Mad About Fishing
I took the family to the Algarve for a fortnights beach holiday and of course took a fishing rod with me.
The kids just wanted me to play with them, so I obliged and didn’t do much fishing.
I did however manage to find some decent accessible fishing at the entrance of Portimao Harbour – and caught a fish first cast.
itch scratched – happy days
Back to the kids, pool, beach and beer.
Drop shotting with worms is always a productive method no matter what time of year or weather conditions
What fish can resist a worm dangling in front
I had a couple of hours in Manchester City Centre with my friend Phil – watch the video below to see how we got on.
Up soon, a trip to Portugal, and then its going to be more carp, tench and pike on the lake near home.
I have never claimed to be an expert at Carp fishing
They’re a species I’ve caught while fishing for other fish – and only occasionally have I visited commies with the specific intent of “bagging up”
Trying to catch carp on my local pond, has never really attracted my interest – until recently … and now I’ve decided that they’re worth catching and a worthy target.
These fish are hook shy, and pressured.
Catching one is an achievement.
I had a great time – and will be coming back for more in future months/episodes
I had a couple of nice short sessions on the Rivers Irwell and River Roch at Springwater Park in North Manchester.
I started off fishing lures in the shallow fast runs, thinking that the fish might be in the oxygenated water,,, but I was wrong.
The trout were lurking in the shady, slow deeper water, and the Grayling in the junction pool of the Irwell and Roch.
Watch the video, and I show the spots I fished, and the tackle I use.
Also – plenty of videos ready to be published and my online fishing tackle shop is nearly ready to go live
United Utilities have published their “real time” storm sewage discharge map.
Storm overflow map | United Utilities – Better Rivers
First thing – its not in real time – there is a delay between events taking place and this map updating – I still have to work out what the average time lag is.
Second thing – they say its a storm discharge map – many of these CSOs start to dump raw toxic sewage into our rivers after only the slightest sprinkle of rain.
Third thing – it appears as though many discharges take place locally – before the local waste water treatment works has reached capacity – indicating the dumping of sewage in our rivers when it could be treated at a treatment works instead – there is just a lack of capacity in the pipe network to get it there – so its easier to dump it in the river.
Fourth thing – Some of these CSO’s are dumping sewage for over 2000 hours per year into our rivers – please remember that there are only 8760 hours in a year – so in some places they are dumping the equivalent of 6 hours a day every day !!
Fifth Thing — United Utilities are saying that they are going to spend £3bn in the near future to reduce sewage dumping in our rivers by 60% — the remain 40% is still an incredibly large amount… and the systems they are spending OUR MONEY on – are never going to result in the cessation of sewage being discharged into the north wests Rivers. Under their proposals for the future – sewage will always take place in our rivers.
United Utilities – for all their money and executive brain power are unable to read the room.
We the public do not want ANY sewage being dumped in our rivers. We pay for our sewage to be treated – and expect that it is.
Here is a link to the sewage dumping map – Storm overflow map | United Utilities – Better Rivers
I’ve been prowling the house like a caged beast these past few months. My local rivers have been bank high and unfishable nearly all winter, the wind and rain has been incessant, and my mojo for fishing in cold, wet, windy horrible conditions non existent.
At last there’s been an orange warmth emitting blob in the sky – and I’ve taken full advantage.
With Manchester’s rivers still way above their fishable limits, full of brown water and sewage they were not an option, so a bit of canal fishing was the way to go.
First of all a few hours at Islington Marina in the centre of Manchester. I’d intended to do a bit of drop shotting, but discovered when I’d parked the car and started to tackle up, that I’d brought the wrong kit. A little box of float gear rather than my drop shotting kit – duh – what an idiot.
Thankfully, there are plenty of hidey holes in my car where I often stash odd bits of tackle. And I found some small 4cm curly tail soft lures, and half a dozen 1g jig head hooks.. More than enough to catch me a few fish.
We had a good hour, and a few small fish, nothing big but I didn’t care it just felt great to be out with a rod again
Sadly we only had an hour or so of fishy happiness as it clouded over and started lashing it down all over again.
I’d been hoping for a few dry days and lower river levels, but it just wasn’t to be.
So a couple of days later, I’d been planning a trip across the Pennines for some more Yorkshire Grayling action, but the rivers were still way too high so another canal trip was the alternative.
This time I made my way to a local stretch of the Bridgewater Canal in Monton.
Its an easy spot to fish as you can park your car immediately behind your peg, and there are always a few fish to be had at top2 +2 sections out. The canal is very coloured but it doesn’t stop the fish from feeding. Using a quarter of a pint of very old maggots that were well on the turn, I had a nice time with Tommy catching small roach and perch. When he got cold/board he went to sit in the car and his Nintendo Switch kept him company while i did my best to keep the bites coming.
My friend Gaz had a 14″ (2lb roach) from the same spot a few days earlier but the best I could manage was this one at about 6-80z. Quite a few very fat spawn laden perch, no skimmers or other species. And just like the other trip, the sunshine didn’t last and it started lashing down again.
