I spent my usual Tuesday evening fishing with Tony on the river. Things started well with Tony catching the small sea trout in the photo above from Phils favourite swim. It was so fresh that it still had sea lice on, something i have never seen before its amazing how big these lice are.
Tony then took a lovely Barbel from 30yds further upstream whilst i ran my float through what has now become the swim we all want to fish. I quickly hooked into a smallish trout from the tail end of the swim, where i couldnt even see the float, only being able to detect the bite by watching the bend in my rod tip as the line peeled off the reel. The fish shed the hook 3/4 of the way back up the swim, which was a shame as this was the only bite i had from the swim all evening. I swapped swims for the last hour, and moved downstream and immediately hooked into a decent sized fish that i played for 5 minutes before it got its head into the faster water where it snapped me despite using 10lb line!!! Please dont think that i am bullying these fish until the hook pulls, as the rod i use has a very forgiving through action. I am finding that the power the larger fish can generate when using the strong current to their advantage is pretty awesome, a 5lb barbel in strong flow is a far more daunting prospect to land than a 20lb carp or pike on a still water.
I didnt get a sniff other than these two hookups and my dreadful run of hooking and then loosing fish seems to be continuing. However, on the bright side i have been introduced to a great stretch of river that contains a wide variety of swims and fish, its really good fun learning to fish these runs and glides using a stick and pin, a form of fishing that until this summer has been alien to me.
phil-k says
IS THAT SEA LICE on that trout.Amazing ,I’ve never seen that before.
Nice barb for Tony too, looks like being a good year for them.
I blanked on Curleys, lol,and paid for the priviledge.!Nice venue though.
THE PIKER says
Whoa! What’s that parasite clinging on to the Trout?
Matthew Eastham says
I don’t think that’s a sea louse Mike. There were acouple of those on a sea trout I caught the other night up at Sawley, and that fish had been in the river a few days.
Sea lice are much smaller and without that green colouration. I’ve seen a few of those on spawned out grayling on the Ribble this season….they must just be a freshwater parasite of some description. Don’t know if they’re harmful though…..