Dropshot

Chasing Perch On The Worm Dropshot

23rd November 2020 by Mike Duddy

While I have an ambition to improve my perch pb this winter, I’m not really that bothered if I achieve it or not. I just care about being out on the bank with a fishing rod in my hand, and having a bit of fun with my friends.

So with lock down 2 in full swing, I’m still doing my bit, working mostly from home, minding my own business and only fishing very locally.

I can’t get much more local than Heaton Park lake, and my local canals and I’ve snatched a few late afternoons off work to try my luck.

Heaton Park Boating Lake is a venue that’s always intrigued me. I have fished it on and off since the mid 1970s and sadly its a pale shadow of its former glory. It used to have specimen roach and perch, but in recent years these have been plundered by the cormorant invasion and only the bream and carp are surviving in any numbers. I had a session on there a couple of years ago, with expert lure angler Ant Glascoe Jnr (its a local venue for him too where he spent many a youthfull hour) and we struggled to find any perch. I think we had 4 smallish perch between us in a 3 hour session. I had two 1 hour sessions recently and blanked on both occasions. A very sad state of affairs – a great venue ruined by the black plague. Maybe it fishes better in warmer weather, so I’m not going to give up on it just yet despite my two blank visits last week..

A couple of hours on Heaton Park Boating Lake… blankety blank.

The park locks its gates at dusk — its like playing Russian Roulette fishing into the evening … will I be able to get out of the gates before they lock up or will I have to climb the fence

Last weekend I had a free pass from Mrs Fishing Fiend for a few hours late each afternoon. I spent the first afternoon on the Bridgewater Canal, first near Monton Lighthouse, and then a little further towards the Trafford Centre at Peel Green. I didn’t have any success at either location 🙁 and again – there were cormorant working the canal while we were fishing. Is it any wonder I didn’t get a sniff of a fish. I’ve fished both of these spots in summer months and always been able to catch plenty of fish — a different story now the water temperature has dropped.

Only 35 miles from the sea, the guy who built this was expecting global warming and rising sea levels to come faster than the rest of us.

We had a try casting near the boats, but again nothing. No fish, and cormorants working nearby.

On Sunday afternoon, Phil and I decided to have a try on the Rochdale Canal, I fancied having a go in the City Centre of Manchester, but Phil persuaded me to head a little further north and try the canal at Slattocks. Again, only a couple of miles from home, and an old stomping ground of mine over the years. The canal up here has produced some great fish of different species over the years, pike, perch, roach etc. I know this bit of canal well and we hopeful of a few fish. Unfortunately for me and Phil, quite a few other anglers had the same idea, and we counted well over a dozen other anglers out predator fishing, and another half dozen sat on boxes fishing maggots and bread for silvers. Its great to see so many anglers out – but not so great to know that they had already fished through the areas we were hoping to catch some fish from.

Undeterred, we cracked on, walked a mile or so without any action and then found a shoal of small perch lurking in the oxygenated waters of a sluice/race pool below a lock.

These perch were crafty little robbers, nicking our worms without grabbing the hooks. We had great fun striking and missing half a dozen times before catching a fish. At least it made us forget about the cold as neither of us had realised before setting out that temperatures had really dropped and we weren’t dressed for the cold.

Despite trying a few likely fish holding spots, and getting our worms nicked at a few of them we could only catch in the one spot, and the small perch there soon got wise to us after each of us had caught half a dozen of them. The light was dropping, as was the temperature and with was a relief and a welcome to get back to the car and a bit of warmth.

No idea where I will get to this coming week, other than its going to be within 5 miles of home.

If you’ve had any winter success on any of these venues please let me know in the comments section I always interested in other anglers success on local waters

Pilsworth Fishery Dropshot

9th November 2020 by Mike Duddy

My first trip back fishing Pilsworth Fishery in probably 15 years. Even though its less than 10 minutes drive from home, I just fell out of love with the place over time as the owner Eric just let the place turn into a big dump with loads of rubbish in and at the back of nearly every peg. Would it have been so difficult for him to walk round with a litter picker picking up the rubbish while collecting anglers ticket money every day ??

