Last hour of light on The Sluice

Monday:

The sun was almost setting, but I couldn't resist a quick bash for Tench on the Southport Drains. I wasn't to be disappointed either. I only fished for around an 45 minutes, but in that time I managed to catch a perfect Tench of around 3 and a half pounds. It was a fabulous colour, more of a shade of Brown than the usual Green. It fell for ledgered bread flake on my tip rod. I'm beginning to favour this particular method of fishing at the moment, it pretty much guarantees great results. I can thank Gordie for this, as he gave me the Idea whilst I was fishing on the Yarrow.

A lovely coloured Tench off The Sluice

Night session on the River Ribble

A night session on the Ribble was on the menu for today's fishing. Myself Ben and Chris headed to a cracking spot on the Ribble. The peg was a bit of a trek to get to, but was well worth it. We were rods in by around 10.30pm. Ben was into the first fish of the night. A cracking Chub of around 3 and a half pounds a couple more Chub followed, until a screaming run on his left hand rod signaled the first Barbel of the night. His was into some serious rod bending action, when disaster struck, somehow during the fight the hook pulled free. He was gutted, it would seem that he had lost a decent size fish. I was soon to receive my first River Ribble Barbel action myself. My left hand rod was bent over and I could feel the weight of a decent size Barbel. It weighed 5lb 12oz. Not the biggest specimen in the river but a cracking fish all the same. At around 6am Ben's alarm screamed into action again. He was into another Barbel, after being pulled all over the river his line went tight, he'd been taken into a snag. He weighed up the situation and decided to wade in after it. This decision paid off, as he landed the biggest Barbel of the session at 6lb 2oz. He deserved it, good fishing mate. In total I had one fish, Ben had four, and Chris unfortunately blanked on this occasion. We packed up at around 7am A cracking nights fishing and a great laugh.

5lb 12oz My first River Barbel3lb 7oz Chub for Ben

Best Barbel of the session at 6lb 2oz

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Chub session on the River Yarrow

The temptation for a sneaky session on The River Yarrow was too hard for me to resist tonight. So I made my way down to my favouite peg of the moment. The surroundings are absolutely fabulous the forna and wild life there are in fantastic form. There is a Kingfisher that frequents the area and often fly's past my swim, it's a little too fast to take a photo though. This stretch of river is pretty much neglected by other anglers, infact I can recall only ever seeing one other angler there the whole time I have been there. Apart from the odd dog walker I'm usually on my own. I managed to land two Chub this evening. The first one was around a pound and second one was around 2lbs. I remembered to take a photo this time.

Nice Yarrow Chub around 2lb's

Another Sluice session = 3 Bream

I headed down to The Sluice at 9.30am. Once again on my tip rod. I have realised that this water pretty much switches off late mornings until early evening. I'll be avoiding fishing there during this period in future. I couldn't get a bite. I did catch one small Roach on my float rod though. ;-)

The Evening Return.....
Time for another evening session on The Sluice. I arranged to meet Ben there at 8pm. Once again I fished on my tip rod. Using Bread flake, I caught 3 Bream Hybrids the Biggest being around 2lbs. Ben lost a decent Bream at the net and we had to wait a while until his next bite. It was worth the wait though, a Bream of around 3lbs.

Sunset session on the Sluice

I decided to head to The Sluice for a couple of hours, I arrived at 7ish and fished until around 10pm. I fished on my tip rod, using the same tactics as I'd used on the canal. 4lb main line, Cage feeder with bread crumb to a 3lb 10" hook length on a size 8 hook finished off with a big piece of bread flake. My first fish was a Bream hybrid of around a pound and a half. I had to wait until I was almost ready to pack up until my next fish, which was a Tench of around 3 and a half to 4 pounds. Unfortunately the batteries had gone in my scales, so I wasn't able to weigh it. I'm going to keep at this way of fishing for a bit as it guarantees bigger fish. I have proven to myself that if I want to catch lots of fish like Roach and Skimmers I can do so. Time for me to winkle out the odd specimen or two.

Windy session on the canal

Saturday

Although the weather was very windy and overcast, I still made my way down to Sollom for a few hours. I was lucky that the rain held off all day. I fished on my float rod and It made casting pretty difficult. I ended up in the tree opposite a couple of times. Rash came down for a few hours. In total I had 33 fish, mostly small Roach and the odd Perch and Skimmer.


