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 report although if the number of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies flitting round the nettles is anything to go by it looks like they might be making a bit of a recovery – at least I hope so. Birds are all doing the pairing up thing and it was good to see the Swallows swooping over the fields chasing the insects being thrown up as the tractors plough. Although not unusual in itself we have noticed a lot more Orange Tip butterflies this year – I’m not sure if we’re just more observant or if there are more than normal – I suppose we’ll see once the summer arrives.

Every time I walk along the River Douglas it reminds me just how lucky we are to live in such a fantastic place, not just Lancashire, but the UK in general and even on your local patch you can sometimes find something a bit different to photograph or a new look for an old subject.

Take the above as an example, looks almost alien – like some sort of science fiction film set but it’s the dried mud on the side of the River Douglas. I’ve been trying to photograph it for a while but it’s either too wet and messy or too dry and powdery, today it was just right…

If your in the area how about renting out a cottage at Easy Cottages for your walking holiday in Lancashire

I did manage to get out for a look at our local River Douglas boatyard during the huge Spring tides a week ago. Seeing the pontoon against the banks of the river and the yacht in the above picture I must go and have another look because I’m sure it’s risen above the banks of the river and is sitting on the edge of the flood plain. It must have been a pain to get it back into the centre of the river. The barge on the right of the photo is almost always high and dry, I’m amazed the thing still floats.

So that’s it, no much of an update – more an “I’m still here” type of post. Hopefully we’ll be getting out doing something we want to do such as fly fishing, sea fishing, walking or generally anything but decorating or those things things that you have to do but never want to.

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 going along the river I spent some time wondering through the boatyard until I noticed an odd sound coming from the river, on looking closer I was shocked to see ice flowing downstream, the noise being generated as it pilled up against the boatyards pontoons.

This may not seem such a big deal until you realise that the River Douglas is tidal in this area and contains mostly salt water when the tide is high (when it’s low water you can wade across it in places, at high water it is over 15 feet deep). I stood there and watched this spectacle for ages until I remembered I had the camera with me.

Dragging myself away from this highly unusual occurrence I continued my walk Northwards along the banks of the river, stopping every so often to see if I could get a half decent snap of the ducks on the river without falling through the snow into a hidden gully. Eventually I gave up on that idea as they were just to far away but climbing back onto the retaining bank I spotted a flock of birds feeding on the Hawthorn. Assuming they were Starlings I just watched them for a while until they flew overhead and I got my first proper view of a large flock of Fieldfare.

I’ve never actually been close enough to photograph these beautiful birds and they certainly played hard to get  as whenever I got close enough to attempt a picture they flew off but eventually I managed to get a shot of a group of them on the bushes, not quite as close as I’d have liked but still, not a bad first go.

After seeing them I slowly made my way back along the farmers track and down Marsh Lane, a short but wonderful walk along our local river. Amazingly the temperature has since got colder and driving over the river this morning there was even more ice so I’ll definitely be going back over the Christmas break for another look

I didn’t get to go out sea fishing this weekend due to the weather being just too damn cold and wet although a few of the guys from the Wirral Sea Fishing website had a couple of sessions on Saturday, one at Seaforth and the other at Hall Road, Crosby. Not much was caught but credit due to them, they stuck it out in truly horrid conditions.

The bravest I managed was a gentle walk along the banks of our local river, the Douglas to see if I could manage to get any half decent photographs. From a birding point of view the walk was great and I managed to spot Mallard, Widgeon, Little Egret, Grey and Canada Geese, Great crested Grebe, Redshank and Oyster Catchers on or around the river as well as Kestrel, Fieldfare, Blue, Great and Long tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Robin and Blackbird on the hedge along the embankment.

Of course, non of these would stay still long enough for a photo in the fog but I did manage an arty shot of a couple walking their dog as the last of the evening sun lit up the fog.

As for sea fishing the BLAS Christmas match has been brought forward to this Sunday at Rossall and with a bit of a thaw, a predicted balmy 6°C with a slight Westerly I may actually be in with a chance of a fish or two.

Taking it easy on the bank of the River Douglas

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 could be tempted out of the coffee coloured water, the main target species would be Flounder with maybe Eels as well. The river was high, considering the size of the tide, due to the amount of rain we’ve had recently so with all that fresh water fishing was going to be tough as the fish may not come up the river if the salinity is too low.

A good thing about the recent rains is the hosepipe ban has been lifted in Lancashire, not that we’ve needed to water anything except the odd hanging basket, and the wild flowers and grasses are probably at the best I’ve seen them for a few years with the flood plain of the River Douglas being covered in bright yellow Catsear (Hypochaeris radicata).

A Floodplain of Yellow Catsear

It was a good job the weather was nice as the fishing was dire but it gave me a good opportunity to take a few photo’s and explore one of the inlets looking for Mullet (didn’t see any). No matter what baits I used or at what distance, they were coming back intact – not even the crabs seemed interested.

Usually I do quite well on the dougie but no one caught that morning, which made me feel a little better, so maybe it was such a lovely lazy morning even the river’s residents had a lie-in.

A lazy hazy day sea fishing on the River Douglas

I’ve not been sea fishing for a while, or any other type of fishing for that matter. Not for any specific reason just other stuff to do around the house and garden while the weather is good. But with the weather being so good this past weekend I couldn’t resist a walk along our local river, The River Douglas, to see what was going on.

The river itself was quite quiet with the usual suspects bobbing along in the wakes of a few boats returning from sea fishing off Blackpool; Mallard, Shelduck, Geese and Swans with Oyster Catchers watching them from the shore.

The banks are very very dry at the moment and keeping low I managed to get a snap of a Skylark before he shot skyward proclaiming to all comers that this was his territory. Nothing quiet announces that Summer is approaching as the never ending song of this small unobtrusive bird with the most amazing song.

Further along the river there were hordes of people fishing. I say hordes – I mean more than 2, which is hordes for here. I don’t think anyone was having much luck but then I’m fairly sure they were all using Mackerel and realistically at this time of year, in the River Douglas or the River Ribble (of which the Douglas is a tributary) you’d probably be better off using peeler crab to catch the Flounder they were all after.

There were a lot of domestic (big white) Geese on the river with young so I couldn’t resist this final shot.

I’m not sure who is who’s parent but then I guess they’re not bothered either – so long as they get fed. Another great walk along a river that always makes me smile.

Spring Couples - Oyster Catchers, Shelducks and Avocets

As the weather has been so great recently I went for a long walk along our local river, the Douglas to practice my photography skills and to see if i could manage to get a half decent image of birds in flight with my current equipment.

With the dry weather and the sun the banks of the River Douglas had dried considerably leaving shallow pools for wading birds to sift through for food, the usual suspects were in abundance; Oyster Catcher, Curlew, Shelduck, Mallard but it’s the first time I’ve seen Avocet on my local patch although they do breed at RSB Marshside, Southport which is about 10 miles up the coast.

As for catching birds in flight? These are the best of a LOT of photographs.

Lapwing on flight -probably pushing the lens a little here

Shelducks in flight - sometimes luck is all you need...

I’m pleased with the one of the Shelducks which just flew right past me while I had the camera set up ready to go, although the sky could have been a bit more interesting – can’t have it all I guess. The Lapwing was a bit tougher, they fly very erratically at this time of year and realistically the lens I have (Canon 55-250) isn’t up to the job – hence they’re a bit blurred, although still recognisable.

Still… practice makes perfect.

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…

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”.

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.