angling for something

Dickensian Salford.

2012-01-15T20:41:00.006Z

Extract from Oliver:

Workhouse Boy:(Me) [Woken by boy pacing back an forth] Tom, give it a rest will ya? We're trying to sleep (Fish).
Hungry Boy(Mike): Can't sleep(fish). Too hungry.
Workhouse Boy(Paul Carr): We're all hungry.
Hungry Boy:(Mike) Yeah, but I'm scared.
Workhouse Boy:(paul) Scared? Of What?
Hungry Boy: I'm so hungry(Not had a f'kin sniff of a fish all day) I'm scared I might eat(poach the peg) the boy(Paul) that sleeps(fishes on the next peg) next to me.

New Zealands Giant Long Finned Eels

2012-01-10T22:12:00.006Z

Just watched the episode of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade. In this episode he is in New Zealand chasing up a tale from Captain Cooks journal of giant man eating Eels that inhabit the Islands. There's a bit in the programme where he rubby dubbys himself in fish guts in an attempt to prove the brazen man eating nature of the beast. This reminder of my chance encounter with these leviathans, has led me to scouring the loft for the last hour to find & scan the picture above.

My Kiwi bud & I had hiked up to Lake Daniels deep in the Southern Alps for some Trout fishing, the lake is a good 3hr hike up out of the main valley following the Alfred River up to the Manson-Nicholls hut where we had planned to stay the night giving us the chance to fish into the dark.
The place is amazing & after exploring the lake, casting to the resident Rainbows we decided to stop for dinner & wait for the evening rise. As my rucksack is always full of fishing/camping gear & booze, I pretty much gambled on catching dinner, luckily this wasn't a problem. So as I was gutting & cleaning the fish in the margins in my shorts I suddenly got this feeling of encroaching large dark shadows behind me... I turned around, shit myself & left the water like a Jesus Lizard in one swift movement.

Some of the Eels in this gang were as thick as your thigh. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I swiftly rigged up some trout guts on a large hook & bagged the bugger above!

Salford Friendly Anglers' Society

2012-01-07T10:31:00.006Z

Any readers interested in joining the worlds oldest angling club for free?

Well to find out more about us & to join, visit; http://www.salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk/

You can catch up with what we're up to through the blog; http://salfordfriendlyanglers.blogspot.com/ or you'd be welcome to pop down to one of our meeting at the 'clubhouse' the excellent Kings Arms in Salford.

Cheers
Nick

Bilbo Baggings

2011-05-09T08:26:00.000+01:00

1 big brownie, 1 fooked smart phone, 1 happy soaking angler!

2011-04-28T08:35:00.003+01:00

Just sat at the laptop its half 7 AM & I am buzzing & its not because I've just come back from an all-nighter!

The Brownie that has been haunting me for the last week or so finally fell for a gently glided in Comparadun under a tree at ten past 6.

Staying over at mums house as our kid & his family are over from Ireland afforded me the chance to get out on the water first thing. Creeping around downstairs at 5 I was busted by mum, "what you doing up? its five o'clock, you're not going fishing are you?"

"just going to see if that trout's there"

"be careful"

I approached from the high wooded bank where it tends to be stuck in tight to try & get a view, yep, there it was holding in the current coming up for a sip & then doing its patrol up the outside bend of the meander. I then headed downstream to where I could wade across & creep up on it from the opposite bank. After putting so many hours in on this fish I know you can't wade in on him in his deeper glassy glide so I just crouched down covered by the bank & waited for him to reveal himself. Fly ginked, backcast clear I plopped the fly to a rise, SIP, STRIKE... bollocks, not the biggie. Quickly, I brought in a small trout hoping its trashing about wouldn't spook the whopper.

Back to the start, crouching in position, every sound seems amplified in the cold morning, the rip of velcro, the snap of the gink bottle all sound like they could spook the fish. After 10 minutes or so there's a big swirling rise, I cover it with the comparadun, it floats past... then, SLURP, STRIKE! the rod bends into a solid fish and for the next 10 minutes I'm praying the fly holds as the fish bores up & down the river trying to shake the hook.

Mid fight, I get out the phone, "mum, bring the camera, I've got it". As I'm trying to sqeeze the fish into the net leaning forward, water comes rushing over the top of my waders, just then I see mum coming across the field in her PJ's & wellies - What a great mum!

1 big brownie, 1 fooked smart phone, 1 happy soaking angler!

Cure for Roid Rage

2011-04-23T07:40:00.002+01:00

A beaut! not the fish I've been stalking, this is his younger brother.

roid rage

2011-04-20T07:03:00.001+01:00

roid rage
n.
side effect of being able to spot lunkers with polaroids but having the inability to catch them.

Cheeky hour

2011-04-06T07:19:00.002+01:00

I had to drop the motor into the garage and was told to come back in about hour, so knowing there was a stretch of river nearby I wandered off for a scramble around. I found an accessible section where I could flick a few flies out, wader-less and with the water chocolate coloured and racing through I was restricted to where I could fish. I started by searching out with a couple of nymphs but had nowt, then I stopped to take a call and while surveying the water I heard a gulp about a rod length up and a foot out from the near bank... "sorry, I'm going to have to call you back in a minute"!

