Fishing Fiend

Mad About Fishing

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Inactivity?

Inactivity?

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Inactivity? You must be joking.
Thursday was Big Daves birthday so a few of us drove up to Pendle View to have a few hours catching the fish stocked into their new specimen trout ditch. Not classic angling by any stretch of the imagination, but really good fun in pleasant company. The fish are BIG and fight like stink. Light leaders were snapped as though they were cotton and I ended up using 8lb drennan mono straight through. Though not a venue for the purists I would recommend this as an ideal venue for having a few hours of fun with your friends – i certainly did- I also caught my first ever blue trout, and the lads also caught a few tiger trout (a variety i didnt even realise existed before this evening). A carvery dinner for £3.50 on our way home made the evening one to remember – happy birthday Dave.
Saturday was spent back on Salford Quays in pursuit of a rather large pike which has been harassing the Rudd as I’ve been reeling them in. Saturday was notable by the absence of the Rudd shoal, and by absence of the rather big pike. I did try using a perch livebait which I have used to some effect last year, but the Pike had disappeared along with the Rudd.
Sunday was spent on the Ribble with Tony fly fishing on our club water. There is a particular part of the beat which I have always thought would be ideal for a bit of upstream nymphing. It was ideal and i had a great time upstreaming without getting even the slightest hint of a bite. Tony was fishing a more down and across style and had some smallish par to a small black fly. The high winds dropped towards sundown, and we moved back downstream towards the car where there is a lovely area of flat unbroken water, which always seems to have fish rising in the dusk. This evening was no different, and i tied on a supposed dry fly (which sank like a stone after a couple of casts) in a futile attempt to get my first bite of the day. Tony took a lovely sea trout just was we were about to pack up, if you look on his blog i am sure he will have a photo of it on there soon. Despite not catching – i had a great day. The Ribble is a great river, and just being out on its banks is enough to satisfy the soul.
Bank Holiday Monday was a rotten day – high winds on a persistent drizzle. I decided to have the last couple of hours on one of my local commercials – Pilsworth Match Lake, and using nothing but chopped worm, I caught a steady stream of F1 carp to about a pound in weight. This is my second session in recent weeks on this particular water, and i have still not worked out how to get the bigger carp feeding in my swim. After using micro pellet and maggot – and catching nothing but small roach and carp on my last visit, i thought that chopped worm might attract a better stamp of fish, however it was same as. Next time its going to be hemp and caster – if the size of fish still remains small then I’m going to start to assume that there aren’t that many bigger carp in there. I’m a little fussy i suppose, on one hand i say i dont really like commercials, but when I’m in the mood for stretching my latex then i don’t think they can be beaten. I feel a trip to Bradshaws coming on, as despite its faults at least the average size of the carp is bigger than the other local commercials.
Sorry for the lack of photos i promise to take a couple next time I’m out.

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Back On Salford Quays

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I made yet another visit to Salford Quays this weekend. So far there seem to be far fewer fish making their way into the shallower basins this year, no doubt the flocks of cormorants which live in this area are the cause of this.

