Restocking Our Waters

We’ve put together a few clips of us restocking our clubs waters……

Enjoy the fishing….. take your children/grandchildren with you – its your duty as an angler and as a good parent

Take you litter home with you when you’re finished

Junior Competition Winners 4 & 5

Congratulations to Rachel and Archie – latest winners of rod and reel combos.

Its great to see the wonderful pictures of excited youngsters catching great fish which members are sending in.

Rachel Holgate and Archie Phythian both win a matching  9ft pellet waggler rod and reel combo for these great fish and fab photos

winners

Rachel caught a nice little mirror carp – and Archie a lovely big Crucian – lovely fish – great fishing – we hope you enjoy your prizes.

Don’t forget — it’s your duty to take your kids/grandkids fishing – spread the love !!

We have lots more prizes to hand out to youngsters this summer – the size of smile is far more important than the size of the fish..

Get out – get fishing – take photos – win prizes !

Junior Competition Winners 2 & 3

Gaia went fishing with her Dad and younger brother Judah to a local park lake in Middleton… she caught this amazing roach on float fish maggot….. just take a the look of awe on her younger brothers face….. delightful.

Two rods and reels have made their way to Salford Friendly member Tosh Cross – hopefully his young family are hooked for life

what a fish !

And a couple of days later – here’s a few pics of our winners out fishing with their new kit

We have lots more rod and reel combo’s to give away to club members who take their kids out fishing

Its the future of our sport — its your duty to take your kids/grandkids fishing.

Drinkwater Park Restocking March 2019

Many many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our winter 2018/19 restocking fund appeal….. we raised just over £3,000 and have spent most of it on fish for Drinkwater Park. See video below – we have stocked 130 2-3lb carp.

 

We hope that these new carp will root about in the silt at the bottom of the lake and reduce the amount of blanket weed in the lake…… a two for one really….. more fish to catch….. better conditions to catch them in.

Our intention is to spend the remainder on fish habitat improvements at Broughton Park Lake (preparing the lake for a stocking of Rudd next year).

Restocking Carp Drinkwater Park

Drinkies Carp

When young Alfie gets to double figures – we hope that this carp will have too !

 

Restocking Drinkwater Park Lake And Agecroft Pond

We are delighted to share with you the videos and photos from today’s’ restocking of Drinkwater Park Lake and Agecroft Pond by the Environment Agencies Fisheries Team.

These two lakes are extremely popular with young anglers from the local housing estates, and todays restocking will ensure their popularity for years to come.

We had no idea that these fish were on the way to our lakes until Monday — with the fish arriving today Friday… a great Christmas present from the EA. We were initially informed that the EA had a few hundred fish to help our existing restocking efforts on these lakes, and were gobsmacked when they turned up this morning with 7,500 fish of the highest quality.

A mixture of Tench, Rudd, Bream and Roach – the fish which are only a year old have already reached a good size… helped by this years long hot summer.

We are continuing our fundraising efforts – to enable us to add a few new carp to these lakes to help stir up the bottom, which we hope will hinder blanket weed growth which has plagued the lakes in recent years, and also to colour the gin clear water as a deterrent to predation from above.

Take a look at these videos and pictures below

Salford Friendly work very hard to improve fishing in Greater Manchester – if you would like to know what makes us buzz – take a look at these two pages “Awesome Fishing In Greater Manchester” and “Family Fishing With David and Emily

young bream from the EA National Fish Farm

Wonderful young bream from the EA National Fish Farm

young tench from the EA National Fish Farm

Young Tench

Restocking Agecroft Pond

Restocking Drinkwater Park Lake

EA Restocking

EA Restocking

Please enjoy the fishing, respect other park users, and take your litter home with you

Again – Many thanks to the Environment Agency Fisheries Team and the National Fish Farm at Calverton – you have made a lot of young anglers (and old uns) very happy indeed.

We Need Your Help

help needed

We don’t ask for much from our members – other than for you to respect our waters, our fish, and other users of the waterside.

However – this is a call to arms from the committee to you our members. We are having a real struggle to maintain our waters this summer – as new jobs – family commitments – illness – overtime and loads of other excuses mean that those members who organise events like matches and work parties have been unable to commit as much time towards club activities as they have in the past. We are aware that this can’t carry on.