Time for home, but again it was nice to be on the bank, even if it was only for a couple of hours.
Lets see what next week brings.
Am getting the fishing itch again, and again but there’s been so much rain this winter that river levels are consistently too high, and it will need at least 2 weeks of dry weather for them to come back to fishable condition.
That said, when you have an itch,,,, it needs to be scratched. So with my local River Irwell nearly half a metre higher than fishable, I headed across the Pennines again to Yorkshire to try my hand for Grayling on the River Holm which looked to be much closer to fishable.
I arrived at 9am and had this lovely little Grayling first cast, which got me all excited thinking that a cracking day lay ahead, and then nothing until 11.30am and an out of season Brownie to bookmark each end of my fishing session with a fish.
An itch scratched … I’d wet a line, caught a fish and had some fun.
I fancied a bit of a change, and thought a quick trip over the Pennines to Huddersfield chasing some ladies would be good fun.
I’ve fished this bit of water in summer and done really well, and grayling feed all the way through the coldest months so why not.
The weather in Manchester was cold, crisp sunny and dry… a welcome change from the horrible 12 weeks of wet windy monsoon of this autumn. River levels looked spot on so in theory everything was perfect for a good mornings fishing.
Then as we were climbing up the Pennines on the M62… the wind started blowing a howling gale, speed limits reduced to 40mph and lorries stopping on the hard shoulder to avoid blowing over. Bloomin eck.
Its only a 30 minute drive, but wow,,, what a change in the weather we encountered in Yorkshire… hang on to yer hats boyo,,, its windy.
The swim we tried first looked spot on, but a strong and gusting downstream wind made trotting very difficult. I gave up in the first spot after a single bite ( long distance catch and release) and we moved to another spot in a more sheltered part of town.
I only had my wellies with me, and not waders so swim choice was limited to one small swim but I was very confident of catching. After half a dozen trots through my spirits were sinking, but then my float sank too. A good thump, the fish kept low, and I knew that I’d hooked my intended target species. A quick faff with the landing net and a nice grayling was landed. Well worth the drive over, and the change of swim.
Next trot through, the float dipped again and a splishy splashy fight on the surface resulted in an out of season brownie. Quickly returned, and a small handful of loose maggots I ran the float through again. The float dipped, the rod tip thumped right down, but sadly the line went slack and then that was the last action of the day.
I stuck it out on the same small swim for another 45 minutes but there were no more fish wanting to play.
Packed up, drove home and back for Sunday lunch.
Good fun.
Would have been much better with slightly less wind, and if I’d brought waders instead of wellies. I think I’ll come back soon properly equipped.
Thanks Mike Cootes for your lovely floats.
Well there’s still a month to go before the end of the year, and I still plan on getting a bit more fishing in before the new year but wow… 2023 has been a year I’ll never forget for all sorts of good and bad reasons.
Here’s a recap of my year.
The fishing has been mundane at best. No big fish, no new venues, when I’ve managed to get out fishing, I could have predicted the outcomes before I left the house. Nothing special but still very enjoyable holding a rod, catching fish and spending time laughing with friends.
The four really big things in my life in 2023 have been the giving up my role at the Mersey Rivers Trust, a mega holiday to the far east, the ongoing renovations at home and the slow build of a new fishing related business. The grass certainly hasn’t been growing beneath my feet.
Here are a few photos… each one a trip, a story, a memory.. all of them inter-twined into what I consider to be a lack of fishing year.
Above all else – the work/time I’ve but into finishing off my house extension after our original builder left leaving a terrible mess has prevented me enjoying time with my rods.
When push comes to shove the local angling community has come to my assistance…. joiner/builder Alan Miraut (carp/tench angler) Plumber/carp angler Kyle Dodsworth and Kitchen Fitter/Fly Fisherman extraordinaire Phil Ball have saved my bacon…. and my house extension nightmare has been resolved… to the point where Mrs Fishing Fiend says everything has worked out ok in the end !.. (cheers lads)
Anyway…. despite spending lots of time doing unnatural things (to me) with drills, plaster, tiles etc… I have managed to catch a few fish this year.
So here’s a run down of 2023.
And then my fishing club www.salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk suffered a massive disaster. In June 2023, after weeks of hot dry sunny weather and rivers were at very low levels… Manchester was hit by two short sharp intense thunder storms…. the first devastated my local river Irwell and Manchester Ship Canal, the next day our club venue the Old River in Irlam suffered a similar fate after a second localised thunderstorm event.
I don’t know where to begin……we lost 10,000 + fish on the Old River in Irlam and probably close to half a million fish in the Manchester Ship Canal.
By this point I’d already handed my notice in at the Rivers Trust, but these events and the lack of interest just hammered the nail home and vindicated my decision… time to move on. I’d done my best… but fighting against the system,,, the EA, the water company, the government, local authorities takes its toll… my energy exhausted,, my enthusiasm waning it was time to cut the ties and take a break.
So in July 2023 I departed from the Mersey Rivers Trust…. and set sail in my own boat again. I will always champion my local rivers, lakes and waterways and anglers rights to access them.
