Dusting off the Camera at the River Douglas

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All sorts of ducks on the River Douglas

After some fairly dismal weather these past couple of months I finally managed to get out for a walk along our local river, the Douglas, and as I’m a bit (understatement of the century) rusty I took out my camera just to check it (and me) is working as it should.

There wasn’t really much to see exfcept a lot of ducks including some Widgeon (which make the amazing whistling noise), Teal, Shelducks and the usual suspects of Mallard and Oyster catchers. I tried to get some pictures of them in flight but a small Duck is very very fast so I gave up.

Spring was certainly in the air today though as i saw a few lambs on my way down to the river, thankfully the boys below didn’t have any as it’s best to stay out of the way of sheep at lambing time so as not to distress the ewes and their newly birthed lambs.

"The Managment" of the banks bleats "non shall pass"

They do look a bit like the mafia though and it felt like I was trespassing on their field…

Hopefully, now the weather seems to be changing for the better I’ll get out fishing, it was almost this time last year that we fished this very river and caught a few Flounder – there were a few people fishing today but nobody had caught anything. It seems the seasons are a bit late this year, but i seem to recall someone saying that a cold winter heralds a hot summer – so here’s hoping…

A Cold Evening Catching at Cleveleys

Good Sized Whiting for me from Cleveleys

With the high pressure dominating the weather and the rain finally giving way we manged to get out on Sunday night for a spot of sea fishing with a few of the guys from Blackpool and Leyton Angling Society (BLAS). Along with all sorts of seasonal running about I’d picked up some Black Lug from Wayne’s Tackle in Preston which although a bit lazy saved me having to pump any in the freezing cold at Formby so money well spent.

We arrived with about 3/4 hour to spare until the start of the BLAS match so had a good chance to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen for ages. After surveying the beach from the car park for any likely gulleys before the tide covered them up while wrapping up in almost every layer we had we made our way down to the waters edge.

With the sea almost flat we cast our Black Lug tipped with Mackeral baits into the darkness. It wasn’t long until the Whiting started to show, small at first but getting progressively larger throughout the evening. We swapped baits around a bit to see what else was there, using Squid to tip the worms or just on it’s own and managed to catch a few small codling (all undersized) as well as a just in-size Dab for Wendy.

Small Codling for Wendy

Moving up the beach as the tide continued to flood the fish just kept coming and one one occasion I felt my bait get ‘hit’ twice while winding back in to re-bait only to find a couple of Whiting had jumped on the bottom and top hook of a Pennel bait that was hopefully going to catch me a Cod.

It was one of those nights where no matter what bait you put out you were going to get a Whiting or two, regardless of what end tackle was used, the trick was going to be if you could manage to catch an in-size fish before the small army of little ones found the bait.

For once I was the lucky one and managed to come second in the match, admittedly out of only eight people but still, after not being out for a while it was good to catch anything and getting a few ‘points’ was a bit of an added bonus. Wendy, although catching the same number of fish as me, only managed one in size, the Dab, but still, 9 fish each more than made up for our freezing extremities.

The major revelation of the evening wasn’t anything to do with sea fishing though, as we’d be fishing from 6pm till 10pm we’d bought some food flasks and loaded them up with soup. Why we hadn’t done this before is a mystery as we usually take sandwiches but with it being a little chilly we thought something warm would be better. It was probably the best idea of the weekend.

Hot soup, a roll to dunk in it and a few fish being caught – who cares what the weather’s like…

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.

Flounder for Lunch Anyone?

The 'head' of the River Douglas

After Saturday where we did all sorts of house and garden type things we went to the River Douglas just up the road from where we live for a spot of Flounder fishing with a lot of sitting, lazing, in the sun thrown in for good measure.

A Chubby little Flounder for me

As per usual for this venue I took my older fixed spool rod and reel and Wendy took her normal match fishing gear. Rigs were ‘normal’ 1 1up 1 down flappers armed with size 1 fine wire aberdeen hooks which we’ve found are easier to remove from the fish if you want to return them alive and unharmed.

Bait was Black Lug and Ragworm from Waynes Tackle on Water Lane in Preston, and was in excellent condition for bought bait and although I would have preferred to get my own Lug as we’d been busy the previous few days I just hadn’t had time.