New waters are being offered to the Society on a regular basis – for example Gregsons, Blackleach, Lankies, The Rat and The Cow ponds – we’d love to take them on – but we need to be able to manage our waters properly before we take on any new commitments – as at present – all these commitments fall on the shoulders of a few.

Therefore we are asking you as a member of a fishing Society to stand up and be counted for you local lake – be it Drinkies – Waterdale – The Old River – Broughton Park, Springwater Park Lodge,  The Quays or the Rochdale Canal – we need your help managing them.

We think that it would be a good idea for anglers to come forwards and say “I’ll be happy to give a few hours a month to help clean up and maintain my local fishing venue” – it really doesn’t take much.

Our intention is to create a list of members – who can be called on to get involved in the fishery management of each of our venues – its great fun and in a way its a bit like looking after the biggest garden pond you’ll ever have.

The club regularly cobbles together funds/money/grants for restocking and the members who stand up for their local venues will be supported in developing a management and restocking plan for each venue.

So – our next club meeting is going to be Wednesday the 22nd August at the Star Inn, Back Hope St, Salford, M7 2FR when we will be discussing this further. If you would like to put your name down to be involved more actively in the management of your local venue – please email the club via admin@salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk or make us aware on our facebook page. AND PLEASE COME TO THE AUGUST CLUB MEETING!

If we can get more people involved in the day to day running of our venues – then we will be happy to take on new waters.

 

Family Fishing – Does It Get Better Than This ?

One of our members David James Bendle decided to do a short write up about the reasons why he takes his daughter (now aged 4) fishing with him, and how fishing is a great ying to the yang of life. Davids blog is also a great read – take a look here

No more words necessary from me…. read on and click on the pictures to see full size images..

David and Emily

It’s been 2 years since Emily started coming fishing with me proper, something i only got back into myself the year before, no longer seeing my dad due to problems in my family that were irreversible in resolving it was both the memories we created together and the understanding of why he took me that i wanted to get back into it and ultimately take Emily. It is a brilliant sport to keep your mental health in check, it allows you to enjoy things you would never see too numerous and small that too some it would seem like nothing but to those in the know it’d mean everything.

And despite it being a lot easier and safer not taking my daughter having been taught from the age of 3 myself, i knew she wouldn’t be too young. I still remember the year it took me to catch my first fish, as my dad let me run riot round the lake chasing perch that i could see. Crying after letting a pike he caught go because i wanted to hold it for ever. My dad never really got into the environmentalist side of things, he fished on his own or with me and non of his mates fished. Like myself growing up it was something i did on my own, i managed to convince my best mate of now 25 years to come and he fell asleep against a tree and fell in. He still won’t come a second time.

I started Emily off just observing, teaching her about what to do and how to look after the fish, being a fly fisherman on the river you do get right into the nitty gritty, we would bug hunt to see what lived there and it’d be proper wellington boots situations. Still end up with a wet arse from a slippy rock, so i always took spare clothes for her after that. As she learned how to use a reel and rod and how to fight a fish, then came the introduction of holding them, stroking them at first she opted for, then after rejecting my offer to hold it i would let it go. The tears would flow just like mine did as a child. Catch another she would say. She got a knack of naming the fish, big bad barry and the Trolls characters.

Strangely even though i would fish for less time and less distance i would break my PB 3 times in her presence she was turning into a good omen, i mean United haven’t won the league since she was born. But as she grew older i have her more responsibility, i kept her on simple nymphing methods in easy to fish pools and if she lost a fish she would lose it. It happens, i would guide her but not physically. The fish she caught would get bigger and bigger in fact a lot quicker than mine did in my first years fly fishing.

Aside from the fishing our chats would be very intuitive, she would ask me questions about why the rivers are brown, how is plastic made, why people throw ‘garbage’ (thanks ryanstoyreview) into the river, all manner of questions that i never thought she’d care about. She knows about trees, flowers and most definitely hogweed, nettles and brambles. She knows about the birds, the fish and the bugs. She knows how to build campfires and small shelters. But most of all she knows what it is like to be away from everything. We can find a place of solitude miles from the city centres or literally in them, the real wilds of the country going by unnoticed and i hope should she, when shes older, ever need to just get away from it all, she now knows places to go.

The sound of the river flowing past, a dipper or a wagtail on a boulder opposite, a ripple breaking the surface as a trout takes an olive off the top. The laughter and chatter of a father and daughter enjoying themselves as they have a small dinner at the riverside.