Sea Fishing & Walking in the UK

Blooming Hot Orchids in Lancashire

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Bee Orchid on the edge of a lake at Mere Beck

The weather here in Lancashire has been truly fantastic this last week and even though we’ve had a few very heavy showers we’ve managed to get out a couple of times. One mini walk round Mere Sands Wood nature reserve where the Marsh Orchids were flowering in the ‘meadow walk’, not much bird activity as I guess it’s too hot for them.

The other trip was last Saturday evening where we went to Mere Beck to have a quick practice with our new fly fishing gear.

With the weather being so hot and humid we were convinced there would be a hatch of all kinds of bugs on the lakes but it was strangely quiet – almost as if it was too hot even for these tiny creatures.

I did spot this beautiful Bee Orchid on the edge of one of the smaller lakes and although I only had the smaller camera with me I still manage to get a pic before the light faded completely.

I’m sure most of photography is being in the right place at the right time – better equipment cannot make an image that you didn’t take, it’s can just make a better image. Obviously there is a skill in ’seeing’ the image in the first place and the technical aspects of getting the image into the camera but my moto is still “be in the right place at the right time”.

Marsh Orchid in 'The Meadow' at Mere Sands

Not sure what we’re doing this weekend, the paving at the back of the house is almost complete so I’ve the side door in the garage to replace but I’ve a sneaky feeling we may go fishing, just for a change…

Photography Practice and Avocets at Marshide

Avocet at RSPB Marshside, Southport

As the weather has been so good this week we went for a quick walk to RSPB Marshside, Southport, to see if we could spot the Avocets and chicks that have started breeding on the marshes in recent years. As per normal we took almost every piece of optical equipment we owned assuming the birds would be miles and miles away.

Shock of shocks! There birds were on the rapidly drying up pond as close to the road as they could possibly be so our walk quickly became a good excuse for me to practice with the Canon EOS 450D I purchased a couple of months ago. The chicks were to far away to get a good photo but I managed to get a few others.

Although I prefer the top image of the Avocet it was a tough decision as the reflection of this other one and the birds profile go together so well.

Black Tailed Godwits being boisterous in their summer plumage.

After spending some time just watching the birds from the hides at the reserve we walked round the old sand reclamation plant where I did my best to take a few photos of the smaller birds that seemed to tease us where ever we went, eventually getting a shot of a male Linnet in the evening sun. I tried to get a few photos of the young rabbits but they were just too fast – even though there seemed to be hundreds of them.

After driving past the sands works so many times it was great to walk round it for a change. The amount of birds, animals, grasses and flowers that thrive on the marshes in the area is astounding and I’ll bet most people who drive past have no idea of the fantastic diversity on their doorstep.

Sometimes something as simple as grass can make an impact. Looking towards Blackpool in the distance.

Even more grass - I like the vibrant green vertical stems on this one. Camera practice - adjusting depth of field.

Micro Tope – Sea Fishing at Blackpool

Blackpool, North Wall - Looking a Bit Like Rain

After a weeks worth of truly dismal weather we joined the guys from BLAS (Blackpool and Layton Angling Society) for an evening sea fishing match, fishing a couple of hours either side of high water at Blackpool North Wall.

We met at the boat club on the prom where the weather looked like it was preparing to throw a few suprises our way, but the forcast was for the wind to drop so we set up and got on with it just as the incoming tide hit the bottom of the wall. The swell was fierce and although we had initially been hoping for Ray or Smoothhounds it was looking more and more like Bass were going to be coming out – conditions looked perfect, the bottom being churned up nicely and a nice big surf.

As it turned out no Bass were caught by us although we heard of a few coming out either side of our group – typical.

My First Shore Caught Tope

About an hour in I managed to snare a small flounder that had engulfed my crab bait and impaled itself on a size 2/0 hook intended for slightly biger quarry. I decided to try something different and as the swell seemed to drop slightly I cast a sandeel fairly close in to try for a dogfish – not something I’d usually target, but this was a match and a fish is a fish after all.

While preparing my next rig with a crab I noticed my line go slack and start to move downtide, assuming the lead had been broken out by weed or the surf I wound down only to find it continuing to move at a very odd angle.

