Happy New Year, Welcome 2010

A White Christmas at Holyoke House

After deciding that we were going to do more fishing than a sea fishing addict over the Christmas break the weather turned a little cold and we had snow laying on the ground for days here in lowland Lancashire. The last time I remember this happening I was still at School, and that was some time ago.

As I work in Bolton I ended up doing a lot of my website builds via the internet from home as the roads were just too dangerous. In fact the only bit of driving I did was to pick up my younger brother up from Manchester and give him a lift up to Longridge, where there was a serious amount of snow but with a bit of careful driving it was manageable.

We spend a very relaxing couple of days at my parents where the snow made the house look like a scene straight from a postcard, and appart from that just chilled (pardon the pun) out while hoping for the weather to warm a little.

I know, I know, winter fishing is all about getting cold, but as I get older I like to fish where I can at least feel my fingers. Last weekend BLAS had a match up at Fleetwood and the signs looked good for a quick trip but sod law, I picked up a shirvery cold type bug so I ended up watching TV instead :(

As for the weather? Well, I went to work yesterday and everything was fine then my boss rang me this morning telling me not to go in as Bolton was under 6 inches of snow with lorries and cars abandoned everywhere – it didn’t look that bad here but by lunchtime it was, once again, covered in snow.

And just when we thought the snow had cleared!!!

I just hope it clears soon because although I can work from home I prefer to work from the office where there are less distractions and more resources.

As per usual, this year we plan to go sea fishing more, walking more, birding watching more, you get the idea… just generally being outside – more. I’m also intending in taking a lot more photographs and maybe entering a few competitions but only if I think the photo’s are worthy, and after working in an independent camera shop my standards of ‘what is a good photo’ are probably far to high…

Autumn’s Final Fling

Autumns Final Fling at Queens Park, Bolton

Just a quick post to say I’m still here but with the weather being so terrible during the weekends we’ve not had chance to go fishing or had the inclination to go walking.

I managed to get out at lunchtime for a quick walk through Queens Park, in Bolton, only to find that most of the footpaths near the River Croal are closed as they’re repairing the bridge, and they will be till at least April… oh well, at least they’re only closed while the weather is rubbish and the bridge has been closed for years now so obviosuly needed seeing too.

The leaves had almost gone but I just managed to sneak a photograph of the last of them hanging on over the pond before this weekends winds turn up, I expect the trees will be naked next week.

So no fishing this weekend and unless the weather stops being so damn wet it’s looking like our Autumn / Winter fishing is on hold for a while.

Garden Update

Hugging the Apple Tree

Not been a whole lot going on sea fishing or walking wise up here in Lancashire for the past few weeks as work has been a bit hectic for both of us and we seem to have spent weekends just lazing about and resting.

We have added a couple of new trees to the garden though, 2 small apple trees; Cox and Katy which are able to pollinate each other so hopefully we’ll get some apples next year.

A few of our friends went and had a try for some early Cod up at Blackpool last weekend but all that came out were small Whiting and the odd Dogfish so it looks like even tough the weather feels very Autumnal it’s not quiet cold enough for the winter species to turn up yet.

The other major development, from our point of view anyway, is that the RSPB have opened up Hesketh Marsh for visitors, I was hoping to go this weekend but the weather was truly horrid when I got up this morning so that’ll have to wait for another day.

Three Things I do to Enjoy England

As most people who blog I constantly scan the web for articles of interest and I came across a feature on the Guardian’s website called Enjoy England so I thought I’d make a list of three of my favorite things to do in England, except of course I’m including Wales.

Sea Fishing – rocks, estuaries, beaches, everywhere…

Fishing on the banks of the River Douglas

It had to be the first thing I mentioned.

England, in fact the entire UK and Ireland coast has some of the best sea angling in Europe, if not the world, and we’re lucky enough to live very near the coast so we try to get out and wet a line as often as possible.

We’re not always hugely successful in our quests but the scenery and wildlife more than make up for any short comings in our angling ability.

Our most notable catches have been from Anglesey, but the fishing up here in Lancashire and its neighbour Merseyside, on the right day, can be truly stupendous where anything from Bass to Thornback Rays or Cod to Smoothhounds can show up to the skillful or lucky angler.

As we’re approaching winter all angling eyes will be firmly fixed on the weather reports hoping for some good westerlies to churn the sea bed up and a good drop in temperate. This should bring in the larger Whiting and following close on their fishy heals will hopefully be some large Cod. I’ve yet to catch one of the monster Cod that we know are caught around the Fleetwood and Liverpool area, 2.5 lbs is my biggest, but I’m an angler, and as long as there’s a line in  the water, there’s always a chance.

