After discovering a hole in my waders on my last outing, i was hoping a bicycle tyre repair patch might prove to be a suitable repair, it wasnt and i got quite cold standing in the river this afternoon. However Phil and Tony kept my spirits up with their good company and mickey taking at my inability to catch a grayling from the Ribble so far this year. On our many visits to the river together this year, both Tony and Phil have caught grayling on a regular basis, both on fly during the game season and today using coarse fishing tactics.
Now that the trout and salmon seasons have come to a close, and we are able to fish some of our favourite swims using stickfloat and pin tactics and i was hoping that my higher skill level using these methods rather than my kak handed fly fishing skills would result in me getting a grayling or two.
Ha ha, not a chance. I caught two out of season brownies in the first swim that i tried, and then two nice chub from a slower swim in one of the wooded sections. Tony and Phil had both taken some nice grayling and trout and every time i hooked into another fish started to make fun of me mercilessly as yet another non-grayling came to the net.
At the end of our short session Phil was in the swim which i considered to be the best grayling spot, and generously let me have my last couple of casts in a run which he claimed was alive with fish!
First run through i struck into a fish which felt like neither a chub nor a trout. The guys were giving me stick big time with Tony claiming that he knew it was a grayling from the way my rod was bending to Phils knowing it was a grayling due to the way my float went down – classic. I had no idea what it was, but it was silver and jumping high out of the water at every opportunity. After a short scrap it turned out to be a lovely little sea trout. Being out of season, it was quickly photograhed and returned to the river. A nice reward for cold wet feet at the end of the day.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Second says
Very nice your Blog. Congratulations on the quality of photos and text
A hug
Second