I whipped off the point nymph and stuck a dry on, there it was again, gulp.

First cast got blown up the bank. Second, too far out. Third, just right. As it drifted down it paused for a moment as it swirled in the eddy with the various flotsam, then GULP, ZZZZZZZZZIP, JUMP, SPLOOSH! The fish then ploughed out into the current with it's head down.

I was buzzing, It's great to have a wildy bend your 4wt double. Happy I headed back to collect the car. On the way back I returned the dropped call... "Sorry about that, I just got tied up".

Dave and Hooky at Greengate Stones

2011-04-05T22:11:00.002+01:00

Wandered down to the riverbank in Salford on Saturday morning for the unveiling of the Greengate Stones - Peter Hook from New Order was there to say a few words... mainly that as a kid living in the tower block he was probably responsible for throwing them in in the first place! He looks well chuffed to have his picture taken with Dave the Whippet.

Check out my massive boner

2010-12-16T23:07:00.000Z

Cyrille Regius

2010-06-08T16:30:00.001+01:00

Took the day off on Friday, so headed up to the Lakes Thursday evening to meet up with Tom & his French mate Cyrille. We'd arranged to meet in the pub in Patterdale at 7 that evening, when I arrived Tom was there pint in hand but, no sign of Cyrille, it turns out he's gone to stalk a trout he'd seen in the small beck. Half way through our pint the excited Frenchman turns up wanting for us to get a snap, I obliged as I was keen to see what could have come out of the small stream.

What a corker!

Afterwards we decided to head up the fells to the Tarns for a spot of fishing & wild camping. The going was pretty tough that evening with a strong wind funnelling down from the tops.

Here's a lovely peaty Tarn fish Tom caught earlier that day.

After a shite nights sleep on the softest tuft of grass I could find that wasn't boggy, we headed down off the fells keen to sample some river fishing. First off we went to explore the Greta but, after bumping into the hatchery chap while stopping for a couple of Jennings in the Twa Dogs he convinced us we'd be much better off on the Derwent as the water was really low.

The day was pretty slow due to the heat & light but, we all caught fish. Cyrille was loving it as he's completely obsessed with sight fishing for Browns with nymphs and the day was perfect for spotting fish for later that evening.

Here's the best of the day.

As the sun sank a huge hatch came off & the river became alive with feeding fish. We had one of the best hours in memory casting at pods of rising Trout. The hardest part was trying to keep the fly dry with fish nailing it every try.

it's warming up

2010-05-19T22:17:00.001+01:00

all style no guile

2010-05-07T16:08:00.002+01:00

Stopped off on the way back home the other afternoon to have a look off a bridge at the state of the river & saw the odd swirl of a fish sipping down, remembering that I had some gear in the boot got me tempted but, apart from the waders all I had to wear was the suit & shirt I was in, undeterred I got in the waders in me duds & kept the shirt on - I must have looked like one of those tits you see in Trout & Salmon spey casting in a shirt & tie!

it's been a while

2010-04-27T12:40:00.002+01:00

Just had a top weekend fishing the tarns, lakes & rivers of cumbria. I've broke my camera so stole this pic from Tom's blog; http://tominargentina.blogspot.com/

Rodders Rainbows

2009-10-06T08:40:00.002+01:00

Too busy/lazy to post a narrative, so read Tom's : http://tominargentina.blogspot.com/2009/10/lunkseville-bolton.html

troglodyte trouting

2009-09-16T18:00:00.005+01:00

Pastures New

2009-06-30T08:43:00.003+01:00

Scouting for Trout

2009-06-24T08:09:00.005+01:00

The dip in form of my home stretch of river sent me scouting much further up stream. The river in these parts 'aint purdy', it's all culverted & often disappears for stretches beneath dark satanic mills but, 'dare be trout in dem dare hills'.

The river's little more than a stream here but, there's still good fish to be had.

Headed back to the home stretch for last light to skate some Caddis in the dark, the midges foiled us though, even chain smoking couldn't keep them off.

Tweaking out Borrowdale Beckies

2009-06-17T18:27:00.002+01:00

The crystal clear water of Langstrath Beck proved too temping on a hot Saturday afternoon. Fortunately Mrs C didn't mind sunbathing while I tried for the resident little beck Trout although she seemed a little miffed when I interupted her sun worship by shouting for her to get a snap.

I love this type of small stream fishing, using little dries in the many pools, it reminded me of fishing with a Spanish friend of mine & Tom's, a top fisherman & tier called Paco from Girona who showed us round the mountain streams in the foothills of the Pyrenees where he fishes. Stood there with a short line & high stick nuts deep in icy water I could almost hear his mantra of 'fly working well'

Return to Jurassic Tarn

2009-06-05T08:17:00.005+01:00

Skipped up the M6 Lakesward after work to take on the turbo charged trout that foiled me last time.

The conditions were chilly & blustery with no fish showing so I decided to search them out with a team of 3Here are the culprits responsible for pinging me off last visit, some of the hardest fighting bows I've come across.

