Super Sunday

Started a nervy Sunday with Tom & a few tins until Yaya settled them...

It was then to the river(via the New Oxford) to meet Adam, another of the Salford Friendly crew to show him how to chuck a fly. At the river we were met with an incredible hatch of LDO's & caddis. Amazingly the fish Tom snagged below wasn't the best of his day...

He managed to present his EHC perfectly into the back of an unsuspecting Adam Mack's head

We fished into the evening catching & losing some beauts & then rounded off the day down the club house.

Adam should have had his hooked swede checked out as you can see, later on, the side effects of urban trouting can be pretty gruesome

A Facial Study Of The Various Emotions Of The Angler

Disbelief

Euphoria                                                                            

 ?

Discover the reason why:                                                                                http://tominargentina.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/reasons-not-to-lie-in-bed-on-saturday.html 

Happy 2012

Wading into position to pop a fly on this fish I didn't realise my phone was taking a dip in my pocket...Yet another f**ked crackberry  to be sent back. Tom asked if the phone was OK?  my answer - "to be honest I couldn't give a £#*k, a trout on the dry is worth a thousand phones!"

Reservoir Blogs

Auntie Mike

Duddy on the beeb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/courses/manchester-ship-canal/lessons/manchester-ship-canal

flotsam & jetsam

I didn't want anyone to think the TITT Urban Conclave weekend was wasted on the SFAS so I thought I'd drop a quick post before the season starts. We've been busy recruiting, training & recording the efforts of a growing band of kick samplers throughout the catchment; Irwell, Roch & Croal.  It is also nice to see the river itself has been giving a helping hand by securing some Large Retail Debris (LRD) along the banks.

And here's a little treat for Dr Gaskell; A Babby's Yed

A delicacy in Wigan I'm led to believe! 

- Anyone found a more sinister piece of bankside jetsam?

- A prize will be given at our AGM for this years best entry.

Salford Friendly Anglers' Society AGM booze-a-thon

Had a great night at the AGM at the Kings Arms last night. Really enjoyed having a pint and swapping stories with the rest of the lads.

Dickensian Salford.

Extract from Oliver:

Workhouse Boy:(Me) [Woken by boy pacing back an forth] Tom, give it a rest will ya? We're trying to sleep (Fish). 
Hungry Boy(Mike): Can't sleep(fish). Too hungry. 
Workhouse Boy(Paul Carr): We're all hungry. 
Hungry Boy:(Mike) Yeah, but I'm scared. 
Workhouse Boy:(paul) Scared? Of What? 
Hungry Boy: I'm so hungry(Not had a f'kin sniff of a fish all day) I'm scared I might eat(poach the peg) the boy(Paul) that sleeps(fishes on the next peg) next to me. 

New Zealands Giant Long Finned Eels

Just watched the episode of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade. In this episode he is in New Zealand chasing up a tale from Captain Cooks journal of giant man eating Eels that inhabit the Islands. There's a bit in the programme where he rubby dubbys himself in fish guts in an attempt to prove the brazen man eating nature of the beast. This reminder of my chance encounter with these leviathans, has led me to scouring the loft for the last hour to find & scan the picture above.

My Kiwi bud & I had hiked up to Lake Daniels deep in the Southern Alps for some Trout fishing, the lake is a good 3hr hike up out of the main valley following the Alfred River up to the Manson-Nicholls hut where we had planned to stay the night giving us the chance to fish into the dark.
The place is amazing & after exploring the lake, casting to the resident Rainbows we decided to stop for dinner & wait for the evening rise. As my rucksack is always full of fishing/camping gear & booze, I pretty much gambled on catching dinner, luckily this wasn't a problem. So as I was gutting & cleaning the fish in the margins in my shorts I suddenly got this feeling of encroaching large dark shadows behind me... I turned around, shit myself & left the water like a Jesus Lizard in one swift movement.

Some of the Eels in this gang were as thick as your thigh. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I swiftly rigged up some trout guts on a large hook & bagged the bugger above!

Salford Friendly Anglers' Society

Any readers interested in joining the worlds oldest angling club for free?

Well to find out more about us & to join, visit;  http://www.salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk/

You can catch up with what we're up to through the blog;   http://salfordfriendlyanglers.blogspot.com/  or you'd be welcome to pop down to one of our meeting at the 'clubhouse' the excellent Kings Arms in Salford.

Cheers
Nick

Bilbo Baggings

1 big brownie, 1 fooked smart phone, 1 happy soaking angler!

Just sat at the laptop its half 7 AM & I am buzzing & its not because I've just come back from an all-nighter!

The Brownie that has been haunting me for the last week or so finally fell for a gently glided in Comparadun under a tree at ten past 6. 

Staying over at mums house as our kid & his family are over from Ireland afforded me the chance to get out on the water first thing. Creeping around downstairs at 5 I was busted by mum, "what you doing up? its five o'clock, you're not going fishing are you?"

