River Yarrow Part 2 - Silver City. Roving With The Ginger Assasin.

Both myself and the Ginger One have been longing to go back to the . . . . . .

Little River Yarrow in Bolton to continue our  . . .

" Search For Silvers ".

The last time we fished it we hammered the trout but only caught one silver between us which was a little disappointing. 

We were a little low on bait so we called into

"Adlington Angling Centre "

 to stock up on some bits.
John is a regular at the shop and introduced me to the owner, Andrew Gibbs.
A nice guy with a top shop. Andrew sorted us out with our bits and bait. We had a chat about the days horse racing then we hit the road.

 John has located a nice stretch of the River Yarrow to fish as the river is in his back yard and directed me to a stretch where he had walked but never fished.
We tackle up, while chatting, donned our waders and clumped up the path to the first of Johns secret sections . . . . . .

“ I’ve seen chub here Peanut . . . . . .
loads of them “

 said the Assassin as we reach the first run and sat down on the bank side by side to see what , if anything we could winkle out.

Now, John isn’t prone to exaggeration . . . .
MUCH . . . . . lol
but before I could even get my float in I  watched John have his first cast.
His rod instantly arched over into a good dace of about 3 oz. Not bad for an un–known stream !!!!!!!

“ They must have been dace I saw Peanut “ he said with a cheeky grin.

I got a quick picture for the old red head, and was a bit peeved as I hadn't even cast my float in yet.

I looked around and the Ginger Nut was smiling again.

“ I’m in again Cootesie “
he laughed as a lively roach of about 2 oz came swinging in.

I did the honours and took a picture as the jibes started coming in from John.

“ Hurry up Peanut or I will have caught them all . . . . . . lol“

I was just set for my first cast when John started chuckling . . . . . . .

“ I’m in again old man “ . . . . . .

as I watched a health bend in Johns rod appear. A minute later we both gazed at the beautiful creature cradled in johns hands. It was a perfectly formed wild brown trout with the most striking markings I have ever seen. It was almost blue in colour !!!!!!!

“ Look at that beauty Peanut “
he crowed as I rapidly took a couple of photographs.

“ Right “ I said, a little jealous.

“You can take your own god dam pictures from now on, I'm fishing “ . . . . lol

First trot down and I was into my first ever River Yarrow dace a lovely fin perfect specimen. Feeling a little less grumpy  I un-hook it using one if my new disgorger floats and popped her back into the river.

 

Out of the corner of my eye I spied the Assassin watching me . . . . .

“ Feeling a little better now are we grumpy
" Bo##ocks “ . . . . . . 

he shouts and we both burst out laughing.

The river was that narrow on this section that we were trotting our floats side by side down the run and round the bend. My float would pass from my view and John would tell me when to strike . . . . .  sometimes. . . . . .😈

I think we had about a dozen fish between us. All in perfect condition apart from a roach that John caught. It looked healthy . . . . . . . .just an old fish I think.

Bites started to slow so I made the decision to up sticks and do some exploring. John did the same and we started to fight our way through the undergrowth searching for new swims.

John was the fist to find one he was happy with. I stopped with him for a moment and moved on. As I crossed the bridge I said good morning to a chap walking his dog. He saw my rod and gear and we sparked up a conversation about the River Yarrow and Douglas as he was an avid angler, however, I will keep the majority of the information to myself for now as it was very useful and I will be acting on it in the near future.

My new found friend directed me to a spot he knew. First drop in I had a dace about 2 oz , then a trout 8oz another dace, then another, then another. 

“ Told you it was a good spot lad “ said my new found friend. He then bid me fare well and tight lines . . . . . . what a nice fella !!!!!!

I had walked quite a way up steam and had no word from John when I spotted a big red head mooching through the bushes.

“ You had out pal “
comes a grunt from over the overhanging chestnut tree.

" I've had two more decent brownies.
Nowt else " said John.

“ Yes " I replied,
" One a chuck here, get in on the middle of the run “
I  said while striking into my one and only roach from the Yarrow. A very pretty little fish which put me level in species with John.

I had a few more trots down and connected with another 3 oz dace then told John I was off again giving him a chance of a fish on the new found pool.

The next spot we I found was what looked like an out and out chub peg, which is our target species for the day. There were submerged branches everywhere, loads of overhanging trees. It looked great.

The main flow was about two thirds of the way across the river so I introduced some bait and got fishing. On my fourth trot down my
 “ Irwell Stick “
 bobbed twice and disappeared beneath the surface. A rattling fight identified the fish straight away which was another very small brownie.

John had arrived and took up a spot just to my left and we trotted the same swim together. Five minutes passed without much action when John strikes and bumps off a nice fish . . . .

 “ B##tard“  

he shouts and nearly drops hi E-cig in to the mighty Yarrow. . . . . 😂😂😂

Posser . . . .lol 🤓🤓🤓😉

Cursing quite loudly John re-baits and casts in again but I was the next one to get a bite

" Feels a better one this does John . 

Its not a trout “

 and I slipped my waiting hand under the biggest dace of the day.

A very long fish.
 I was well chuffed.

We gave it another ten minutes. John lost two fish and I struggled for a bite after the dace.

So we both decided to move on and find another swim to fish. I was getting a bit knackered now and felt itchy and sweaty in my neoprene waders but that was forgotten when I walked around the corner.

