Drinkwater Park Again

20th September 2020 by Mike Duddy

After a few recent visits to my local Drinkwater Park Lake, I decided to have a try for the lakes larger residents. So the maggots were left at home, and the pellets and pop-ups were brought out from the depths of my fishing shed.

I’m not that much of a carper – as evidenced by my lack of carp fishing exploits on this blog — and I guess this lack of carp knowledge is proven in the video below, and the fact that Phil caught and I didn’t

It doesnt really matter, we had a few enjoyable evening sessions, and I threw plenty of bait in which will have cleared the bottom of the swim we were fishing of blanket weed until next spring.

Makes me laugh though, because as soon as we had cleared the underwater blanket weed, the floating surface algae drifted in and made the swim unfishable. lol Thats fishing.

Anyway have a click on the link below and watch Phil catch and me blank.

Pineapple Pop Ups — Pahhh

If anyone wants to give me any weedy lake carp fishing tips, please feel free to do so in the comments section

A Summers Evening Fishing Drinkwater Park Lake

1st September 2020 by Mike Duddy

Here’s the latest write up from my fishing adventures : video and written

I recently spent an evening with my mate Phil fishing Drinkwater Park Lake, one of our club waters, conveniently located 100 yards behind my house.

The lake has a good head of recently stocked small carp, plenty of tench and bream, and plenty of roach, rudd, perch and pike.

The lake also gets quite heavily weeded in late summer, so we had to rake swims out in order to fish.

After a good half hours raking I cleared a hole in the blanket weed and managed to get two rods in. The first rod i used a hair rigged worm on a small bomb rig, and the second a traditional float set up with a lovely quill float handmade by my pal Mike Cootes (aka Purple Peanut).

The evening started off very slowly with bites quite hard to come by for the first two hours, probably due to the disturbance caused by the raking. Then I started to catch small roach and rudd, very welcome after a slow start.

Drinkwater Park Rudd – Traditional Quill Float

I had nothing on the worm/bomb rig all evening, but as time passed my float line hotted up and I was catching a small roach or rudd every cast on maggot.

My catch rate increased massively as I cast 20 yards beyond the area that I’d raked, but all fish were palm sized. Not that I minded, they were all in pristine condition.

Phil and I were entertained all evening by a group of teenagers holding an outdoor rave in the woods about 100 yards behind us. They had their own sound system and were having a full on party. Good on em. Some of them came round later on in the evening and apologised for the noise, at which point we got to tell them that we loved their choice of music, and had no problem if they wanted to turn it up.

I’m still learning how to take video whilst fishing, it didnt go too well this evening, as I missed a great bite whilst filming my swim erupting in bubbles, also somehow i didn’t manage to pick up the sound of the rave behind us, despite it being bangingly loud. And i missed out so much stuff…. this video blog is definitely work in progress.

The evening ended as the light dropped, I must have had over 60 small roach and rudd – great to see. There were plenty of carp crashing about but they didn’t really show in my swim. It was also great to see pike chasing the silver fish – which raises my expectations for a bit of local autumn/winter predator sport.

I think my next session is going to be on a canal somewhere, I’ve got plenty of bait to use up. I will also go alone, and get myself better aquainted with my video camera and make a much better vlog of my fishing session.

Have a look at the video below of this fishing session.. It would also be great if you could subscribe to my video channel. – Thanks. Mike 🙂

Holiday Fishing Cornwall

24th August 2020 by Mike Duddy

A long overdue two week break saw us loading up the car and heading off down the M6 and M5 to Cornwall for a fortnights family holiday in Cornwall.

I of course loaded up the car with fishing tackle, inflatable boat and outboard engine before my wife got a chance to fill up boot space with her excess luggage – it’s important to get your holiday priorities sorted from the outset.

Our journey down the country was spoiled by endless roadworks and traffic jams – only to be capped off by the clutch packing in on my (less than) trusty car.

