River Douglas 23 Aug 14

The Irwell and the Roch  are still up and coloured, went to fish Eagley Brook in the valley but someone was already fly fishing. Next stop the Douglas turned out to be a good choice, even if it was forced on me.
The river was flowing clear and most of the weed and the mud and silt trapped in it has gone.

 Used usual 7 foot 3 weight, dry fly Greenwells of course.

Trout rising in the flow above, hooked one first cast but it didn't stay on very long. Soon into another one same result, got the feeling it was not going to be my day.

 I have said it before that the only way to fly fish the Douglas in standing in the river.

Waded up a little and caught this one, and then hooked and lost another. Getting to be a habit and a bad one at that.

From here.

Whilst retrieving my fly from the bank side Balsam, which is a constant job on the Douglas, spotted three large hawks circling. I have no idea what type they are but it is good to see them again.

That's two of them.

 Not sure what it is or how it got into the river.

It is definitely not a coffin.

Just above here is a bridge I usually get out of the river and back in above the bridge, decided to wade up and under it for a change, turned out not to be as deep as I had expected.

Above the bridge fish on the rise again, although most of the weed had gone there is still some bull rush type stuff which the fish like to be near. Makes it very difficult to present a fly without getting caught up so now I had a problem back and front.

Managed to net this one despite the problems.

 Not easy getting a fly to the fish.
 Lost a fly to the sunken piece of wood on the right, did not want to wade up and retrieve it and scare the fish.

The bull rush type stuff.

A couple of weeks ago this weed was everywhere in the river, I was worried that there was nowhere left for the fish and for me to fish without getting caught up. I don't know why it has died back so soon but I am glad that it has.

I did not catch as many fish as yesterday but the ones that I did were better fish by far.
Although  the Douglas is hard work and snag ridden fishing it is well worth it, as long as I do not fall over which I am bound to do one of these days.  

Bradshaw Brook 22 Aug 14

The weather and family have kept me away from the rivers for over a week and but for Bradshaw I would not  have been fishing today.

Checked the EA website for river levels and was surprised to see how high they were over night. Still went to check the Irwell at Summerseat, should not have bothered, high and chocolate.

Bradshaw was up a little and had some colour, but not to much. Decided to fish from Printers Lane up to the Jumbles dam. Usual 7 foot rod and dry fly, Greenwell's to start and finish.

 Plenty of sun not that much of it gets through the trees to the river.

  Fish on the rise but as usual I could not see any flies on the water. Caught 2 small ones in this pool.

 The water is not very deep which usually means if you catch one you scare the other fish in the pool.

Lots of Balsam but no Knot weed or Giant Hogweed thank goodness.

One of the small ones.

 Deeper here but not easy casting.

Caught a couple more here.

Not the prettiest part of the brook.

Couple more from this bit.

No great size.

Not easy fishing in most bits and not a lot of decent sized fish, ended up with 10 fish the best did not make 10 inches.

Plenty Rain at Last 12 Aug 14

Last night, Monday, fished the Bradshaw Flyfishers beat for a couple of hours. Don't know why I don't do more evening fishing, mind the evenings are drawing in pretty sharp now.

Couldn't be bothered to get my waders on just had a pair of wellingtons instead.

Despite all the rain the brook was only up a few inches, it did have some colour though.

Started with my 7 foot 3 weight and a copper john nymph and caught 2 small ones then changed to a Greenwells dry as I could see fish rising. Caught 7 more small ones and missed several more. The best fish of the night were the last two both were over ten inches. It was getting dark which was not helped by the tree cover so I could not see my fly and nothing was rising so reeled in and found that I did not have a fly, the trees must have had it, Time for home.

This afternoon I went to the brook at 7 Acres Park, between the rain showers I caught 3 on nymph, pheasant tail this time and then 3 more on a greenwells dry. All small ones but better than nothing. The brook was up a little more than yesterday and had more colour, not surprising with the amount of rain this morning and over night.

  As I was packing up in the car park a chap going to practice his golf asked how I had done, he then told me he had caught a big one yesterday on maggots, by the way he held up his hands he was indicating a 20 inch fish. I did not ask what he did with it as I would rather not hear that he took it home.

River Douglas 9 Aug 14 Two

Didn't take me long to arrived at my usual stretch with the same hope as at the previous one.

A couple of fish were rising so I started with a blue winged olive, nothing doing. Put on a greenwells glory.

 Took a while and more than a few snags in the balsam, it was very windy, before I caught this one. 

Good fish near fourteen inches.

This one came ten minutes later again to a greenwells.

Quite some time before the next and last one.

 The under water camera work is getting better.

The weed that was threatening to strangle the river is dying back so there is more open water and the silt that the weed was holding is beginning to wash away. I was worried that there would be no gravel for the fish to spawn on this winter.

Very pleased with the end results of the day turned into my best day for over a week.  

River Douglas 9 Aug 14 One

I got around to fishing the Douglas at Adlington  today, it's a stretch that I have walked a few times but never fished. I did not expect any large fish but plenty of smaller ones as there are plenty of likely pools and glides. Unfortunately there are lots of trees and bank side growth to make the fishing difficult.

 Of course as with all our rivers and streams we have these.

Not a pretty site. 

  This deep pool should have produced fish , but it did not.

Starts to open up from here.

But still no fish.

And then another sewer overflow.

 This one much worse than the other two and very smelly.

Not a pleasant site and not good for the river.

Looking a lot better, but still no fish.

I had not had a touch and there was no sign of fish so I decided to drive to a stretch that I had caught fish before.