The Quays have been in the press recently as the controlling angling club are giving up their angling rights due to a perceived lack of silver fish in the venue. A very sad state of affairs, with lots of half truths being bandied about by many misinformed quarters.
BBC, Sky and Angling Times please do some proper reporting rather than repeating hearsay.
Due to the water clarity in the quays – its never been an easy place to fish, sometimes you can see them, but most of the time you cant catch them. A little thought about rigs and tactics is necessary to get the best out of this place.
I’m not going to give a list of fish weights – but i will say that there are specimens of all the main species to be caught if you put in a little effort.
The departing club have cited the fact that the place isn’t overrun with easy to catch silver fish as their main reason for giving up the leases and creating a fuss – I think this is a disingenuous statement and my opinion is that a falling membership and harsh economic reality are the real underlying reasons.
Please dont stop fishing the quays – contact me if you’ve tried and but cant get it right and I will give you a few pointers.
Please dont contact me without having fished the place first!
That said, a few of us from the www.maggotdrowning.com fishing forum had a bit of a Christmas social on the quays over the holidays – and as you already know from the title of this post – we all blanked. 10 of us tried a variety of swims and methods – with the closest thing to success being a dropped run on a dead bait.
Paul and I stopped off for the last hour at Drinkwater Park which we have to pass on our way home – we eached bagged a mini jack pike on lures to save our blushes.
Hi Mike, good post…
I was bit shocked to pick up on the media coverage of a club conceding its rights whilst simultaneously recognising (from the image on the BBC site) that the 'water' concerned was Salford Quays. Shocked because, well, you've pretty much said it.
Hmmm, I should mention here that I actually work in SQ and and walk around there most days. I've very definitely seen fewer people making the effort – often it's just been pikers popping lures in what I'll term the 'big' basin – the odd carper, but too much else. Definitely fewer 'pleasure' anglers and far fewer kids. They still seem to prefer diving 🙂
Of course, I also see what many others don't and you don't always have to be there on an early morning to see it.
There are parts of the Quays that teem with small fish – but not always silvers – some rather large schools of bigger fish (that have turned from silver to bronze) and some specimens, just as you've suggested. Some of those specimens are, well, I'll leave it at that because I'm sure you know what I know…
Not fished the Quays very much myself, so know very little about it. Have seen a few fish in these "Aquariums" though none were huge. Did catch a few rudd, not big, but, because of the gin clear water, they were fabulous looking fish for sure.