So – plan B — dump the car at a clutch centre (no one is open in Bristol at weekends), hire a car and carry on with family holiday. Beans on toast for the next 2 weeks lol.

When we finally arrived at our destination for week one, I was delighted to see how close we were to the beach, and a launching ramp for the boat. Well done Mrs D – I couldn’t have picked a better spot myself.

Millendreath, Cornwall — look it up.

Anyway — the title of this blog post is Holiday Fishing Cornwall – with the word Holiday taking precedence over the word Fishing — and so it was, swimming, crabbing, coast path hiking and Eden Centre visiting were to the fore, with fishing very much on the back burner — Until…

I felt as though my restraint had been over done — it was time to pump up the boat and get out fishing.

My wife had other ideas – If I was going out fishing — so were my little helpers 🙂

Our first trip out was an hours look see early one evening. Despite numerous internet searches there was little information to be found about fishing at Millendreath or in Looe Bay – so it was time to have an initial search around.

As the kids were with me, i just set up a single rod with a 20g jig to see if there were any mackerel or pollack about. And for quite a while it appeared as though there was nothing about… Until – the rod tip hooped over and we had a fish on.

And here is a close up of the lure that did the damage.

Sadly that was the only fish of the evening, despite quite an intensive look about.

We ate the fillets for breakfast, and I kept the silver belly flesh for bait (mackerel belly – the silver bit – makes a great tough bait).

The next day, armed with a decent bit of bait we headed off to Looe harbour under the guise of doing a bit of crab fishing — we smashed the crabs, catching 35 of them in double quick time.

Whilst the kids were doing the business with the crab nets, I put a couple of slivers of mackerel belly onto a size 14 hook and had a look down the side of the harbour wall to see what I could catch..

First up was this cracking Common Blennie – which the kids christened Bennie the Blennie. Common Blennies are also known as Shannys – but I thought that it would be more appropriate for the kids to talk about Bennie the Blennie, rather than Fanny the Shanny (I”ll leave the potential issues with that name with you).

Then the micro pollack moved in.

I caught them a fish a chuck until I ran out of bait – well over 20 of them using small slivers of mackerel belly, on a size 14 hook, using a simple paternoster rig with a 1oz lead weight.

The next few evenings saw me out on the boat alone for an hour or two – using Berkley Gulp Worm for bait – the only thing i could catch was more micro pollack.

Looking back on it, I should have shelled out and gone on a mackerel boat from Looe to see where the mackerel were. It would have given me and the kids a bit of fun, I would have learnt where the mackerel were to be found, and it would have provided me with better bait than imitation rag worm.

But Hey Ho, I was relaxing on holiday and whilst I was enjoying a little fishing, it wasn’t top priority.

Our next week saw us drive another hour or so down towards Lands End, and we stayed in a lovely little village just outside Penzance.

Again, fishing information about Mounts Bay was a bit thin on the ground on the internet, but I was pretty sure that if I trolled a lure a good distance behind the boat, it wouldn’t take too long to hook into a fish or two.

And I was proved right, as you can see if you stayed tuned into my first ever Youtube Fishing Video (as promised) right the way through to the end.

We had a couple of really nice Bass during a short circular trip around St Michael Mount, and then the weather turned as an unseasonable Storm Ellen arrived with its 60mph+ winds.

This YoZuri 130F floating minnow did the business for the Bass at St Michaels Mount

A short cold session at Hayle (from Asda car park) was a bit of a waste of effort, and all too soon it was time to hit the motorway network again for the long long drive home.

I really wish I had spent a bit of cash on going on a Mackkie bashing trip, it would have given me a bit of local knowledge on hot spots, and also plenty of bait to use as an alternative to the Berkley Gulp Worm.

Holiday Fishing Cornwall – we loved it!!

Ashton Canal Fishing Free Parking

20th August 2020 by Mike Duddy

All anglers love a bit of free parking, and I’ve been meaning to have a few hours on the fishing on the Ashton Canal with lovely free parking for ages now.

