Bluemoon Angling Thread

[Saddleworth2]

Does anyone here go fly fishing? We stayed with friends in Acharacle last week, beside Loch Sheil, and close to River Sheil, as it runs about a mile into the sea. It stuck me that if I lived there, it would be a great to go fly fishing there.

It is quite a fast flowing river, shallow, with some gentle flowing areas, a few rocky areas like mini waterfalls. I was told salmon and trout can be caught there.

I've been sea fishing in tourist boats and caught mackerel and once a cod. What's the crack with river fishing? Can you hire equipment? If you are lucky enough to catch something, are you allowed to keep your catches? Is there a knack to landing the fish, or is it just like bringing in a mackerel?

Does anyone here go fly fishing? We stayed with friends in Acharacle last week, beside Loch Sheil, and close to River Sheil, as it runs about a mile into the sea. It stuck me that if I lived there, it would be a great to go fly fishing there.

It is quite a fast flowing river, shallow, with some gentle flowing areas, a few rocky areas like mini waterfalls. I was told salmon and trout can be caught there.

I've been sea fishing in tourist boats and caught mackerel and once a cod. What's the crack with river fishing? Can you hire equipment? If you are lucky enough to catch something, are you allowed to keep your catches? Is there a knack to landing the fish, or is it just like bringing in a mackerel?

Have a look at this mate

Fishing Holidays in Scotland - On Loch Shiel & River Shiel by Acharacle Ardnamurchan - Rowanhill Cottage

Fishing Holidays in Scotland On Loch Shiel & River Shiel by Acharacle Ardnamurchan fish for trout salmon - Rowanhill Cottage

www.rowanhill-cottage.co.uk

 

[Saddleworth2]

Does anyone here go fly fishing? We stayed with friends in Acharacle last week, beside Loch Sheil, and close to River Sheil, as it runs about a mile into the sea. It stuck me that if I lived there, it would be a great to go fly fishing there.

It is quite a fast flowing river, shallow, with some gentle flowing areas, a few rocky areas like mini waterfalls. I was told salmon and trout can be caught there.

I've been sea fishing in tourist boats and caught mackerel and once a cod. What's the crack with river fishing? Can you hire equipment? If you are lucky enough to catch something, are you allowed to keep your catches? Is there a knack to landing the fish, or is it just like bringing in a mackerel?

Fishing Holidays in Scotland - On Loch Shiel & River Shiel by Acharacle Ardnamurchan - Rowanhill Cottage

Fishing Holidays in Scotland On Loch Shiel & River Shiel by Acharacle Ardnamurchan fish for trout salmon - Rowanhill Cottage

www.rowanhill-cottage.co.uk

Have a look. I don’t know the water but it will not be like fishing for Mackerel, I can promise you that.

 

[Saddleworth2]

A quieter moment...

View attachment 47830

Lovely photo that. Captures the essence of course fishing.

 

[its grim up north]

A really imprtant point which we both forgot to tell you: be really careful how you look after and return barbel if you catch one in these conditions. Yopu must use an unhooking mat. You also need to hold them out in the current for as long as it takes to recover, even if you get wet feet. It could be 5 minutes plus using the light tackle you are.

Also, I know someone who is in that area now and he caught dozens of chub but only one barbel. Your tackle is perfect for them so why not fish maggots, hemp or caster to catch a bag of chub? The barbel could easily still show.

