A good end to the season

The season was coming to end, so I changed my week off at work, little to my girlfriends liking as we had made plans but I had to get on the river. My first trip was off to the River Roch, to a lovely looking swim on a smooth bend. I only stayed for a for a few hours and managed to pluck out this chub at 2lb 15oz on the maggot feeder.

Next on the agenda was a trip with the Meddy Man. We set off at half 8 and arrived at a tried and tested swim by Dave, but after fourty mins or so there was no sign of life. The next move took us into to vale where after good wait and whole lot of feeding we finally broke into some fish. Dave got this lovely chub at just over two nd half pound and a couple more nice trout, caught on the stick n'all.

My fish was a good trout which weighed 2lb 1oz, and it had some pulling power, then I missed another fish which pulled my rod of the rest. We moved further upsteam but with no luck. The river has still not recoverd from a pollution incident, but there are some beautiful looking spots.

After realising I should have kept my last few maggots, I decieded to have an hour on the Irwell. Armed with a tub of fresh lobs I waded into my favourite swim and set my stick off downsteam. Not expecting to catch after about ten trots through the float dipped thinking it was snagged only to see a small brownie leap skyward. It put up a good tug and went home happy I'd landed something. I need to get better with my self-timer!

Of on the next trip, I met up with Phil and headed to the Roch. We started at a weir, which had to have a fish or two, but the river was very low and not muched showed. Phil had a small trout at about half a pound and I caught a small chub of about a pound and half, above the weir. We moved on to a swim that normally is banker and attacked it with our sticks. We must of fed a good couple of pints but after two hours we gave up, everything was perfect, I guess it was just one of them days. The Irwell was our last port of call, but on the way I showed Phil the Medlock. We had a little pop for twenty mins, and what a good choice! I caught these three one after another. The chub was a belter but it had an unfortunate scar on its back, still it fought like a train. The light was fading when we got to the Irwell but we still had a good fourty mins left. We got straight in and got the maggots flowing and it wasn't long before I was into a fish. After a good scrap this beast made it to net. It was a good 5lb+ but the battery in my scales must of been dying as it was settling at 3lb, it was not 3lb! A great end to a great day.

On the wednesday I went back down to the Irwell for an hour and managed this chunky brownie. A good fish on the last day of the season.

A special thanks to David Parr and Phil Clayton, I appreciate it very much.