Wedged in between Man Citys ground and the National Cycling Centre is the Ashton Canal – and a lovely big Asda car park offering 3 hours free parking.

See the map below and look at the red dots (where I parked) and the red cross (where I fished).

Now its important to remember that the car park is monitored – and only allows you three hours for free. And also that the angling on the canal is not controlled by any local angling clubs, so you will need a “Waterways Wanderer” permit to fish their legally.

So, back to the fishing. I know the Ashton Canal contains a good head of roach and skimmers, I’ve also seen some cracking carp and tench over the years, but I was keen to add a Gudgeon or Ruff to my seasons fish tally.

I parked up close to the canal and walked through the passage way from the car park to the canal — no more than 10 yards from my car. Bliss.

Seeing as though both of the species I was most interested in were bottom feeders, I initially set up a rig to fish 2 inches over depth. A 2g pole float, and 0.08mm hook length to a size 20 kamasan B520 with single maggot on the hook, and no ground bait.

I could see plenty of fish topping but decided to stick to my game plan of bait hard on the deck.

It didn’t take long for the roach to find my bait, and I had a good run of fish in the first hour (but sadly no Gudgeon or Ruffe.

Then the swim died – pike maybe ?

An hour of nothing was broken by a few small perch, to break the monotony. Then before I knew it, it was time to pack up my kit, and get the car out of the car park before the ANPR cameras stitched me up with a £100 ticket.

I didn’t catch either of my two target species but did enjoy a couple of hours maggot dangling on the canal … all good fun.

A Good Read ?

31st July 2020 by Mike Duddy

A Good Read ? Blogs have been shutting down faster than video rental stores.

When I started writing the Fishing Fiend Blog back in January 2008 blogging was a fashionable activity. Dozens of anglers were sharing their fishy activity with an eager readership, and popular blogs were getting over a quarter a million hits a year.

Inevitably, over time many blogs have fallen by the wayside as anglers have just got bored and moved on from writing their fishy ramblings for others to read. Blogging anglers (we are often a secretive bunch) also got fed up of being accused of sharing secret locations, baits, rigs etc in the hunt for online recognition. I always understood the roots of this criticism — but with me fishing the urban waters of Greater Manchester, there are not many secret venues in my neighbourhood to share.

When I do fish a venue that I think won’t benefit from being brought to the public attention in a blog post, I try to keep the location to myself, and am careful with photo backgrounds to ensure I don’t give too much away and put unnecessary pressure on a particular location. However, most of the time I’m not fishing sensitive locations so I am happy to share. Sadly though the vast majority of blogs have been either taken down, or not updated for years.

The particular blog that inspired me to start this one was called North Country Angler, whose author Matt stopped blogging a few years ago, much to my disappointment and of many others as it was a fantastic read. Lots of others have stopped updating their blogs too, and I was talking to an ex blogger the other day who took pleasure informing me that “blogs are a thing of the past” — and it got me thinking.

If blogs are a thing of the past – how come I still get tens of thousands of visits to this site per year. How come over the past 12 years I’ve had way way way more than a million page views. It’s got me thinking, scratching my head and questioning myself is my blogging just a habit and is it still relevant in a more modern sort of digital world. Is blogging just something that was a fad in 2008 and a few of us have clung onto in ever dwindling numbers as years go by? Are there better ways of sharing my fishing exploits ?

A great example of a blog that has transitioned with the times is Dannys Angling Blog – which started off in the old blogger written word format, but has now been complimented with a You Tube channel – Danny has now had over a million views on his video channel since it started 4 years ago. A brilliant achievement.

I must admit to you, that I now spend far more time watching angling on Youtube – than I do reading about it on other peoples blogs. And I suppose that this realisation has made me reconsider the way I blog, and the direction I want to take things in the future

There are great video blogs (Vlogs) around such as Totally Awesome Fishing Show, and The Fish Locker and then theres a vlog that has morphed into a fishing tackle brand, who use demonstrations of their tackle on video to promote their brand and drive tackle sales Cadence Tackle – it sort of makes me think that the Fishing Fiend blog that I’ve been writing for the past 12 years is becoming something of an irrelevant dinosaur.