A little thump told me something was on but I had no idea what it could be until I landed my first ever shore caught Tope. Not the biggest specimen by any stretch of the imagination but still a perfectly formed mini shark, forget the match – this was brilliant.

After chatting to a few of the guys who fish the wall regularly during summer (they live in Blackpool) apparently this is fairly common and you can usually catch them using baby squid as bait.

We didn’t have and squid but you can bet that Wendy launched a sandeel bait seaward in her effort to snare one of these little beauties.

Wendy's Second Whiting

That was it for me although Dave got another small Tope on crab, Millsy a Whiting, Sparky a Whiting and Wendy, after trying every trick in the book managed to land a couple of Whiting.

As per usual with these matches the weather played a huge part in our lack of success and no one managed to land an insize fish but the evening was great, with good company and, much to our relief stayed rain free even if the wind didn’t drop as we’d hoped.

That’s probably going to be our last sea fishing session until we go to Anglesey but we are going to try and get out and do some fly fishing next weekend as all the new goodies we’d ordered after our lessons at Mere Beck arrived last week.

We’ve sorted everything out (as you do) and have got a couple of 8 weight rods for salt water fly fishing and a couple of cheaper 6 weight ones for normal fly fishing – for those times when no matter how hard you try time, tide and weather are against you. I’ll chat more about the gear once we’ve tried it.

So next weekend the plan is to go back to Mere Beck for a bit of practice on a lake before we attempt fly fishing in the sea and maybe, just maybe, catch a trout.

Bolton Angler Rescued, Aberdaron, North Wales

It goes to show you can never be too careful while fishing as this chap found out last weekend. Apparently a wave swept him off the rocks near Aberdaron and he was in the water for an hour when the coastguard helicopter winched him to safety.

See the full story here on the BBC news website – Angler rescued after hour in sea

A reminder to us all – fishing is great and we all ‘push the limit’ every so often, but it’s not worth risking your life for.

Garden, House and New Toys

We’ve not been fishing for what seems like ages, not through any drastic reason except that we finally got round to doing some much needed DIY round the house.

The main part of this is finally getting the rear garden, which floods all the time, paved with sandstone so we can actually do something with it rather than just watch the weeds get ever taller. This should hopefully be finished this week so we spent all yesterday painting the fence before the new stone is laid.

I did manage to get out during lunch a few times in Bolton and wander round Queens Park where there has been a huge hatch of Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum), Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) and a few beautiful Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens).

Common Blue Damselfly

Can you tell I like Damselflies?

There is a great website for The British Dragonfly Society which I always go to so that I can positively identify what species I am have seen.

On the fishing front, although we’ve not been out, we have purchased a couple of fly rods each. One for heavy / salt water and the other lighter for lakes etc. They all arrived this week with new reels, lines, flies, everything!!!! I was just like Christmas. There are few things better than getting a load of new kit to try out and it took a lot of willpower to do the DIY. I’ll write a new entry about it all once the rest of it gets here and we’ve had chance to play with it all.

And just to close this post I’d like to say how much we’ve enjoyed Springwatch this year – there’s been great chemistry between the presenters (Chris Packham had some big boots to fill but I think he did very well as a replacement for Bill Oddie), some fantastic photography and stories, and I’ve learnt a few new things about the wonderful wildlife in the UK. To say we were jealous of  Simon King filming at Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey, would have been a slight understatement – we’ve fished there (and caught Bass) , seen those Terns and chilled out almost exactly where he was sat – the jammy bugger!

Learning to Fly (fish) at Mere Beck

First View of Mere Beck - The Pond Outside the Shop

With the weather being so fantastic it was time for Wendy’s birthday present
- a bit early but what can you do?

It’s not every girl that wants fly fishing lessons for her birthday and who was I to argue, so after a bit of last minute day off juggling with work we went to Mere Beck Fly Fishery which is just up the road from where we live for a bit of tuition and an afternoon of fly fishing.

On arrival Gordon had already set up one rod then explained what goes where while setting up the other. The kit we would be learning on wasn’t cheap and was in great condition. We had a quick natter about the line, rod and reel rating (which is all to do with the ‘weight’ of the line) and flies then headed down to some water where we would have a go.