Hiking, Fel Walking, Rambling – whatever you want to call it.

Looking out to the Three Peaks

With the Lake District and the Three Peaks only an hour away, The Lancashire Fels even closer and North Wales only about 2.5 hours away it seems almost inevitable that loving the outdoors, we’d make the most of the hills and mountains surrounding us.

We’ve ambled for miles and miles around the surrounding countryside, in all weathers and at all times of the year but by far the best and most satisfying was when we went up Fairsnape in the middle of winter. As we climbed higher  we ended up walking through pristine snow covered hillsides until we reached the top to find a landscape that was so perfect it could have been a painting.

Bird Watching – another excuse to be outside.

Avocet in profile

England is truly blessed by the bird gods as all twitchers (as more dedicated than I am birdwatchers are called) will tell you.

Due to our sometimes less than predictable weather some very rare birds can be found almost anywhere in the UK.

Up here in Lancashire we have some of the best wetlands and salt marches anywhere in the world for migrant species such as Pink Footed Geese and when winter falls, the Ribble estuary is home to literally thousands of these birds as they escape the cold of more northern countries.

The RSPB have a couple of very notable reserves in the area. Leighton Moss at the top end of Morecambe Bay has a very respectable breeding population of Bitterns as well as a number of Marsh Harriers. Marshside near Southport, Merseyside is a terrific area to watch the huge flocks of geese during the winter as they move inland onto the salt marshes to escape the incoming tide.

As well as these two fantastic reserves we have WWT Martin Mere almost on our doorstep which has been host to BBC Autumn Watch in previous years.

So with so many brilliant opportunities is it any wonder we go bird watching. It’s another good excuse to get outside and most of the time we can combine it with sea fishing, walking (some of our fishing is a long way from the car) or both.

So… what are your three favourite things to do in England?

Are you like us and anything outside is good or do you enjoy going to see live bands, see new cities or go out to the pub. Whatever it is I’m sure you’ll agree, England, the rest of the UK and Ireland has it all.

Where does the time go?

It doesn’t seem like 2 minutes since we were away enjoying ourselves on Anglesey but it’s been almost 2 months and no matter how hard we tried we’ve not realy managed to get out sea fishing or walking anything like as much as we wanted.

As per usual there hasn’t been any specific reason for this except for the normal reasons most home owners have such as those last minute fixes that you’ve put off but desperately need doing before winter sets in and it’s too late.

Well, we’ve done all we can, or at least all we want too, so hopefully we’ll be able to use the weekends for more constructive (yeah right) things such as wondering around the Lake District or catching Cod.

I’ve noticed a distinct chill in the air this past week and going by the colour of the trees I’d say Autumn has arrived here in Lancashire which was also evident as I walked round Mere Sands wood this afternoon where a wide variety of fungi have suddenly appeared.

We’ll be visiting Anglesey again soon so I hope the weather stay good and we can repeat our previous years September successes but if not who cares? Anglesey is a great place and just to get away is all we really need.

All Quiet in Lancashire

Not much to report regarding sea fishing or walking for the past few weeks as we’ve been tidying the garage – read as “throwing 12 years of junk out”. We went to Southport Flower Show a couple of weekends ago where we spent a very pleasant morning gathering ideas for the back garden, didn’t spend much and managed to get out before the crowds turned up. I took a few photos but I’ve not got round to processing any yet to put on the blog.

On the fishing front there have been some very large Thornback Rays coming out of the River Mersey recently although not to me. You can see a few reports on their capture by visiting the Wirral Sea Fishing website.

The weather has put a dampener (excuse the pun) on fell walking, or any other type of walking for that matter, as well as the fishing and looks set to stay the same for the coming week – I don’t remember there ever being so much rain at this time of year before. Hope it stops towards the end of the month when we will be visiting Anglesey for a few days for the last time this year.

Here be Dragons

The weather here in Lancashire has been a little unpredictable to say the least over this past week. We’ve had torrential rain, blazing sun, light breezes and almost gale force winds so it’s been one of those weeks where getting out to enjoy the abundance of wildlife the area has to offer has been a bit touch and go.

Most of the migrants such as Swallows are starting to head south but still the insect life continues to flourish. One such lunchtime visit to Queens Park in Bolton resulted in some fine views of some Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) dragonflies hunting down butterflies over the pond, hell to take photos of in flight but a bit simpler once they settle to lay eggs.