To me — the Fishing Fiend Blog has just been nothing more than a great way of making new friends by sharing my fishy exploits, and various successful (species hunts) and unsuccessful challenges (Irwell Barbel Quests). I know that to some its a regular read, and to some a way of learning how to fish – and I’ve always been free with help and advice with those who have made the effort to contact me. However, — the most important thing is that I still really enjoy sharing my fishing experiences, and engaging with the feedback generated.

So…. whats the upshot of all this blog waffle…..

I’ve recently had a play around with a friends GoPro camera – and now I feel comfortable using it, and editing to an amateurishly reasonable level — I’m going to start sharing video alongside my writings – and I’m also going to be adding an online shop to the blog — so that people (especially new anglers) can buy the exact same kit that I use and catch fish on.

Tide and time waits for no man (or blog).

A page has been turned and a new chapter begins. A good read will soon be turning into a good watch and read.

The videos start next week, the online shop will be arriving soon.

Driving Me Up The (Gynn) Wall

30th July 2020 by Mike Duddy

I’ve had a couple of sessions recently at a new venue for me – the Gynn Wall in Blackpool.

Phil and I fancied a change of location, our enthusiasm for fishing at 5 Bar Gate near Cleveleys having waned somewhat recently after a few blank trips.

I blame the weather lol…. it appears as though every occasion I’m free to fish recently, a good westerly wind picks up, and it makes fishing on the Fylde Coast quite a challenge to say the least. And each of our last few trips has seen us fishing in less than optimal conditions with winds gusting to 40mph.

This years season hunt, and my target of 50 species in 2020 depends on me catching quite a few sea fish to compliment the usual freshwater suspects. And the Gynn Wall can produce a number of species that I haven’t managed to catch yet, such as Plaice, Grey Gurnard, Sole, Thornback Ray, Weever etc. So with it benefiting from good parking, a short walk, and close proximity to both a tackle shop and kebab shop its not a bad spot to spend an evening.

The Tide Races In Through The Gullies and Channels, And As Soon As The Water Hits The Bottom Of The Wall Its Time To Cast In

Wire Grip Leads – on a calm day a small blue 3oz lead does the job, these last few trips we’ve been having to use heavier red and green tops.

We’ve been using semi-fresh yellow lug from the local tackle shop as bait

Rods in but we’ve now had three trips that have been ruined by strong onshore winds, or more recently ruined by large rafts of floating seaweed that has been ripped up by the waves caused by the strong westerly winds.

Driving Me Up The Gynn Wall — The wind — its enough to drive me up the Gynn Wall !

So — over the last three trips I’ve caught a few fish, mostly whiting and dabs – but I’ve also had a Lesser Weever fish (The UKs only poisonous fish). The first time I’ve ever caught one, so a brand new experience for me – having to carefully unhook at fish that has poisonous spines in its dorsal fins. This little fella takes my running total up to 21 species for the year. Phil has managed similar but also picked up a couple of small Sole, one of my target species, making me very jealous.

A lesser weaver fish ... driving me up the gynn wall — A poisonous lesser weever fish, packs a powerful venom from the spines in its dorsal fin

Now Phil and I have had a few sessions on the wall, we are beginning to pick up a few pointers from other anglers. If we are after smaller fish such as sole, gurnards, plaice etc then we need to scale down our tackle and bait. We’ve also been using standard two hook flapper rigs, however looking online at photos of other anglers catches, it would appear that anglers who are using wire booms to hold a bait hard on the deck seem to be having much more success than us. Hopefully we will get a change in the weather to compliment our change in tactics. We’re gonna be back there soon using new rigs and ragworm as bait…. lets hope it does the trick…

I Smelt A Record But Let It Go

27th July 2020 by Mike Duddy

I Smelt a record but let it go — and that’s what truly happened.

