Bradshaw Brook 2 Aug 15

Although I have put Bradshaw Brook as the title it was not the only place that I visited, it was the only place that I fished.

The main purpose of my travels was to photograph non native invasive weeds growing on the banks of the rivers Irwell, Roch and the brook. This was my third day in a row of weed spotting for the  Plant Tracker web site.

I started at Ladyshore which is one of the worst areas for Himalayan Balsam closely followed by Japanese Knotweed and lots of the dreaded Giant Hogweed.

Balsam

Japanese Knotweed

All three together.

As I was leaving I met a work party from Little Britain Angling who were clearing rubbish and excess weed from the Bury Bolton Canal. You have to be very keen to take it on as the canal is very poor order.

    Try fishing in there.

Next I went to Sion Road which is as bad a place for Giant Hogweed as you are likely to see, on second thought Springwater Park is worse.

This is actually on Sion Road before you even get to the river.

This runs for over 200 yards down one side of the river I had to wade as you can not walk on the bank without protective clothing. The other bank is just as bad.

It's got more than it's fair share of Japanese Knotweed as well.

There are still miles of the river that have not been been added to Plant Tracker as yet. On Saturday I took over 170 photos and another 150 on Sunday, thank godness for digital cameras.

Bradshaw Brook and Fishing.

After all the camera work I thought I was due a little relaxing fishing. Did not completely turn out that way I had to fight my way into the part of the brook that I wanted to fish. Glad I did, even though I lost a couple flies and tippet's in the trees, one of them before I even started fishing. I used my 6' 6" rod with a BWO.

   And caught this very nice fish.

The next few turned out to be a lot smaller.

Though not all as little as this one.

Also took some more pictures of the weeds. sorry to go on about them.

 Had a couple more small ones before hooking this much better fish, He does not look very well in the picture but he swam away OK.

This was the last one I caught, not a bad fish so a pleasant end to the day. 

If you have a fancy phone with GPS and it takes photos, I think they all do nowadays I am not into phones. down load the Plant Tracker App and get reporting invasive weeds. There is help on the App as to which plants they want reported.  Or take pictures with a digital camera go on line and report them there as I do.  

Irwell Ewood Bridge 31 Jul 15

Went a day early to do my kick sample, the insect count was a bit low on the Olives but up on the Cased Caddis. the river was still pretty low.

As always I had a fish, I also took lots of photos of the invasive weeds by the river for the Plant Tracker web site. No Giant Hogweed but loads of Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed.

Up from the bridge where last time I caught fish there seemed to be nothing at all, where they go and why I do not understand.
My first fish was very pleasing, I think it was the same fish that I caught last month from just under the bushes on the right of the picture.

   What pleased me was that, last time I dropped it back in the river as I tried to take it's photo, I made no mistake this time and waded to the bank with it in the net.

Not massive but a good fish from an awkward place. Blue Winged Olive did the trick.

This pool has a fast current and does not look like much, some times it fishes well and sometimes not. It depends how much of the bank has slipped into the river in the last few days, or so I think. Today was a good one.

 Three nice fish still on the BWO.

I moved on up to the next pool which had fish rising, I had not seen a rise until then.

The top end always fishes the best and today was no exception.

This was the best one.

Moved up above the weir fish rising again, got a couple to have a look but I could not get one on the hook, never mind sometimes your lucky sometimes your not.

I was happy with my day so started back down taking more photos of the invasive weeds,

 it's a never ending task I just hope that something will get done about controlling then some day.

Ragweed.

Lots and lots of Himalayan Balsam it crowds out all the other plants and then dies off in the winter leaving no roots. The winter rains then wash the unprotected soil away.

The other problem up here and much farther down the river is Japanese Knot weed.

At least it tends to help the banks to stay firm, but once it takes over you need a machete to get through it. 

Bradshaw Brook Firwood 29 Jul 15

Two reasons for going to Firwood again, one, I wanted to take more photos of the non native invasive weeds that are strangling the river banks and pathways by the brook. The details and photos of which I have just finished putting on the Plant Tracker web site.

Japanese Knotweed is in complete control of the left bank here and Himalayan Balsam has got the other side.

It gets worse each year.

Reason two is, of course, that I manage to catch plenty fish, most likely because I go to the most awkward bits that nobody else does.

 Not that big but plenty of them.

 Now and again I get some that are a bit bigger.

All caught on dry fly,a BWO to start and an Adams later.

 More of that awful Balsam and Knotweed.

 As usual I lost as many as I netted which I don't mind as long as they don't end up with my fly in their mouth.

I did meet two others fishing in the brook, a dad with his little boy. The boy was trying to spin and dad had a fly rod. I left them to it. It didn't look like they would be catching much, but then again you never know they might have done better than me by the end of the day.   

Bradshaw Brook 28 Jul 15

I have been photographing Japanese Knot Weed and Himalayan Balsam and putting the pictures and the location of the plants on " http://planttracker.naturelocator.org/ " so that a better picture of where these awful plants are all over the UK. It can be done in two ways, I do it on my lap top but it can be done via an APP on mobiles, I am an old fart and don't understand these new fancy phones.
I did get pictures of Giant Hog Weed over the weekend and last week but not today.

If you read this please go to the website and do some reporting we all need to do our bit.

Of course I did manage a little fishing at the same time. Caught quite a few and hooked and lost far more. Not concentrating enough, not surprising really as it kept  heaving it down with rain most of the time. Guess who didn't have his waterproof on, spent quite some time hiding under trees.

  As usual it was the better fish that seemed to get off .

Got loads of photos of Balsam and Knot weed, won't bore you with them. The Giant Hog Weed has not got to here yet, thank goodness.