Anyway — Pilsworth has been up for sale for the past few years, and this summer a new owner has taken over. Time for a trip back… and it felt great just being there again.

I have such fond memories of the place – stretching back nearly 50 years. I can remember fishing the place with my dad when only about 8 years old and meeting the Ashursts — who my dad told me were the best fisherman in the country. They were !

There were plenty of carp moving about in “perch corner” — but sadly no perch

I fished it plenty of times as a teenager for roach on the waggler – always had great days and caught plenty of fish, but never the same size as the ones that came from the Rochdale Canal at Boarshaw (it was always a mental toss up — lots of roach at Pilsworth — or blanks with the possibility of huge roach that the canal offered). Back in the day it was a match venue ,,, these days it’s been stocked with plenty of big carp and bivvy anglers are more prevalent.

So, back to last weekend — I had a few hours free, and decided to check the place out again armed with a small tub of worms and my drop shot rod. I completed a circuit of the main lake over 3 hours. I didn’t catch many fish, and the ones I did catch weren’t that big – but it gave me the opportunity to see how the place has improved in recent months, and I will certainly be back for the perch and pike this winter. Being there again felt like wearing a favourite old jumper or coat — a comfortable warm fit.

Pilswoth Perch — Nothing big but very enjoyable

I caught a few small perch, and two small jack pike — not a bad return for a cold windy morning. I’m sure that with all the feed the carp anglers are putting in there, and the lack of attention on other species – I’m sure that i can catch a few nice fish out of here over the next few months…. I’m going to be back soon.

Fishing Salford Quays – Smash And Grab

10th October 2020 by Mike Duddy

Words and moving pictures !!

After Saturday morning dance classes for little girls, Saturday morning football for little boys, and with an early evening dinner birthday meal with my eldest (who can tolerate us between 5 and 7pm) to come, I only had a short afternoon window of opportunity to slot in a bit of fishing.

And then when that short window for a few hours fun presented itself … bloody hell … where do I go? There are so many venues within 20 minutes of home I’m spoilt for choice. Anyway, after last weekends great session at Salford Quays drop shotting with garden worms, I decided to go back and fish the same few swims with small soft plastic lures to see if how they performed when compared to worms. (and the fact that I’d been sent some lures to try by a manufacturer I know meant that I could give him a bit of feedback too).

The Pink and the White Long Paddle Tails worked really well on drop shot rig – we didn’t really have time to give the jig heads a chance

So, back to exactly the same swims as last weekend. But with lures not worms. Here’s a photo of the lures I was going to use, but I only ended up using the pink and white long tail lures and the yellow paddle tail. I didn’t get time to tie on the small sickle tail lures, but I’m 100% sure they would work really well.

We caught plenty on the hot pink long paddle tails

Not as many fish in the linking canals now the temperatures have dropped

Sad to say that once the redevelopment of Cotton Quay takes place, this part of the quays is never going to be the same again,, for how much longer will be allowed to fish here 🙁

After a week of cold weather and nearly constant rain, the fish which were in the shallower 7ft water of the canals, had moved into the deeper 23ft water of the main docks. And we found the fish in the bottom 3ft, and that they wanted a near static rather than moving presentation.

As soon as we sussed out how the fish wanted the baits to be presented we again had near constant sport for the hour and a half we had to fish.

The fish loved the white paddle tails too

I only had 3g drop shot leads (i need to replenish my tackle box) so had to pinch on a couple of SSG to get to around the 7g thats needed to get the bait down quickly and keep in touch with the bait – the hook is a size 6 Drennan super specialist

These white long tails worked really well.

We didn’t catch anything big (the perch run to 4lb in the quays) but it’s impossible to tire of that electric feeling in the rod tip once a perch grabs the lure and shakes its head.

Happy times.