Lancashire Ganges

2009-06-03T18:45:00.004+01:00

Got to the river last night eager for a fish expecting low clear water only to find it resembling the Ganges - found out today some berk upstream had been excavating & dumping mud & shite in the river... reported it to the EA

As the river was totally unfishable I headed up to a local lodge to try & nobble some of the resident Carp - got this tubby little beaut on a floating crust fished half a foot from the bank whilst crouching in some bushes.

Saturday

2009-05-27T09:15:00.005+01:00

Determined not to blank again on the river I set out wading with a two two rod system. One rod was a 9ft 6wt set up with a team of 3 nymphs & the other an 8ft 4wt for throwing little dries at any Trout fool hardy enough to rise!

The day was really hard going, not because of any adverse conditions but, just the fact that the water is in really poor form this year The fish only started to rise in the twilight.

jurassic tarn

2009-05-23T11:36:00.002+01:00

Working in Preston yesterday afternoon gave me the opportunity to hop up the M6 towards the Lakes & search out some new water. On getting to the water it started raining & there was an intermittently gusting Westerly. Some fish were fin & tailing while feeding just below the surface so I opted to fish with buzzer & Diawl Bachs. After several swirls & plucks at the flies a fish took and just shot off pinging strait through the leader, not what I was expecting from a tarn trout. I stepped up to a 4lb leader & hooked up with a powerful fish that shot off on several huge runs, just as I though I was taming it & bringing it in on the reel, it shot off again & as the reel span the handle hit my thumb stalling it & allowing the fish snap clean through the line.

Upper Roddlesworth

2009-05-17T21:18:00.005+01:00

I wanted to put my mid week blank behind me this weekend & put a bend in my rod from some fat stockies so with that I headed up to a Res in the moors above Bolton. The weather was atrocious, it pissed it down & blew a gale. The fishing was tricky & made even more difficult, as you can see from the picture, the water is heavily wooded and the only places to get a decent cast out meant you had the wind gusting in your face.
Here's a chunky Blue Trout that has just been filleted & pan fried in butter.

Blankingtons

2009-05-14T20:55:00.005+01:00

Just spent a few hours wading the river & ended up catching sweet F.A. This is pretty much unheard of on the stretches I fish at this time of year. Fair enough the conditions were not brilliant, there was a strong cold wind, nothing was really hatching & the bites I eeked out I managed to miss. I am starting to think that fish numbers are well down this season & it's not just my bad timing & technique. Mike (manchester fishing fiend) has reported similar findings on his blog & heard stories of people meat fishing the area. Wild Trout poulations are delicate enough especially with the pressures of Mink, Goosanders, pollution & gypos meat fishing... you can trap Mink & shoot Goosanders but, how you gonna get across the notion of catch & release to some scrote raised on findus crispy pancakes!

Anyhow, here's a nice picture of some Bluebells.

Thailand

2009-05-04T11:34:00.009+01:00

Just spent a fantastic couple of weeks travelling round some of the islands in the south of Thailand.

This surely earns me enough brownie points with Mrs C to enable me to spend the rest of the summer on the river bank.

The angling bug got the better of me though & after several Singhas & Sangsom buckets I got chatting to a Mr Sak who promised me a 80-90% chance of landing a Sailfish!

Here's Mr Sak skippering his Longtail boat - basically a long wooden skiff with a dirty diesel engine attached to the back, powering a propellor at the end of a long shaft... genius!

First off, we jigged some feathers for the live bait.

Then we set them off in a channel & waited... alas no Sailfish were hooked, just this Garfish looking thing with some mad dentistry!

Cant Clough, can't catch (almost)

2009-04-14T07:28:00.006+01:00

Jonny took us up to Cant Clough, one of his club waters on Sunday, a high moorland res perched in the Pennines near Todmorden. It took about four hours to cover the water & in that time we threw everything at them & almost blanked. It wasn't that we weren't getting takes, we just couldn't land anything. The fish were taking lightning quick & just shaking the hook everytime. Only when I beefed up my gear a little & stripped back a lure did I manage to bully one in.

Lunksville

2009-04-11T18:55:00.002+01:00

Spotted a pod of three fish sipping down flies tight to the near bank under some branches & managed to waft a little EHC just in front of them with a side cast. With a big swirl the fish took & shot off upstream jolting the rod forward & stripping line. It jumped once trying to shake the fly then I didn't see it for the next five minutes as it bored up & down the river. As usual I'd forgotten my net so had to hand him in.

You can see the fly just knicked in the scissors.

mink or gollum

2009-04-01T20:52:00.003+01:00

With the temperature creeping up into the teens today so my Trout barometer shifted me riverwards accordingly. There was a little bit of a hatch & the odd fish was rising sporadically so I decided to try something Stuart Crofts suggested at a talk he gave to Horwich fly dressers, he recommended fishing a buzzer New Zealand style off a dry, not a fly combo I had previously tried on rivers but, one that definitely works. An injury I'm seeing increasingly on Trout in the river, it's not like the Heron stab marks you sometimes see on fish, this is more like a chunk that has been bitten out. I'm sure this is down to the mink that are present as the river here is devoid of Cormorant, Goosanders & Gollum.

British Summer Time

2009-03-30T20:54:00.002+01:00

The clocks had gone forward & the start of summer was heralded in with a fine sunny Sunday, so with that I donned my waders & ploughed up the river in search of Trout.
A nice hatch of Olives was trickling down stream all afternoon & that gave me the chance to do what I'd been waiting for all winter... Target rising brownies with dries!

