Wednesday 8 September 2010

My Snags moving!?!

06/09/10

Well to keep me out of a straight jacket a break from the catfish really was in order and a few weeks back I found out my mountaineering buddy mark had lived in preston a few years and being a fisherman he had never fished the Ribble!! Mmmaarrrkkkk tut tut tut, the ribble is home to some barbel of epic proportions and with it being 15 minutes from his home I was egger to get him fishing it, once he feels the might of this barbel I know he would be down every weekend ;)

Id arranged to meet mark at his for 7.30, and with Google maps telling me it was hour and 15 minutes away the alarm was set for 5.30am am, leaving me enough time to get out the house by 6 and get on the motorway



What a way to start the morning, sunrise and Hendrix


With me being a human Satnav I arrived at marks earlier than expected which gave us time to visit mc donolds for some breakfast before heading off to fish the day ticket stretch at Rib Chester Bridge, Not sure how well known the stretchis but the one most people knew about was “tickled trout” but with it being right on the motorway I voted against it hoping for some peace after a manic week in work.

We pulled up in the car park just gone 8am and we decide to scout out likely looking fishing areas



A Deer on the far bank, you won’t see him on the motorway stretch ;)



Mark with mc donolds finest coffee


We finally decided on what I thought was the best looking barbel spot on the whole river so we made are way swiftly back to the car to grab the gear and got to see some comical signs


Those chickens will leave there dogs running around tut tut tut :D

10pm and after running mark through the basics of barbeling we were all armed up and ready for take, i tried to cover as many things as possible hopefully to catch us one, mark was using groundbait feeder chopping and changing between meat and boilie mid river, I was also fishing a groundbait feeder with a small pellet mid river and I also had a rod out in-between streamer weed on a lump of meat near the margins

With barbeling though it has a lot to do with watercraft and that’s why I choose the swim I did, it was walking pace water, looked fairly deep with no boils just smooth glide and down stream of some rapids, it really was just the rule book swim for a barbel


The swim on Ribble

12pm and not a lot was going on, I know from my river severn antics that on my sections of severn they only really feed at dusk into dark. But all rivers and sections are different iv had barbel out of the severn, dane and teme midday in bright sunshine when you wouldn’t expect to catch anything, so sitting it out all day for mark was the best way to try and figure out when these fish are likely to bite for his next trip


Rib Chester Bridge

Ill admit, I didn’t have a lot of faith in us catching until dusk but I didn’t want to put a dampener on marks trip so tried to get him to regularly recast his feeder hoping it might entice a big un to feed, whilst I had several naps with a tea towel over my head because it was roasting and I forgot my hat



But whilst I was sleeping there was plenty for mark to see to keep him entertained


Dragon Fly


Geese just about to land in our swim, at one point we had over 100 in front of us


Gone midday and we were still to catch until mark wound in his feeder


Yay fry for mark stuck in the feeder lol never seen that before

not having a fish in weeks I was keen to get on the action netting this badboy


Look at them rolls n wrinkles, getting right old

We put the world to rights for a good few hours before mark was to get his first proper river fish, just about to make a recast and mark thought he had hooked a snag, we had this problem a couple of times earlier in the morning because there was some proper boulders in the area, but no marks response was “whys my snag moving!!!” lol yyyiippiiii fish on. I excitedly rushed for the net just in time to slip my net under a nice chub


Marks first fish out the river a quality looking chub, not a single mark on it

Lovely fish but I was a little bit disappointed it wasn’t a barbel i had been promising, the chub was followed by what looked like a proper barbel take on my rod, which I was also letting mark hit because I wanted him to get one, but what was reeled in was big dace, which was probably just under a pound. But for a dace it was clonker

Dusk came which is the witching hour, I got my head screwed on and started regularly re casting with the feeder hoping to sound the dinner bell for the barbel. But with me on a bad luck streak at the minute mark had yet another take on his rod and which followed put me in a laughing fit for a while


Eel for mark haha it put us in a right mess with the net being used as my river chub net it has some right holes in it from getting caught in barbed wire over and over again which meant the eels was able to fall through the holes several times, twist around and get line and slime everywhere

But with marks sharp eye he was able to get a quick strike on the take and hook the eel in the bottom lip, meaning easy release (Although I did hold him in the margins for a while because I do think there’s something special about the little critters)

We sat it out for another hour into darkness finally packing up with the score being mark with 3 rod caught fish, me with nill lol

Great session mate and iv promised a winter chub and grayling trip on the same section

05/06/10 -- “Lake55”


Well this venue has had me excited for weeks, 10 minutes from my home and contains some big bream and also some very large carp. Great thing about it is the club has a policy where you have to be in the club for 2 years already before you can fish it.

Luckily for me I have time severed (not in prison the club) so Sunday morning I delicately opened my letter hoping not to lose any bits revelling my pass and in big letters from my mate Russ on the committee

“HOPE YOU ENJOY IT, NOT EASY BUT BIG FISH”

Music to my ears, sounds right up my street I don’t do easy ;)

You couldn’t have got me down the venue quicker but I had already made plans to take my sister to Manchester airport so the lake which ill refer to as “lake55” just had to wait until I got to grace its banks at 4pm. three downsides to the venue

1. Rat infestation
2. Main bypass right next to the lake and railway behind
3. I have to be off by 7 unless im doing the night

The noise on the lake

All 3 bug me a little but it’s exactly the sort of venue I want, close to home which contains some big carp (30lb+) which I can stalk in the margins

So carp was the main target for my 3 hour session and I fished it the same way I caught my pb carp of 33lb, fishing the lift method close in with a big bunch of maggots

Centerpin, crystal waggler, swivel covered in putty, hook with bunch of maggots

I decided to try and fish a few areas just so I could get a feel for the place and see if I can see any fish moving around, I put bait into likely looking margins and rotated between them to see if I could bump into a few lazy fish, but I didn’t spot any fish moving around or have any indication on the float


I know you’re out there somewhere!!

Time on the bank is always well spent though and I know what to expect next time I venture down, im not to dishearten about not catching because I wanted this to be more of reccy trip after hearing so much about it (that’s why excuse for not catching)

Conclusion

Really enjoyed my trip with mark and love the look of “Lake55”, thinking a night session after bream down there on Friday could be well on cards, them catfish are making me sad so lets see if breams can put a smile back onto my face, I cant believe though how much bad luck im having on the fishing front, before I started this blog I had loads of fish under my belt, it’s a bad omen this lol o well until next week keep on searching :)



There’s always one!!

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