After spending the weekend gardening I was itching for some sort of fishing related activity this morning so after going through my Monday morning emails, the weekends post etc I made a coffee, sat back from my desk and called Phil and Tony to see how they had got on over the weekend. If i hadnt made it out fishing then i could at least listen to how my friends had got on. Tony had been out fishing with his father and young son (lots of tangles and an early finish)whereas Phil-K had had a close shave with an incontinent wood pigeon. After arranging an afterwork session for Tuesday with Phil I decided to have a walk around the Quays during my lunch break to see if the fish had started to make their spring migration into the shallower docks.
On arrival i was immedialtely met by the usual suspects, hordes of 3inch perch shoaling around the underwater features. A good walk around saw some nice Pike basking in the sunshine, and some of the resident tench and bream doing likewise.
At the end of my short walk around i came to the basin where the canal interlinks with the larger deeper quays. I was lucky enough to spot a shoal of nice roach and rudd and spied a few real crackers lurking about underneath their smaller cousins. I had left my fly tackle in the car after last weeks short trip to the Ribble so i knew i had time for half an hours fishing before my afternoons appointment.
Using a glass bead bloodworm pattern on a 15ft leader i caught my two first coarse fish on fly tackle. This amazingly lively baby pike, and a roach of about 8oz.
My use of fly gear certainly drew a few amused glances from the office workers, and i as my casting position was a good 10ft above water level, i had to improvise with a sort of underarm roll cast.
I’m really looking forwards to a few evening sessions in the next few weeks, as the quays are a difficult place to fish later in the year once the pond weed really gets going.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout
Mr.K says
That picture of that young pike is superb Mike!
A monster in minature!! 😀
phil-k says
Nice one Mike.It seems you are lethal with that fly rod.:)