The Best Laid Plans

How often do we dream about the perfect fishing scenario? We have it all planned out in our heads, ideal weather, river levels, the best swims empty, loads of bait etc etc.
Well yesterday saw me on the Ribble, with the benefit of perfect river levels, empty swims, loads of bait, lovely weather ... the whole shooting match.
I was of course hoping to catch some clonking chub and rod bending barbel.......... not a chance.
I must have had over a 100 small dace, and in some instances really small dace. The chub didnt get past 4oz, the roach didnt get past 2oz, and the brown trout might have made 6oz if it had been eating stones for its dinner.
Late on as the light was failing, there were fish charging at the fry in the margins, so i changed from my stick float rig, and tied on my new favourite silver vibrax minnow and proceeded to catch two lovely perch of about a lb each on consecutive casts.
The highlight of the evening was seeing the Salmon leaping about in the pool. There were some decent sized fish in amongst the grilse. I think next year might see me buying a migratory licence again.

Lure Fishing In Manchester City Centre

I've had a couple of short evening sessions lure fishing on the River in the centre of town. Using a small Big S, a vibrax minnow and a small copper mepps spinner, action with perch and chub has been pretty good. No fish of any remarkable size though. Its surprised me that I havent had any takes or follows from Pike, so last night I tried a few hours on the Bridgewater Canal between Old Trafford and Castlefield. Again just small perch and no Pike.
Every time I fish the Bridgie, I get a sense of nostalgia - teenage days idled away with good mates catching little to bugger all.
Off to the Ribble downstream of the TT this evening - hopefully a fish or two will bend the rod.

A Tale Of Three Rivers

Saturday afternoon Lucia asked me to drop her off in Manchester city centre so she could fulfill her female urges to shop. Rather than trail my lady wife around various ladies clothing emporiums i bid her adieu and took a 5 minute spin around the inner ring road and ended up in the car park of the casino on Regent Rd (another city centre free parking spot).

I got a few funny looks whilst tackling up from the McDonald and KFC munchers, and then headed off down the zig zag path which leads directly to the river near to the old Harry Ramsdens chip shop.

I started off using a size 2 copper meps and had a few follows from some small perch, but no follows from any pike, so I switched my lures around a bit hoping to find a pattern that might attract some interest. The Big S, the Silver Minnow, the Jointed Plug all had a swim but nothing doing. It was only when I swapped over to a blue and silver Vibrax Minnow that I started to see some action.

I'd had a couple of casts in every swim down from the Campanile Hotel to the V&A Hotel without any fishy interest (other than the suicidal small perch) and then a chub of about a pound took an interest and put a bend in the rod. The river was a little dirty (ha ha its the Irwell were talking about here - its like fishing on 3 miles island!) so it wasn't until the final moments at the net that i realised i had caught my first ever chub on a lure.

After the V&A the riverbank pathway narrows to only a couple of feet wide, with quite a steep drop into the river - so care is needed if you decide to venture down this way. Once at the VAT offices theres plenty of room again, even a couple of benches for a nice sit down. It was from outside the VAT offices that i caught 5 perch between 4 and 8 ozs in a dozen or so casts.

The VAT offices is the upstream limit for easily accessible fishing in the city centre, upstream of this point, mountaineering skills/ladders and waders are a necessity.

So a chub and half a dozen little perch wasnt a shabby return for two hours on the river.
I like these little Vibrax Minnows, having used them recently on the Bridgewater Canal and now on the river. They cast well, the spinning blade deflects the lure away from snags, and they attract other species as well as Pike.

Sunday saw me returning to the Ribble to fish the swim where I've recently had so good sport. The river was up about 18 inches, and the force of water over the previously shallow gravel run was nearly strong enough to take my legs away from under me. Rather than risk my neck, I decided to fish the near bank crease which had formed, and for two hours i caught a succession of small roach, dace and chub using maggots and caster. I was really enjoying myself tiddler bashing, until Tony gave me a call to enquire about river conditions - his immediate reaction was to suggest joining Pete on The Dane. Hmmmmm

So a nano second later, I started to pack up and head off for an hour down the M6 as Pete had told us that the Dane was only an inch or two above summer levels. Within the hour I was battling through the Balsam and I started to catch small roach and dace again from what is a noted barbel swim - sounds familiar! I started to swim hop downstream until I came to Phil and Tonys favourite grayling run. I only fished to top end of the run for 15 minutes, but still managed to catch 3 nice fish. However, Tony was itching to catch something a little bigger, so we again set off through the jungle of balsam to a very snaggy swim which the chub and barbel favour due to the cover it gives them.