A family weekend in Anglesey we stayed over on a cheap deal at the Caernarfon Travel Lodge. I knew that this was a family first trip, and that I would’t get much opportunity to wet a line, but considering the hotels location right on the Menai Straights, and with a fishing pier less than 50 yards from the hotels front door, I could hardly resist packing a rod. I also knew that my wife loves it when I take the kids off her hands for an hour or two, so I also took along a few small drop nets for a bit of crab fishing. We caught crabs (and plenty of them) in the evening, and then first thing the next morning I very kindly offered to take the kids out again while allowing my missus time to get ready for the day at a leisurely pace….

Drop nets for the kids, 0-9g Daiwa Megaforce for Dad, set up with a drop shot rig, a half ounce bomb, single size 12 hook and a bit of Berkley Gulp Worm for bait.

Size 12 hook, 4lb flouro, and some Berkley Gulp imitation worm

I got the kids set up and crabbing (and they were catching some crackers), and then I let play with the drop shot kit at the North end of the T shaped pier

Caernarfon Travel Lodge and Fishing Pier

The tide had just hit its low point and the flow through the Menai Straights was halted for a brief period, the kids were having a good time, and I had a few drops down next to the seaweed and mussel encrusted pier stanchions – I had no idea what I might catch from there, but the pier legs looked like a great fish holding spot and I’d read online whilst doing a bit of research that the Welsh shore caught record black bream had been caught from this spot a few years back.

After about 15 minutes of nothing, the tidal flow had just restarted, and I got that very welcome rat a tat tat on the rod tip, and I reeled up a fish that I’d never caught before – A Sand Smelt — so another notch on the species hunt taking my tally up to 20 for the year.

My First Sand Smelt — My first Sand Smelt

It was a lovely looking little fish, an iridescent lateral line sheen, and a virtually translucent back.

So after the kids had taken a look, and I’d taken a few pics, the fish went back, and I recast.

The first fish had come 2ft above the bottom, but as try as I might (well for at least 10 minutes) I could’t get any more interest. So I gave the reel a few turns of the handle to fish in mid water, and was immediately rewarded again with another rat a tat tat on the rod tip and this time reeled in the bigger brother/sister/cousin/friend of the first Sand Smelt.

Having no previous experience of Sand Smelt (and not that much experience as a sea angler) I just thought – oh a bigger one, how nice. I took a couple of poor photographs and let the kids drop it back in via their crab drop nets.

Only the next day when I did a bit of Google Research about Sand Smelt – did i discover that the British Shore Record for this species is only 6 and a half ounces — and the fish I caught was certainly around that weight.

Sand Smelt Fish — I Smelt A Record But Let It Go

Not that I’m that upset …. I very rarely weigh fish, as its the thrill and enjoyment of catching fish which is my main pleasure, rather than trying to beat number on a digital scale.

Any way — who want to have the words “Smelt Record Holder” after their name ?? Mrs Fishing Fiend who is already a regular complainer about fishing related whiffs would readily agree that I hold this title by default.

The session on the end of the pier soon ended, as the tidal current soon picked up pace, and started lifting the kids crab nets off the bottom,,, and then it was time to pack up and return back to the hotel.

The rest of the weekend was spent on various beaches on Anglesey with the kids… the weather wasn’t the best with a stiff south westerly wind, plenty of seaweed milling about in the surf would have put an end to any beach fishing, and fishing off the rocks would have been dangerous… a little family time is a good thing.

Out Fishing Again

19th July 2020 by Mike Duddy

Despite the recent bad weather I’ve taken every opportunity I can to get out fishing again.

My species hunt is progressing quite well, and I’ve been going out on a few sea fishing trips with Phil, and a couple of freshwater trips with the kids has seen me racking up quite a few more species.

