It seems to be that time of year when everything mother nature has to offer is gearing up for that final push into spring. Walking through the local parks and even just to the shops you can almost feel the plants starting to reach up to the sun and the amount of bird activity has dramatically increased these past two weeks with birds of sizes great and small flying around looking for suitable nest sites. The trees in Queens Park [... read rest of post]
As the weather has been a little bit kinder to us recently I’ve started doing my daily walk through Queens Park in Bolton once again where it was great to see bulbs of wild Garlic starting to show some shoots. Not much unusual in the way of birdlife although I’ve seen the Kingfisher a few times this week flying up and down the River Croal, hopefully looking for suitable nesting sites, and on Monday I saw a Teal on the [... read rest of post]
As the sea fishing has been so grim over the past few weeks and giving Dave a ring at Fylde Trout Fishery to make sure the lake was free of ice we spent a very pleasant, if cold, Sunday morning doing our best to tempt Rainbow Trout out of the depths of the very cold water. Our initial plan was me to fish an intermediate line with lures to search the depths while Wendy fished a floating line, also with [... read rest of post]
Isn’t it amazing how the internet has changed our lives. Last week I was contacted asking if I’d mind reviewing a book if they sent it me, well… it would be rude to say no wouldn’t it. The book, “Fishing Boats & Ports of Wales, A Way to Explore” by Stewart Lenton is about 180 pages in total, including the index and spiral bound which for an exploration type of book is a great idea as it means you can [... read rest of post]
Around half of all fish caught in UK waters are thrown back overboard dead! This is insane no matter how you look at it. I’m not saying the fishing methods are right or wrong but if the current common fisheries policy forces our fishing fleet to throw back perfectly good fish because they are the ‘wrong type’ something has got to change. Hugh Fearnley-Whittstal, of River Cottage fame, has taken up the gauntlet to bring this stupidity to light and [... read rest of post]
Our pre-Christmas fly fishing / casting tuition was cancelled due to the weather so Mike Roden re-scheduled it for last weekend. Four brave souls met up in some fairly nasty weather with Mike at Curley’s Fly Fishery nr. Bolton and after a quick natter moved over the road to the park as the lakes were still frozen. As we suspected we’d picked up a few bad habits since our last lessons with Mike but after a couple of hours we’d [... read rest of post]
After the stupidly cold weather we’ve had for the past couple of weeks it was great to get out and do some sea fishing. As the BLAS social cup at Perch Rock was cancelled due to the snow and ice it was moved to Anchorsholme, an area just North of Blackpool and South of Cleveleys. With the sea being almost flat calm and no movement of consequence in the water the humble Dab was the target species. Armed with 30 [... read rest of post]
The Marine Conservation Society, MCS, is the voice for everyone who loves the sea, working to secure a future for our living seas, and to save our threatened sea life before it is lost forever. Almost nowhere in UK seas is marine wildlife safe from harm and the need to establish marine protected areas where wildlife can recover and flourish is vital. Beach litter has doubled over the last decade. 88% of Europe’s fish stocks are overfished or depleted. Once [... read rest of post]
After saying the weather in West Lancashire hasn’t been too bad mother nature threw the heaviest snowfall our way last weekend since I was a child. So, after struggling home on Friday night we did what any other like minded loony would do and went for a walk on the Saturday. We had such a good time tramping along the River Douglas through the snow I did it again on Sunday, this time with the ‘proper’ camera. Instead of just [... read rest of post]
Well here’s a turn up, I opened up my email today to find out that the guys at sea fishing tackle retailer Fishtec have listed this blog as one of their “Sea Fishing Blogs we Like“. I’ve used Fishtec a bit to order bits and bobs but never to any great extent, not for any particular reason except I’m fairly set in my ways and I always go to the same places to buy stuff, but after looking through their online [... read rest of post]