The fishing was very slow although it was very pleasant to watch the leisure craft go past including a few intrepid canal boats that must have been making their way up to the lock at Tarleton after crossing the River Ribble. It’s only been possible to cross the Ribble recently as a method of getting from the Lancaster Canal to the Leads Liverpool Canal.

Wendy, as per usual, snared the first fish, a tiny Eel of about 8 inches which covered her gear in slime and tied her rig in a knot, it seems small ones are even more of a pain than large ones.

Next fish came to me just as the tide started to ebb, on Lug, a plump little Flounder of about 3/4 pound – nothing to shout about but a fish is a fish.

Wendy finally get a Flounder

Wendy’s rod gave a knock just as we were considering packing up for the day and she also landed a small Flounder, this time on Ragworm.

After that the tide had ebbed so quickly and so far that there was a stretch of mud between us and the water so not wanting to retrieve our gear through all the gloop we packed away and spent a whole 10 minutes driving home for a mug or two of tea.

Not sure why the fish didn’t show today, there were a few other anglers along the river and they didn’t seem to be having much luck either so we’ll put it down to ‘one of those things’. The crabs should be moulting again soon so I expect our next river sea fishing trip will see us using peeler crabs as bait.

Only time will tell if it’s any more successful but as is often said “that’s fishing”.

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.

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

A New Angle to Try, Fly Fishing at Mere Beck

Mere Beck Fly Fishing, Lancashire

We’ve always wanted to have a go at Fly Fishing but it’s always seemed out of reach for some reason, maybe because up here in Lancashire you always hear tell of the best streams being ‘down south’ or the famous rivers being in Scotland but there’s a growing community out there of people who are applying this method of angling to our local salt water species of which one of the main sources of information is the website of UK Saltwater Fly Fishing.

So, the question remained, where to go to ‘have a go’ and learn the techniques?

Looking Down the Ponds, Mere Beck

And after much searching on the internet we quickly eliminated the paid weeks tuition up in Scotland (a bit too expensive) and came across Mere Beck Fly Fishing, you can imagine my astonishment when I found out it’s 10 minutes drive from my house and with the weather today being so good we went to have a look round.

After having a chat with a very knowledgeable lady who ran the reception / tackle shop / everything, we spent a good hour just walking round the many ponds that are fed a constant flow of water creating a slight current for the fish to thrive in. Tuition can be arranged and tickets for fishing can be bought from 3 – 8 hours. It looked fantastic and I got that feeling that this was exactly what we were looking for to get a feel for fly fishing and to ‘have a go’ and see if it is something we want to persue.

The next stage is to book a day of work, sometime in May I think, that coincides with Wendy’s nursing and arrange to go for the day.

I also had a look at our Snowbee catalogue which I got hold of to have a look at waders just to see what fly fishing tackle is all about and start to learn some of the lingo (are there any anglers out there who don’t look through tackle catalogues at all the new tackle they can buy?) – it seems very simple and lightweight compared to our usual stuff but as per normal there doesn’t seem to be a top limit to what you can spend so a little restraint is going to be called for until we’re sure.

As for sea fishing with a fly rod I think most of the methods are the same as for trout but the tackle is slightly heavier, protected against the salt and the flies bigger.

Canon EOS 450D

The other thing I did this week was finally purchase an SLR camera. I had one a long time ago when I worked in a camera shop but sold it to purchase my first Apple Mac about 15 years ago and have since had increasing more complicated compact cameras of which my current one is a Canon Powershot A640 which has served me well and no doubt will still take the majority of my sea fishing photos’.

My new camera is a Canon EOS 450D (Not Canons top model but not the bottom one either) with the ‘kit’ lens which is an 18-55mm zoom plus a larger 55-250mm zoom. I haven’t got the more expensive lenses as I want to make sure I’m going to use it enough to justify the expense but first impressions are good.

I just need to remember some of the photographic techniques I picked up and have now forgotten, at least everything is now digital and I don’t have to pay for film to be developed while I re-learn how to work the thing.

Fairhavens’ Sea Fishing Flounder Fiesta

River Ribble Estuary at Fairhaven, Lytham

Well not exactly a fiesta but the first match of season for Blackpool and Layton Angling Society (BLAS) got off to a cracking start today with light winds and glorious sunshine as the eight of us met up at lunchtime at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham, which sits on the other side of the promenade to the Ribble Estuary into which we would be fishing.

