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Holiday Fishing Cornwall

24th August 2020 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

A long overdue two week break saw us loading up the car and heading off down the M6 and M5 to Cornwall for a fortnights family holiday in Cornwall.

I of course loaded up the car with fishing tackle, inflatable boat and outboard engine before my wife got a chance to fill up boot space with her excess luggage – it’s important to get your holiday priorities sorted from the outset.

Our journey down the country was spoiled by endless roadworks and traffic jams – only to be capped off by the clutch packing in on my (less than) trusty car.

So – plan B — dump the car at a clutch centre (no one is open in Bristol at weekends), hire a car and carry on with family holiday. Beans on toast for the next 2 weeks lol.

When we finally arrived at our destination for week one, I was delighted to see how close we were to the beach, and a launching ramp for the boat. Well done Mrs D – I couldn’t have picked a better spot myself.

Millendreath, Cornwall — look it up.

Anyway — the title of this blog post is Holiday Fishing Cornwall – with the word Holiday taking precedence over the word Fishing — and so it was, swimming, crabbing, coast path hiking and Eden Centre visiting were to the fore, with fishing very much on the back burner — Until…

I felt as though my restraint had been over done — it was time to pump up the boat and get out fishing.

My wife had other ideas – If I was going out fishing — so were my little helpers 🙂

Our first trip out was an hours look see early one evening. Despite numerous internet searches there was little information to be found about fishing at Millendreath or in Looe Bay – so it was time to have an initial search around.

As the kids were with me, i just set up a single rod with a 20g jig to see if there were any mackerel or pollack about. And for quite a while it appeared as though there was nothing about… Until – the rod tip hooped over and we had a fish on.

And here is a close up of the lure that did the damage.

Sadly that was the only fish of the evening, despite quite an intensive look about.

We ate the fillets for breakfast, and I kept the silver belly flesh for bait (mackerel belly – the silver bit – makes a great tough bait).

The next day, armed with a decent bit of bait we headed off to Looe harbour under the guise of doing a bit of crab fishing — we smashed the crabs, catching 35 of them in double quick time.

Whilst the kids were doing the business with the crab nets, I put a couple of slivers of mackerel belly onto a size 14 hook and had a look down the side of the harbour wall to see what I could catch..

First up was this cracking Common Blennie – which the kids christened Bennie the Blennie. Common Blennies are also known as Shannys – but I thought that it would be more appropriate for the kids to talk about Bennie the Blennie, rather than Fanny the Shanny (I”ll leave the potential issues with that name with you).

Then the micro pollack moved in.

I caught them a fish a chuck until I ran out of bait – well over 20 of them using small slivers of mackerel belly, on a size 14 hook, using a simple paternoster rig with a 1oz lead weight.

The next few evenings saw me out on the boat alone for an hour or two – using Berkley Gulp Worm for bait – the only thing i could catch was more micro pollack.

Looking back on it, I should have shelled out and gone on a mackerel boat from Looe to see where the mackerel were. It would have given me and the kids a bit of fun, I would have learnt where the mackerel were to be found, and it would have provided me with better bait than imitation rag worm.

But Hey Ho, I was relaxing on holiday and whilst I was enjoying a little fishing, it wasn’t top priority.

Our next week saw us drive another hour or so down towards Lands End, and we stayed in a lovely little village just outside Penzance.

Again, fishing information about Mounts Bay was a bit thin on the ground on the internet, but I was pretty sure that if I trolled a lure a good distance behind the boat, it wouldn’t take too long to hook into a fish or two.

And I was proved right, as you can see if you stayed tuned into my first ever Youtube Fishing Video (as promised) right the way through to the end.

We had a couple of really nice Bass during a short circular trip around St Michael Mount, and then the weather turned as an unseasonable Storm Ellen arrived with its 60mph+ winds.

This YoZuri 130F floating minnow did the business for the Bass at St Michaels Mount

A short cold session at Hayle (from Asda car park) was a bit of a waste of effort, and all too soon it was time to hit the motorway network again for the long long drive home.