I’ll not go into all the details of learning to fly fish but after about an hour or so we changed the dry flies we’d been practicing with (dry flies float and imitate surface bugs – we were using them so we could see what we were doing) to ‘wet’ flies which would sink and imitate swimming fly larvae of all types. It took a while to get used to not seeing the fly in the water but after a bit of practice we could judge approximately where it would land and by the time we stopped for lunch we’d got the hang of it.

Wendy Showing Me How it's Done

After finding a beautiful spot next to one of the lakes at the far end of the fishery we sat for a while and just watched the wildlife do it’s thing in front of us while we had a bit of a break, a bite to eat and a can of pop. And the wildlife at this time of year here in Lancashire is stunning.

We saw a Stoat, numerous Water Voles, Kingfisher, Kestrel and all the usual suspects such as Moorhen, Chaffinch and Canada Geese. And that was just the big stuff – there were hoards of butterflies and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Common Blue Damselflies.

Fisherman's Cabin - Great Place for a Brew

Throughout the afternoon we tried many different types of sinking and floating flies, all made to look like specific types of aquatic life but the fish weren’t feeding.

To be honest we knew the chances of catching something on this trip were slim to non-existent as the trout would be tucked away at the bottom of the lakes or under some reeds, waiting for the light to dim and the temperature to drop. It would have been great to catch something but it wasn’t realy the reason we’d gone.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post the main reason we wanted to have a go at fly fishing was to see if it was something we could learn as a new method of sea fishing, primarily to target Bass during the summer.

Did it succeed? You bet it did. When I picked up the rod which weighed less that most of the leads I cast into the sea my instant thought was

this will make roaming around the coast a damn sight easier.

All you’d need would be a reel, spare spool, rod and flies – compared to what we normally carry this would be almost weightless! In my head I’ve already got a few marks sorted where I’d like to try for Mackerel, Pollack and of course, Bass.

In fact it’s got us so fired up that we’re thinking as well as getting a set of gear each for salt water we’d get another lighter set for ‘normal’ fly fishing for those days when weather, tide times, bad timing or just plain bad luck mean you can’t fish in the sea no matter how hard you try. I know there are some fly fisheries very close to where we stay on Anglesey.

As for what gear we’re going to get that going to take a bit more looking into – the information is out there, I’ve been looking at the United Kingdom Saltwater Fly Fishing and the Nick Hart Fly Fishing website,  it’s just going to take a while to sort out what we’ll need – rather than what we want…

Time flew and it seemed the afternoon just vanished so we handed back the gear to Gordon and after a chat and a cold can of coke from the fridge in the shop left just as a few people started to arrive, the ‘peak’ time at the moment being fishing into dusk. Until now we’d had the place to ourselves – probably because the fishing was poor during the heat of the day but we didn’t care – learning something new is easier without an audience.

Will we go back even though it’s not sea fishing? Hell yes!

Wendy Getting the Hang of the Roll Cast

Early Morning Smoothhound Hunt

The 'Rock Channel', low water a mile past the 'T' Groyne, Wallasey

Just how fantastic has the weather been this past week?

I’ve never walked our local River Douglas so much, nor seen so much wildlife – from Arctic Terns flying up the river searching for fish to Painted Lady butterflies ‘dancing’ in the evening sun, it’s just been magnificent.

I’d been looking forward to giving the ‘Rock Chanel’ a go for years and now that I’d finally got some decent chest waders from Scierra I set off at 7am Sunday morning, armed with peeler crab as bait, to meet up with a few of the guys from wirralseafishing.co.uk at on Kings Parade, Wallasey, in front of the ‘T’ Groyne. Our target was to be the early summer run of Smoothhounds, we knew they’d caught a few from the boats in the area we were to fish although obviously further out. It was going to be big fish or blank.

The trek to this mark needs to be experienced first hand, it’s not nick-named ‘The Long Walk’ for nothing. It starts off as you wait for the tide to ebb enough to get across a deep gully that will give you access to what will become a sand bar bar running about a mile and a half out towards the far horizon. We managed to get across with inches to spare from the top of our chest waders then slogged through knee to waist deep water or soft sand to the end of the sand bar for about 1/2 hour – it felt like years and I was absolutely knackered by the time we got there.