Salford Quays Perch Fishing – most are small but perfectly formed

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Drop Shotting Wallasey Docks and Salford Quays

29th September 2020 by Mike Duddy

Have a look at the video, have a read below. Please subscribe to the Fishing Fiend video channel and give me a thumbs up!

It’s been on my mind now that after 7 consecutive blanks I need to catch a fish or two. The words “Mick the blanker” have been posted on my facebook page and even though I enjoy trying out new methods its always good to have a little confidence boosting session at an easy venue. Over the years, my go to easy venue has been Bradshaw Hall Fisheries in Bolton, and a few other local easy waters where i can catch for fun (Drinkwater Park on maggot fished shallow, Sainsburys Pond on punch bread for example) but today I fancied using up some worms I have in my shed so decided to go drop shotting at Salford Quays for some perch.

This would set me up nicely with a few fish on the bank, so that I could then head off down the motorway to the other end of the Ship Canal, and have a try for the unknown by fishing the drop shot at Liverpool Docks, a venue I’ve only ever driven past before, never stopping, never looking, and certainly never fishing.

I got to the quays early doors, and the sky was blue, and so was the water (the quays management dye the water to suppress weed growth – health and safety for the swimmers and other water users). I set up my 7ft 0.5-9.0gram drop shot rod, loaded with 6lb braid, 4lb flouro and a size 12 hook. Got my worms out and hooked up half a worm.

Salford Quays — Please don’t fish from the boardwalks when the swimmers are out

First drop in, I slowly retrieved and could see a shoal of small perch flitting about around the worm – first cast — the fish were there, it was going to be a good session!

A 6 inch Perch – the average size at the Quays — but the odd one grows MUCH larger.

And so it proved as I caught perch after perch for around two hours. I started off on the boardwalks near the Beefeater, but once the open water swimmers started their morning session I moved off Ontrario Quay onto one of the side canals. The angling club and the water sports centre have a very good relationship and for health and safety reasons the club ask anglers not to fish when people are open water swimming. The Quays is a shared space, plenty of room for all. The swimmers are over and done in 2 hours,,, so please just leave them to it.

So I started out fishing the canal between Ontario and St Peter Basin. It was stuffed with perch – all hungry for a bit of worm ,, and I caught plenty of greedy 6 inch perch. As we moved round into St Peters Basin, I was hoping for a few bigger fish from near the rafts of floating debris — as the big perch love a bit of cover.. however it wasn’t to be – I just kept on catching the small ones. Very welcome as well after a run of trips with no fish.

Once Phil arrived later in the morning, we stayed on St Peters Basin for another half hour or so, banging out small perch for fun.

We then decided to head off West down to the other end of the Manchester Ship Canal, and have a try in the salt water of Liverpool Docks. I’m slowly getting into my sea fishing, and especially my species hunting, but due to the geography and built environment here in the North West — LRF/drop shotting opportunities in the North West are in short supply on our local coastline. I’ve wondered for quite a while if Liverpool Docks would be a good venue, but there isn’t that much info online. So it was a bit of a step into the unknown. But on the premise of if you don’t give it a go, you’ll never find out – we drove out to Wallasey Docks, and once we found somewhere with parking and access (Tower Rd) we set up our drop shotting kit again, and loaded the hooks with garden worms.

Liverpool Docks – a very welcoming place

The water looked very inviting and clear, we could see huge growths of mussels and anemones on the dock walls, and the odd prawn flitting about but not fish.

First drop in we found the water to be 23-28ft approx deep, and after a while of jigging about down the side with no interest from any fish we started to flick our drop shot leads a bit further out into the dock.

Initially we were worried about debris/snags at the bottom of the docks, but these proved unfounded, as it turned out to be snag free.

The after a couple of plucks and stripped hooks, Phil hooked into the first of quite a few micro whiting.

The bites were no where near as frequent as Salford Quays, and all we caught in the hour or two we spent fishing were a few small whiting. However, Phil had a cracking bite/pull down on his rod tip leading us to believe that there are other, bigger fish in there, and that a return visit with a bigger variety of baits, and heavier drop shot leads might be worth while.