I really wish I had spent a bit of cash on going on a Mackkie bashing trip, it would have given me a bit of local knowledge on hot spots, and also plenty of bait to use as an alternative to the Berkley Gulp Worm.

Holiday Fishing Cornwall – we loved it!!

Back In The Saddle

27th May 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

After lock down I finally got out with a rod in hand last week – Back In The Saddle so to speak.

With kids in tow (I’m furloughed whilst my wife if doing double shifts for the NHS) I took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone – a long scooter ride along the sea front with the kids, followed by an hour fishing each side of high tide on the sea front at New Brighton, a great way to tire them (and me) out.

I managed to pick up a wrap of black lug from the local tackle shop, and decided to fish a two hook flapper scratching rig set up with small size 2 hooks and 1/3rd of a worm sections,,, hoping to get quantity rather than quality.

I didn’t bother with my full beach caster set up of 14ft rods and big reels – far too heavy for the kids to handle, so I used a 1.75lb test curve barbel rod and a trusty Okuma IBF50 reel loaded with 15lb braid. A two ounce lead saw a 50 yard chuck put me into the slight channel that runs in front and I was happy as I watched my lead and bait sail off into the distance. My first cast in nearly 3 months. No point in fishing two rods — when I have to keep my eye on two kids.

Nothing for an hour and 45 minutes apart from crabbed out baits – then just as I was cursing my luck and thinking a blank was on the cards – my rod tip wrapped round and I struck into a nice lively fish.

As I was with the kids – I let Tommy reel it in, and he wasn’t too keen to handle the fish as he saw the spikes/spines of his little schoolie bass… but little Kate was far braver and got the glory shot with the fish.

New Brighton Fishing Bass — A little school bass

They were very disappointed to see me throw it back in – as they wanted it for their tea – but this fish needed to grow another 4 inches before it was any where near being a keeper.

Nevertheless – general delight all round at our success, especially as anglers to our left and right were packing up without a bite.

I’ve had plenty of bass over the years, nothing spectacularly big but a fish is a fish no matter what size. And it’s a new fish to add to my newly restarted fish species list. My new tally now stands at 3 species !

Am off for another beach session tomorrow at Rossall – target species Stary Smooth Hounds, and anything that swims really.

I’ve got my eye on a bit of freshwater fishing the week after, my local waters have taken a bit of hammer since fishing has been allowed again, and I decided to take my time getting back on local venues.

Tight lines to all of you out there, and lets have a great rest of 2020.

New Season Excitement

14th March 2020 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

As the coarse fishing season on my local rivers finishes and one chapter closes another trout season opens and a new chapter begins.

Fishing Fiend Junior V3 has been showing lots of interest in accompanying Daddy on the river bank this spring.

Not that I’ve been encouraging her interest (pink rod, pink reel, pink line, pink flies etc) but tomorrow morning, weather permitting, I shall be accompanied by an excited 5 year old casting for her first trout.

Getting Fishing Tackle Ready For The Morning

hot pink fishing combo — Hot Pink Fly Fishing Combo

Pink & Partridge - a new pattern — Pink & Partridge – a new pattern

My Daughter already has skills, I hope the rain gods are kind overnight and the river is fishable.

Bring on the 15th !

Lets hope the trout are as obliging

Fishing Fiend Species Hunter 2020

1st February 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

In past years I’ve had a lot of fun trying to catch as many freshwater species as I can in a calendar year. I have a list of 46 freshwater species and I think 2014 was my best year when I knocked 33 of them off the list.

As much of my fishing this year is going to be done during family sea side breaks and with the children in tow there’s not much chance me being able to do a targeted species hunt and I will be having to get my fishing in whenever the opportunity arises.

So this year it makes sense to change my targets a little and include sea species… this makes the potentially huge and an impossible task… so my plan for 2020 is to catch as many species as I possibly can – both fresh and saltwater and to have as much fun as I can in doing so.

So far, including the fish I’ve caught on holiday in the Canary Islands I’ve managed to bag 11 species.
9 saltwater and 2 freshwater.
I will keep a running tally at the bottom of each blog post until the end of the year
I wonder what a realistic target is ?? 40 species, 50, who knows?