Sunday

Had a recce with Ben on some stretches of the River Yarrow that I have yet to fish. Ben suggested that we head down to The River Darwen. We set up our tip rods and fished on maggot feeders. We managed to get a couple of bites and were robbed of our maggots a couple of times. We didn't stay there too long and after a few hours made our way down to The Yarrow. A couple of hours down there produced no fish for me, Ben managed to catch an Eel ;-)

River Yarrow, Chub by design

I headed down to the River Yarrow for an hour or two, and my quarry was to be Chub. I set up my rod on a stick float and was into a Chub within 5 minutes. A lovely fish of around a pound and a half. Most regretfully I didn't take a photograph of it and I didn't manage to catch another one. I will definitely be heading back there for another go some time soon.

Brilliant session at Sollom

I couldn't resist another float rod session at Sollom. I was fishing by around 8.00am and caught my first roach after around 20 seconds. A good start and perhaps I was to be in for a good session. Indeed I was. I caught 41 fish in total, a mixed bag of Skimmers, Roach, Perch, Bream and of course a customary Eel. The biggest of the bunch was a Bream of around 2lb's........

Another mixed bag of fish

Sluice is still not producing the goods

I arrived at Sixfields for a session on my float rod. I was to find out soon enough that the sluice is still not fishing at it's best. In just over 3 hours I caught only one fish. There were Tench bubbling all over the place in my swim, but they didn't seem to want my hookbaits. I packed up and headed over to the canal again. I was rods in by around 6pm and stayed until 9ish. In this time I managed to land 26 fish, 25 Roach and 1 Skimmer Bream. Sollom is fishing really well at the moment. Rash also fished and caught 10 fish. My pupil is doing well and is starting to catch fish ;-) I quite fancy having a bash on the River Douglas as this is quite close to where I live. Some cracking Chub in there I hear. I'll try and have a go in the next week or so

Another Sollom Bream

I met Rasheed at Sollom to give him a few pointers and see if I could get him catching. He's been fishing at Sollom and not catching too many fish. It was quite easy to spot the problems. Basically he was fishing too heavy. I made him a hook length of only 2 and a half pounds and changed his hook from a size 10 to a 20. We had a fish within 30 seconds. I met him again around 7.30ish, the fishing was rather slow. I did though manage to catch 5 fish, the pick of the bunch was another Bream of around 3lb's.

Yours Truly with another Bream

A couple of hours on the float rod

On Monday when I was sorting through my Pole stuff, I found a Float rod that I'd acquired last year. It's a pretty old Diawa, i'd estimate from the 1970's. It has a bit of a retro feel about it. I headed to Sollom for a couple hours. I've not used a float rod for ages. It was good to get back to basics. I even caught a few fish, 9 in total. The best fish coming just before I packed up. A cracking Bream of around 3 pounds.

Another cracking Sollom Bream

First Pole session of the year

I finally got around to digging all my Pole gear out. At around 3.00pm I headed down to Sollom to get reacquainted with an old friend. It's around a year since I last used it. The bites were slow at first, and when they did finally come, my swim was disturbed by a constant stream of Narrowboats. They had all passed by around 6 ish though. I was getting a bite a chuck after this, but I was struggling to hit the bites. That was until I changed my technique. Instead of lifting into the bites, I started to strike to the side. The result was amazing. Instead of a bite a chuck I was getting a fish a chuck. I caught a lot of Roach. I'll take comfort from the fact that there is a saying in fishing. "If you're catching Roach then you're doing something right" This is because they're rather tackle shy. In total I caught 23 fish. I can't wait to have another go.

Not a bad mix of fish

Carp session

Went Carping. It was rubbish!

2 X Canal sessions = 21 fish

I couldn't resist another quickie on the canal this afternoon. I fished for a couple of hours. I caught a total of 13 fish, a good mix of Roach, Skimmers, Perch, and of course no trip to the canal would be complete without a traditional Eel....

Another sneaky trip back to the canal after work produced me another 8 fish. The pick of the bunch was a fabulous Bream of 3lb 9oz. There are some quality Bream at the canal at Sollom and are well worth targeting. This is about the biggest one I've caught from Sollom

3lb 9oz Breamthere so far.

Quick trip to the canal

A 3 hour session on the canal at Sollom produced me 2 fish. One small roach, and an Eel of around 1lb. I fished on my pole top section. It was good to get back to basics for a change.