Snowy River

I woke this morning and seeing I had planned a days fishing was
glad to see the weather looked good .
A quick trip to the tackle shop was next , I had agreed to meet Mike
http://manchesterfishingfiend.blogspot.com/
at 10am , when we met up he pointed out he had a few inch of snow
covering his roof and that the river may be both up and cold .
We decided to stay with the previous days plans and head for the
river .I have only fished the river a couple of times but lower
down with phil .
http://www.fishingaddict-phil-k.blogspot.com/
We arrived at a snowy river and it looked great , Mike was
enthusiastic about the river and was soon showing me some
nice glides and pools , apart from the odd bit of rubbish washed
down from towns higher up it was really good water for the fly.
We were talking about technique and as I was showing Mike
my method with the fly, I hooked into a nice Brown Trout , it
turned out to be the only fish but the conditions were against
us .

As we made our way up stream we tried a couple of fishy
looking spots and went on a mini mountaineering coarse,
I have got and been in some hard to reach places in the
pursuit of angling but this was a whole new level it was like
being a kid again , every little obstacle we got over was
fantastic fun and made the day as much as the fishing did.
We found some waterfalls and a lot of little glides and pools
which will no doubt bring a few fish in better conditions.

Well a Snowy river is not a bad place to be , I enjoyed the day
and company , I caught a lovely fish , but at the end of the day
even though the fishing was hard the conditions were against us
we were both fishing well and that has to be a good sign for the
season ahead .

No fishing this week

I gave the fishing a break this week , not that I would not have gone given the chance .
Having got some stuff done and out of the way Saturday we planned to go out for a walk on Sunday , it ended up not being a bad day although I didn't walk far .
At around 10am I was sat sorting out Scarlett's hair , my little baby is fast becoming a girl when my mate who I used to fly fish on the old Townsend water on the Ribble and Hodder rang me to say he was going to watch the rugby we go to the home matches and have season tickets , did I fancy a ride ? he also told me his Dad Len , who I learned a lot about fly fishing from was coming along , so a quick word with the Mrs and Logan and our plan was changed .
Logan came with me and although the game was not the best we enjoyed the day , a win for Wigan in the last minute helped . The most enjoyable part was we were soon talking about old times spent fishing and reviving old memories and funny story's that we all remember but are not mentioned or thought about enough .
Our stories took us from the canary islands to the river Lyon on the side of the Tay in Scotland , in fact during the car journey I would think most rivers in the north west of england were talked about , when I think about it I have fished in a wide variety of places and although over the past few years a lot of it has been by myself good company only makes the memories sweeter . I was lucky to have shared some good days with Phil this year and also got a day with Mike the other week I get as much pleasure now just being out and if Idont catch it's not the end of the world .
We talked about a lot of people some sadly no longer with us but most of the funny stories involved my dad .
Another big plus for me was Len talked me into putting my name down for his club and said he would nominate me , ok it will cost a small fortune but I'm in a privileged position being asked the wait may take some time but you only live once and the lengths of river are in my opinion the best in the area . Rob my mate is a active member of the club and I have a ready made fishing partner who is good company and a decent angler to boot , he already takes me on as a guest , now my interest in the fly fishing is rekindled I hope to spend a few more days in his company this coming season with a bit of luck .

Getting some practice

Well with the coarse season coming to an end and the weather keeping the river's up, I decided to tie a few flies I'm a little out of practice , I could do with a wee bit of new material as well , but to start with I kept it simple a few bugs and PTN's .
I plan to rekindle my fly fishing a little this year , I was well and truly bitten with it years ago.
It was only when I got a bit more time and money and started to spend both on the side of a river that I realized how much I missed it .When I was younger I thought a lot of my time was spent on the Hodder and Ribble if I had only known then how valuable free time was I would have spent longer .
My tying as never been great but on the other hand it's fooled a few fish , I tend to be my worse critic and seeing some of the flies my mate used to catch on I think the way you fish must be as important .
Another old bloke I fished with(thinking about it he was only a bit older than me now )had a fly box that seemed to consist of just various Montana nymphs quite well tied and in various sizes ,materials, colours and weight's he seemed to catch even though he was the only person I knew using that pattern on the river , he even used them for Sea Trout .
As a lad I always loved looking at the flies people used and tied and seem to remember the neat boxes . So having looked at my old flies I kept with a little 16's weighted bug , I'ts an easy pattern and you can vary it I tend to stick with 2 or 3 variations else my box becomes a mish mash of flies that I will never use this is a old favorite , it looks a bit out dated but I'm sure with a bit of practice and the odd fish for confidence I will get there .

Looking back (old photo's)Happy Birthday!

The Ribble in the 70's a boot lace ,We all have to start somewhere .
A little river in Scotland produced a lovely Trout (no sheep this trip)
A couple of Chub from the Ribble in the 80's the M6 bridge can just be seen
(nice T-shirt)
A typical day on the Dane for my dad ,with his old Mitchel reel
Me and Len set out for a day at stocks late 80's
A river somewhere and below three generations

It was my dads Birthday today so I took the kids to see their Grandad and wish him a Happy Birthday, while I was their we got talking and we got some old pictures out (all pre digital) The picture above was my Dads best Barbel a good double . I will try and upload some more in the future . The pictures bring back memories the trout (A little river in Scotland )was a hot topic 20 odd years ago I was sure it was a wild Brownie Len who basically taught me to fly fish thought it was a Sea Trout to be honest I'm not sure to this day I do know it was a lovely fish . I scoured for decent photo's the ones I found are not great a real shame because we have had some good fish , I hope my Dad can get a few days this year he seems to have spent his well earned retirement preparing or recovering from operations , any way here's to the future .....Happy Birthday Dad .