I say we needed bigger leads, as our 3.5g weights were really too light for the job in hand – when I come back it will be with 10g – 30g weights and with lug/squid/sand eel as bait.

Checking out a new venue is always good fun, but figuring out the fishing and catching a few is always better so we will be returning soon.

At the close of our day, we headed over to the Liverpool City side of the Mersey and had a look round the docks near Brunswick and Mariners Wharf. However parking was terrible, as was fishing access. And where there was access there were hoards of tourists/day trippers enjoying the nice sunny Sunday afternoon.

I apologise for the poor camera/shaky video. Next time out, I am going to be using an antishake camera holder, and will start trimming, and adding music and other fiddly bits to my videos.

In the mean time, please remember to give my new videos a thumbs up like, and please please please subscribe to the Fishing Fiend video channel.

Fishing Fuerteventura (again)

12th January 2020 by Mike Duddy

Over the years I’ve had many happy holidays on the Spanish Island of Feurteventura, but have done very little fishing whilst there. The harbours are full of mullet which grow to huge proportions fed on the bread and pellets thrown to them by tourists, and the harbour walls home to a huge variety of brightly coloured semi tropical fish – but sadly most of these accessible areas are off limits to fishermen.

The only time I’ve ever taken fishing tackle with me to Fuerteventura was on my last visit in 2016 – but despite picking up a little local knowledge as to the hots pots for catching Bonito and Bluefish from the shore – the pressure of having a young family ( 12 months and 3 and a half years old) meant that the suggestion of going fishing for any length of time was met with a death stare from my better half. I did manage half an afternoons fishing (spectacularly unsuccessful) but at least i had the right lure, the right method and the right location – it was just that the time of day, the tides and the wind direction were all not in my favour – you can have a read about it here http://fishingfiend.net/holiday-fishing-fuerteventura/

Of course I ended up catching nothing but a cold, but did learn a lot about what to do and what not to do when restricted to short fishing sessions on holiday. I also had a great time messing about in rock pools with my young son Tommy catching all sorts of little fish, urchins, shrimps etc. Hopefully passing on the fishing bug to him at an early age.

Happy Times - sunshine, rock pools, fishing net — Happy memories from 2016 – sunshine, rock pools, fishing net

So fast forwards to December 2019 – it had been raining (or it felt like this anyway) for months, the weather was miserable, we had been expecting to spend some family cash on a house extension that never happened, and we were fed up. I asked Mrs FishingFiend how she would like to spend her birthday (1st Jan) and her reply was simply “on a beach!”

I didn’t need any more prompting, and with the thoughts of TUNA FROM THE SHORE” pinging about at the back of my head – I suggested that a return to Fuerteventura and a return to the lovely family (FISHING) friendly resort of Caleta De Fuste…. not only does it have everything for a young family it also has a fishing tackle shop with a very friendly owner called Aram who has a full range of tackle, bait and is free with passing on (some) of his local knowledge.

So… a quick online search for a last minute holiday over the New Year period ensued and by very good fortune we found somewhere within budget. Yee Haaa.. A quick chat with the missus about taking some tackle and being set free from family duties and YESSSSSSS space was agreed for two travel rods and a bag of kit.

I played my hand of cards.. no fishing suggested for the first few days of the holiday, and lots of family time… but then a quick nip into the tackle shop to buy a new lure set the agenda for the remainder of the holiday.

The coast around Caleta De Fuste is very rocky, and in places there is deep water very close to shore. These deeper areas mean that Barracuda, Blue Fish and Bonito are within casting distance of the shore – and if you take a look at videos on Youtube like this it really wets the appetite and makes you want to target these fish. The location where this video was taken is actually from the rocks in the centre of the resort. And only a 10 minute walk from where we were staying.

So, with the hope/expectation/ridiculous dream that I was going to catch something special I splashed out 22 euro on an imported Japanese Yo-Zuri heavy sinking minnow from the local tackle shop. It certainly caught the eye… but would it catch any fish ?

