Yet Another Vice

The past week has been pretty quiet on the fishing front. I have made two short visits to Pendle View, where i havent really had much success. On my first visit, i caught two fish on my first two casts, on the second visit i caught only one fish with my last cast.
I sometimes find fishing for Rainbow Trout very frustrating, as i often have difficulty in catching fish when those around me are catching into double figures. On Saturday, i had to use my fly of last resort in order to catch a fish – a cylindrical piece of cork with a hook through it – oh the shame!!!
I also took the opportunity to walk the banks of the smaller local rivers which is a throwback to Manchesters industrial past, once heavily polluted by the bleach and dye works which used its water in their manufacturing process, now slowly coming back to life, but still frequently affected by storm discharges from water treatment works. However the EA have a Mersey Basin action plan to revive rivers such as this, part of which involves the removal of ammonia and phosphates from the water discharged into the river, and to remove the large pieces of debris from the water course.
A friend of mine has reported seeing kingfishers on the river for the first time this year and i have seen a shoal of small roach from one of the bridges near to my house.
I intend to spend a few hours this winter with a stick float, bread flake and maggots to see if i can winkle out any fish.
As winter draws in, the time i have available to fish is much reduced as i find it very difficult to juggle my commitments to make enough time for anything other than short sessions. I love to fish when i’m not fishing and achieve this via my blog, internet fishing forums and reading fishing books.
I am now able to add to my fishing when not fishing activities as Tony has recently given me his old fly tying vice. I have ordered some fur, feathers and thread and hope to keep you all in fits of laughter throughout the winter with my attempts at tying my own flies.

The Irk