Inactivity?

Inactivity? You must be joking.
Thursday was Big Daves birthday so a few of us drove up to Pendle View to have a few hours catching the fish stocked into their new specimen trout ditch. Not classic angling by any stretch of the imagination, but really good fun in pleasant company. The fish are BIG and fight like stink. Light leaders were snapped as though they were cotton and I ended up using 8lb drennan mono straight through. Though not a venue for the purists I would recommend this as an ideal venue for having a few hours of fun with your friends – i certainly did- I also caught my first ever blue trout, and the lads also caught a few tiger trout (a variety i didnt even realise existed before this evening). A carvery dinner for £3.50 on our way home made the evening one to remember – happy birthday Dave.
Saturday was spent back on Salford Quays in pursuit of a rather large pike which has been harassing the Rudd as I’ve been reeling them in. Saturday was notable by the absence of the Rudd shoal, and by absence of the rather big pike. I did try using a perch livebait which I have used to some effect last year, but the Pike had disappeared along with the Rudd.
Sunday was spent on the Ribble with Tony fly fishing on our club water. There is a particular part of the beat which I have always thought would be ideal for a bit of upstream nymphing. It was ideal and i had a great time upstreaming without getting even the slightest hint of a bite. Tony was fishing a more down and across style and had some smallish par to a small black fly. The high winds dropped towards sundown, and we moved back downstream towards the car where there is a lovely area of flat unbroken water, which always seems to have fish rising in the dusk. This evening was no different, and i tied on a supposed dry fly (which sank like a stone after a couple of casts) in a futile attempt to get my first bite of the day. Tony took a lovely sea trout just was we were about to pack up, if you look on his blog i am sure he will have a photo of it on there soon. Despite not catching – i had a great day. The Ribble is a great river, and just being out on its banks is enough to satisfy the soul.
Bank Holiday Monday was a rotten day – high winds on a persistent drizzle. I decided to have the last couple of hours on one of my local commercials – Pilsworth Match Lake, and using nothing but chopped worm, I caught a steady stream of F1 carp to about a pound in weight. This is my second session in recent weeks on this particular water, and i have still not worked out how to get the bigger carp feeding in my swim. After using micro pellet and maggot – and catching nothing but small roach and carp on my last visit, i thought that chopped worm might attract a better stamp of fish, however it was same as. Next time its going to be hemp and caster – if the size of fish still remains small then I’m going to start to assume that there aren’t that many bigger carp in there. I’m a little fussy i suppose, on one hand i say i dont really like commercials, but when I’m in the mood for stretching my latex then i don’t think they can be beaten. I feel a trip to Bradshaws coming on, as despite its faults at least the average size of the carp is bigger than the other local commercials.
Sorry for the lack of photos i promise to take a couple next time I’m out.