One thing I do know ,,, is that I’m going to make a great effort to improve my photography skills. Fish are beautiful things, with many of them having surprising hidden colours if you look hard enough… I’m hoping to upgrade my skills from being a snapper to being a photographer too. A busy year !

Bradshaw Hall Fisheries Lake 1 is brilliant for kids — My Little Helpers

Sea Species in Green Freshwater in Blue Ornate Wrasse, Common Comber, Painted Comber, Madeira Rockfish, Anular Bream, Pandora, Dusky Grouper, Rockpool Blenny, Madeira Goby, Roach, Pike (running total 11 species in 2020)

Fishing Fuerteventura (again)

12th January 2020 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

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

Bringing Things Up To Date

11th January 2020 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

Life sometimes takes over, and I don’t have as much time or inclination to write about my fishing trips as much I used to… that doesn’t mean to say I’m not going fishing anymore… I most certainly am … just in a slightly different manner than I used to before.

Most of my fishing over the last 6 months has been with family and friends, fitting in with others plans etc… And having a lovely young family I’ve no doubts that these demands on my will continue into the future… work, family life, kids football practice and regular Saturday morning matches, running and other family stuff is limiting my time on the bank.

Anyway enough waffle/excuses – here’s what I’ve been up to since my last proper post in June

In July – I organised a little fish-in on one of my favourite sections of the River Irwell – the river fished well for those who took part – with nearly everyone catching small roach, dace and chublets, and I had a couple of nice trout too – all on trotted stick float maggot.

Wonky Swims Adelphi — The Wonky Building Swims

Duddy Fishing Irwell — A Small Irwell Brown

Towards the end of July, I joined in the celebrations of my mothers 80th Birthday at the Low Wood Hotel at Windermere in the Lake District…. again family time as in the ascendancy but i did manage to have a few casts of the lure rod off the end of the pier outside the hotel, and managed to hook into a perch nearly every other cast. Nothing huge, with the fish all in the 6 to 8oz bracket.

My next trip out was entirely different – at the start of August I had an odd day at work, a mornings meeting in Crewe followed by an evening meeting in Liverpool… so naturally I filled in the gap with a little cheeky session on the Shropshire Union Canal at Audlem… I’d never visited this bit of canal before.. I just had a look on google map and thought I’ll try there….

So i pulled up in the car park of the Bridge Inn, Audlem – payed for a few hours parking and had a nice session using hemp and corn. Sadly there was plenty of boat traffic but happily the roach were obliging – and I managed to catch a dozen or so decent fish up to about 12oz.

Shropshire Union Roach — Shropshire Union Canal Audlem

Shropshire Union Canal Roach — Plenty like this to around 12oz

I packed up after a few hours – some great roach fishing from a new spot for me.

Next up was a long weekend with the family to Holyhead in North Wales.. I only managed a single sort session at the Trearddur Bay flag pole. Using the remnants of a tub of denrobena worms, I set up a simple two hook paternoster rig and cast out into the bay. I was amazed by the results, school bass, pollack and about 3 or 4 species of little wrasse. It was a bite a chuck and I was smashed up twice!. I’d never considered using garden worms before for sea fishing but its quite obvious that the fish don’t mind

Flag Pole Steps Trearddur Bay — A Nice Little Pollack – one of many fish on dendrobenas

Alas family commitments that weekend only allowed for a single short session – I fully intend to come back to this spot next summer with a slightly beefier set up and see if I can hook into the much bigger fish that were smashing me up.

So October half term was spent on a Caravan Break to Devon Cliffs Holiday Park in Devon. As my in-laws were joining us I had free reign to do a bit more fishing. The weather was terrible for most of the time we were there but I managed a couple of good sessions. A nice afternoon on the beach at Budleigh Salterton on lures we caught some mackerel and garfish.

Kate is now 4 and she has loves her fishing with Daddy — Kate is now 4 and she has loves her fishing with Dadddy

Next up was a day trip to Brixham.. and ” I was amazed to find boats offering mackerel trips” lol.. which i suggested to my wife that the kids might like….

