 3-4lbs. The long summer evening made it possible to fish til 10pm.
I think this change of set up, a decent couple of swims, nice weather and good company gave me my best ever days fishing on the Ribble. A pb barbel of 4lb 4oz capped off a fantastic day.
(photos to follow)
Good Times – A Kamikaze Salmon
Due to work pressures, my time on the bank has been limited recently, and as I cant see any let up in the short term my fishing time is very precious.
Last week saw me out fishing only once, to take my young nephew Ed out for his 7th birthday for an hour at Drinkwater Park.
Its years since I last fished here, but was pleased to help young Ed catch 20+fish in an hour and a half.
June the 16th saw me out on the Ribble with Phil and Tony. Again work commitments resulted in me having to have an early finish. I caught countless brown trout to about 12 inches in length and a couple of dace to about 6oz. I did hook into a couple of bigger fish early on in the day, but suffered hook pulls on each occasion. It was only when i stepped up from a size 14 from a 16 that the fish began to stick.
It was rather a disappointing opening day for me, however Phil and Tony both found the fish later on in the afternoon with them taking Barbel to 8lbs and Chub to 5lb 10oz – jealous? You bet i am.
Lastly I would like to congratulate Tony on catching his Salmon. I doubt anyone else will catch a Salmon using this technique again this year. The story as related to me goes:-
“We were fishing stick and pin for the last few hours before darkness, we had been chatting to the balif of another beat who was Salmon fishing, and he told us that a recent high tide had brought a few pods of Salmon and Sea Trout into the river. We found a nice run, and were stick floating maggot, catching a few small chub, when Pete hooked into a decent fish which didnt move but just pulsed in the flow. Pete decided to give the fish a little extra pressure, and then the fish suddenly realised it was hooked, leapt clear of the water, shook its head and shed the hook virtually immediately. A very big Salmon according to Tony.
Now as the light was nearly gone, we were packing up to go home, but Salmon were splashing in the shallow gravel run, battling to make their way upstream under the cover of darkness. So i decided to have a bit of a laugh and wind Pete up – I jumped into the river and ran across the shallows wildly waving my landing net about, “shouting come here salmon – this is how you catch em Pete” and then all of a sudden i must have nearly trodden on one, and up it jumps into my landing net”
Here is the fish and a very lucky angler.
It does make me chuckle thinking about this, as Tony must have looked a real sight charging about in the river. Some people spend thousands a year in the pursuit of Salmon, and then Tony goes and has a kamikazi fish jump into his outstretched landing net.
Brilliant – i would loved to have been there.
The big problem now is that I am really lagging behind on the seasons List. I have a grand total of 12 species, whereas Phil is on 15 and Tony now on a runaway 17. Looks like I’ve got some fishing/catching up to do.
And Again
Yet another Manchester River suffering a pollution incident. See link to BBC website for details.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/10307127.stm
And theres still no news yet from the EA about a prosecution for last years devastating pollution incident on the River Irk.
Casting A Line
Two in a day?
Nothing for months then two in a day !
I had no bait in the shed, and only 4 slices of bread in the cupboard – so three slices went in the blender and one into a bag for hookbait.
Left the house at 8.30pm. Strapped 5m whip to my pushbike, and was fishing on Kingfisher Lodge 15 minutes later. Packed up at 9.50pm – I could still see my float but was being eaten alive by midges.
Fishing punch at a depth of 18 inches, and flicking in the odd thumbnail size ball of liqquied bread I couldnt stop catching tiddly roach and rudd. I’ve never had a fish over 6 oz from this lake yet, and was intrigued to see bubbles fizzing in my swim. I think i will return with hemp and caster one evening and hope for a surprise.
Fished a flick tip whip for the first time in about 10years!