A New River With New Irwell Sticks & The Ginger Assassin

John Derbyshire has been inviting me to go grayling fishing with him for months.

I had not taken him up on his offer for a number of reasons, work, family, weather etc

You all know the score !!!!!!

Yesterday I finally got organised and went with him to a new ( for me ) north west river.

The good thing about having fishing mates is when you have not seen for a while you both have stacks of things to talk about.

We never stopped talking and laughing all the way to the venue.

When we arrived we set up at the car, donned our waders and walked across the field to the river.

As we approached the river John pointed out a foxes den,
( I am always interested in learning about nature on our rivers ) and  thought he could smell the foxes musk or scat or something or other

!!!!!!!!

Taking the mickie I replied...

" Jeeeeesus Christ !!!!!!!!

I'm fishing with 

A Ginger Crocodile Dundee"

Hahahahahahhah !!!!!!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

We both rolled about laughing at that !!!!!!

With me being about 15 years older than John he shouted out, through tear stained eyes....

" Shut it old man !!!!!!!!

Lets get moving and don't fall behind like you usually do you old numpty

!!!!!!!!!!!!

🤔🙄🤔

John was half way across the river when I shimmed down the sandy bank.

While chatting and chuckling with John I took two paces into the river when ........

DISASTER STRUCK 

!!!!!!
😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

I had not seen the two submerged boulders in front of me, 

slipped on them and fell,

FACE FIRST,

into the cold icy waters with an almighty splash

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With my head fully submerged in the river

all I could think of was....

Is my rod safe?

Is my phone safe?

Both were on different sides of my body....I was checking them whilst trying to get up right......stumbling and choking in the process !!!!!

I must have looked like a fat blue seagull trying to fly under the water....lol

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

John wasn't laughing.....

He thought I was drowning !!!!!!

Cootesie, Cootesie. . . . 

are you ok pal ?
Spluttering while whipping
the river from my eyes I said . . . .
" Oh yeeeaaa !!!!
Fine mate "
I was soaked !!!!!!!
Even my waders were full of water.
I new what John was thinking.
" We are going to have to go home "
 but I was having none of that.
It was a warm day and we would be on the move a lot so I would dry out and the water in my waders would warm up to.
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

" Get moving kid " I said.
I can still fish.
It was only then John saw the funny side . . .
After 30 seconds while struggling to breath all he said in a high pitched laughing squeak was
" YOU KNOB "
and laughed at me all the way to the the first run.
- - - - - - - -
The first run proved to be biteless.
This session was turning into a nightmare !!!!!
Losing a little faith we waded to the next run.
John was feeling the pressure now.
After an horrific start then a blank first run he just want a fish. . . .. any would do just to keep us positive.
The next run was a deep pool awkward to fish on the float due to the many different currents affecting it.
My fist run down with the new stick float produced.
😁
The acolyte hoop round and after a short but welcome little tussle a small brown trout of around 10 ounces was in the net.
A quick picture then released.
I had one more from this pool then we moved again.
" These grayling are proving elusive Mike " said John.
I nodded and agreed as I sloshed behind him, waders full of water. It was a good job the sun was out to keep me warm and dry my cloths off.
John had high hopes for the next run. He feed the line and just watched this time searching for surface indications of feeding grayling while I concentrated on the tip of my orange Irwell Stick.
Just be aware Mike......
there are a few big chub here as well.
I hope you have beefed up your gear a little ?
Now he tells me . . . .lol
I had 3lb 6oz bottom.
It would just have to cope.

 I was getting into my rhythm when my float shot under and another small brownie was landed and released.
There was a slight upstream wind......perfect trotting conditions.
I was letting the float go through at half speed when at the far end of the run the float buried the acolyte doubled over and it was game on.
😁
" Whooooohooooo "
shouted John.
" You are into a good chub there Mike "
I was just looking at the line, watching where the fish was powering off to and listening to the the line sing in the breeze.
A couple of minutes later after a heavy dogged scrap the fish showed itself.
Large bronze flanks reflected the bright winter sunshine.
What a lovely sight.
I haven't caught a big chub for quite some time and was enjoying the moment.
The battle was not over yet though !!!!!
She was wallowing in the shallows slightly down stream from us but with a little pressure from the acolyte she was inching up the river to Derbyshires waiting net.
A good fish....touching 4lb we guesstimated.

New Irwell Sticks

I was releasing my chub while John was trying for his first . He did not have long to wait.

First chuck down his alloy stemmed avon disappeared from view and he was in. I did not have to ask what it was, the hefty bend in the rod and the tell tail methodical thumps told me it was another good chub.

Sure enough a big pair of white lips emerged up through the dark waters and she gave herself away.

John went straight back in an hooked up again

!!!!!!!!!!

Although extremely please with the chub John was very surprised not to have any of our target species.......grayling.

The bites had dried up now and with

with my very limited grayling experience I suggested we move slightly upstream to the top of the the run where the fast broken water was.

We both had a trot down and hit trout straight away both around 8 - 10 ounce in weight.

I then hit something that felt a little different.

It was definitely not a trout.......but in the broken water I could not tell what species she was.

It was only when I saw the pouting lips and a violet flash on her gills plates that I could confirm that she was indeed a 

" Lady Of The Stream "

" Get in there Peanut.....she's a beauty.

Over a pound I think " ?

" Yes John, deffo over a pound.

She is lovely isn't she " ?

" Yea " John said. " A beauty.

" I need one now "

and left me to photograph the Lady.

True to his word five minutes later he had a lady on the river bank.

We tried three further runs which only produced one trout and decided to head back and the chub run again.

I managed another good chub from here but that was it.

That made it 2-2 on the chub count and 1-1 on the grayling count.

We tried the fast run again but it just produced trout.

I was feeling the cold by now and I think John recognised that 

" You look a little chili there 

 Old Man.

Why don't we head back and try the fist run  that did not produce " ?

I readily agreed and we sloshed up river heading for the first run.

On the way up the run on the opposite side we had initially fished I noticed it was deeper by at least six inches.....which can be the difference between catching and not catching on shallow rivers

We repeated what we did initially and trotted the same runs to no avail.....not a bite.

I thought I would have the last ten minutes in the deeper run that John had never fished.

After 3 runs the Irwell Stick  popped under and I was into what I thought would be another grayling. 

The large hoop in the acolyte told me otherwise. . . . . 

I was into another chub. 

After a short fight she was in the net.

3-2 for me now.

😁

This one was a lovely coloured fish,

 very golden but a little difficult to picture when your freezing cold in the middle of a river......lol.

Johns rig was tangled up so I gave him my rod to see if he could winkle one out for himself and bring the chub score to 3-3 . 

The lucky sod got a hook up straight away.

He was playing the fish laughing knowing the day was going to be a draw when. . . . . . . . .

the hook pulled out !!!!!

" Noooooooòoo" 

came forth from

" The Ginger One mouth "

" Yeeeeeeesssss "

came the shout shout from myself and the day was mine,

JUST.

Lol.

We finished off the day with a pint and fish and chips in the local pub.

With Johns chihuahua
 " Ernie "
😁

A fantastic day John.

We will have to do it again soon matey.

TTFN  

Peanut.   

If you would like to look at my handcrafted  click on the link below. 

https://purplepeanut007.blogspot.com/2017/01/handcrafted-floats-and-fishing.html?m=1     

  Join our club......Its FREE !!!!!!!  http://salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk/join/