 “ John, John, look at this run . . . . .its got to have some fish in this “

The new swim consisted of a smooth bend tailing off to a shallower run, then, a deep hole with a submerged tree in it . . . . . . . . 

“ Jesus it looks top Mike. Baggsie the deep hole with the tree in it “.

Johns Sunken Tree Peg.

That suited me fine as I liked the look of the smooth bend anyway. We both fished the bend together for a while as it was a long run and were both fishing within a minute. I was the first one into the fish, a nice brownie of around a pound and John was in one on the next trot down, another brownie a little larger than mine.

John was itching to get to the sunken tree peg and up sticks after that fish.

“ You can have it Peanut.

That sunken tree peg has got to hold a chub or two “

 and he was off 40 yards down stream to tickle out a big one hopefully. That left me with the long run all to myself. Three more brownies fell to my

 “ Yellow Irwell Stick Float “.

This is one of the very first
 " Pearlescent Feather Inlay Irwell Stick I have  made and is still going strong. 😉

 I was enjoying myself now. A nice chub would really top the day off. . . . . . . . .

On the next trot down my float brushed against the overhanging willow trees on the far side of the river . I positioned my little Irwell Stick as close as I possible could to the overhanging vegetation without snagging up. I held the float back which raised the bait in the water column. I then let the float flow free again to travel down stream in pace with the current. This lets the bait fall through the water again. I was fishing

"On the drop "

to entice a take from a sneaky chub hopefully. The float had just settled when it absolutely fire under and it took me by surprise a little to be honest. I met the bite with a solid right to left strike, the old Acolyte arched right over and I was into a belter.

whatever it was.

The fish then flew upstream straight into a snag.

 “ Dam it "  . . . . . .

I had a little play about letting the line go slack for 30 seconds then applied more  pressure to no avail. The time had come to pull for a brake when all of a sudden I could feel the fish kick and then come free . . . . . 

Time stood still as the fish dragged me all over the snag ridden swim. She rose to the surface right in front of me but due to the poor light I couldn’t tell which species she was. I was hoping for a chub but we hadn’t caught any yet from the Yarrow.
 This would be a cracking fish to kick start our Yarrow chub campaign.
I was clutching at straws a bit though to be honest  . . . Lol

“ The Ginger Assassin “ then shouted over ....

“ What you got on their Peanut “

“ Not sure yet John. I can’t tell in this light “
I replied.

As I looked around I then realised that we had decided to leave the landing net in the car as we we were travelling light !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“ Sh#t “ . . . . .  

How was I to land her ????????

The banking was quite high where I was fishing. No chance of landing her here !!!!!!

My only option was to carefully guide her to the shallow run just above Johns hole and hand ball her out. Not an easy manoeuvre in the very fast water . .. . . . . 

“ I new we should have brought the lading net John “ . . . . 

“ Just guide her to me me and I will take her out with both hands “

I was slowly walking down stream whilst playing her, just reaching the shallow section and wadded into the water to meet John.

“ Have u seen her yet Peanut “.  

“No mate “ I answered

“ Hope she is a chub “ whispered John, echoing my thoughts.

She was stubbornly holding in the deeper water above the gravel run but just then the pressure must have told and she slowly entered the shallows. It was then we both saw her as the canopy above broke and sunlight cascaded down onto the waters surface reflecting a brilliant flash of a large scaled silver flank in the crystal clear water.

" Jesus, you have done it Mike, its a chub, its a chub. Its a cracker to pal ".
John was buzzing.

 He was as made up as I was !!!!!!!

I couldn’t let john land this fish as I would kill him if he somehow lost her . . . . . . .

 I slowly positioned her upstream of where I was standing at about a forty five degree angle then guided her into my waiting hand, and slowly lifted her into my wet bait apron. 

GOTCHA !!!!!!!!! 😲😲😲😲

Both John and I looked at each other with massive grins on our faces. This fish was the target we had both set ourselves for the Yarrow.

A Chub over 2lb.

 This easily fitted the criteria. . . . . .

We were ecstatic 

😀😀😀😉

“ Right Peanut. The next targets for you are a . . . . . . 

River Yarrow

Barbel, Sea Trout and Salmon “ joked John.

He likes to make it easy for me doesn’t he . . . .
LMAO🤓🤓🤓😉

We took some snaps and put her back resting her for a few minutes before she kicked off and sped back to her snaggy home.

A couple more swims were tried and John had a big dace from one of them equalling my earlier fish but the light was fading now and it was a difficult walk back to the " Mighty Megan “

All in all one of the most enjoyable days fishing I have ever had.

I love exploring new places and swims. 

Many thanks to John Derbyshire to making this possible.

John on the ladt run. 😊

A full picture of the last run

We both caught small brownies from here but there are miles of river to explore yet and there is a swim, not pictured, where we may catch something VERY  SPECIAL in the future . . . . . 😉
I can't wait to catch that fish. It would raise some eye brows in the angling world I can tell ya !!!!!!!!

Until the next time . . .

 TTFN . . . .

Peanut.

If you would like to look at all of the hand crafted floats I make please click on the link below and it will take you to my float page.

http://purplepeanut007.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/hand-crafted-floats-float-making-by.html?m=1

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