The gin clear water of the quays make fish spotting easy, and after a quick wander around i could see quite a few small pike waiting for the annual silver fish spawning migration through the interconnecting canals, and some nice tench beautifully silhouetted against the light green algae of the basins floors.
I was hoping to catch some of the lovely roach and rudd which cruise the mid water of one of the deeper basins, and with the aid of polaroid glasses I quickly located a shoal of fish which contained some lovely specimens of both species.
The tackle I used was a loaded waggler, locked with two number 6 shot, with a number 8 and number 12 dropper. The water I was fishing in was about 20ft deep so I set my rig at 15ft hoping to get through the smaller fish in the upper layers and catch some of the larger specimens which tend to stay in the depths.
As the water is gin clear the fish are easily spooked ,the use of a very light 0.06 hooklength and a fine wire size 22 hook is necessary in order to even have the hope of a bite.
The clarity of the water is incredible at the quays and with the use of polaroids its easy to cast 15 yards and then watch your bait sink all the way down into the depths. The float is purely a means of casting your bait out the required distance, as even fishing at a depth of 15 ft you can actually see the fish approaching ( and the ignoring) your bait. White maggots are visible virtually down to the lake bed so when the tiny little dot of white disappears its time to strike.
After catching a few nice fish in the first half dozen casts the shoal is easily spooked and become far more careful as to which baits they will take.
All loose feed is immediately consumed, but any bait which contains a hook is studiously ignored. I tried to overcome this by burying the hook inside the bait, but the fish were not as daft as I hoped. Maybe the use of a coloured hook might make a difference, and next time I will try out a few different patterns to see if they make a difference.
Whilst seeing fish swim up to your hookbait, and then shear away at the last moment is frustrating, at least I could see it happening, and therefore think about a different plan of attack for the next time. The anticipation of watching a specimen rudd swim towards my bait was fantastic, just a pity they were picky rather than ravenously hungry.
Its interesting watching the fishes reaction (mostly disdain) to a baited hook amongst loose feed its amazing how some fish can detect the hook even when the most gossamer tackle is being used. I experienced something similar on a little stream earlier this year and still haven’t figured out the answer.
Later in the day, Tony came down for an hour with his young lad. I got my pike gear out of the car, and put on a perch dead bait suspended under a bung.

It took about 10 minutes before one of the small pike obliged him with a birthday treat. Happy Birthday young fisherman 🙂

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

My First Coarse Fish On The Fly

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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

Pollution Of The River Irk

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I wonder how many years it will take for the River Irk to recover from this!!

The source of the pollution leak has been traced back to the retaining bankside wall of a detergent factory in Middleton. The EA are unable to ascertain if its detergent or bleach which has entered the water course until the foam is slowly washed away through natural causes
It has taken years for the River Irk to get to a state where it could support a decent amount of aquatic life, destroyed in minutes by morons. This foaming of the river has taken place many times during the last 20 years, but hasnt been this bad for a long time. One stupid Plc ruining a river valley. I’m not going to type anymore today because i just can’t.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Clevely Bridge Fishery

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I spent the best part of the day at Clevely Bridge Fishery near Lancaster. It holds a good head of small carp, so I arrived with a bag of Betaine Green groundbait, sweetcorn and some soft hooker pellets in the hope of a nice net of fish

I fed two swims (10 and 2 O’clock) and used my 6metre margin pole fitted with size14 elastic through the top two sections.
As the water temperature is still relatively low up here in the NorthWest, I thought my best option would be to fish on or an inch or two above the bottom.
5 small carp in my first 10 “put ins” had me thinking that i had hit upon a cracker of a swim, so I fed a two more eggs of groundbait. There were fish rooting around on the lake bed causing my swim to fizz. However despite lots of activity in front of me I found it very difficult to tempt any more fish. I used every both strawberry and green hooker pellets, sweetcorn and maggots but I couldn’t really get the fish coming on a regular basis.
Phil who was 2 pegs further up the lake, was using a waggler float and was spraying maggots over towards the far bank. By using these tactics he was catching at least 2 fish to my one, and as you can see from his net at the end of the day, he had a good 20-30lb of fish.

I probably just about scraped 10lbs – which annoyed me as I probably ruined a good swim by using too much groundbait. When i was a teenager my favoured method of fishing was to use hemp and caster – I think that by using those tactics i would have at least doubled the weight of fish I caught today. Betaine groundbait definitely works as an attractor – I think I just over did things today, I’ve killed a good swim before using too much of this stuff so i hope i have now learnt my lesson.