We both quite alot of maggots to use up so we fed the swim quite heavily to encourage the fish out from under the overhanging tree branches and bankside roots into the clear run in the centre of the river. A few small dace were caught, then Tonys float buried, and the swim erupted as the long broad bronze flanks of a decent fish made a dash for the overhanging willows. The result Fish 1 Tony 0.

As the swim was so narrow, we took it in turns to run our floats through, again a few more dace, and then Tony managed to catch a lovely chub of about 4lbs. It wasn't long before I had a fish of similar proportions. I had been concerned that we wouldn't be able to land any decent sized fish in such a parrot cage of a swim, but the chub as so often is the case gave themselves up after a couple of strong runs.
The light faded all too soon, and we didn't manage any barbel.

Is The Grass Greener On The Other Side?

I've fished a particular swim on the lower Ribble twice in recent weeks and despite catching a fair few fish, the only good rod thumper I've managed to hook was a Chub of about 4lbs. Now this swim is a fast tongue of water over a gravel bottom, feeding into a big, long deep pool - its one of those places that screams FISH HERE at me - a real classic stick and pin run. On the two previous occasions I've tackled this run, I've fished from the southern bank and have had a deep back eddy in between me and the area I really think holds the fish, so at lunchtime today I had a few hours to spare and decided to approach the swim from the northern bank.


By changing my angle of approach, I could now wade over the shallow shingle bank, and stand waist deep on the side of the drop off into the faster deeper main current and run my float along the crease between the fast and slower water.

Again I set up with my standard stick float gear of 5bb shouldered wire stemmed stick and a 5lb hooklength, but rather than using a Drennan specialist size 14 hook, I used a Drennan size 16 carbon chub hook. The finer wire gauge i hoped would make a difference to presentation, and I know that the hook is strong enough to hold any fish under 10lb without loosing shape.


After spending 5 minutes feeding the swim and watching the world around me I had a first run through with the float.


About 3/4s of the way down the run, the float buried and i felt an almighty bang on the rod. Fish on!
After a brief run, the fish stopped in the central part of the heaviest flow and pulsed in the current, typical barbel behaviour. Over the last few sessions I've been using my avon rod for trotting the Ribble rather than my 15ft lightweight Drennan, so by using the arc of the stronger rod i was able to apply low side strain and gently move the fish into lighter flow. (its nice to be able to boss a fish for a change rather than being bullied by any fish over 3lb as was happening with the Drennan).

After what felt like ages but was probably only 5 minutes i slipped the net under this nice barbel which weighed 4 1/2lbs. Action was fast and furious for the next 3 hours, I managed another half dozen barbel, a nice chub, lots of dace to about 6oz, a small brown trout and a surprise flattie.

I've decided that as this flattie was caught above the tidal limit, on coarse fishing gear then I'm claiming it as a species on this years list - so now I'm up to 21.

So the upshot is that by being a member of clubs which own opposite sides of the river bank, I get the opportunity fish the same swim in different ways. The grass on the north bank is definitely greener.

Mackerel Rock

Last Saturday Lucia and I went for a day out walking along the cliffs of Holy Island on Anglesey. As were were going to be passing one of the North Wests top mackerel marks, a travel rod and feathers were added to our daysack. For those of you who fancy giving this place a try - its OS grid reference is 224 793.

I didnt fancy joining the scrum on the rock - wasnt too sure that its a safe place to fish on a high tide!

Our timing was a little off, and our walk from Trearddur Bay to South Stack Lighthouse coincided with a high tide. Normally a high tide is a good thing as it brings the fish slightly closer to shore, however a high tide combined with a reasonable swell and a strong breeze isn't a safe combination when fishing on an exposed rock mark such as Mackerel Rock.

With only an hour or so available for fishing (whilst Lucia ate her lunch and read a magazine) I choose to fish a much safer mark about 500yds further along the coast. No mackerel - but a nice pollack decided to take my feathers. Later in the afternoon we headed off to fish Holyhead Breakwater for an hour or so before driving home - as the tide was at its lowest I was surprised when a nice mackerel took the lure I was using. I just didn't expect a mackerel to be feeding at low water.
Shows how much i know about sea fishing.

