Monster Gudgeon
Surprise Brook
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.
Good Company And Fish On The Bank!
I met up with fellow bloggers Phil and Tony on Saturday for my first outing fly fishing for over two years. I have thrashed many a reservoir with a fly line and lure over the years with no more than limited success. However armed with some home tied flies courtesy of Big Dave and a lake stocked with suicidal Rainbows even a master blanker such as me couldn’t fail – could I ?
We arrived at the lake and tackled up in winds that at times seemed at times to border on gale force. After a few rusty casts with a single white furry lure (which was meant to sink but floated) I had a fish rise to take my lure – in a state of shock I watched rather than strike and consequently missed the fish.
After a few more casts with this lure and no more rises (it still refused to sink) I decided to swap lures to a green damsel fly imitation which hopefully would sink beneath the waves. After half an hour thrashing the lake with these lures i was beginning to think i was going to luck out. Tony and Phil had both already banked fish whereas i was spending most of my time unwrapping line from either around my rod or head.
Big Dave had assured me that his flies were deadly so it was now time to put his words to the test. I swapped the lure for a weighted bloodworm buzzer (photo to come during the next week) I had a pull using this fly on my first cast and caught a rainbow of about a pound on my fifth – thanks Dave!
I swapped flies throughout the afternoon to see what worked, but found i could only catch fish on bloodworm imitations.
The scenery in the Ribble Valley was great with the local fells shrouded in mist, and i guess the fishing here would be great too in more clement conditions. It was a good confidence booster to catch a few fish, as i intend to concentrate on trout fishing during the close season for coarse fishing on rivers. I am going to have another look at Bradshaw Brook on Sunday afternoon and maybe have a walk up the Irwell from Summerseat to Ramsbottom and see what the fishing prospect are like for the coming weeks.
The best part of the day was that we all caught fish, and had the opportunity to try out different methods and combinations of flies.
I enjoyed the company of Tony and Phil and look forwards to fishing with them again. I wasn’t surprised that i enjoyed my afternoon out with them as i have enjoyed reading their blogs over the last few months and can see that their fishing ethos are very similar to my own. I have added links to their blogs so that you can see what i mean for yourself.
Todays lucky fly.
Back to the 80’s
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.
Wheel Of Fortune Turns
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.
Things Get Worse
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!
Blank Blank Blank
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???
Master Class On The River Dee
Rays net of Roach – about 20lb by lunchtime.
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).
Double Blank
Phillips Park
The lure of sun on my face in February made me leave the office early this afternoon and get in a couple of hours bit bashing in Phillips Park.
I am not at my best fishing then pole but wanted to catch some small fish to use as deadbaits this weekend.
I bumped off more fish than i caught, but still ended up with a good few roach to about 4oz. I also caught lots of greedy small perch and a suprise veil tail brown goldfish of about 3/4 lb.
I thought i was going to get some gudgeon but i think they must be on holiday as i havent caught one yet in two visits to this lake so far this year, when normally they are like a plague.