Phils net

My Net

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Square Lodge

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Tony and I fished Square Lodge in Hindley this afternoon, and caught some lovely fish. I fished two lines, a pinkie line and a pellet line.
I fed the pellet line first, and left it to develop whilst i bashed bits on the pinkie line. I had 10 fish on the pinkie line (at 5 metres) on my first 10 put ins. Small roach and skimmers just can’t resist a flouro pinkie, and its great fun anticipating the float burying and getting into a catching feeding rhythm.
After an hour or so, the line slowed so i changed rig to a thicker tipped float and a larger hook and put on a 4mm green swim stim soft pellet. I had no idea if these pellets would work as they have been sitting at the back of my tool shed since last Julys trip to Shropshire.
First put in on the pellet line at 7m saw me catch a slightly larger skimmer than i had been getting on pinkie, and the second put in saw my No6 elastic stretch out and a 2.5lb tench grace the net.
I was enjoying building a decent mixed net of fish, but was really hoping to catch one of the lovely crucian carp which inhabit this water. A switch to strawberry pellet saw the crucians come on the feed and i caught two little crackers.
Tony who joined me half way through the afternoon also fed two lines, one chopped worm the other liquidised bread. He caught a much better stamp of roach and skimmer on chopped worm than i had been getting on pinkie, and when he tried pinkie he soon found out why i had swapped over to pellet (see above photo of monster roach). Towards the end of the evening Tony switched to pellet, in the hope of tempting a little bar of gold, but the skimmers had settled in his swim and snaffled anything he put on the hook.
Square Lodge is only a small water, but its a joy to fish. Today i had gudgeon, rudd, skimmer bream, tench and crucian carp – a real mixed bag.

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

The Sun Shines On Phil-K

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The sun was shining and I’d arranged a few hours on the river with Phil & Tony. With a spring in my step i was really looking forwards to an afternoons fishing. Rather than fishing the usual pools and runs I decided to have a change and took advantage of the low water conditions by upstream nymphing my way through a section of river thats virtually impossible to access during normal flow.
I had really good fun slipping and sliding over the boulders and was rewarded by catching some lovely small brownies from the little pots and runs I found.
None of fish were any size but I was compensated by their beauty and the tremendous fight that they gave in the fast boiling water.

Phil-K joined Tony and I later in the afternoon, and we decided to have a mooch upriver to try our luck on one of the deeper water sections. Phils luck was certainly in as he caught this cracking brownie of 1lb 15oz – a new personal best – congratulations Phil.


It an unusual feature of this stream that the fish often have a very silvery hue at this time of year.

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Early Season On A Local Stream

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As its still early in the season and the trees are still bare, I took the opportunity to go trout fishing on a river that gets so overgrown in summer that fly fishing is virtually impossible. My previous visits to this length of water have always been productive, and despite its diminutive size, I’ve always been able to find the odd fish tucked away in its deeper runs and overhanging banks.
I was accompanied by Pete, a friend of Big Dave – despite being an accomplished still water fly fisherman – hasn’t that much experience of moving water. Talk about the blind leading the blind!
As we were tackling up we could see fish rising to flies which were hatching off the river. My attendance at Bolton Fly Tying Club is now paying dividends as i could proudly tell Pete that they were LDO’s (Large Dark Olives) but when he asked which fly should he use to catch them my limited knowledge became evident as i had to tell him i hadn’t a clue.
So it was a case of stick something bushy on that wont sink and lets hope for the best – anyway the best didn’t happen and we frightened the fish to death with our clumsy wading and crappy casting.
I did enjoy watching the LDO’s hatch, its amazing how quickly once they emerge from their pupa stage at the surface of the river, and how quickly they get airborne. These trout must be quick if they want to get a meal.
Undeterred by our lack of success, Pete and I tied on a couple of bugs and made our way upstream. The lack of rainfall in the North West is reflected in the very low water levels found in the river. Many of the pools were very shallow, and some of the runs i fished last year are high and dry. Its a real contrast to this time last year when it wouldn’t stop raining and the rivers were close to bursting their banks.

I caught fish from this run last year, its now as dry as a bone!

It was nice to walk up this river corridor which goes through a town centre, even though we could hear traffic noise we didn’t see another soul all afternoon. We did get to see how these little green oasis provide homes for an amazing variety of wildlife, i got to within 5 feet of a long tailed tit which amazed me with its soft pink plumage.

