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
The silver trout looks like a sea trout! what do you think?
I agree it looks very much like a sea trout – we catch them like this every spring.
However – its impossible for migratory fish to navigate this river.
If i hear of someone catching an eel somewhere then i might believe that migratory fish can negotiate the lock systems on the Manchester Ship Canal. And then there are the three or four 14ft+ weirs which the fish would have to negotiate after swimming through the very low oxygen content of the lower river.
Not impossible but VERY improbable.
We can but dream!
mike,
great to see you out and about and getting stuck into some great early season brownies. for once…..i’m envious. trout season is over and i’ve been without a bend in the rod for 3 weeks now. heading north for some saltwater fishing in colombia so will post some snaps as soon as i get chance. tight lines and leave some for me!
tom http://www.tominargentina.blogspot.com