High Winds High Arnside

2009-03-29T19:47:00.006+01:00

I was up in the Lakes on Friday for a mates stag do so while the rest of the lads were off doing the Via Ferrata up Honister slate mines I slipped off to try and find a spot to fish. Heights really aren't my bag!

With the wind gusting at 50mph I searched the map for a spot that might offer a little shelter & settled for the beautiful little High Arnside Tarn.

I was surprised upon arriving that considering the conditions & the fact that there is still snow on the fells the Tarns surface was covered with slashy little rises. There was a steady hatch going off but I couldn't really see what because as soon as they emerged within seconds they were half way up the Old Man! That would account for the quick slashy rises.

The Tarn is absolutely choked up with weed thus surface or just subsurface fishing is the only option. I caught a few small brownies fishing a little Caddis in the ripple but by far the most effective method was a little buzzer suspended beneath a parachute fly.

One of the bigger ones!

Signs of spring

On the walk back down I came across this pair of just born lambs taking their first tentative steps & eagerly guzzling down their mothers milk. If you look close enough you can still see the afterbirth dangling from the Ewe!

P-Funk Piking

2009-02-19T21:26:00.010Z

Tom commented that my latest Pike fly bares more than a passing resemblance to the P-Funk legend George Clinton... I can definitely see where he's coming from!

This week I've really noticed that it's getting brighter & warmer, so with that 'George' & I snook down the river for a dabble. After searching out the weir pool for a while with George getting a couple of follows, a nice fish shot out and after a few good runs & a bit of tail walking to boot a superbly conditioned Pike was netted.

The flies have eyes

2009-02-10T18:01:00.003Z

Here's a new Pike fly that I'm sure will coax out a monster next trip:

Hook: 6/0 mustad Cod hook
Body: cactus chenille
Tail: combed out parpost wing

Aspen-on-Toon

2009-02-08T09:19:00.007Z

Skiing in Cumbria???? That was the response I got when I answered my phone at the top of Yad Moss on Saturday afternoon.
Yad Moss or 'Aspen-on Toon' as a Geordie I was chatting to called it or 'Englands premier ski resort' as their website calls it is located in the north east of Cumbria about 30 miles east of Penrith near Alston. Thanks to a lottery grant & the hard work of some dedicated enthusiasts Yad Moss offers the opportunity to ski within a couple of hours of Manchester, albeit for usually a handful of days a year.

View from the top station - 725m

Tweedy having a brew

Manchester has got everything except a beach...

2009-01-03T15:48:00.007Z

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.

moulin rouge pike fly

2008-12-16T18:32:00.002Z

Just tied a new pike fly, here's the ingredients:

Hook: kamasan 6/0 uptide
Body: mink zonker strip, llama hair, red sparkle
Hackle: taken from a red feather boa at a moulin rouge themed christmas party.

a spot of winter piking

2008-11-24T08:47:00.003Z

It's been ages since I last got out on the banks but, I managed a couple of short Piking sessions this weekend. I had originally planned to try a few pike flies I'd been knocking out but, with the wind & the freezing temps I didn't fancy stripping a wet fly line through icy fingers so opted to chuck some plugs about.

shizzle my mizzle

2008-09-01T13:23:00.005+01:00

Anyone who looks at this blog is going to think I only post when I bag a lunker but shit has been conspiring against me this summer and it's been nearly 2 months since I last pulled on my (rancid) waders, so it was with great delight that I ventured out into the glorious August mizzle.

After a barren couple of hours after a barren couple of months I was seriously thinking I'd lost my mojo and just as I was contemplating finding a screen to watch the return of the prodigal son SWP to MCFC I hit a rich vein of form teasing out fish after fish from the faster riffles.

What a belter! Bring on September!

2008-07-02T09:21:00.004+01:00

A reason to like Big Brother?

2008-06-24T17:03:00.003+01:00

I've found a reason to like Big Brother - It gives me a legitimate excuse to leave the house & go fishing at 9 when the wife insists on watching it.

Again had a really enjoyable last couple of hours fishing into the dark, striking at splashes & hoping to connect to a monster fish.

Twilight trouting

2008-06-21T09:52:00.002+01:00

God I love this time of year!!!!!

Jibbed out for an after the Portugal Germany game on Thursday & had a fantastic hour targeting rising fish in the twilight. The slower glassy smooth glides that have seemed to be devoid of fish so far this year came alive in the perpetual dusk.

The fishing was electric but, the midges were worse than anything in Scotland. It was great to be able to thread a new fly on in the light after being snapped by a lunker but, the midges drive you to distraction, so much so that I missed a number of takes whilst scrathing my head. I'll be back this weekend armed with hat & jungle formula!

Saturday

2008-06-16T17:08:00.004+01:00

The first of the day after finally getting out of bed about 2pm
A heron like Tom stalking his quarry under the trees.

Monday evening

2008-06-11T08:50:00.007+01:00

Had a couple of hours wading the river on Monday evening, wasn't sure what'd be doing as it had been 23 during the day & the bright sun was still on the water till 8 o'clock, with this in mind I opted to try some tree covered tunnel like sections. There was plenty of fly activity on the water with a hatch of little up winged Olives occuring which the trout were sipping down in the shaded riffles, so I decided to try out a little Sparkle Dun I'd tied.

