You can't keep a good quest down – I know they're there and one day I will finally achieve my goal. Today wasn't that day.
Other than chasing dreams on the river, I've been roach fishing up at Maceys in Bury, and on the Old River in Irlam. Fishing caster shallow at both venues I've been very frustrated missing a high % of bites. A switch to a wider gape hook saw me improve my bite to fish ratio but theres still a long way to go with the fine tuning of my rig before I'm happy.
One very pleasing thing I've discovered is incredible growth rate of the roach in the Old River, last spring we couldnt catch roach any bigger than half and ounce – this summer the fish are averaging 4oz – looks like it will be a cracking fishery again in the near future.
I also had good sport on the Old River with pike, taking 6 fish to 6lbs by fishing a sleeper rod live bait just a foot or two past the end of my keepnet. Great to see this place making such a good comeback.
yes – that all we can catch….
going to give it a go further round to the weir and bridge sometime this month….
Is the old river very clear water? The roach look typically colourful clear water fish.
Just sat at home watching mr crabtree on telly and it reminded me of your blog. I reckon it must have been 2 1/2 – 3 years ago when i was following this blog. Nice to see you haven't given up on your quest for a barble from the irwell. Good luck the day will come.
wow! Just looked back through some old posts. It was 2008 when i last looked at the blog. where did the time go?
Fishing is the most popular sport in the world and can be a very fun, relaxing venture.