After a nice chat about local fishing spots with my friend and master float maker Mike Cootes (who also has an excellent blog called Purple Peanut – click to read it) I was given heads up about a lake thats less than 20 minutes from home where I’ve never fished before… a small pond behind a factory, that Mike said was ideal for kids.

Tucked away behind a factory – a hidden gem

So Phil and I headed out one evening to have a look see — Phil with a pint of maggots …. Me with a tub of lovely lovely worm, my 13ft Drennan float rod, centre pin and a selection of Mikes lovely floats.

All set to fish with a selection of floats from Mike Cootes -aka “Purple Peanut”

Worm Salad — what fish can resist their charms?

Mike had told us that on a previous trip he had caught roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, crucian carp and tench … so we were quite looking forwards to trying out this new North Manchester venue. I set up fishing in a corner of the lake that was fringed with reed, and small lily pads, with a depth of four and half feet…. I set up my float rig about 3 inches over depth to get the worm bait hard on the bottom with the hope of a nice tench, and anything else that was interested. A small piece of worm section as bait with a size 16 micro-barbed hook, with plenty of chopped worm as a form of ground bait.

What fish can resist? I did snip off that ridiculously long tag once I’d cleaned my glasses and noticed it was there !

First cast — the float had hardly settled before a greedy little perch took my worm, then another, then another, then another then another ,,,, and so on until I was getting sick of the sight of them. So I upped the feed rate a little bit, to see if I could get any other fish species interested and to see if they might start to out compete the perch for the bait.

I fed off the perch with plenty of chopped worm, and the silver fish started to move in.

After the first half our of nothing but perch, the over feeding of the swim started to pay off. Once I hooked my first small roach, the perch disappeared and I spent the next hour catching small roach and rudd, and then a few nice skimmer bream.

A nice fish,,, but not there was no sign on my target species of the evening

Then, as we were getting towards 8pm and light levels were starting to drop the float slid away and I hooked into something a little more solid. I was rewarded by this wonderful little Crucian Carp — my first of the year and another entry onto my species list.

And then, back to the roach — but they had started to get a bit bigger, with a few fish pushing the 12oz mark.

And then, the float slid, I lifted into a fish, and my rod tip hooped over as a solid strong fish gave me the run around through the marginal reeds and lilies…. I had a hunch that it was a tench…. and after what felt like a couple of minutes (but probably a lot less than that) a lovely tench graced the net.

A Tench on one of Mike Cootes Tinca Sticks

I was thrilled. As the light started dropping as the evening drew to a close, we changed tactics and fished up in the water, spraying maggots and watching good roach swirl and pick up the baits less than 12 inches below the surface. We had a few more roach nudging the pound mark – but they didn’t photograph well with the flash of our cameras in the growing gloom.

I was delighted with the discovery of this little lake, my first ever visit despite its proximity to home. It just goes to show how theres always a surprise near to home if you are prepared to give small venues a try.

It was so good, I took one of my two little apprentices back the next day for an hours entertainment. I can’t think of a better venue to take kids for an hours fun.

I’m now up to 19 species for the year to date , as during the sessions on this little lake, I caught Perch, Crucian Carp, and Tench.

It’s great to be out fishing again after lock down ruined the spring. As you can imagine .. there are plenty more sessions and write ups on the way.

My progress can be checked against my Anglers Challenge page click the link here

Attack Of The Killer Crabs

3rd July 2020 by Mike Duddy

I’m relatively new to this sea fishing malarkey, and even fresher round the gills when fishing afloat. After weeks and weeks of stable high pressure over the UK the wind has turned westerly and the previously pancake flat sea turned decidedly lumpy.

I had a quick trip over to the Fylde coast again, only to be met with conditions like this…..

The Slipway At Rossal - impossible in a 20mph onshore wind two hours before high tide — The Slipway At Rossall – impossible in a 20 mph onshore wind two hours before high tide.

