Purplepeanut007 PP007 FLOAT MAKING & FISHING ADVENTURES - THE RIVER IRWELL AND BEYOND.

Today I had another session on the Littleton Road section of the River Irwell In Salford. The sun was bright and baring down on me so I wasn't too hopeful of a good catch but as Mike Duddy says " You have got to be in it to win it " !!!!!!!!!! Rod and reel for the session was a 14 foot Acolyte and an Okuma Centerpin My end tackle was a hand made 10 No6 stick float, 16s hook and 4 lb main line. I was feeding straight from the moment I arrived and on my first trot down hooked into a nice dace of around 3 ounces. I had nothing then for around 10 minutes so used the time to alter my shot pattern and depth, fine tuning my set up for when they arrived. ( Here's hoping ) The continuous feeding of maggot and hemp was slowly starting to work and bites started to materialise. 😁 Small, sharp bobs at first but as I increased the feed more positive bites started to show, then a fish. A nicely conditioned roach.  😁 I was getting into my rhythm

A long over due trip on the  Lower River Irwell  to test out my new stepped stick floats was tonight's mission. Many in our club would like to know where all the silvers and small barbel have gone ? So tonight was a scouting session to try and find them !!!!!!!!!! I opted for my Abu 704 closed faced reel tonight as the wind was a little gusty coupled with my 14 foot Acolyte Plus. Bait was two pints of white maggots, a pint of hemp. Two stepped stick float rigs were knocked up at home and stored on line winders. All was ready for my little experimental session. 😁 It took around 30 minutes or my first bite and fish, a lovely chunky dace of around 5 ounces.  I shallowed my rig a little and placed a No 4s back shot on about 15 centimetres from the float to aid my presentation and got and instant response, small but very welcome. 😁 Felling a little more confident I steadily upped my feed of hemp and maggots hoping to attracted the larger fish.  Incr

Various stick floats for most of my river conditions. From top to bottom: STD Maggot / Caster Meat Pellet and Paste  STD Maggot / Caster Shallow Maggot / Caster Shallow Maggot / Caster All floats are finished in Metallic Pearlescent Blue & Metallic Green All turned in balsa on my lathe in the workshop. 😁   With a wide alloy stem with gives the float great balance I will have some time to my self soon so I will be writing a few fishing  posts, hopefully using one or two of these probably on the Irwell Ribble and Mersey. I may even try the Tame and Goyt Stay tuned folks. 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/   

Another upgrade to my shallow fast water trotters. The Shouldered Irwell Sticks are wider for more turbulent water than the MKIIs, have a bigger body and have a large step in them to stop any movement of the rubbers. This pair have been finished in a favourite metallic blue paint that I like with a feather plus red, gold, blue and black threads. This float really is my cup if tea and I am gagging to use a few !!!!!! Just have to wait until the 16th..... DAM IT !!!!! LOL.. 🤣 I can see me making a few of these for the coming season not to mention the Bridgenorth trip with my dad. 😁 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/              

Today saw me on another river session fishing a  little shallow river trying out my new " Irwell Stick Floats " once again. Donning my old leaky waders ( I must get some new ones soon ) I carefully.......lol....... waded down the river, without falling in this time. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Knowing the river a little better I was fishing within a minute and hooked into my first grayling within 5. She was a belting fish to nudging the 2lb mark at a guess.   After nursing back to full fitness, which did take a while. I had another trot down the same run and guess what !!!!!! the float buried again half way down and " Whollop " I was into another. 😁😁😁😁😁😁 I played her a littler harder than the last so she was fitter when returned. Not one of my better picture but she was a lovely lady a little bigger than the first. She looked cool on the release though. 😁 After the second fish the swim died but the run was FULL of fish taking n

After two of my mates cried off this weekend ( Shame on you.....lol )  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I didn't have a plan of where to go !!!!! I have been struggling to get motivated to fish for quite some time now but I had to go and test out my new stick float so I chose to go local hope for the chub or the newly stocked silvers to show. The wind was up but I chose to use my Trudex pin coupled with an Acolyte Plus. I fancied fishing over depth slowing the bait right down using a large domed stick and the pin is great for this method. The first choice of swim I chose was a bad one. The swim had changed quite a lot since the last time I fished it. It had a lot of depth but with changing currents steams and an eddy on the far side.....very difficult to get in a rhythm and keep your bait in one run. I did manage one trout........but this was the only bite I had in 45 minutes so I packed up and off to the next peg. This run was also very slow...... two bites..... two trout