Just like a well baited swim and well presented bait… she took it hook line and sinker … so an afternoons mackerel bashing ensued..

I was delighted to catch my first ever pilchard ! – an added bonus

Plus then of course the mackerel arrived and we filled half a bucket full

Using the mackerel we caught – I then had a few sessions fishing into the night off the beach at Budleigh Salterton again…. Using my two 15 foot surf casters, and 2 hook flapper rigs I banged out strips of mackerel into the distance and sat back and waiting to see if anything was biting.

Beach Fishing Budleigh Salterton — A nice evening on the beach

It took about 30 seconds before my rod tips began to rattle, I thought it was crabs at first as the bites were just little rattles rather than more powerful pulls on the rod tips. I soon realised that Budleigh Salterton after dark is Pout city as I caught dozens of the cheeky little bait robbers. I soon gave up using 2 rods as the bites were just too frequent, and I was getting double hookups nearly every cast. And then eventually got fed up of catching Pout themselves, so rigged up a pulley rig with a dead pout on the end to see if could catch anything bigger

And it didnt take long to get a really positive pull on the rod tip. The culprit was of course a bloody dog fish…. not a bad one… but it signaled time to pack up and go home. That was the end of my fishing for this trip

I then managed a few sessions on the Fylde coast at Rossall with my mate Phil, but sea conditions and tides weren’t in our favour and we didn’t catch very much apart from some 3 bearded rockling and a couple of dabs and plaice.

And I finished the year by having a few sessions on Drinkwater Park Lake, but despite using a variety of lures, couldn’t get any takes,, and this despite taking my “lucky charm” with me

So the year ended with weeks of poor weather,, and I just didn’t fancy getting out fishing that much… and the year ended as a pretty damp squib.

To sumarise the year,,, I got out a lot, but mostly with the kids. I caught lots of fish, including a few brand new species (Pout and Pilchard) but other than a HUGE tench which I lost at the net, I didn’t manage any fish of note.

Imagine my delight when Mrs FishingFiend suggested we visit the Canary Islands for New Year …. 🙂

Read all about it soon!

New Kit

6th January 2019 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

I’ve just put a bit of new kit together for my daughter who turns 4 years old next month…. she’s as keen as mustard.

Pink 6ft 2 weight, matching pink line and reel….. so now I need some flies to match

We’re lucky to have lots of small streams that are stacked with trout in Greater Manchester which I have no doubts will produce the goods once the new season starts in March.

Now I need to tie up some pink flies to match the rod, reel and line combo.

Any suggestions on patterns that suit hot shocking pink ?

New Kit

Fishing At Monton Lighthouse

27th August 2018 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

You might think that I’ve been out sea fishing going by the title of this post – but Monton Lighthouse is 30 miles from the sea – located on the banks of the Bridgewater Canal in deepest darkest Salford.

I’ve been interested in fishing this bit of the cut for a number of years now for a few reasons, 1. you can park your car right behind your peg (see photos below) 2. the water is stained orange by the ochre colour caused by washout of old mine shafts that honeycomb the area 3. its near my office and somewhere that I think might hold some decent tench, bream and carp.

However today I had the kids with me – so armed with a top 2 with 4’s elastic, Katies 6ft dayglo pink rod, some maggots and half the contents of the local sweeties shop we set up for a short 2 hour session.

Katie has lots of patience and will sit and fish for ages, but I can only get half an hour out of Tommy before his attention wanders – he spent most of the time playing with different radio stations on the car radio – but at least i got a couple of hours in.

We caught small roach and perch from the off – a delicate rig 1lb bottom size 22 hook. Nothing over 6oz but they kept on coming.

Now that I’ve tried it out once on maggot and battered the bits on the inside line, I might revisit with some proper kit and fish hemp and caster to see if the suspected bigger fish which live in the vicinity might want to come out to play.