So seeing as though our slipway was far too dangerous to launch from, and there were waves crashing onto the beach at 5 bar gate nearby, and the sea was more than a bit lumpy further out at our chosen fishing location we decided to retreat back to the safety of the car and think about another destination for the day.

We could have fished at Marine Beach in Fleetwood – but we only had boat gear with us and not beach casters – so a quick return trip back to Manchester to regroup was necessary. In the car on the way back home, we briefly discussed driving across country to the East Coast near Bridlington as an onshore wind on the west coast would be an offshore wind on the East coast and the sea conditions might be a lot calmer. We were put off though by the long 3 hour drive. So back home it was. We also considered unloading all our sea kit, and swapping over to do a bit of fly fishing on Stocks Reservoir but we had loads of bait to use up which would otherwise go to waste.

A cup of tea and a sandwich later, Phil and I finally decided to have a try at Perch Rock at the mouth of the Mersey Estuary. We loaded up our beach casters, and an hour later we were set up on the beach for a 3 hour session – 2 hours down to low, and then an hour back up.

Setting up with the breeze at our backs - a lovely view of Liverpool Docks — Setting up at Perch Rock with the breeze at our backs – a lovely view of Liverpool Docks

Two rods set up, one with a two hook worm flapper, the other with a pulley pennel whole squid.

Everything looked perfect for a fish or two, the anglers to our left and right were catching Thornback Rays and Smooth Hounds so surely it was only a matter of time !!! — but you know how we roll on this blog — the only action we had for the first two hours was with the voracious crabs which were stripping our baits in less than 10 minutes.

It became quite frustrating, our rod tips in constant mini motion – not enough movement or rattle to strike at – and then to reel in bare hooks as a reward.

Full On Crab Attack – that was a lovely squid only 10 minutes earlier !

Eventually I got a nice positive rattle of the rod tip on my worm rod, and I landed this very welcome Flounder – my first Flounder of the year, and an addition to my Anglers Challenge

Sadly – that was the only action of a three hour session – the crabs were relentless – and they were stripping our baits before the fish could find them. The anglers around us were fishing crab baits – and they seemed to fair a little better catching a few fish, but getting through lots and lots of very expensive peeler crab bait.

As the day was still relatively early, and my wife and kids away for the weekend with the in-laws, I persuaded Phil to hang about for a bit, have some fish and chips and then hit the evenings high tide at Mariners Wharf on the other side of the Mersey estuary seeing as though we still had loads of bait left.

We have fished this spot quite a few times before and there is a noted snag which we avoided by a good 50 yards. Sadly it looks as though recent storms have washed a new one into the area, and both of us lost a fair bit of kit to a snag which we hadn’t encountered before.

If the snag didn’t get us, then Liverpools “Attack Of The Killer Crabs” did. Just like Perch Rock earlier in the day, they were relentless, even more so as they didn’t let go of the baits as we were reeling in.

Finally I had a bit of action – but not what I was expecting.

Well I wasn’t expecting an Eel – I’ve never caught one here before,,, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to catch one at the mouth of a river estuary.

A short time later, I had another tentative rattle of the rod tip, thinking attack of the killer crabs again – I lifted the rod, expecting to get very little resistance but was heartened to feel the thump thump thump of a little fish.

I swung it up the sea wall and here was a fish I’ve never seen or caught before… a Three Bearded Rockling. I’ve caught plenty of the 5 bearded ones before on the Fylde coast, but never a red/brown one of the three bearded variety. I was quite chuffed as this was the end of what had proved to be quite a tough (but enjoyable) day with three new species added to the Anglers Challenge List

Seeing as though I had a free weekend – I wanted to get as much fishing in as possible, so Sunday morning saw and early start, a meet up with Andy and a drive over to the East Coast with the inflatable boat in the boot of the car. There was a stiff offshore breeze of nearly 30mph — but being the idiot/novice that I am – I thought we would be fine sheltered in the lee of Bempton Cliffs near Filey.

