Mad About Fishing
Drop shotting with worms is always a productive method no matter what time of year or weather conditions
What fish can resist a worm dangling in front
I had a couple of hours in Manchester City Centre with my friend Phil – watch the video below to see how we got on.
Up soon, a trip to Portugal, and then its going to be more carp, tench and pike on the lake near home.
I’ve been prowling the house like a caged beast these past few months. My local rivers have been bank high and unfishable nearly all winter, the wind and rain has been incessant, and my mojo for fishing in cold, wet, windy horrible conditions non existent.
At last there’s been an orange warmth emitting blob in the sky – and I’ve taken full advantage.
With Manchester’s rivers still way above their fishable limits, full of brown water and sewage they were not an option, so a bit of canal fishing was the way to go.
First of all a few hours at Islington Marina in the centre of Manchester. I’d intended to do a bit of drop shotting, but discovered when I’d parked the car and started to tackle up, that I’d brought the wrong kit. A little box of float gear rather than my drop shotting kit – duh – what an idiot.
Thankfully, there are plenty of hidey holes in my car where I often stash odd bits of tackle. And I found some small 4cm curly tail soft lures, and half a dozen 1g jig head hooks.. More than enough to catch me a few fish.
We had a good hour, and a few small fish, nothing big but I didn’t care it just felt great to be out with a rod again
Sadly we only had an hour or so of fishy happiness as it clouded over and started lashing it down all over again.
I’d been hoping for a few dry days and lower river levels, but it just wasn’t to be.
So a couple of days later, I’d been planning a trip across the Pennines for some more Yorkshire Grayling action, but the rivers were still way too high so another canal trip was the alternative.
This time I made my way to a local stretch of the Bridgewater Canal in Monton.
Its an easy spot to fish as you can park your car immediately behind your peg, and there are always a few fish to be had at top2 +2 sections out. The canal is very coloured but it doesn’t stop the fish from feeding. Using a quarter of a pint of very old maggots that were well on the turn, I had a nice time with Tommy catching small roach and perch. When he got cold/board he went to sit in the car and his Nintendo Switch kept him company while i did my best to keep the bites coming.
My friend Gaz had a 14″ (2lb roach) from the same spot a few days earlier but the best I could manage was this one at about 6-80z. Quite a few very fat spawn laden perch, no skimmers or other species. And just like the other trip, the sunshine didn’t last and it started lashing down again.
Time for home, but again it was nice to be on the bank, even if it was only for a couple of hours.
Lets see what next week brings.
So – after a few sessions catching small canal perch on the drop shot – and a long hard blank session at Pilsworth I’ve had a few hours contemplation time – to think about where I might be able to catch a perch big enough to break my measly PB of only one and a half pounds. In the middle of my last blank session at Pilly – the penny finally dropped. Even though there are plenty of good perch in Pilsworth, they are probably to be located in very small area of a very large lake. I need to increase the odds in my favour, and at the back of my mind I’ve known for a long time that there are some good perch to be had at Bradshaw Hall Fishery in Bolton, and that very few people ever fish for them.
Right – that decided it – a few sessions at a venue with a good head of rarely fished for Perch was needed So a week or so ago Phil and I headed off up the A666 (the devils highway to Bolton) for our first of three sessions.
A very cold morning saw us setting up in a likely looking corner of Lake 3 – and then the wait started – and went on and on… bloomin heck – it was chucking it down, it was cold, we’d set our hearts on a decent perch and it just wasn’t happening. We were fishing half a worm, over a bed of chopped worm on a size 14 hook an inch over depth under a 5bb waggler. Great perch rigs. However, the fish thought otherwise and we had to endure another 3 biteless hours in the rain.
Once the rain abated, Phil had a little walk round the lake, and noticed that 4 pegs down from where we were fishing, the lake was alive with fish topping and there were bubbles coming up all over.
Less than a nano-second later, we had packed up our rain shelter, picked up our kit and moved ourselves into the two pegs on the lake that looked as though they had a few fish in front of them.
And bingo we were straight onto a few fish. Only small Roach, Perch, Ide and Chub to begin with – but then as the afternoon started to draw to an early winter close – I hit into a couple more solid fish.
I’m not someone who regularly takes a set of scales with him – if i catch a decent fish i put an object next to it and try to work out the length/weight later on at home — but I think i might in future have a go at weighing a few.