Sunday saw me on the banks of the Ribble with Tony. Standard tactics of 5bb stick float, maggots and centre pin reel saw me catch a number of dace to about 6oz, small trout, a nice chub and a couple of surprise roach. I've never caught roach so far up river before. Its reassuring that there are so many smaller roach and dace in the river, hopefully these fish will grow on and become the 1lb and 2lbers of the future.
I just love my time on the banks of the Ribble, its an amazing place to spend a few hours. Sunday saw us catching lots of fish, we saw a Stag and Doe come down to take an evening drink from the river, and Salmon and Sea Trout were leaping clear of the water on a regular basis. Its a privilege to be able to observe natures wheel turning.

Secret Lake

Thursday saw driving Lucia over to Leeds again - so rather than fish club waters on the River Wharfe, I decided to visit a lake which i know contains Grass Carp. This venue is only 30 minutes drive from the hospital where Lucia us currently working and I was able to have a good 6 and a 1/2 hour session before having to pack up. Its also got great mobile phone reception so I can fish and work at the same time.....bliss.

I apologise in advance though, as I have been sworn to secrecy regarding the name and location of this venue - It will have to be refered to as "secret lake".

Secret Lake is a fantastic, woody, swampy snaggy water which I'm told holds a good head of carp to well over 20lb and a number of grass carp of a similar size.

The kind friend who told me about this lake assured me that it would be deserted during the week and gave me strict instructions as to how I should approach each of the 3 swims he recommend for me to attempt to catch my first "grassie". Rather ashamedly I have to admit that i didn't quite follow his bait recommendations or fish the swims he recommended (though the latter of these two decisions was taken out of my hands as there were already anglers in situ).

The bait recommendations of strawberry or pineapple boilies went right out of the window as I didn't get time to buy any. So I tackled up with halibut pellet on one rod fished tight to the overhanging trees and cat meat on the other fished into the centre of the lake.

I didn't get a bite all day on the halibut pellets fished tight to the overhanging trees, but a caught a bream (up to 3lb) every cast on the ledgered cat meat...... so much for it being a carp lake!

When I was packing up at 3.30 I asked a few other anglers how they had been doing, none had caught any carp - so maybe it was just one of those days.

I've got list fever - so have generously offered Lucia another lift to Leeds one day next week - hopefully the grass carp will be biting. The prospect of beating my carp pb which is 17lb is also on the cards at this lake - maybe its time to buy some strawberry boilies.

Catch Up

Its been a week or two since my last post - I've been busy - fishing and working, so be prepared - this post is a long one.

A week last Saturday, Matthew and I had a few hours free in the City Centre of Manchester when we dropped Lucia off to do a bit of shopping. We parked the car for our two hours free parking in the Toys R Us car park and completed a little loop of the Aston and Rochdale Canals plugging for Pike.

Matt had action on his first cast, catching a greedy little perch on a long silver minnow type plug. I had to wait for my fish until the last 15 minutes of our little trip, when a 2lb jack took my Big S lure close to the near bank at the end of my retrieve. This is an area of canal that I have never fished before, but i know it holds a good head of fish, including double figure pike, and some large chub! Its free fishing, the only cost being parking if you want to fish for longer than two hours. There is a carpark next to the canal basin beside Piccadilly Station, you could fish from your car if you wanted to at this point and enjoy some good sport.

The following Tuesday saw me offer The Housekeeper a lift to work in Leeds. This of course meant that I had stashed a rod in the boot of the car, with a view to checking out some new water on the River Wharfe near Pool. With about a mile of river to explore, I wasn't going to be able to fish all the available swims in the few hours i had available, but using maggot, stick and pin I managed to winkle out a few nice grayling and a couple of small brownies. I managed to lose a cracking grayling which caught me by surprise as it took the bait withing 3 feet of where i was standing. The greedy so and so had positioned itself in the river to intercept the maggots leaking from my bait apron rather than the spot i was trying to feed by hand. That will teach me !

Friday afternoon, i had arranged to meet a young lad from one of the fishing forums i contribute to. He wanted me to show him how to catch a few fish from Maceys in Bury - but when push came to shove - he didnt show up.

So i tackled up in peg 29 which is in my view the best swim on the lake, and using a method feeder and 8mm pellet managed to catch about a dozen carp in the few hours I was there. I thought I was doing really well during my first hour, then one of the regulars came along and asked me why i was using a groundbait method feeder rather than a compressed pellet feeder? He proceeded to give me a lesson using pellet method, in that whilst both caught about the same number of fish, his were on average double the size of the ones i was getting. You live and learn hey!

Sunday afternoon saw me back on the Ribble, but I started off in a new area downstream of the Tickled Trout. I had walked this section on a family walk the previous day, and identified a lovely tongue of water which i reckoned would hold a few fish. I wasnt disappointed by my choice of swim and caught a dace or chub every second run through with the float. Best dace about 6oz, best chub about 4lb8oz.

Later in the afternoon we moved up river past Ribchester to a favourite stretch of river, but heavy showers in the Ribble Valley led to a rapidly rising river and more difficult trotting conditions. I reckon the river rose about a foot for every hour we were there.

I did manage a few more dace and another nice chub. Phil K took a nice little silver sea trout - another one to add to his list. We were all hoping to catch a barbel or two on stick float gear but surprisingly none showed despite the ideal barbel conditions.

Spurred on by being last in this years List - I decided to play a little midweek catch up by visiting Square Lodge in Hindley for an hour or two on Wednesday evening. Using a margin pole, soft green pellets over micros Square Lodge didn't disappoint and I caught some lovely crucians, the largest going to about 1lb8oz. A heavy storm, thunder and lightning had me putting down my carbon lightning conductor for about an hour, and sheltering under a leaking umbrella. The storm seemed to be the kiss of death on the fishing, as once it had passed over, i couldn't buy a bite so i packed up early and went home with a nice bottle of red.

Last Saturday saw me dropping Lucia off in town for a couple of hours shopping. So i did the natural thing and headed off to the Bridgewater Canal for an hour or twos plugging for pike. This time i hit the other side of town, and parked my car next to the Throstles Nest Bridge near Old Trafford. From here i worked my way back towards Castlefield. The pike proved to be elusive, however small perch were regularly following my lure back to the bank, so i changed to a smaller lure and immediately started catching perch between 2 and 8ozs.

I cleared out my tackle shed on Saturday evening, and realised that i had about 3 cardboard boxes full of half used bags of pellets, some of them over 3 years old. Rather than chucking them away i decided that I will used them all up over the next month or two, and at the same time knock off a few more species from The List. So on Sunday afternoon i had a few hours at Beacon View fisher near Standish.

There was a match taking place when i arrived, so i set up in the corner peg just past the owners house.

I set up a sleeper rod with a hair rigged 12mm halibut pellet tight into the corner marginal rushes and then a second pole line at 6m in about 5ft of water fishing soft green pellet over micros.

I started off catching roach and skimmers on the pole, until after about 30 minutes the baitrunner on my sleeper rod screeched into life, and i caught a very lively mirror carp of between 3 - 5 lbs.

Whilst i was re-baiting the sleeper rod swim, i had left my pole in the marginal rushed with the hookbait up in the water. I just managed to grab the end of the pole as a white koi of about 5lbs dragged my pole into the water.

After this i managed a couple more roach and a brown goldfish (another one off the list).

I noticed fish swirling out in the middle of the lake, so i pulled in both lines, and re-setup with a pellet waggler.

I was then lucky enough to have a golden hour and a half, when i caught a carp every other cast. This only stopped when i ran out of 4mm feed pellets and had to start firing in micros. This either put the fish off, or made them feed on the bottom, because the bites immediately dried up. I wasn't bothered i must have had nearly 50lb of carp in an hour and a half and my arm was aching. Great fun, only spoiled by the large numbers of rats scuttling about in the margins. I washed my hands under the farm tap before driving home. I really don't like fishing in rat infested waters - its a pity that i wont be going back there until i hear its been cleaned up a little.

So with 5 months of the year left, I've caught 20 species of fish. My best ever tally is 24. I think if i put my mind to it i will break the 30 barrier this season - then i can give up on this stupidly addictive chase. My other friends have been out catching big barbel, chub from the Irwell, and yesterday i heard that Karl has taken a 2lb7oz roach from the Ribble - now thats a fish!

A Greedy Perch

Yesterday I spent the last hour of daylight plugging for pike at Adelphi Weir. A very aggressive greedy perch was attacking the plug for about half a dozen casts before it finally committed hari kari and hooked itself up.

Apologies for the dodgy mobile phone picture.

I didnt see any pike.

River Irk Pollution - Icebergs of Foam

Its been a while coming but the EA have finally got their man so to speak. Hopefully McBrides who have had a long history as polluters of the Irk will get the message at long last.
Some of you may think that the fine is small when compared to the £capitalisation of the company which is over £250mil but i guess a really big fine might persuade them to upsticks and move elsewhere, destroying jobs etc.

Here is the EAs press release on the matter.

The Environment Agency has been successful in prosecuting a company who were responsible for foam icebergs to form along the River Irk near Manchester.

The Environment Agency has been successful in prosecuting Robert McBride Ltd for a pollution incident that caused a large amount of foam to be seen on a five mile stretch of the River Irk in April 2009.

Robert McBride Limited pleaded guiltyunder the Water Resources Act 1991 to causing polluting matter to enter the River Irk. The company has been ordered to pay a fine of 6,600GBP and costs of 4,822.64GBP.

On 14 April 2009 the Environment Agency received over thirty reports of foam on the River Irk from members of the public. Environment Officers attended the scene and traced the pollution to a hole in the retaining wall of Robert McBride Ltd’s site, where a brown discharge was entering the river and causing large amount of white foam to cover the river downstream. Officers visited the site and requested the company take action to stop the pollution entering the river.

Officers took samples of the discharge and an ecological survey showed there was chemical pollution which had a negative impact on the invertebrates for up to three miles downstream. Officers also saw dead fish. The discharge was identified as bleach which is toxic to aquatic life.

In mitigation, Robert McBride Ltd indicated its guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and cooperated with the Environment Agency. In addition, nearly 70,000GBP has been spent by the company stopping the pollution, investigating the cause and improving infrastructure on site.

Gordon Whitaker, Environment Manager for the Environment Agency said,

“We have worked with Robert McBride Ltd to ensure that the necessary action was taken to prevent any future pollution. Hopefully this prosecution will remind Robert McBride Ltd and other companies how important it is to protect the environment from pollution through preventative measures”

A long day on the river

As the housekeeper had to work last Saturday I had a rare day to myself. Phil and Tony have been pulling away from me in the number of species they have caught from "the list" so i decided that Saturday would be a suitable day to fish a couple of venues and get myself back in the running.

So 7.30am saw me tackling up on the banks of the River Dane with my usual river set up of light wire stemmed stick float (8xNo4) and a closed face reel (the flow is too slow to send the pin round whilst the rivers are so low). I've only fished the Dane once before with Phil in the depths of winter, when we both blanked but i remembered his advice as to which swims held fish, and was rewarded with a nice little grayling first run down.

The fishing, the scenery, the solitude and the weather were all fantastic - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy fishing alone (dream time) and I caught a steady stream of Dace and Grayling all morning.

My original intentions for the day were to spend a few hours on the Dane to catch a couple of Grayling, then head up to Deep Pit or Square Lodge to knock a Crucian Carp off the list followed by an evening on the Ribble trying for a sea trout. However, a quick call from Tony who expressed a wish to try out some new water on the River Severn saw me meeting up with the boys and heading off down the M6 towards Shrewsbury.

As it turned out I didn't fare so well on the Severn, all I managed was a small trout, a couple of Salmon Parr and a number of small dace. Phil also struggled, but Tony found some good chub in a faster run of water, the best going to just over 5lbs. It was a lovely fish in mint condition. Its always good to try out somewhere new, and despite not catching very much I will certainly return. You can often visit a fishery many times before you begin to unlock its secrets. It would be churlish to complain about a lack of angling success when I've had the opportunity to spend an afternoon on a beautiful river bank with two good friends.

The list started off as a bit of fun, but it seems as though we all have a little competitive streak in us. For once in my life i was pleased to catch a minnow, as this little tiddler put me one ahead of Phil and a little closer to Tony.

During the summer Matthews rugby team still train every Tuesday evening, and I usually spend the evening running the perimeter of the pitches attempting to halt advancing middle aged spread. This evening, a bad back prevented me from jogging my 5 circuits of the training fields, but didn't prevent me from taking my lure fishing gear to the lake which borders the training ground. Two jack pike of a pound or two each were my reward and now take me up to 18 species for the year so far.