Right guys, we're back home and a good time we had. Bear with me. Tuesday 2 of us we drove down to the Eardington brook length just through Bridgenorth. A flat, 10 min walk to the river. Set up in the first two pegs after the private section just downstream of the brook. Started fishing a 9 am. Not over ambitious with the sun and low water but a bit of colour in. Set up with free running 30gm open ended filled with HaliHemp ground bait laced with hemp and caster, with 3ft hooklenght to a 14 micro barb and 3 casters. First few fish small dace then after 50 mins off it went. 5lb barbel. Followed by a mixture of chub, upto 2lb, dace, chublets and 5 more Barbel. 2 x 6 another 1x 5 a 4 and a little 2 pounder. Smashed clean off twice
My mate had 3, biggest just 8lb and some Chubs all on meat. Chucked it at 8pm. Wed am after breakfast joined by a third mate we checked out the Apsley Estate lengths and eventually opted for the "easy" section opposite the golf course. Low and slow and nothing to get excited about, from midday till 9 45 we only caught chub, best 2.5 lbs, and not many of them. However we had reports that further upstream a guy was doing very well with the odd barbel, chub and dace on maggot on the stick. Wed Am checked out Blackstone, Lower Arley and Danery lenghts. Blackstone's very good access and some decent pegs but not fishing through lack of water, Danery very bad pegs. Arley, quicker water good access but guys not catching. So PM back to Eardington but upstream to a gravel bank. Fast shallow bouldery water. Now it gets interesting. Catching chub to 5lb on Caster for fun and 2 roach well over a pound. Then the tip pulls down, another chub then bang. Now you might not believe this, but on my Drennan medium feeder, 8 lb main 7lb hooklength and 14s hook after a 20 min scrap a 26.5 lb pike lay on the bank. After that I couldn't care any more and decided beer was the best bet. Going back to the Unicorn in August cant wait.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Right guys, we're back home and a good time we had. Bear with me. Tuesday 2 of us we drove down to the Eardington brook length just through Bridgenorth. A flat, 10 min walk to the river. Set up in the first two pegs after the private section just downstream of the brook. Started fishing a 9 am. Not over ambitious with the sun and low water but a bit of colour in. Set up with free running 30gm open ended filled with HaliHemp ground bait laced with hemp and caster, with 3ft hooklenght to a 14 micro barb and 3 casters. First few fish small dace then after 50 mins off it went. 5lb barbel. Followed by a mixture of chub, upto 2lb, dace, chublets and 5 more Barbel. 2 x 6 another 1x 5 a 4 and a little 2 pounder. Smashed clean off twice
My mate had 3, biggest just 8lb and some Chubs all on meat. Chucked it at 8pm. Wed am after breakfast joined by a third mate we checked out the Apsley Estate lengths and eventually opted for the "easy" section opposite the golf course. Low and slow and nothing to get excited about, from midday till 9 45 we only caught chub, best 2.5 lbs, and not many of them. However we had reports that further upstream a guy was doing very well with the odd barbel, chub and dace on maggot on the stick. Wed Am checked out Blackstone, Lower Arley and Danery lenghts. Blackstone's very good access and some decent pegs but not fishing through lack of water, Danery very bad pegs. Arley, quicker water good access but guys not catching. So PM back to Eardington but upstream to a gravel bank. Fast shallow bouldery water. Now it gets interesting. Catching chub to 5lb on Caster for fun and 2 roach well over a pound. Then the tip pulls down, another chub then bang. Now you might not believe this, but on my Drennan medium feeder, 8 lb main 7lb hooklength and 14s hook after a 20 min scrap a 26.5 lb pike lay on the bank. After that I couldn't care any more and decided beer was the best bet. Going back to the Unicorn in August cant wait.

Wow. What a great trip you’ve had. That’s a specimen pike, a fish of a lifetime. Did it take the chub?

 

[its grim up north]

It was a great trip and although I only caught Barbel on day one I was well happy with the trip.Considering the weather and river levels. That's the biggest fish of my Angling lifetime and my first over 20, in fact my biggest fish came out of the Basin Pool at Whitmore at 17lb so my PB up by almost 10lb.Yes, the poor chub or it may have been a roach cos we had a few out is sadly no longer of this world. RIP. Strange take though, in my experience when a Pike strikes a hooked fish it's usually a visual thing, you see the strike ,you see the swirl especially in shallow water but this one no signs whatsoever, it just went solid and then game on.

 

[idahoblues]

 

[idahoblues]

 

[Saddleworth2]

Is that you priming the mortar shells to stun the fish?

I see the bailiff is already on his way. Quite right too ;-)

 

[idahoblues]

Is that you priming the mortar shells to stun the fish?

I see the bailiff is already on his way. Quite right too ;-)

Got to kill them some how

 

[J.G.Blue.]

It was a great trip and although I only caught Barbel on day one I was well happy with the trip.Considering the weather and river levels. That's the biggest fish of my Angling lifetime and my first over 20, in fact my biggest fish came out of the Basin Pool at Whitmore at 17lb so my PB up by almost 10lb.Yes, the poor chub or it may have been a roach cos we had a few out is sadly no longer of this world. RIP. Strange take though, in my experience when a Pike strikes a hooked fish it's usually a visual thing, you see the strike ,you see the swirl especially in shallow water but this one no signs whatsoever, it just went solid and then game on.

Thats just reminded me of a few years ago on the Severn near Shrewsbury, I was reeling in a small roach when a jack pike took the roach, so I was then reeling in a mangled roach & a jack pike when the biggest pike I have ever seen had a go at the jack pike, it couldnt get a proper grip saw me, looked me in the eye & swam off,
I was quite releived the big pike didnt hang on to the little pike because I had no idea how I would land it, you did really well on such light gear to get it on the bank?
Did you hook it or was it just determined not to let go of the chub/roach?