Anyway – 15 inches was the length on my best perch of the afternoon – If I had a roach of that length it would according to length/weight tables weigh around the 2lb 5oz mark – so surely this fish must be a new pb and I will claim it at 2lb.
I tried to look for a perch length/weight table similar to this excellent one that was compiled by Jeff Hatt a few years ago for roach (below) but couldn’t find one. I think i shall try to create one for perch over the next 12 months.
The float in this photo is a smidgen over 8 inches long – so the fish must be 14-15 inches by my reckoning.
And we had a couple of fish this size and slightly smaller between us on chopped worm before it was time to call it a day.
Our next session a few days later we arrived and it was a howling gale and driving rain. Oh God – Phil had left his brolly at home – so we decided to both squeeze in under mine – cosy. As the wind direction had changed – this time up the valley, we forgot about fishing lake 3 again, and fished Lake 4 with our backs to the wind.
Using the same rigs and bait as the previous session, it didn’t take too long for us to start getting bites and catching fish. Though it did take until nearly 3pm (again) until the bigger fish showed up. And I caught this cracker below – a similar size to the one previously on lake 3. Our hands were cold and wet – and we have a bit of trouble getting a decent photo – so another fish on a mat in a net photo followed. Never mind – I’d got no scales again – so this fish I reckon to be 15 inches – the weight 2lb — at a guess.
Again – we had an assortment of other fish, mostly roach and ide.
Our 3rd session – we were joined by Kaden and Dave – who had by now heard that we were catching a few nice fish and wanted to join us.
Sadly for them – the day we chose – the weather was truly awful – a cold biting north easterly and squally showers. The two lads were keen and set up facing the prevailing wind (or foolhardy) into Lake 4, whereas Phil and I both took the much easier option of fishing into Lake 3 with our backs to the wind. It didn’t make much difference in the end – on this 3rd session the bigger perch just didn;t want to play – but we could plenty of smaller ones, some nice roach, ide and F1s.
I think the penny has dropped for me regarding Perch – a few chats with Phil and we now have a little list of local waters with “perch potential” that we can explore over the next few months off lockdown. My next two targets – a set of weighing scales and a Manchester 3lb perch …..
Watch this space.
A few things to note about Bradshaw Hall Fisheries
If you catch a cracker please let me know (and I will be back in your peg the next day lol)
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..
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.
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
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 !
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.
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.
I’ve been feeling a bit fed up recently, drowning under a mountain of paperwork and red tape in the office, unable to get out much doing the things I enjoy.
What better way of beating the blues than going out with your friends and catching a few fish.
They don’t have to be monsters to be worthy, and fishing certainly cures the blues.
Have a watch of the latest vid, and have a read below.
Last Tuesday evening, the football match I was planning to attend was called off at short notice (non-league), and rather than sit indoors watching rubbish on Netflix, we decided to head over to Wallasey Docks to see if we could tempt anything other than pin Whiting after dark…. sadly we couldn’t. I’ve heard reports of a wide variety of fish species coming from this venue, but for me its only whiting, whiting and more whiting.
Then as Greater Manchester Tier 3 lockdown has come into force we have decided to stay local, and hit two locations on our local canals the Bridgewater and the Rochdale. Both venues hold some good fish, but its a numbers game,as there is plenty of small stuff that will try to get to your baits first.
We caught a crazy little jack pike on the Rochdale, and had a whole bunch of small perch on the Bridgewater, all fished on drop shotted dendrobena worms.
My biggest perch is only about a pound and a half, caught many many years back on the Rochdale Canal at Slattocks, and maybe now lockdown has been imposed – its time I spent a little time trying to beat this rather paltry pb.
Over the next few weeks, I have a number of local venues that I intend to try out to see if they hold big perch — once I’ve gone through my little list – I will take on the advice that I’ve been given by a few friends and hit the tried and tested perch spots in Manchester…I could just cut out the trying and go straight to them, but its more fun finding your own fish !
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).
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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!
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.
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.
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All anglers love a bit of free parking, and I’ve been meaning to have a few hours on the fishing on the Ashton Canal with lovely free parking for ages now.
Wedged in between Man Citys ground and the National Cycling Centre is the Ashton Canal – and a lovely big Asda car park offering 3 hours free parking.
See the map below and look at the red dots (where I parked) and the red cross (where I fished).