The nearest tackle shop is Monton Tackle less than half a mile away. And this section of canal is controlled by Warrington Anglers … you can buy a ticket from the tackle shop

Plenty of small perch – a bit washed out colour caused by the ochre stained water in the canall

Canal Fishing — Some of the roach have a lovely blue sheen

Biggest fish of the day – not huge by any stretch of the imagination – but a delight for a 3 yr old

Katie wants to know why they don’t sell pink maggots

Holiday Fishing Tenerife

5th July 2016 by Mike Duddy Leave a Comment

I recently turned 50 – ouch

So instead of allowing my family to inflict a birthday party on me – I organised a pre-emptive strike and booked a couple of weeks away in the sun…Tenerife this time.

I usually take lots of fishing tackle away with me – but with a baby just beginning to toddle, and a 3 year old who is very time demanding I just didnt have the heart to dump the kids on my wife and sod off fishing all the time….. and anyway – why would anyone in their right mind have kids and then sod off fishing all the time when the early years are the best and just fly by..? There will be plenty of fishing time in the years to come.

However —- being a fishing nut – I spent the actual day of my birthday out fishing with my two great fishing pals – my dad and my eldest son.

We had no real plans beforehand – so just picked a boat that was advertising in the lobby of our hotel… and we stumbled by accident across a really nice fella, who runs a great boat. www.gavinglenfishing.com very keen angler, very knowledgable about local conditions.

A lovely boat – and very comfortable for the 5 people (including us 3) who had booked on. We spent the first half hour catching mackerel on feathers – then the next 4 hours trolling for Marlin/Wahoo/Barracuda – or whatever came along.

Sadly nothing came along, not a nibble, a bite, a screamer – nothing. But we weren’t bothered in the least – our expectation of catching something notable weren’t that high even before we booked – and the skipper was more than honest with us saying that June was a funny month – in between the excellent winter/spring Tuna season – and the thin Marlin season which usually started in the 2nd week of July. A marlin had been landed the week previously but they weren’t around in any sort of numbers

And to be honest – we never really had the Canaries down as a Marlin fishing destination – it was just a family holiday fishing trip with the remote chance of a fish, and a very nice day out on the sea.

We did see numerous pods of pilot whales, and dozens of dolphins – so how could we say that we had a bad day.

Once the trolling had finished – the skipper offered us the last chance of a fish with an hour or so bottom fishing – using the mackerel we had caught earlier in the day..

A couple of rods were used with whole mackerel as bait in 80metres of water, hoping to catch some rays – and while we were waiting for bites on these rods – we baited up some lighter kit with strips of mackerel and bits of prawn and cast out to see what we could catch.

Immediately we started catching small silver Boga, more mackerel, puffer fish and a small red fish whose name I can’t remember.

Nothing on the ray rods – but one did have a few clicks on the drag which i just ignored as i thought it was the bait dragging behind the boat

What an idiot I was – and missed the only bite of the day from a more substantial fish – this is what i reeled in 20 mins later – A BITE – A BIG BITE – and I missed it – duhhh

And with that – time was up – and back to the hotel for a clean up and a nice meal with my parents, wife and 3 children…

Fish or no fish – it was a great way to spend my 50th Birthday

The Irwell Imp

22nd May 2016 by Mike Duddy 1 Comment

The Irwell Imp – a variation of the GRHE tied with red wire that’s a killer pattern on North Manchester Rivers – or a three year old who insists on going fishing with his Dad because its the best way to celebrate his Mum and Dads wedding anniversary.

My little imp loves his fishing – minnow traps, fishing nets, 3 metre whips and horrendous tangles are his speciality – a 5 minute attention span his fishing Achilles heel.

Nevertheless – in the 5 minutes of fishing we managed before his attention wandered we unluckily bumped two good fish on a size 16 Irwell Imp.

The Irwell Imp - a GRHE variant tied with red wire - always sorts out the better fish — The Irwell Imp – a GRHE variant tied with red wire – always sorts out the better fish

Then it was back to throwing sticks, stones and riding balance bikes….

On the trip home – my wife and I were discussing our work agendas for Monday – when little Tommy chimed in with “I don’t want to go to nursery tomorrow – I want to go fishing with Daddy” …….

I could’t think of a better way of spending a day.