After eagerly watching the weather and ordering 20 peeler crab and 20 black lug from Blackpool Angling Centre on Wednesday I woke up Saturday morning to find the wind hadn’t died down as expected and with the Westerlies blowing onto the Lancashire coastline the chances of catching a Smooth Hound sea fishing from Cleveleys, between Blackpool and Fleetwood, was slim at best. But I’d got the bait and armed with a few extras from the freezer we made our way [... read rest of post]
Sometimes the weather or that annoying thing called real life can get in the way of our fishing or walking but even when busy it’s always great to get out and about, even if it’s for just a little while. We’re very lucky in Lancashire to have near by the WWT reserve, Martin Mere which, like all the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust reserves is running events throughout June to help showcase the work they do and enable everyone to enjoy [... read rest of post]
We’ve not been sea fishing for a while but we’re making up for it soon with a week on Anglesey so we’ve been getting our kit together and doing all sorts of home and garden maintenance type things before we go away. Even though I’m supposed to be getting stuff ready for going away I couldn’t resist a quick walk along our local River Douglas, not for any specific reason, just because it’s been a nice day. Nothing unusual to [... read rest of post]
Spring is in the air and it’s time for all creatures great and small to start doing what the birds and the bees do best – yes – it’s time for some good old fashioned sex. Everywhere you look at this time of year you can see all types of fauna paired up and ready to make whoopie. During the past few days I’ve made the most of the weather and spent a fair amount of time wondering round Queens [... read rest of post]
It looks like Winter has had his final fling as the winds die down a bit in Lancashire this week although Scotland is still getting a bit of Snow. There are definite signs of Spring as I found my first lot of Frogspawn for 2011 during my lunchtime walk through Queens Park in Bolton today – 9 days later than last year although not surprising considering the sub-zero Winter we’ve just had. I also spotted a Peregrine Falcon hunting Pigeons [... read rest of post]
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]
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 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]
After my previous sea fishing trips to Fleetwood it was with some dismay that I found out that BLAS had to have the Christmas match before the Christmas meeting and after the first attempt was a resounding blank for everyone the venue chosen was Rossall Hospital. I’ve not had much luck here this year either due to weed, weather or just being a bit crap but I was determined to catch. The sea was flat calm but there was no [... read rest of post]
Thankfully the weather hasn’t been too extreme here in Lancashire these past couple of weeks although we have had some very cold days which without the snow feels a bit like we’ve been ripped off. Last Monday was a case in point where it was so cold the fog was freezing in the air and you could see ice crystals suspended in front of your face. It did look great once I got out of the car in Bolton but [... read rest of post]