The sparkly tail is meant to represent the shuck of the emerging fly as it sits in the surface film waiting to fly off thus making it an easy & tempting morsel for a waiting trout.

The fly worked really well accounting for all the fish of the evening, I did try a little Deer Hair Emerger but, they didn't seem interested but were quite happy slashing at the sparkle.

Leeches! - Found these blood sucking little bastards while turning rocks looking for bugs. I should start collecting them & practicing a bit of bloodletting, I believe it's making a comeback in the NHS.

Dirty Old Town

2008-06-10T11:32:00.003+01:00

Ahhhh bucolic Salford! - Spent an enjoyable evening down the ship canal with Mike last week among the Herons, Waterfowl & freely rising fish, the calm waters were only intermittently interupted by a booming cox from one of the sweeping skiffs - surely a scene more reminiscent of Henly than Pomona Docks!

Is this a first for the ship canal? - a dry fly caught roach (pic courtesy of Mike - Manchester fishing fiend blog)

Mayfly Time - Ullswater

2008-06-03T21:26:00.018+01:00

Here's some pics from the New Zealand lads reunion weekend on Ullswater. Myself, Rich(Leeds) Elksy(Stoke) & Tom Spent the weekend camped out on Ullswater in anticipation of a decent hatch of Mayfly.
We canoed over to a little secluded bay in the newly acquired HMS Bob Woolmer and set up camp for the weekend. It's been a while since we went feral but, we slipped into the old ways with ease. In the pic you can see HMS Bob in the foreground, Rich in the back ground setting up a tarp & the 'fridge' is just off to right in the lake.
The view from camp looking down Patterdale - truly stunning!
Friday nights evening meal consisted of grilled Rainbow Trout & baked potatoes courtesy of Tom & his Dad fresh from Ghyll Head earlier in the day.

After waking up to sausages & beer for breakfast & a flat calm Ullswater we decided to make a trek up to a hill Tarn for a cast.

There was a shed load of Caddis crawling all over the place.A beautiful little Tarn brownie.
Later that evening back at camp, Tom spotted a nice brownie sipping mayfly off the surface from his vantage point perched on a rocky bluff & managed to drop an Adams right in its tracks and bagged this superb Ullswater Brown!

Wahey!

bank holiday drought

2008-05-28T18:06:00.006+01:00

Social commitments are starting to get in the way of my fishing! With a mix of cricket, bbq's & visiting family my only angling opportunity this bank holiday was sneaking out onto the river at half six saturday morning. There wasn't much happening by way of surface activity so I experimented fishing my newly tied psycho caddis on a top dropper with a little green goldhead benieth. The tactic worked really well with the fluoro-caddis acting as an indicator and all the fish falling to the nymph.
The weather is gloomy & shite in Manchester at the minute but, I'm like a coiled spring waiting to pounce on the first fishing opportunity!

Abersoch

2008-05-13T17:58:00.005+01:00

Here's some pics from the boys weekend in Abersoch. The tranquil fishing trip soon degenerated into... ...booze fuelled watersports

My arms & back are now completely goosed.

Looking forward to some fly fishing.

Geek chic

2008-05-06T18:05:00.002+01:00

Spent the last week on the Cote D'Azur & after an unsuccessful couple of evenings seeking out suitable trout rivers under the thinly veiled guise of looking for restaurants with the missus, I was resigned to just spending a bit of time knocking out some flies in anticipation of a return to some on-form water back home - for which I was called a geek!

Reward 4weighting

2008-04-24T09:35:00.004+01:00

Finally, a couple of warmer days on the bounce has given me the chance to try out my new little brook rod with some of the dries I've been knocking out over winter.
These fish bend a 4 weight double

P.A with a lunker

Beautiful orange spots

1st of the season

2008-04-04T09:36:00.001+01:00

While walking the hound in the morning I noticed a few Gnats buzzing around in the park so knew I'd have to get out that evening to try out some new emerger patterns I'd been tying before the predicted cold front blows in & plunges us back into wintery conditions just in time for the weekend.
There wasn't a great deal of surface action going on, but I saw the odd shy dimple under the far bank vegetation & this was enough to rig up & nice fine tapered leader connected to an Elk hair emerger I'd tied onto a klinkhamer hook, the fly worked perfectly with its Spartan like mane sitting high in the water with the tempting buggy body benieth.

flykin

2008-02-28T19:44:00.005Z

Went out to exorcise the demons of another unsuccessful trip out nyphing for Grayling by chucking out some big lures for dem dare toothy urban critters. Tried the big Perchy streamer again & immediately had a take that once again just let go & another fish taunting me by eye balling it all the way in to just below my feet!A change of fly was in order - this new fly, being a lot smaller & lot lighter, was a comparitive dream to cast but, that was by the by, the main reason in the switch was to use a less fussy lure where there'd be more chance of the Pike taking the hook than it's teeth setting into the fur n feather...
& it paid off, knicked it sweetly in the scissors!