Even when we pulled up in the car park, and got the kit ready it looked like great conditions for fishing but after launching and going out 500 yards offshore we soon discovered a racing tide running along the base of the cliffs and a big swell which was occaisionally breaking in the gusting wind. So… I’m not at all experienced on the sea.,,, Andy and I just looked at each other and said “Nahh we’re not having this” and turned round, packed up and went home again. Not a wasted journey, as I have learnt that safety first is the key, and strong winds and SIBs are not a good combination. I retreated to fight another day.

Bridlington Lifeboat in action as we were leaving – they had rescued a Kayaker who got into difficulty in the big swell (which you cant see from the angle of this photo)

So that was that …. 3 new species added to the Anglers Challenge list … and a few lessons learnt …. roll on next weekend and some more fishing

An Evening On The Prison Pond

27th June 2020 by Mike Duddy

I’m lucky enough to live close to a number of ponds that are manged by our fishing club. They were all terribly neglected for a number of years until the club took them on. Fish stocks were low, and anti social behaviour was rife (and still is to a slightly lesser degree)

One of the ponds was constructed behind Forest Bank Prison in Salford in the 1990s as a surface water run off pond – and as it collects run off water from the prison roof and car parks, its had inevitable water quality issues over the years.

The Prison Pond has now matured nicely (also known as Agecroft Pond), and both the club and the EA have restocked the lake in recent years with small roach, rudd, tench, bream and carp.

It’s not a heavily fished venue as the fish haven’t had the chance to grow to any size in this lake, so I thought I’d have an evenings fishing as see if I could hook a surprise or two.

The Prison Pond In Spring – Only a Small pond less than half and acre with 8 pegs

Obviously I’ve fished this venue a quite a few times before, and I know all the features, lake bed profile etc but I’ve never ever had a bag up session here…. but who knows what might happen this time following on from the restocking 18 months ago….the fish must have settled down by now.

The first thing I noticed was that there were masses and masses of fry in the margins ,,, which was a good sign that there was a healthy population of adult fish.

I set up to fish the pole at 11 metres as there is a 6ft deep bowl shaped feature in the centre of the lake, and put on a very light 0.2g rig with size 10 stotz strung out to fish a slow falling bait on the drop.

I also fed a bit of groundbait (Sensas Lake Black) on the swim slightly to my left at 10 o clock, and I put in a couple of pots of micro pellets on the swim to my right at 2 o clock.

So first put in, I had a very slight tremor on the float, and I lifted into this little scrapper of a Rudd, my first this year so another addition to my “anglers challenge list”

I had a few more roach and rudd in the first 20 minutes from the left hand ground bait swim, and then decided to rest it and move over to the pellet swim to my right.

Nothing on the drop, so I pushed the stotz about, and lengthened the rig to give me 2 inches over depth, to see if there were any bream or tench about ….. and still nothing. I stuck it out trying all sorts of little bite inducing variations for 20 minutes — but I could’t get a bite (despite there being indications of fish bubbling)

So – seeing as though this was a short session, I went back to my left hand swim to see if i could tempt a few more fish out of it now that it had been rested.

First put in, the float slid and I hooked a tiddler, but it was only when I swung the fish in that I realised I’d caught my first Dace of the year…. A Dace ??? how on earth did that get in there. And then I caught another tiny dace and another.

Maybe they had slipped in when the EA restocked, maybe they had arrived when the River Irwell had flooded a few years ago, maybe a naughty angler slipped a few …. who knows…. but we now have a pond with Dace in.

As the evening progressed the bites sadly became fewer and harder to hit, and then with rumbles of thunder and a summer downpour soaking me to the skin, I packed up after having had only a couple of hours fishing.

Anyway — look the prison pond up on the map, behind Forest Bank Prison… its a cracking little pond and bites are easy to come by.

I’ve now clicked another couple of species off my anglers challenge list taking me up to 13 — I am still very hopeful of catching at least 50 species (fresh and salt water) this year – despite the few months of inactivity due to lock down.