Its a pity the fishing wasn’t so amazing, a combination of our clumsy wading, poor presentation and very low water made fishing inevitably difficult. I managed to hook and lose a small trout in some fast water and Pete managed to rise another small fish to a dry but that was the sum total of action for the afternoon.
manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Baptism

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Just like everyone else, there are events which we look forward to, plan for, and as a result build a mental picture of the outcome. Today was the opening day of the trout season on the river, something I’ve been looking forwards to all winter. When you look forwards to something for a long time, you always end up building a picture in your mind about how things are going to pan out – in my imagination I often dreamed about huge hatches, fish crawling up the line – I’ve dreamt about all outcomes. Unsurprisingly, one of the dreams I didn’t have was taking two steps into the river, slipping on a smooth rock and falling flat on my face and taking an early season bath. Talk about an early season baptism.

So there I was, soaked to the skin before I’d even cast a line – what a great start to the new season.

Luckily for me despite being piss wet though I hadn’t put the fish down, as about 5 minutes after starting fishing I had my first ever river brownie on a self tied fly. It was a typical fish for the river, well marked and about 12oz. The fly was a tungsten beaded, hairs ear finished with red copper wire.

Heartened by this initial success i made my way slowly upriver.
Only about 10 yards further upstream, my minicon darted forwards, and i struck into what i thought was going to be another 12oz fish. After a heart stopping 5 minutes, Phil did the honours for me and this cracking fish graced the net.

To say i am pleased is an understatement. a 2.75lb wild brownie on a fly I’ve tied myself. What a fabulous way to start the season!
The rest of the afternoon was spent searching about a few swims I’d never really spent time on before, but no more fish were forthcoming. To be honest i didn’t really care – that fish was a cracker and here’s some more photos of it.


One sleeve was blue and the other red as i fell on my left side and was soaked from my shoulders to my toes, and i was making a vain attempt to dry out.

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout

Home Made Lures

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After spending a large part of last season chasing trout on my local streams and rivers, it has become more than obvious that shop bought flies are not as effective as those tied by my friends. Rather than constantly badgering them for “samples” i decided that during the winter months i would learn to tie my own. Phil-K persuaded me to join Bolton Fly Tying Club whose members have been very patient with my cack handed ineptitude. The talks and demonstrations they put on during the dark winter evenings have been both informative and thought provoking. In addition to the talks, demos and tying the club also organise trips to fly fishing venues throughout the north of England and the occasional competition.

So last Tuesday the evening was spent tying three flies for their first competition of the year -a three fly challenge at Foxhouses Lake near Lancaster. The rules of the competition being that you are only allowed to use three flies all day which you must tie during the club meeting. Rather than tying imitative patterns such as buzzers, nymphs i made three big brash lures thinking that freshly stocked early season Rainbow Trout would be aggressive and likely to be attracted to large bright lures. I think some of the members were amused at my dayglo lures – more suited to mackerel fishing than trout fishing.

However, yesterday was the day of the match and despite appalling weather conditions i had the pleasure of catching 11 Rainbows up to 4.5lbs. I took extra special pleasure from catching these fish as they were the first fish i have ever caught using flies i tied myself.

The leech pattern was made from a strip of rabbit fur, the two other flies from yellow and red marabou feathers and yellow fritz.

The high winds and hail storms didn’t spoil a great day out which was as much a social experience as a day out fishing. The owner of the fishery Pat was a great character – I know it made his day when i told him that i caught my first fish using self tied flies on his lake, using tools, fur and feathers which i had purchased from his website http://www.flytek.co.uk/

Phil-K in typical rod bending action.

The wild brown trout season opens this Sunday and I’m really looking forwards to getting out on the river with a box of flies which i have tied myself. I only started fly fishing for trout again seriously last year and it was great fun. My next challenge is to catch a fish on a dry fly!

Lets hope that the weather is better than Sunday. This is a picture of Chris from Bolton Fly Tying Club – he was using an olive damsel nymph pattern which he’s promised to teach me how to make. Whilst fishing is often a solitary pastime – meeting other likeminded souls has really revved up my desire to get out fishing on some new waters and catch some fish. Oh by the way I won the match:)

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout