Manchester has got everything except a beach said Ian Brown... well, Salford has got one & that's where I spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon.
I'd been keen to try out some of the Pike flies I've been knocking out over the last few weeks & todays milder temperature combined with the lack of rainfall recently left me feeling that I might be in luck today.
I started fishing through a 100 yrd stretch below the weir with the Moulin Rouge fly that I'd had high expectations of but to no avail, not even a sniff of a follow.
At the tail end of the beat I changed fly to the one shown above that uses just artificial fibres, the main body being made of flouro green para post wing material, which pulses beautifully on the retrieve, the other main benefit is that it sheds any water on the backcast making it a much easier fly to shoot out.
Third cast with this new fly saw a nice Pike flash out of the murk close to the bank & snatch the lure, thankfully the hook set & the fish tore off on several really good runs which left me cursing that I'd left my net right at the top of beat.