The target species today was Flounder as they moved into the river with the tide to feed on crabs, worms or whatever else these greedy fish can get their mouths round. Usually we’d fish for Flounder with peeler crab but there was non to be had without having to travel for hours so Wendy and I had got hold of some black lug, ragworm and mackerel which we were hoping would be OK for today.

Shackys' Fairhaven Flounder

We waited for the water to hit the bottom of the wall, and the walkers to move off the beach and then all cast in, hopes high for some non-stop Flounder action.

Most of the guys were concerned about lack of crab for bait but it didn’t seem to make much difference for those anglers that had it as the fishing was very slow. Shacky was into a fish about an hour into the match of about a pound in weight but mine and Wendys’ baits were coming back in untouched until about half an hour later when Wendys’ rod showed a very positive bite.

She waited awhile until it showed again then quickly reeled in to find… nothing. We were all a bit shocked that nothing was hooked but I suppose that’s fishing.

A few minutes later I saw a slight knock but thought nothing of it until on reeling in when I managed to land a Flounder as well. Not as big as Shackys’ but still, a fish is a fish when your match fishing.

A Fairhaven Flounder

And then it went quiet, occasionally bites registered but we just couldn’t connect with the fish for some reason as all they seemed to be doing was nibbling at the Mackerel they seemed to prefer today rather than gulping it down like they normally do.

We called it a day at 3 o’clock as the tide was started to ebb and soon there wouldn’t be enough water to fish into. Dave managed to win the match with three fish, Neil with two then Shacky and me with one each. As this match was the RNLI trophy we had a collection for the lads and lasses of the RNLI and raised a bit of cash to help in their funding.

The fishing was not as good as expected but the weather was fantastic and it was great to be out on the first sunday of Britsh Summer Time. The next match is up at Fleetwood in about three weeks, at a venue we’ve not fished before called Fleetwood Channel, so we’re looking forward to that one, hopefully someone will inform the fish.

Floundering About on the Bank of the River Douglas

A Flounder from the River Douglas, Hesketh Bank

We’d had quite a busy day on Saturday doing all sorts of house related stuff so after the obligatory trip to the tip this morning (how does a house generate so much junk?) we drove the whole of 10 minutes to the River Douglas where we fished an hour and a half up to high water and about an hour down.

I’d finally got round to clearing out the bait freezer in the garage and given it its’ once when ever I remember defrosting so we took a box of squid, a couple of Mackerel and about 40 frozen black lug which we’d got from Formby beach in 2006 (a little old to say the least).

Wendy with a Flounder from the River Douglas

The sun was high and the weather was great as we cast our ‘well past their sell by date’ lug into the murky water but it wasn’t long until Wendy landed the first plump Flounder – a fish of about a pound in weight. The rigs we were using were nothing more complicated than 2 size 1 aberdeen hooks mounted on snoods about 18″ long, 1 near the lead, the other about 20″ up the main line, anchored to the river bed with a 5oz grip lead as when the tide comes in the Douglas has quiet a swift current.

I was using one of our older fishing rods and a fixed spool real which I purchased about 6 years ago, as my normal multiplier distance casting outfit would have been a bit overkill for the river. Short casts we’re going to be needed to land the baits on the mud slopes of the river where the Flounder would nose around as they searched for food – multipliers are a swine to cast short distances in my experience.

Fishing on the banks of the River Douglas

All in all we had an extremely pleasant afternoon as we promptly caught fish after fish on old black lug and although we tried the other baits only lug was catching today. The final ’score’ was 5 Flounder to Wendy and 4 to me, although I did catch the biggest, a lovely thick Flounder of just under a pound and a half.

We’re going to be re-joining BLAS (Blackpool and Layton Angling Society) in a couple of weeks at their first match of the season which will be another flattie bash at Fairhaven, Blackpool, but I expect that the shore crabs will have started to shed their shells by then so peeler crab will be the bait of choice, but we’ll take lug as an option – although it won’t be from the 2006 vintage as all that was left is now in the bin.

Random River Douglas Fact (I think): The River Douglas used to be called the River Asland which I’ve read somewhere means River Dirty Water – from the muddy colour of the water as the banks of the Douglas and the Ribble are all mud, creating a great, if a little muddy, environment for all sorts of wildlife.