Now its important to remember that the car park is monitored – and only allows you three hours for free. And also that the angling on the canal is not controlled by any local angling clubs, so you will need a “Waterways Wanderer” permit to fish their legally.
So, back to the fishing. I know the Ashton Canal contains a good head of roach and skimmers, I’ve also seen some cracking carp and tench over the years, but I was keen to add a Gudgeon or Ruff to my seasons fish tally.
I parked up close to the canal and walked through the passage way from the car park to the canal — no more than 10 yards from my car. Bliss.
Seeing as though both of the species I was most interested in were bottom feeders, I initially set up a rig to fish 2 inches over depth. A 2g pole float, and 0.08mm hook length to a size 20 kamasan B520 with single maggot on the hook, and no ground bait.
I could see plenty of fish topping but decided to stick to my game plan of bait hard on the deck.
It didn’t take long for the roach to find my bait, and I had a good run of fish in the first hour (but sadly no Gudgeon or Ruffe.
Then the swim died – pike maybe ?
An hour of nothing was broken by a few small perch, to break the monotony. Then before I knew it, it was time to pack up my kit, and get the car out of the car park before the ANPR cameras stitched me up with a £100 ticket.
I didn’t catch either of my two target species but did enjoy a couple of hours maggot dangling on the canal … all good fun.
Despite the recent bad weather I’ve taken every opportunity I can to get out fishing again.
My species hunt is progressing quite well, and I’ve been going out on a few sea fishing trips with Phil, and a couple of freshwater trips with the kids has seen me racking up quite a few more species.
After a nice chat about local fishing spots with my friend and master float maker Mike Cootes (who also has an excellent blog called Purple Peanut – click to read it) I was given heads up about a lake thats less than 20 minutes from home where I’ve never fished before… a small pond behind a factory, that Mike said was ideal for kids.
So Phil and I headed out one evening to have a look see — Phil with a pint of maggots …. Me with a tub of lovely lovely worm, my 13ft Drennan float rod, centre pin and a selection of Mikes lovely floats.
Mike had told us that on a previous trip he had caught roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, crucian carp and tench … so we were quite looking forwards to trying out this new North Manchester venue. I set up fishing in a corner of the lake that was fringed with reed, and small lily pads, with a depth of four and half feet…. I set up my float rig about 3 inches over depth to get the worm bait hard on the bottom with the hope of a nice tench, and anything else that was interested. A small piece of worm section as bait with a size 16 micro-barbed hook, with plenty of chopped worm as a form of ground bait.
First cast — the float had hardly settled before a greedy little perch took my worm, then another, then another, then another then another ,,,, and so on until I was getting sick of the sight of them. So I upped the feed rate a little bit, to see if I could get any other fish species interested and to see if they might start to out compete the perch for the bait.
After the first half our of nothing but perch, the over feeding of the swim started to pay off. Once I hooked my first small roach, the perch disappeared and I spent the next hour catching small roach and rudd, and then a few nice skimmer bream.
Then, as we were getting towards 8pm and light levels were starting to drop the float slid away and I hooked into something a little more solid. I was rewarded by this wonderful little Crucian Carp — my first of the year and another entry onto my species list.
And then, back to the roach — but they had started to get a bit bigger, with a few fish pushing the 12oz mark.
And then, the float slid, I lifted into a fish, and my rod tip hooped over as a solid strong fish gave me the run around through the marginal reeds and lilies…. I had a hunch that it was a tench…. and after what felt like a couple of minutes (but probably a lot less than that) a lovely tench graced the net.
I was thrilled. As the light started dropping as the evening drew to a close, we changed tactics and fished up in the water, spraying maggots and watching good roach swirl and pick up the baits less than 12 inches below the surface. We had a few more roach nudging the pound mark – but they didn’t photograph well with the flash of our cameras in the growing gloom.
I was delighted with the discovery of this little lake, my first ever visit despite its proximity to home. It just goes to show how theres always a surprise near to home if you are prepared to give small venues a try.
It was so good, I took one of my two little apprentices back the next day for an hours entertainment. I can’t think of a better venue to take kids for an hours fun.
I’m now up to 19 species for the year to date , as during the sessions on this little lake, I caught Perch, Crucian Carp, and Tench.
It’s great to be out fishing again after lock down ruined the spring. As you can imagine .. there are plenty more sessions and write ups on the way.
My progress can be checked against my Anglers Challenge page click the link here