But I was done in, knackered by it all.. and I needed a break from everything that was draining the life out of me.
A holiday was in order. And what a holiday I had.
6 weeks in Malaysia and Indonesia did the trick,….. trekking through the Jungles of Sumatra, dining in the revolving restaurants in the tower blocks of Kuala Lumpur, the beaches of Bali, the Komodo National Park with their dragons,,, but most of all snorkelling over tropical coral reefs, checking out the amazing fish, the corals, the clams etc then spotting Manta and Eagle Rays … something I’d always dreamt about seeing… which came true… and lastly and most amazinlgy during a boat trip between islands being woken at 5am by the boats captain and being asked if I would like to swim with Whale Sharks …. bloody hell… would I. !! the worlds biggest fish.
Being first thing in the morning (i’m not a 5am kind of guy) I was a bit groggy… but was told to watch and look….. and then I saw a huge shape pass underneath the boat…. a 10 metre Whale Shark.!!! they have no teeth,,, plankton eaters .. so as quick as a flash I jumped overboard with mask and snorkel … it was amazing…. possibly the best thing I’ve ever encountered in the natural world …..
Please enjoy this short video below that was taken my a lady called Anna on her GoPro who was also on our ferry boat. We swam together with my daughter Kate… 10 minutes of my life that will stay with me to my dying day.
Wow, wow wow…. I can still hardly believe that for 15 minutes I swam with these largest fish in the Ocean… they were HUGE.. and at the same time so gentle with the swimmers sharing the space with them. The guys on the fishing boat were feeding them with prawn, and they were filtering it through their gills, then diving, circling and coming back for more food. I touched their skin as they glided past…. like sandpaper and their bellies covered in sucker fish,
When I finally climbed back on board… my eyes were as big as saucers… what an experience.
It was the most amazing holiday, Orangutans, Dolphins, Manta Rays, Eagle Rays, Komodo Dragons, Coral Reefs, Tropical Fish, clear blue seas, white and pink sandy beaches… brings a tear to my eye writing about it – happy times – why can’t life always be like this.
We all had the best time, not only on/in the water, but the beaches, the jungles, the cities… all brilliant experiences
All good things come to an end, and back home to the UK we came…. back on the tools at home, a return to our never ending home improvements (a gable end rebuild and loft conversion, a new rear kitchen extension, the conversion of outside loo and coal shed buildings into a new office and downstairs bathroom, knocking through the rear walls to open plan the living room into the new kitchen, and the re-purposing of our old kitchen into a new utility room).
In order to salvage my mental health damaged by excessive levels of DIY i’ve sneaked in a few fishing trips.
There’s no real theme to my fishing this past year – just get out and catch a few whenever I can…. so I decided to try a location I’ve always fancied,,, the upper tidal limit of the River Mersey in Warrington. Easy riverside parking next to Mc Donalds, and just fish over the wall into the river.
A short lob over the wall with a maggot feeder with an 18 inch hooklength to a size 16 hook with double maggot gave brisk sport, with a bite a chuck,,, roach, perch, chub, dace and an obligatory eel… great fun, easy fishing and definitely a spot the possibility of bigger fish (some great perch following the feeder in !!) in the future.
As time has been limited, my local Bridgewater Canal has been the location for quite a few short sharp trips/stolen hours
Last year I was catching some big roach and bream from this peg, but this year nothing but small stuff… very enjoyable nevertheless and always guaranteed a bit of action
The summer turned into autumn, the trout season closed with me only getting out once in 2023 with my fly gear… a bit disappointing really
I spent a bit of time raking out the swim behind my house at Drinkwater Park… but then only fished it once for an hour before the trowels, paint brushes and DIY took over.
The autumn weather has been atrocious, Manchester now appears to have a monsoon season between the end of September and the beginning of December… miserable weather and a miserable fisherman…. longing to be back on the white coral sands of tropical islands… thats me.
I’ve got my eyes on a few winter swims on the River Irwell in the centre of Manchester – thats going to be my winter thing…. and when the trout season re-opens in the spring… I’m going to get my Vice back out and start tying some flies again,, and go for some trout fishing on local rivers.
At the start of the post I mentioned that I’ve started to sell fishing tackle online — well on eBay…
Its been something I’ve been building up slowly over the past 3 or 4 years. Next year this blog will start containing links and adverts to the stuff I use…. no better recommendation for fishing gear than a blog post showing how to use it, and a link to buy it.
Tight lines to you all….. my 2023 has been an interesting year with lots going on… hopefully there will be more fishing gear going on in 2024
2024… more fishing
Less plastering !!
It’s been a while since I wrote about fishing, despite doing quite a lot of it.
A bit of a domestic disaster with an extension that went very wrong had left me short of the extra time I need to write about or film and edit my fishing exploits,, and most of my tackle has been in storage. A drop shot kit in the back of the car has been mostly it – and perch bashing on my local canals has been pretty much all I’ve been up to.
So… here’s the latest… and hopefully there will be plenty more in the future.