It’s been well over a year now since our initial taster lesson at Mere Beck with Gordon into the art of fly fishing so we booked ourselves a whole days tuition with Mike Roden, a qualified APGIA instructor and member of the Hardy Greys Academy. We’d been looking forward to this since we’d booked it but the weather looked a bit grim and as we made our way to Curley’s Fly Fishery in Horwich through some very heavy showers we [... read rest of post]
For some bizarre reason I woke up early last Sunday morning so after raiding the freezer for some frozen black lugworm and mackerel I made the epic journey of 5 minutes to the River Douglas to have a quick sea fishing session of a couple of hours up to high water then one down. Although there were a few black clouds on the horizon the weather stayed warm and dry and a few more anglers turned up to see what [... read rest of post]
After my recent poor form in the sea fishing department we had an evening session fly fishing at Mere Beck Fly Fishery, near Preston, a few nights ago. The reports had been pretty poor and apparently trout don’t like bright sunny conditions so the prospects of a fish didn’t look good but we packed some sandwiches and drove the whole 10 minutes (I know!!!) up the road to have a go anyway. Chatting to Gordon, the Owner / Manager, who [... read rest of post]
I’ve given up trying to get a photo of this chrysalis hatching. I’ve been getting to the car park early and visiting it and a few others like it, to see if I can catch a Comma butterfly emerging but I think this latest damp, cooler spell of weather has effectively stopped them hatching until the sun returns with a bit of warmth. Which is a damn shame as I’m going away for a couple of weeks and they’ll have [... read rest of post]
Today was one of those days where everything was great. It started off by waking up to another fantastic morning – beautiful blue skies with the sun high in the sky even though it was 8am, a slight breeze to take the edge of the heat and a garden full of vegetables that we’d planted (our first attempt and peas are almost ready!!!) I’d arranged to go and visit my parents for a couple of reasons; one – it was [... read rest of post]
I know I go through all sorts of clothing and footwear in my sea fishing and walking adventures and although I like browsing through all the outdoor gear shops it’s a pain sometimes as I live in a village a fair distance from any major retailer. Well this month that all changed as just up the road from where I live a shop has opened called trek outdoors which aims to offer a range of quality technical and casual brands, [... read rest of post]
If there’s one thing we know how to do well in this country it’s the nature documentary – hasn’t BBC Springwatch been great and we’re only into week one. Needless to say, with the beautiful weather we’ve been having and being a bit inspired by Springwatch I ventured out to Queens Park in Bolton during my lunch hour to see what mini beasts I could snap. There were tiny metallic green beetles on all the Dock along the edge of [... read rest of post]
As we went up to my parents for lunch, a very pleasant yearly gathering of the ‘clan’ myself, Dad and my younger brother took Megan (Mum and Dad’s black Labrador) on a quick walk round the country lanes to tire her out before we sat down for lunch. As usual I took my camera but I utterly failed at the ‘wildlife cameraman’ bit, it wasn’t my fault… even Megan was stunned. As we rounded a bend in the lane running [... read rest of post]
After some truly atrocious weather over the winter that convinced me that winter fishing is for those of a more hardy nature than myself it seems that spring has arrived in full force so I joined the guys from Blackpool and Layton Angling Society (BLAS) for the first sea fishing match of the new season at the sea front next to Fairhaven Lake, Lytham, Lancashire. Although the bait for choice for Flounder at this time of year is Peeler Crab [... read rest of post]
On Thursday I was doing my usual lunchtime walk round Queens Park, Bolton when I came across this, a strange, but probably easier, way to catch the fish i thought… What is actually happening is that the park has been granted some money from the lottery fund and part of the re-development is tidying up the ponds (inside and on the banks) and making them more accessible for everyone, anglers included. So first they have to move the fish out [... read rest of post]