A nice day on the River (part 2 Grayling)

Grayling are a true sign that water quality is good , and the River Dane now as a very healthy population which is fantastic , this was an end to a lovely day this fish on it's own would have sent me home happy , the top photo is one of the best Iv'e took with my new camera and I think it captures what a truly beautiful fish the Grayling is .
After catching a good number of Chub the mist started to fall with it the temperature dropped and ice started to form on puddles . I made my way to my favorite Grayling glide , this fast swim seems a favorite and it's the spot I caught my first Dane Grayling some 20 years ago .
Grayling and ice seem to go together and as my float drifted down the glide and then darted under I almost new the the fish that thudded away at the end of my line was the Lady of the Stream even before she broke the surface .
Some people can't understand why we fish and then let go what we catch , well as I knelt in the shallows releasing the fish she seemed to wait I don't know how long I watched her but I was lost it may of been seconds it could have been 10 minutes I really don't know but for those moments I could not have been more at peace . What price can you put on that ?
This was a day to remember just good to be able to enjoy the river all her wildness away from any troubles and worries , thats what angling as given me an escape and today was as good as it gets .

A nice day on the River (part 1 Chub)

Well what a nice day on the river . I was woke up by the kids at 7.30am and the first thing I did was to look outside it was a bit bleak . The weather had been milder than for the last 2 weeks but this had brought a touch of rain . I was unsure if it had put enough down to effect the river levels but with the coarse season on the rivers coming to an end I thought it would be worth a ride whatever .
I had text Phil but he was making an early start , he has the fly fishing bug , this is really good for me I have had the same bug for many years and I can see some good days over the next few months .
Saturday afternoon I mentioned going fishing too the Mrs she said ok dinner time would be good! so that put an early start out but at least I knew come dinner time I could be on the road .
It rained most of the morning and at one point I thought I may miss out completely .
So a bit late about 1pm off I went , just as a precaution my tip rod and a couple of feeders was took out but as always I hoped for conditions to allow me to use the center pin and float . The roads where clear and the trip took me 25 mins ,your first glimpse of the Dane is as you approach off the motorway bridge ''it looked spot on'' .
Making my way across the field I spoke to a fisherman coming off ''very quiet'' we had a quick chat and he had been fishing the pin with out a bite , after the Gowy last week I knew how he felt but a change to the tip had brought him a Barbel . This was encouraging if the Barbel are feeding then it's normally a good sign that the water temp is up a bit .
I now made my way to a spot at the far end of the club length . This area has brought me some good fish over the years but it's a bit of a tricky swim , not to fish but to get down to the water , it involves scaling down a wall a job that was very easy a few years ago but not so easy now ! Halfway down and I thought it was not such a good idea but seeing the slight ledge I was on was slippery going back up was out of the question as well ''I was stuck'' after what seemed an age I finally got down and started to fish .
When I arrive the first thing is to feed , this is before I set up my rod ,normally 5 mins of a steady trickle of bait , Maggots on this occasion , in the summer you get plagued by Minnows in all but the swiftest of swims , no such problems in the colder months . This steady feed gets the fish on the feed and I walk a bit upstream so they are going down into the area I know holds the fish , this carries on as I set my rod up and also I have another couple of minutes before I start to fish . I often feed while I'm playing a fish and after it's landed I rest the swim a little just feeding , on a mall river like the Dane I have found this is the best way especially with Chub which can be spooked .
On this occasion it worked, second run down and my float slipped away a nice 3lb Chub came to the net''good start'' , this continued several more around 2lb but also two over 4lb and a nice fat one which pushed just over 5lb (on my dodgy scales ) I lost a couple with hook pulls and I also lost a Barbell it looked around 5lb to 6lb it unfortunately found a snag my own fault took the pressure off a bad mistake on this little river . I finished with 11 Chub from the swim and decided a move was in order as the bites dried up .
Now getting up the wall , the better part of valor decided to wade down stream an option that could now be used as disturbing the swim didn't matter .
I had to make do with taking the photos my self my photographer had gone fly fishing , my next purchase will be a tripod , balancing the camera on my bag is not the best .

Angling Times

Over the weekend I was contacted by the Angling Times ,they had seen a photo of Logan with a Chub I posted on here a few weeks back . Any way at a very young age it seems he has achieved
getting his picture in the paper something I have failed to do after 30 years of angling . I will take a little credit , Logan has had a good teacher where as I had my Dad ( when he reads this it will bring a wry smile) .
Joking apart my Dad gave me the greatest gift when I was young ''his time'' ok he will admit back then he loved fishing but was way from being an expert , what he did do was make every trip enjoyable and a lesson not only fishing but in the country side, he lit a candle in me that still burns very bright inside me today. I always count myself as very lucky ,I can call him Dad but my best best friend as well .
If Logan enjoys his time half as much with me has I did with my Dad I will be more than happy and I'm sure so will Logan .