Yo-Zuri Minnow — Caught my eye but didn’t catch any fish

Well the answer is that it caught my eye, but not the attention of any fish. I fished this lure for an hour off a rocky point behind the Elba hotel without a touch. I’ll get my excuses in early again – wrong state of tide, wrong time of day lol. However, after being given an hour of peace and quiet the kids turned up and I received the scorn of my family for not catching. Especially when my 4 year old daughter managed to catch a wrasse from a rock pool with her bare hands. Ego shattered – I retired a beaten man to a local bar, bought a beer and watched the kids playing in a park.

To be truthful I was more than a bit peed off that I hadn’t had a touch… especially as there are so many fish on view in and around the harbour (no fishing zone) and on the main beach (another no fishing zone) where there are so many fish that if you chuck in a bit a bread you can have 100s of them swimming around you within minutes.

Caleta Beach Fish - 100s of mullet, bream and derbios — Caleta Beach Fishing – 100s of mullet, bream and derbios

So back to plan B brought a small telescopic travel rod with me, a small reel with 6lb braid, some 3lb flouro and a box of shads, dropshot lures and my secret weapon Isome Worm.

The next day, the family fancied a bus trip down the Island to the next main town called Gran Tarajal – and I stashed some kit away in the family beach bag.

Fishing Fuerteventura Again — An old telescopic rod and my shad kit

After a walk around the rather nice but dull port of Gran Tarajal, we hopped onto another bus to visit another little town called Playitas… Playitas interested me because it has a little pier/wharf where it looks as though fishing would be possible from the end, and also from some of the cliffs nearby.

I was right…. and quite delighted when we got there as it looked like a perfect spot for a bit of light lure fishing. First cast resulted in this little ornate wrasse.

And then came a succession of small fish to a variety of jigs and on the dropshot with Isome Worm

The kids really loved sitting down and catching these pretty fish

Especially when I started to catch a succession of these small Madeira Rock Fish…. which I didn’t realise had poisonous spines until someone told me later… They were pretty though

The best method by far was by using a small piece of Isome Worm on the dropshot rig – the fish absolutely threw themselves at it. I also had some other flavoured worm that was bright red in colour but the fish wouldn’t touch it.

Just sat on the end of the pier… loads of fish

Now that the kids had caught a few fish,, they fancied having a go for some more. So the next day we headed off to Puerto Del Rosario the Islands capital, to spend a bit of time on the beach and also so that Tommy and I could get our Saturday fix of football when we watch Rosario beat another local team 3-1 (2 sendings off, 10 yellow cards, a dodgy ref, and a very poor standard of football) which was great entertainment.

I had a look on Google Maps and it looked like there was good fishing into snag free water at the end of the rock groyne that protected the beach. See pic below

I fished off the end of this rock groyne while the kids played on the beach

Tommy and I had half an hour on the jig head shads me casting and him retrieving but we couldn’t get a touch, but as soon as I swapped over to drop shot Isome worm we quickly caught half a dozen of these small fish which I haven’t a clue what they were but have been told that they are

The rest of the holiday was spent playing with the kids on the beach at Caleta but I did manage an hour off the low rock ledge to the right hand side of the beach and had this lovely fish (again I have been told that it is a Dusky Grouper) on a small shad.

On the last day of the holiday, the kids fancied having a bit more fishing so I thought it would be good fun to have a see what was swimming in some of the bigger rock pools. The area north of the harbour in Caleta De Fuste has some smashing rock pools that are exposed at low tide… though great care needs to be taken with the kids not to let them too close to the sea as there was quite a strong swell.

So with a heavy heart – we went back to the airport, boarded our plane and returned home. I still haven’t managed to catch a large fish from the shores of Fuerteventura but I guess I never will when family time is the priority. Some early morning or late evening sessions would be necessary and plenty of time would need to be devoted to it…. which just doesn’t fit well with a family holiday with young children. Nevertheless it was a great way to start the year and I’m really looking forwards to more fishing adventures both alone and with my little fishing apprentices in 2020