"just going to see if that trout's there"

"be careful"

 I approached from the high wooded bank where it tends to be stuck in tight to try & get a view, yep, there it was holding in the current coming up for a sip & then doing its patrol up the outside bend of the meander. I then headed downstream to where I could wade across & creep up on it from the opposite bank. After putting so many hours in on this fish I know you can't wade in on him in his deeper glassy glide so I just crouched down covered by the bank & waited for him to reveal himself. Fly ginked, backcast clear I plopped the fly to a rise, SIP, STRIKE... bollocks, not the biggie. Quickly, I brought in a small trout hoping its trashing about wouldn't spook the whopper.

Back to the start, crouching in position, every sound seems amplified in the cold morning, the rip of velcro, the snap of the gink bottle all sound like they could spook the fish. After 10 minutes or so there's a big swirling rise, I cover it  with the comparadun, it floats past... then, SLURP, STRIKE! the rod bends into a solid fish and for the next 10 minutes I'm praying the fly holds as the fish bores up & down the river trying to shake the hook.

Mid fight, I get out the phone, "mum, bring the camera, I've got it". As I'm trying to sqeeze the fish into the net leaning forward, water comes rushing over the top of my waders, just then I see mum coming across the field in her PJ's & wellies - What a great mum!

 1 big brownie, 1 fooked smart phone, 1 happy soaking angler!

Cure for Roid Rage

A beaut! not the fish I've been stalking, this is his younger brother.

roid rage

roid rage
n.
      side effect of being able to spot lunkers with polaroids but having the inability to catch them.

Cheeky hour

I had to drop the motor into the garage and was told to come back in about hour, so knowing there was a stretch of river nearby I wandered off for a scramble around. I found an accessible section where I could flick a few flies out, wader-less and with the water chocolate coloured and racing through I was restricted to where I could fish. I started by searching out with a couple of nymphs but had nowt, then I stopped to take a call and while surveying the water I heard a gulp about a rod length up and a foot out from the near bank... "sorry, I'm going to have to call you back in a minute"!

I whipped off the point nymph and stuck a dry on, there it was again, gulp. 

First cast got blown up the bank. Second, too far out. Third, just right. As it drifted down it paused for a moment as it swirled in the eddy with the various flotsam, then GULP, ZZZZZZZZZIP, JUMP, SPLOOSH! The fish then ploughed out into the current with it's head down.

I was buzzing, It's great to have a wildy bend your 4wt double.  Happy I headed back to collect the car. On the way back I returned the dropped call... "Sorry about that, I just got tied up".

Dave and Hooky at Greengate Stones

Wandered down to the riverbank in Salford on Saturday morning for the unveiling of the Greengate Stones - Peter Hook from New Order was there to say a few words... mainly that as a kid living in the tower block he was probably responsible for throwing them in in the first place! He looks well chuffed to have his picture taken with Dave the Whippet.

Check out my massive boner

Cyrille Regius

Took the day off on Friday, so headed up to the Lakes Thursday evening to meet up with Tom & his French mate Cyrille. We'd arranged to meet in the pub in Patterdale at 7 that evening, when I arrived Tom was there pint in hand but, no sign of Cyrille, it turns out he's gone to stalk a trout he'd seen in the small beck. Half way through our pint the excited Frenchman turns up wanting for us to get a snap, I obliged as I was keen to see what could have come out of the small stream.

What a corker!

Afterwards we decided to head up the fells to the Tarns for a spot of fishing & wild camping. The going was pretty tough that evening with a strong wind funnelling down from the tops.

Here's a lovely peaty Tarn fish Tom caught earlier that day.

After a shite nights sleep on the softest tuft of grass I could find that wasn't boggy, we headed down off the fells keen to sample some river fishing. First off we went to explore the Greta but, after bumping into the hatchery chap while stopping for a couple of Jennings in the Twa Dogs he convinced us we'd be much better off on the Derwent as the water was really low.

The day was pretty slow due to the heat & light but, we all caught fish. Cyrille was loving it as he's completely obsessed with sight fishing for Browns with nymphs and the day was perfect for spotting fish for later that evening.

Here's the best of the day.

As the sun sank a huge hatch came off & the river became alive with feeding fish. We had one of the best hours in memory casting at pods of rising Trout. The hardest part was trying to keep the fly dry with fish nailing it every try.

it's warming up

all style no guile

Stopped off on the way back home the other afternoon to have a look off a bridge at the state of the river & saw the odd swirl of a fish sipping down, remembering that I had some gear in the boot got me tempted but, apart from the waders all I had to wear was the suit & shirt I was in, undeterred I got in the waders in me duds & kept the shirt on - I must have looked like one of those tits you see in Trout & Salmon spey casting in a shirt & tie!

it's been a while

Just had a top weekend fishing the tarns, lakes & rivers of cumbria. I've broke my camera so stole this pic from Tom's blog; http://tominargentina.blogspot.com/