The Sequel

2008-02-21T19:15:00.005Z

Returned to the river the next day with my Pike fly set up - a 10 ft 8 weight airflow rod, 8 wt airflow 40+ shooting head line loaded onto a spare cartridge from a cheap greys reel, all bought off the internet for about £60, the rod even has a life time warranty which may prove useful chucking these huge Pike flies around.Started punching this big Perchy looking fly out into the tail of the pool, which feels a bit like casting a bath sponge on string when you're more used to chucking out small dries. A few casts later as I was watching the lures action as it neared the bank a decent Pike shot out of the murk and hit the fly, the rod bent double & I was into a fight but, just as I had it beat & was reaching for the net the fish just seemed to open its mouth & let go of the lure. The same thing happened on two more occasions, I think this may be due to the fish grabbing the streamer material and the hook not setting properly - before my next trip I need to look at modifying these flies.

Working lunch

2008-02-20T17:36:00.004Z

Stole an hour at the river the other day in the bright afternoon sun and spent it searching out the weir pool with a little Rainbow Trout Rappala. The action was superb taking three pike in around half an hours fishing, with each getting progressively larger. I saw the last two fish hit the lure just a few feet from the bank - great fun! This has spurred me on to get out again in the next few days & tackle them with my heavy fly set up...

High Peak

2008-02-20T08:15:00.004Z

Tried out a new stretch of water at the weekend up in the High Peak, I knew it would be tricky with over night temperatures down in the minuses, the water running gin clear due to the absence of rain for over a week now & the daytime conditions of bright low sunshine casting shadows wherever you waded... I was right, we both blanked, although we did have a top day out exploring a new water in the sunshine.
We spent the day searching the likely looking riffles & pools with heavy nymphs to no avail, I tried to convince myself that our lack of success was due to another angler who had been wading the same stretch prior to us. It was encouraging to see a small hatch of olives mid afternoon but, they failed to bring any of the Grayling to the surface & reveal their whereabouts to us.

Lancs v Esox

2007-12-20T20:12:00.000Z

The lack of Trout action over the closed season has sent me out in search of Pike.

Be warned though - when you say to your wife/friends/family that your popping out for a spot of Piking, it does have a different dodgy connotation: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piking

and more worryingly there are sites dedicated to sourcing good Piking locations!

Taimen on a Shoestring

2007-11-27T17:33:00.001Z

Mongolia, a country three times the size of France - the only map Stamfords had was half the size of an O.S!

The builders must have been pissed when they put this bridge up.

The majestic Chuluut Gol snaking through the steppe

Bending one in

Lenok Lewis!

Taimen a half - Author looking pissed on local moonshine with a nice Taimen.

Urban Squirrel Coursing

2007-10-19T19:51:00.000+01:00

Dave's been busy catching new materials for the tying table this winter...What a lovely pelt!

Octoberfest

2007-10-07T12:13:00.000+01:00

With the clock ticking down on the season it's great to be still getting out there & catching on the dry. The weekends nice mild conditions have been good for the fishing, enabling us to cast to rising fish, some nice fish have also been tempted by plopping big Daddies into fishy looking lies.

Lunkmenistan

2007-08-30T11:54:00.000+01:00

It feels sweet after a summers upstream dry-flying to be rewarded with such a fish...
...and even better to see her swim off again
The strange thing about this monster was that I took it out of a foot deep riffle and upon it sensing that the fly it had ate put up some resistance it swam upstream and towards a hole in the bank and attempted to just sit there and hide... & only when it knew it was 'hooked' did it take off.

Check out the vein in Toms forehead!!!! this beaut only shows itself when he's well excited!

And another!!!! What a buttery coloured beauty!

Sunday Evening

2007-08-06T12:36:00.000+01:00

The trout were being pretty finicky last night,
but I managed a few on a little flying ant.

As dusk approached I tied on a Elk Hair Caddis & got this beaut out of a riffle barely deep enough to cover it's back.

Stickle Tarn - Stickleback sized Trout

2007-08-06T11:55:00.000+01:00

Followed Wainwright's Central Fells guide book to walk from Grasmere up Silver How & then along the ridge dividing Langdale & Easedale to Stickle Tarn where I encountered the resident Stickleback sized brownies, from there I tracked back to decend between Blea Rigg & Great Castle How to fish Easdale Tarn. Easedale Tarn wasn't as Bleak as Stickle, partly because the sun had come out, but it does also have more features. I started by fishing the alluvial fan at the south eastern side where there's a nice drop off a few yards out. Standing well back & casting over the rocks so that just the leader hit the water I was rewarded with a nice fish first cast. From Easedale the walk back is about 40mins down Sourmilk Gill & Easdale Beck back into grasmere.

Santiago de Compostheap

2007-07-25T12:48:00.000+01:00

With P.A on his way to Kuwait & Tom on his annual Pilgrimage to Satiago de Compostheap to flagellate himself with a 4 weight, I had the river to myself last night.Had a great session before dinner using a little Elk Hair Caddis to tempt the rising trout, I also had the bonus of seeing a pair of Kingfishers & some huge Dragonflies.

Biggest yet...