Just a quick safety note here: Chest waders are essential and you need to pack up fishing and leave an hour after low water – the tide floods quicker than it ebbs and where we were fishing you wouldn’t be able to see it coming in behind you.

Looking NW from The "Rock Channel'. Not a soul in sight - perfect...

We launched our crab laden 3/0 hooks into the rapidly appearing channel and waited…

And waited…

And waited some more. As the sun beat down on us I was thankful that I’d brought a few cans of pop to drink and that my waders were breathable – some of the guys had full rubber or neoprene waders – how the hell they managed in the 25°C heat I’ve no idea.

If the Smoothhounds had of been there we should have caught almost straight away according to Kev, who’s had them (with photographic evidence) and an hour after low water we packed up and headed back.

As we got nearer the ‘beach’ where the sun had attracted a horde of people it was good to see the life-guards getting people off the bank and warning them of the incoming tide, most of whom would have been swimming to get back to shore an hour later.

So, no hounds yet but they’ll be here soon, and when they are I’ll be doing the ‘long walk’ once again to get them.

No New Windows but Great Weather

Silverdale - looking across Morecambe Bay to Arnside Knott

Although I’d planned to have a go at sea fishing somewhere this weekend my plans were thrown out almost as soon as I’d made them.

We were due to have some windows replaced but the bloke was late and when he got here they were the wrong size so that didn’t get done. While he was here, supposedly fitting windows I was going to go and buy a new bait pump (mine is trashed) but as it would take me an hour there and another one back I wouldn’t have been able to make it back in time for the other bloke to come and quote for re-flagging the back garden.

He was also late – grrrrr.

This now meant that no matter what time I got up to the shop I wouldn’t have been able to pump bait for either Saturday night or Sunday.

Realising that the piscatorial gods were set against us, on Sunday we went up to the tackle shop and purchased the new a narrow bore bait pump, which is easier to work, and a few other bits and pieces but we also took some lunch with us and went for a bit or drive round the Silverdale area until we found somewhere to park up and enjoy the weather.

And what great weather we’ve had this weekend – it seems a shame that we didn’t manage to get out fishing but the house, I suppose, has to come first – dammit.

Another Sea Angling Washout at Fleetwood

Talking Tactics - Fleetwood Channel

With South Easterly winds and the weather playing silly buggers I didn’t hold out much hope for today’s sea fishing match up at Fleetwood but still, it’s always worth a go – with sea fishing you’re never 100% certain what’s going to happen or what you’ll catch.

As I’d successfully given Wendy my cold I arrived on my own and met up with a few like minded fools that were daft enough to brave the weather. And boy did we have some weather, cold winds from the SE and then about an hour before the end of the match the heavens opened, it was incredible and I was just thankful I’d decided to take my waders else I’d have been soaked.

Compare the picture above with the ones taken a month ago – how can the weather be worse now than it was then – looks like we’re in for a typical British summer.

Unfortunately the fishing for me, Millsy and Dave  turned out to be just as bad as I’d predicted with no bites let alone any fish but to either side of us Shacky, Sparky and JP managed a few Flounder, Eels and the odd Rockling. Looking back at it now there doesn’t seem to be any reason for our failure to connect with fish,  lack of peeler crab for bait may have had a bit to do with it but then Dave blanked and he was using the same Peeler as Shacky who eventually won the match.

Fishing! It does your head in!

Undoubtedly the best part of the day was seeing a small Porpoise swimming up the River Wyre and then a couple of hours later swimming back out again. I’ve seen them in North Wales but never in Lancashire so that was definately worth getting up for.

Summer Approaches Swiftly

Not much to report this week as work has been a bit busy and I’ve had a bit of a cold – you know – the type of cold that turns your face into a ball of slime. Not nice.

The good thing is, after hearing the Swifts screeching last night, I saw a couple on the way to work this morning. It seems the birds know summer is on the way even if the weather doesn’t – it’s hammered it down for the past couple of days, turning the garden into a pond.

Party tomorrow for my Dads 70th then hopefully a bit of sea fishing on Sunday, not sure where yet but I think the BLAS boys are having a match up at Fleetwood so we may join them up there for an hour or two.