2022 started like most UK years, a mild February heading towards March then a cold snap, no surprise there but somehow come the start of the season the weather was warm! I eagerly anticipated many rising trout on the March browns which were even present were I live now about 5 minute walk from 2 rivers.
However upon reaching the river the fish were not bothering on the hatch, then again the first river I chose is crawling with freshwater shrimp, which showed 5 minutes later when I hooked a trout on the nymph. However this early trout was a bit misleading as in a 4 hour session I managed 5 trout. The concerning thing was finding a 3lb dead trout below another incident of pollution (reported several sewerage incidents along the stretch) so this river unfortunately been screwed hard over the winter. Despite being a popular walking route no one seems to care about reporting pollution.
I fished another river the week after and blanked the whole session, I did see one rise but it never rose again but I did take my camera with me and got some nice pictures of the local wildlife. Even caught someone fly tipping down the hill at the back of their house. So disrespectful that people choose a house that overlooks a river but use it to fly tip their excess shite.
The week after I ended up on the opposite river to the one I fished last, the confluence is about 10 minutes from my house though this river is reservoir fed but tends to hold small fish and a 12inch trout here is a monster. The river was inches deep and with no rises again?? So I stuck a very light nymph on and hit into a trout in the faster flowing shallows rather than the deeper water. It was barely bigger than my hand but it was a break of the duck.
Not far round the bend there was a large pool, the rivers here follow the hard rock walls so deep pools have formed over thousands of years with the sandstone river beds being carved away. I was surprised not to get a hit in the pool until a cast right to the top of the lip of the pool were the shallow water quickly drops off into the deep waters. I knew it was a nice fish as usually if you struck normally (you have to lightly strike here due to the small trout) the fish would be straight in your hand. It gave a hard fight and on another river a fight like this would have been a much bigger fish but this was the king of the pool and probably for quite a large section of river. It safely found the net and it was a beautiful bar of gold. After a quick snap it was back into its throne room and I continued upstream.
I hit a couple of fast flowing small pools which held around half a dozen fish in each, until I hit a bridge pool. This pool gave me 25 fish easy. Many barely longer than my middle finger but good fun and showing that the trout here had successfully spawned. Ironically with all these young trout you’d expect to find a beast of a trout somewhere and I aim to find that eventually but a lot of this river is ticketed with a small amount of anglers and a long waiting list. I continued upstream and unblocked a bridge which had been jammed with trees, found another pollution incident were a sewerage pipe must have burst behind the stone wall as sewerage was leaking between the large stone bricks and hit a few more fish in the fast flowing pools, ending the day on probably 50+ trout.
After a rainy week I went to a river that holds big fish and with the murky sewerage filled waters it gave me the cover I needed for a streamer. Unfortunately my streamer game was off and I missed all 7 takes, one take I wasn’t to blame for as the fly was hovering on the surface as I stepped forward to get into a different position a very good trout had took it off the surface, I saw the whole fish and was surprised to feel it as I struck but as it levelled out on the bottom the fly came loose and it was gone. Disheartened I went onto the Stillwater nearby and ran some steamers through it, catching a small Jack pike of 2lb, which was just as overjoyed to see me as it jizzed on my coat… so avoiding the blank I headed home.
So the first 4 sessions of the season have been a mixed bag but hold plenty of promise for the season, with more pollution to find as well I’ll constantly provide a head ache to UU, the EA and to locals and their businesses who think illegal dumping is fine. I’ll also try to hit a few grayling on the Irwell away from the locations they were introduced to see how far they’ve got.
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