On the way to a meeting in town today, i was walking alongside the Rochdale Canal which runs through the city centre, and saw a British Waterways team attempting to remove debris from around the propeller of a narrow boat. In order to get access to the propellers of the boat they had lowered the level of water in a couple of the lock basins.
As expected the canal bed was full of rubbish, but amongst the rubbish i could see small bream, chub to about 4lbs, roach to over pound and more than a few jack pike. I was amazed at the sight of these huge chub, and maybe one day during the autumn i might have a couple of sessions trying to land one of them. They would definately be personal best chub if i were lucky enough to hook into one of these lunkers.
My work was done by about 3pm. and as the sun was out for a change i bought a pint of maggots and went down to the length of river which runs behind my house. Its the first time in ages i have fished this part of the river despite it being closest to home, and i tried out a swim i have never fished before, as its only this season that i have owned a pair of waders, rendering this swim previously unfishable.
I havnt taken any pictures of this swim, but promise to do so in the future, but it consists of a large shingle bank on the near bank shelving gently away to a deep run on the far bank. I could wade 3/4 of the way across and i ran my stick float through the faster deeper water. I caught a few nice roach in the first half hour, then a couple of small trout.
One of the trout had an unusal silver-blue-purple sheen similar to those we caught earlier in the season higher up the river. If i were on the Ribble i would swear they are sea trout but my local river is inaccessible to migratory fish so i can only assume they are brown trout which under normal conditions would migrate to sea given the opportunity.
I caught a steady succession of roach and trout throughout the session, but surprisingly no chub. However, as the light started to fail, i hooked into a real lunker of a fish which hooped my rod right over. The fish was on for a good 10 minutes before shedding the hook, and i never got to see what it was. It didnt fight like a trout, was too big for a roach, and fought too hard to be a chub – i do have an idea what it was and was gutted to lose it just as it was getting close enough for me to see it. I will certainly be fishing this swim in future in the hope of giving some of you a real surprise.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
niar says
oh, kamu adalah nelayan…
saya sangat terkejut ketika saya tau kamu bisa berbahasa Indonesia..
How long times you learn Indonesian?
When you visited Bali. I think that you have the same conclusion with me that Bali is very nice.
Especially when we see the culture and custom the Balinese.
It’s really nice to meet you..
keep writing,
and keep enthusiastic with your activity..
niar says
I also dissapointed about many the of spread of rubbish in the waterways or river…
have you ever looking for a fish in the canals?
are there much fish in canals?