Return To The Weir

I revisited the weir pool on the River Mersey that i first visited last friday. This time i chose to fish the riverbank closest to the car park standing on the lip of the weir , rather than the concrete platform on the far bank.

The river had only fallen 12 inches over the weekend and was still the colour of strong tea. Using my favoured tactics of 6BB avon float, centre pin reel and 15ft trotting rod, i was able to reach far enough across the weir to fish at line along either edge of the 3 main tongues of water flowing over the weir. Fishing a good 18 inches over depth and holding back hard i caught a fish or had a bite every cast.

Roach, dace, chub and gudgeon were todays fare but unfortunately i didnt need to use my landing net as none of them were bigger than my hand. After an hour, i put away my float gear and fished a variety of plugs, spoons and spinners across the river, but had no takes. There is a large back eddy on the near bank which i reckon must contain some decent pike or perch. Maybe next time a livebaited gudgeon or minnow might enable me to catch a bigger fish.

Whilst maggots seem to be a great bait on the Ribble, i am finding that they only take small fish on my local rivers. I am going to switch to hemp and caster for a few sessions and see if it makes a difference.

I am taking a couple of beginner anglers out tomorrow evening, hopefully they will catch some decent brownies. Whilst they fish i going to take a net and have a good poke about to see what river bugs i can find.

manchester fishing Irwell Ribble Trout