A Walk Round Lower Rivington Reservoir 5 Dec 13

Took the bus through Horwich to near Grimeford Village and made my way up New Road  to Horrobin Lane which separates Higher Rivington and Lower Rivington Reservoirs.

This is the Upper 

The dam in the distance is the end of Anglezarke Reservoir built in the 1850s.

Not sure of the name of the house. Ordnance survey and Google maps don't help much. 

This the Lower Reservoir with Rivington Pike and the tower in the far distance.Like the Anglezarke both these reservoirs were built in the 1850s to supply water to Liverpool.

Once across the dam there is a Tea Room, didn't stop.A little further on is Rivington Village again with a Tea Room. Both quite busy, wasn't expecting company.

 I headed back towards Horwich trying to stay as close to the water as possible. Apart from that I did not have a plan of where to go. There are lots of paths so I just followed my fancy, came upon an Arboretum, didn't know that was there. 

 Some Bracket Fungus on a couple of old tree stumps in the arboretum, hope they had not been chopped down to make way for the new trees.

The pike and tower, a bit closer now, with the Winter Hill TV mast to the side.

From here I followed a path that took me back to the waters edge.

 Looking back up from where I had come.

 I was surprised how low the water was, but then we have not had much rain over the last few weeks.

The pike and tower through the trees.

What about this? I didn't know that there is a castle in Rivington.

The couple in the distance told me about the castle, which it turns out to be a folly called Lever Castle.

It is actually supposed to be a scaled down copy of Liverpool Castle that Lord Lever started to have built in 1912.

Not far to go from here and I was back in Horwich where a caught a bus back to Bolton and then home.

    

Irwell Ladyshore Pike Fishing 3 Dec 13

Got the urge to go fishing today, it's the close season for trout, so I went to Ladyshore in the hope of catching some small pike. The river was low and clear, the weather was overcast and cold with no wind to speak of.
I fished a small green plastic lure on a nine foot spinning rod with an old Shakespeare spinning reel. I started above the old weir casting across and down the faster water, moving down stream until I got to the weir nothing.
Then I fished the weir pool, where I thought my best chance of fish would be, nothing again. So I moved down to the start of the slack water further down stream and had a fish after a couple of casts. Not a pike though a out of season trout.

 Nice clean fish , got it back into the water as quick as I could, and moved further down stream. 

  Where I caught another trout, a bigger one this time, I think it was full of roe as it had a soft swollen belly. Got it back in pronto and decided that was enough for the day.  

I didn't want to keep catching trout and disturbing their spawning, I will go back to my walking and leave the river fishing until March when the trout season starts again.

Places for Course Fishing The Irwell Bury Ground to Close Park.

As promised though not as quick as I said.
I will just mention Burrs Country Park. The river and two lakes at Burrs are controlled by Ramsbottom Angling Association.
http://www.ramsbottomanglers.co.uk/linked/burrs%20country%20park%20lodges%20and%20river2.jpg

I start at Bury Bridge looking up river. On the left of the river is Lower Woodhill Road, by the side of Evans Halshaws Car Sales, from which you can fish the pool above the first weir. You can park down there its not all double yellows.

  

 There is a good long pool above the weir and some good access to the water.  

 Here you can get down to the water level.

 Also here where Kirklees Brook joins the river.  

 It is possible to get to the river on the other bank, even in the summer, there is Balsam, Knot Weed and Brambles but no Giant Hog Weed.

Next I went up stream on the other side of the river on to Bury Ground. You drive in by the Police HQ  and then go left in front of the LGC Standards Building to the car park which belongs to LGC. Evenings and weekends park where you like, working hours there is still a piece of broken ground that you can use.

LGC Car Park  The gap in the line of cars on the left is all ways free.

A bit of a drop to the water, a long handled landing net comes in handy. There are places you can fish from down in the trees at the far end of the picture, it does get overgrown in the summer..

Looking up stream, not easy to get to the water here.
If you walk up the tarmac path on the right you come to a large weir.

Fishing the bottom of the weir requires wading.

Top of the weir plenty of water and places to fish.

 

Passed here the bank get to high and then there is another weir.

 No pool to speak of below the weir.

 Not much access on this side to the top pool.

This is the only decent bit.

If you go over the old rail bridge you can get down to the bank on the other side but I am told the farmer does not like people fishing on his land.

From Bury Bridge.

This picture is from Bury Bridge looking down river, the wall on the right goes down to the old rail bridge at the bottom of Wellington Street. The left bank is steep and treed with lots of Giant Hog Weed, I have not found any way to get to the river on either side.

Any way this is the bottom of Wellington Street.

Through the trees you can get to the river or go over the  foot bridge to the other bank then go right, along the fence by the school sports fields.

Looking down river from the foot bridge, there is another weir further down. Its not possible to fish the left bank until you get nearer to the weir.

 Getting near the weir.

There are a few places to fish from near the weir but getting close to the top of the weir you would need to cut a path through the brambles.

The bottom of the weir should hold some fish.

 Follow the path down from the weir keeping close to the river and you get here.

You can get to the river now and in the spring, different story when the Hog Weed is up.

There are a couple of places down by the trees on the left, but after that there is nothing until you get to the Monkey Bridge at Warth.

There is another way to get here by going down Warth Road and right along Openshaw Fold Road behind Derby School. You can park by a arch under the Metro and walk up to the weir or over the hill to the place above.

The Monkey Bridge carries the Metro over the river further down the best way to get there is from Bury Road take Warth Fold Road to the level crossing over the Metro, don't cross go straight on down the rough track to the river.

You can park here. The rivers behind me. Level crossing at the top of the track.

Under the Monkey Bridge.

 The sign says Bury Angling if it is they are not doing anything about it.

Looking up river, how you fish here I don't know. If you go through the foot bridge you can get to the other bank not much better. The Canal is up the top of the left bank.

If you can get through this there maybe a place by the bank.

This is on the side of the Metro where you park with the big weir in the distance.

Looks OK but its not very deep even by the weir, over the years it has silted up.

Bottom of the weir is quite deep but it's getting down there that's the problem.

Bit of a scramble but this gets you to the water, waders come in handy. Or you can go down stream of the road bridge and wade back up, that's what I do in the trout season, but that's not easy as well.

The river below the road bridge is only a couple of feet deep until you get further down.

As you can see the Hog Weed is a massive problem in the summer.

 But at least you can get to the river now and in the spring.

Looking up river from Dumers Lane Bridge.

Looking down from Dumers Lane Bridge at what we are told will be a Salford Friendly water once the building site is completed. 

Next I went to Close Park which is along Dumers Lane towards Radcliffe. Plenty of parking as you drive into the park. You can not miss the entrance to the park

 A path round the park takes you to the river.
Some good spots to fish from but the river is not that deep so you need to be careful how you approach.

This is looking up at the Bury Sewage Farm outlet.

As you can see, as you go down river it gets much harder to get to the water.

That's Springwater Park across the Irwell and the Roch

 You can get to the water here but not in the summer unless you want to chop down the Hog Weed.

Looking back at the Roch.