2007-07-14T15:40:00.000+01:00

P.A tricked this lunker with a home tied caddis...

it took an age to subdue on 2lb frog hair, easily the biggest yet this season. Just look at the tail on it! It rose to the fly like a submerged log before waking up and taking him all over the river - the fish was definitely in charge.

Bread Fly

2007-06-22T09:10:00.000+01:00

As the rivers are all flooded...

... went carping on the bread fly

Sunday

2007-06-18T12:35:00.000+01:00

I'm going to start building an arc soon if it doesn't stop raining! As we arrived at Hayeswater carpark the mother of all downpours hit us, so with umbrellas aloft we set off up the fells walking up Hayeswater Gill, by the time we arrived there was a break in the weather revealing the stunning ampitheatre of hayeswater with its mirrored surface reflecting the crags superbly.
The break in the weather lasted the rest of the day & we managed to fish till gone 9pm before setting off back down.

Angle Tarn with St Sunday Crags shrouded in clouds.

Caddis were the order of the day

On the return leg we decided to take a short cut strait down the slope between Prison Crag & Calfgate Gill to meet the path at the filter station, quite a hairy decent (the closeness of the contours gives a clue). Saw some deer on the way down, but Tom scared them by sliding past them at a rate of knots in his cagool & waterproof pants!

He's got a chub on!

2007-06-07T03:13:00.000+01:00

Got to the river early the other evening & as it was still bright and warm there wasn't much happening on the surface, so I decided to put a huge weighted streamer through some of the deeper glides until the flies started hatching. Casting this thing on a #5 line was tricky enough without having to negotiate the overhanging trees on the far bank, but I managed to plop it down amonst them and had a solid take after searching the pool for a few minutes. This fish felt different to the trout I was expecting and certainly didn't feel like the huge fish P.A. could see from his position on the bank above me, only when I managed to get its head up and saw the gaping mouth did I realise that I had a chub on! A first for the river & a first for the fly, I didn't realise they were this far upstream.

Champagne Fishing

2007-05-23T08:23:00.000+01:00

As I'd been working in Preston the other day & the weather had been good I decided to swing by the river on my way home, I'd alerted Tom to the possibillity of a session so knew he'd have lugged his waders to work. I got to the water first so tried the nice beat Tom got the Lunker on the previous week - a few fish were rising so I put a gnat amongst them & bagged this beauty!

Tom rang shortly after so I bobbed down to the pub to meet up, after showing him the picture of this fish we bolted our pints and headed off for what would hopefully be a top evening of sport. Decided on wading a fairly new stretch(approx 1/4 mile) slowly making our way upstream with dries putting them on all the spots we could see trout holding. We had some great action, hooking into fish all the way along the length - the brownie pictured below being the best of the bunch.

After grabbing some dinner (raided the folks kitchen as no one was home) we headed further upstream to see if we could spot any big trout lurking. Wandering up through the fields I came across my old friend PA who I first started fly fishing with on the river some 15 years ago, after a good chat about all the trout holding places we know, it seems we've been catching the same fish this season! - what a great argument for catch & release.

There was one spot a good walk upriver where PA told me he'd been snapped by a good fish a few nights back, by this time it had started to get dark so on reaching the pool I tied on a comparadun which I could just about see with its white hackle in the dusk. I located a fish a few inches from the far bank undergrowth where it was just sipping off the surface & after sticking the fly in the foliage a couple times I got a nice drift past its nose & hooked into a steamtrain of a fish (pic below).
Walking back through the fields I came across a frantic Tom hooked into another good fish, as he was about 6ft above the water & stuck between two bushes it was a good job we turned up to help get a net on it.

Trophy trout day

2007-05-15T20:14:00.000+01:00

After the heavy down pours over the last few days I wasn't sure what state the river would be in on Sunday as it tends to be quite a flashy river but, plans had been made to get out, so with the lack of a river report(usually courtesy of the folks) I set out with Tom anyway.
On arriving things were looking OK, the level was up & coloured, but not too much - I think this is probably because it's been so dry of late the parched earth had soaked up much of the run off.

Being a true gent I put Tom onto a killer riffle at the head of a glide that I knew was holding a few fish & pretty much strait away he was into a nice brownie. After a good struggle & the usual acrobatics to be expected from these wildies a jubilant Tom was on the bank posing with a real cracker of a fish.

The fish took a humpy - a fly that's proving to be a real winner this season.
Wandering upstream we came across a good fish just sat in the current sipping flies off the surface, I approached this one & creeping up the bank managed to put my fly a couple of foot in front of it's nose... sure enough the fish took the fly and I was connected to a big brownie. The trout jumped a couple of times revealing huge buttery coloured flanks before tearing off down stream & snapping my tippet.

Gutted but undeterred I spotted another trout sipping down flies below the far bank undergrowth. I couldn't quite get a fly to it, so donned the waders to get a better cast & next time it rose I drifted my fly past where it was holding & was rewarded with a beautiful browie.

As forecast the rain started mid afternoon & although a few fish were still rising, mainly under overhanging trees, we decided to call it a day and head for the boozer.