Hiding along the pathway through the wood that grows alongside the River Croal in the park were a few Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterflies trying to avoid being eaten by the speedy Hawkers. I’ve never spent the time to look at these properly before, just seeing them for small brown butterflies, they’re a lovely looking insect with great markings and clearly defined spots. I tried to get a photo of the Small White’s to compare the Green Veined ones we saw on Anglesey but they wouldn’t stay still.

We’ve canceled our sea fishing trip for Sunday as the weather is going to be grim so we’re going to Southport Flower Show on Saturday instead to get some ideas for the back garden. The plan is get there early to avoid the crowds but no doubt we’ll stay far to long and get caught in the traffic on the way home, I’m looking forward to it though, I haven’t been to the flower show since I was a lad with my parents.

Grow Your Own Fishing Rod

Golden Bambo

Well we haven’t really done a whole lot of anything remotely sea fishing or walking related this week as we’ve been busy doing house / garage maintenance.  I’ll never, ever fit another door in my life, it felt like we must have planned, chiseled or routed the damn thing hundreds of times before finally getting it to fit and then every time it looked like there was a suitable break in the weather to remove the old one permanently the heavens would open and it would chuck it down.

But it’s done now, locks in place and painted white (although it does need another coat but I’m DIY’d out at the moment)

A somewhat more successful enterprise involved our first plant purchase for the rear garden,a Crookstem Bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Aureocaulis’) and a Golden Bamboo (Phyllostachys Aurea) both puchased from a very knowledgable, local specialist, bamboo4u.co.uk.

These bamboos have been ( and still are I believe) used to make fishing poles in China where they are native but I’ll think I’ll be sticking to Carbon Fiber and Fiber Glass for mine. We’ve dug in lots of compost and feed so I hope they’ll do OK, just need one more to go between them now that we’ve seen how much space they take up.

Fishing wise I’m hoping to fish a match at Fairhaven, Lytham, next Sunday with some friends from Blackpool but the weather forecast doesn’t look so clever at the moment so I guess it’ll be a bit last minute as to whether we go or not.

Goodbye Visit to Penmon

"Dipping Your Toes"

Penmon Lighthouse

And then it was time to come home.

After packing the car and leaving Ty Cristion behind until late our next visit late September we spent a few hours at Penmon where we had our lunch and our fairwell slice of cake from the café, The Pilothouse.

This was one of the best holidays I think we’ve been on, not due to any spectacular sea fishing achievements, but because we got to do all the things we say we’re going to do instead of fishing 24/7 for nearly 2 weeks. Walking, bird watching, just plain old relaxing and watching the world go by – and fishing obviously – it was fantastic!

I’ve only been back at work 2 weeks and we’re already looking forward to going back to the island at the end of September, hopefully to bag a few Small Eyes Rays, but if we don’t get them we know that Anglesey will once again be the venue of a great break.

Fly Fishing in the Rain at Llyn Alaw, Anglesey

Our first fish on a fly - Rudd

Ah, I remember what we did on Monday now. We went for an explore into the center of the island, mainly to find where to get day tickets for the massive man made reservior Llyn Alaw.

We’d not really been in this area before and I was amazed at just how rugged it is in the open spaces. We kept seeing a Buzzard on telegraph posts in front of us but no matter how sneaky we were I couldn’t get a good shot of it.

We arrived after paying at the visitor centre car park and made our way over to the opposite side of the lake and set up our 6 weight fly rods with floating line and a few flies that looked like the bugs in the lake – I’m sure they have proper names but I’ve no idea what they were (the flies or bugs). We’d learned on Monday from another angler that it fishes best from 8pm onwards so the plan was to go from about 7:30 till 10pm.

After about an hour and a half of what I’d like to think of as casting practice (catching trees, my hat, etc.) the weather payed us a little visit and it hammered it down for a good half hour. Thankfully we were wearing waders and waterproofs tops so it didn’t matter that much but it was odd standing in a lake, in the dimming light, in the rain.

Finally the Buzzard sat still

Not long after the rain stopped I heard Wendy yelling from a bit further down the lake. I’m sure they could here her all the way up to Holyhead.

Rushing back to shore, or as ‘rushing’ as is possible in waders, I grabbed the camera and dashed over to grab a picture of her prize.

Not a trout but a small Rudd (or Roach – I think it’s a Rudd). Did it matter to Wendy that it wasn’t our target species for the evening? Did it hell! This was our first ever fly caught fish and although the weather had been a bit pants we were elated.

Happy with our first successful catch we made our way back to the cottage for a well earned brew.

We drove up that way a few more times in the couple of weeks we stayed on Anglesey but the best photo I could get of the Buzzard is still not very good – but at least I got him.