 

[its grim up north]

Thats just reminded me of a few years ago on the Severn near Shrewsbury, I was reeling in a small roach when a jack pike took the roach, so I was then reeling in a mangled roach & a jack pike when the biggest pike I have ever seen had a go at the jack pike, it couldnt get a proper grip saw me, looked me in the eye & swam off,
I was quite releived the big pike didnt hang on to the little pike because I had no idea how I would land it, you did really well on such light gear to get it on the bank?
Did you hook it or was it just determined not to let go of the chub/roach?

Luckily two of us were fishing the gravel, so my mate netted it for me, but neither of us had wellies on, just boots. With the water being so shallow off the gravel he had to walk out about 3 yds to get near, so soggy socks . Then to put the rascal back it was my turn to wade out to the deeper water, but I had to stand in it for about 15 mins till he decided to swim off. No ,no signs of the poor fish but the size14's was perfectly placed in the side of the pike's mouth. I could see it easily. Was I going anywhere near it? Was I f**k

 

[idahoblues]

Back to fresh water, didn’t catch a thing

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I had a trip back to my Mr Crabtree river last night. An overcast night with rain forecast, things looked good. I fished a very light, single rod set up with a small pellet on a hair, baiting with loose feed pellets.

First cast, the tip betrayed interest immediately and then a wrap around, and it’s always a proper tackle testing tug of war on this river with roots and snags everywhere. Everything held and I landed a barbel around 4lb or so. Next cast and I was in again. This time it was a clonking small river chub. Great start. Over the next couple of hours I missed a few lunging bites, including one as soon as it hit the deck, which I assume were more chub. Then, just as the rain clouds gathered at dusk, I hit into another fighting fit barbel.

Rain was starting so I declared after that one. I’m enjoying the intimate nature of this small river fishing but The Ribble is definitely next.

 

[Newman Noggs]

I had a trip back to my Mr Crabtree river last night. An overcast night with rain forecast, things looked good. I fished a very light, single rod set up with a small pellet on a hair, baiting with loose feed pellets.

First cast, the tip betrayed interest immediately and then a wrap around, and it’s always a proper tackle testing tug of war on this river with roots and snags everywhere. Everything held and I landed a barbel around 4lb or so. Next cast and I was in again. This time it was a clonking small river chub. Great start. Over the next couple of hours I missed a few lunging bites, including one as soon as it hit the deck, which I assume were more chub. Then, just as the rain clouds gathered at dusk, I hit into another fighting fit barbel.

Rain was starting so I declared after that one. I’m enjoying the intimate nature of this small river fishing but The Ribble is definitely next.View attachment 48276View attachment 48277

How big is it compared with, say, the Dane ?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

How big is it compared with, say, the Dane ?

It's almost exactly like The Dane in every way. 20 + years ago I learned how to catch barbel on The Dane using identical methods so this is real retro fishing for me.

 

[Newman Noggs]

It's almost exactly like The Dane in every way. 20 + years ago I learned how to catch barbel on The Dane using identical methods so this is real retro fishing for me.

Superb. That was the picture I'd formed in my mind's eye.

I've been doing a bit of exploring myself on the Avon 5 minutes from my house. Spent an afternoon carving a path through head-high nettles and creating a swim before baiting it up. I've had some very good bream about half a mile downstream on the popular stretches but I know, from ten years ago, that there's a deep pool where I have made my swim. Only thing is, there's a weir in between.

Anyway, next morning I was up early and blanked. Going to keep at it though as I had a good carp, of all things, when I used to fish it and, like most of us, I enjoy untapped water.

 

[Sir peace frog]

here we go, the judith chalmers of the angling thread :)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Superb. That was the picture I'd formed in my mind's eye.

I've been doing a bit of exploring myself on the Avon 5 minutes from my house. Spent an afternoon carving a path through head-high nettles and creating a swim before baiting it up. I've had some very good bream about half a mile downstream on the popular stretches but I know, from ten years ago, that there's a deep pool where I have made my swim. Only thing is, there's a weir in between.

Anyway, next morning I was up early and blanked. Going to keep at it though as I had a good carp, of all things, when I used to fish it and, like most of us, I enjoy untapped water.

Proper pioneering stuff. Keep us informed NN.

 

[its grim up north]

Superb. That was the picture I'd formed in my mind's eye.

I've been doing a bit of exploring myself on the Avon 5 minutes from my house. Spent an afternoon carving a path through head-high nettles and creating a swim before baiting it up. I've had some very good bream about half a mile downstream on the popular stretches but I know, from ten years ago, that there's a deep pool where I have made my swim. Only thing is, there's a weir in between.

Anyway, next morning I was up early and blanked. Going to keep at it though as I had a good carp, of all things, when I used to fish it and, like most of us, I enjoy untapped water.

Hello buddy, question for you. Do you have a BAA card and do you or have you ever fished the Lower Avon between the M5 road bridge and Tewkesbury.