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Close To Home

Posted on by Mike Duddy

Last year, Lucia and i moved from our apartment to a house with a garden a little further out of the city. Whilst we still live we within the M60 and only 4 miles from the city centre, our garden has been visited by all sorts of wildlife including a deer. We can now enjoy watching the many varieties of birds which visit our feeders in the back garden, the most recent unusual bird we have seen was a Buzzard circling over the trees at the back of the house.

However, one of the most enjoyable features of our new house is its proximity to the river. Out through the back door, a five minute walk downhill through the woods and i am on the riverbank. I have neglected my local lengths of the river recently as i have been enjoying the delights of the Ribble valley, but now the nights are drawing in, i would have to stop work far too early in order to get a decent session on the Ribble.

So my normal afterwork session on Tuesday was held on the nearest accessible fishable water to my home. After the recent dry spell, the water levels have now returned to what i consider to be normal summer levels and this means that the sandstone river bed is partly exposed and wading is unneccessary.
I used my now standard tactics of 15ft trotting rod, centre pin, avon float and maggots to see what species of fish i could tempt.
It wasnt long before my float disappeared and this cracking trout hit the bottom of my landing net.

After no more action from the swim for 30 minutes or so, i walked upstream a few hundred yards to explore a part of the river where it runs through a sort of gorge with lots of fast broken water.
It didnt take long after i had settled in this new swim before my float dipped again and another decent brownie graced my net.

I caught a few more trout as i made my way back down the river towards home, but couldnt manage to get any chub, roach or dace action. I wonder large number of cormorants i see on the river have decimated the shoals of silver fish?

Hopefully i will be able to get up to the Ribble on Friday.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Mike Duddy

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