Summer is Here

2007-05-11T11:44:00.000+01:00

Had a great May so far - the trees are green and lush, there's insects everywhere, it's light till nearly ten & the trout are readily taking dries. Went up to the river after work yesterday & thankfully remembered the gink this time so I didn't have to keep changing the bloody fly every fish. There were huge swarms of midges about so I stuck on a black gnat with big CDC wings that were really visible through the riffles. It didn't take long for the fish to have a go.The two trout pictured were taken from the same stretch, are roughly the same size but, are a totally different colour - not sure why?

I had a couple more nice fish walking upstream to a point where the river is culverted between high stone walls making it difficult to cast down without spooking them but, I could see fish rising... well, temptation got the better of me, so waderless I ploughed in upsteam in my jeans to get a cast at the leviathan (pictured below).

Tarn Trout

2007-05-01T15:13:00.000+01:00

With the cracking weather were having for April, decided to have a bash at one of the Lake District Tarns on Saturday, so after agreeing pre-beers on Friday that we'd set off 1st thing, we finally left Manchester at lunch. The journey up was jam free & we were in the pub a couple of hours later having a swift one prior to the stomp up the fells.

Although only a relatively short drive from Manchester the Lakes feel a million miles away & they always remind you that its well worth the effort to get up there, the scenery more than makes up for the lung-busting hike(pic is of Tom having a breather on route).
Upon reaching the Tarn we were encouraged by a few fish rising & closer inspection revealed a hatch of Olives taking place, so we ginked up a couple of Humpy's & cast to the rising trout, the buoyant flies were sitting up perfectly in the ripple.

It didn't take too long for a trout to rise to the fly but, being a bit rusty we both missed a take or two, Tom eventually hooked up first & just as I was taking a picture of him - what timing! (the pic captures his expression perfectly)

I decided to have a wander down to where the thick reed bed usually meets an area of deeper water, although the reeds hadn't had chance to grow back yet you could see a few shoots breaking the surface - I suppose it is only April!

I think this reed bed & all the fauna it supports must be a reason for the bigger than average stamp of trout in here for a high altitude tarn.

The switch of spots paid off and I was soon into a decent fish, these wildies really do put up a fight.

These tarn brownies have adapted to the dark peaty water to become a beautiful olive colour. As we were Ferrel camping that night we decided to keep a couple of the better fish for the pan, the plan was to stay until dark for the evening rise then walk down to the lake to camp but, as we'd left our torches in Manchester and a strong wind had started blowing, we changed plan & headed down before dark set in.

Back at the pub we got chatting to a local who happened to know the kitchen staff, so we asked if he thought they'd cook the trout for us, he wasn't sure as the pub was packed with diners but, it turned out one of chefs was into his fishing and said " if you pop yer head round the kitchen door in half an hour, I'll see what I can do". So for the price of a pint and a chat about tactics we were tucking into a nice plate of trout & chips!

Stayed in the pub till last orders as we'd not got a camping spec sorted but, that's the beauty of the 3 second tent, you can literally roll out of the boozer, find a flat patch of grass & throw the thing up. The nice South African barmaid tipped us off to a perfect guerrilla camping spot just round the lake. We were lucky, with it being a clear moonlit night finding a top spec wasn't too much trouble.

An evening & morning

2007-04-20T11:46:00.000+01:00

Went up to the river last night to wade a stretch, just as I got in a young lad shouts over to me from the path on the opposite bank to tell me he'd caught a 7lber on a minnow on this stretch(hhhmmm????), he looked most unimpressed with me wafting a size 20 black gnat under the bushes. Though there were plenty of midges hatching there was virtually nothing coming to the surface, so after a couple of hundred yards of no rises & a piss wet right leg(the waders tom gave me are like a bleeding colander - he probably sabotaged them 'cause I catch more fish than him)I tied on a Green Woolly Bugger & fished it like a minnow through some of the deeper glides... & 2nd cast into a likely looking pool, a couple of twitches & BANG we're in! 1st brownie of the season & not a bad fish, took 3 in all but, one had chunk bit out of its back, probably from a Cormorant or maybe one of the Mink I've seen round here.

Stayed over at my mums that night as our kid was over from Ireland with his young family, which meant that I had to kip in the lounge, which was good because I could get up early & go for a fish without disturbing anyone & had to stay up drinking till everyone went to bed... after dropping off watching Matt Hayes fishing for Sea Trout on the Towey I was awoke by my alarm at 6am ready to go & try bag me a lunker.

Decided to cross the bridge & walk around the path on the opposite bank to where I was going fish to see if I could scope out any trout & just on a bend as a riffle runs into a nice glide that hugs a steep wall there was a huge fish just sat in the current, with that I stomped back & positioned myself to get a cast at it. I stood at the head of the pool behind the riffle to give me some cover & cast down & across & just let the Wooly Bugger drift down the pool a little to where the trout should be & then jerked it back minnow like, after a couple of casts I got a follow & a take that made the surface bulge like a sub surfacing but, the hook didn't set & with a swirl it was off - B4st4rd!!!. Hoping that I hadn't spooked the pool I persisted, & with a few more casts was rewarded with another solid pull, this time the hook set & the fight was on. This fish kept its head down for a long time and although a good size I didn't think it was the Lunker I was after.

A good few minutes later I finally got it's head up and landed what was definently a PB on the river(the scale shows the fish to be about 40ish cm). With fish returned I set back to grab some brecky & head off for work.