EVENT CANCELLED – WEATHER FORECAST IS SHOCKING LATER THIS AFTERNOON

A bit short notice but who cares.

This Sunday evening the 22nd September – we will be holding a “social fish in” on the River Irwell at Agecroft in Salford.

Parking at Whitewater Drive Salford, M7 3AP

It’s up to you what you do – fish, chat, walk the dog/wife/kids…. whatever.

A few anglers have said that they will be fishing the stick float for dace/roach/chub – another member has said he will be lure fishing.

No set plans other than to fish from 4pm until dusk, and then retire to the nearby Racecourse Hotel on Littleton Rd for a beer.

Everyone welcome.

Large scale engineering works are going to be taking place over the next 8 weeks in Drinkwater Park, as works are undertaken to protect the footings of the footbridge across the River Irwell between Drinkwater Park lake and Agecroft Pond side….

The Forestry Commission are placing large rock boulders around the bridge footings to protect against flooding.

There will be 20 ton wagons and large earth moving equipment on site,,, so please take care.

We will be asking if the contractors can help us out with a few odd jobs while they are on site  .. so please be aware that your days fishing might be interrupted on the odd occasion

Remember when we asked you – our members to take part in a National Angling Survey back in 2018 ?

Well now a new National Angling Strategy has been devised which uses the data from this survey and has been put together by Adam Brown – who works for www.substance.net in Manchester (who also happens to be a Salford Friendly member)- and a National Angling Strategy developed and adopted by the partners listed below.

The strategy will be implemented by a new partnership body – the National Angling Strategy Partnership Board, coordinated by the Angling Trust with representatives from the Environment Agency, Canal and River Trust, Angling Trades Association and Get Hooked on Fishing. The board will be responsible for delivering the strategy as well as securing the additional funding needed to deliver on the strategy’s aims and objectives.

The strategy was researched and written by Adam Brown, Head of Research at Substance after widespread consultation with the angling community and using feedback from the National Angling Survey 2018 which engaged 35,000 anglers. The responses included the need to make better information available on where and how to fish and the need to emphasise the health, well-being and environmental benefits of participation in recreational fishing.

You can download the strategy here: Angling for Good Report

A summary report is available here: Angling for Good Summary

Survey Report – Coming Soon.

Aims and Objectives of the National Angling Strategy

The aims of the National Angling Strategy are to:

1. Increase participation in angling to:
2. Increase the numbers of people getting active outdoors through angling.
3. Improve the health and well-being of those that take part.
4. Help people and communities develop with skills, education, volunteering and facilities.
5. Connect more people to nature through angling for their well-being and to improve the environment.
6. Increase the economic impact of angling and in particular deliver economic benefits in rural and coastal communities and revenue to clubs, fisheries and businesses.

Its Objectives are:

• Objective 1 – Develop awareness and knowledge of angling.

A marketing campaign, backed by research, with new information on how and where to fish.

• Objective 2- Increase participation in angling

An increase in angling participation by 2024 and increases in females, young people and BAME communities taking part.

• Objective 3 – Develop social benefits through angling

An increase in people getting physically active through angling, delivery of angling for health programmes; and an angling volunteer programme.

• Objective 4 – Develop Sustainable Places to Fish

Involve anglers more in environmental improvement work and science, develop more local and accessible places for people to fish and develop more community waters.

• Objective 5 – Increase Angling’s Economic Impact

Deliver a trade-backed market development plan, new funding for developing the angling sector and tackle shop and angling tourism support.

• Objective 6 – Understand angling data and evidence

Develop an angling research programme to inform future actions, stakeholders and angling commerce interests, and to evaluate the strategy’s success.

The Salford Friendly Anglers Society will be discussing this report at its next club meeting – and seeing how we can align some our our activities to support this national strategy.

In 1903 – Broughton Angling Club issued a challenge to Salford Friendly Anglers Soc to fish an inter club match at a local venue – where the losers have to purchase tea for the winners.

115 years later – we have thrown down the gauntlet to Broughton Angling Club to re-run this match on Sunday the 10th June 2018.

The match to be fished at Broughton Park Lake, Salford…..

Challenge Letter From Broughton Anglers 1903

A venue that was once North Manchesters premier tench fishery but has fallen on hard times in recent years – we are working with Broughton Anglers to restore this lake to its former glories as a fishery.

Supported by the Angling Trust and by Salford Council – we have recently restocked the lake with carp and tench… and started a program of introducing new oxygenating water plants….

Here’s a view of some of our new fish

Like many old angling clubs the long lived but now defunct Wallness Social Angling Society was based at the Wallness Tavern, Wallness Lane, Salford (less than 200 yards away from the current Salford Friendly Anglers HQ).

The Wallness Social Angling Society featured regularly in local angling club matches and are mentioned in many of our clubs historical documents. Sadly the pub was demolished in 2012.

As we have been digitising our Societies records we came accros this amazing poster of a fishing match which the Wallness Social Angling Society organised in 1962 on the Macclesfield Canal at Higher Poynton – a charity match in aid of the Manchester and District Spastics Society.

Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962 Poster

The Spastics Society still exists under its current guise of the charity Scope.

The County Palatine Angling Association amalgamated/morphed into the Northern Anglers Association during the early 1970s – and N.A.A. still own the fishing rights on the Macclesfield Canal between Marple and Macclesfield.

However the canal at Higher Poynton is no longer suitable for match fishing as it is extensively used for the mooring of narrowboats.

As we searched through our records – we also came across the financial breakdown of the match, the list of angling clubs and individuals who took part in the match, and the companies who sponsored the prizes. A great find.

Financial record of the Macclesfield Canal Angling Championship 1962

The match raised a total of £173 for the Manchester and District Spastics Society  – a fantastic effort seeing as though that translates to £3,580 in todays money taking into account inflation.  The £5 winning prize money is now worth £100 in todays money.

This is an amazing record of North West Angling Clubs in 1962  – sadly many of them no longer exist, nor do any of the tackle shops listed who contributed to the prize fund.

Canal Championship Matches used to be quite commonplace in the North West until the mid 1980s….. I can remember taking part in a number of Rochdale Canal Angling Championships (sponsored by the Manchester Evening News and their Angling correspondent Don Bridgewater)  – it could be a bit of fun reviving it.

Looking at old photos of the canal in the city centre of Manchester, the industry, the grime, the sheer Dickensian background,  you’d never think that it would have the potential to produce the fish of a lifetime for a local angler -a  huge beautiful leviathan of the aquatic world, a 5 foot long sleek powerful predator – the apex predator of the waterways.

Indeed – when sections of our local canals get drained down to allow for repairs to take place, you’d scarcely believe that anything could live among the filth and debris that us humans throw into their murky waters.

Despite its outwardly looking murky grey appearance, the shopping trollies, traffic cones, chairs, bikes and umbrellas, the source of the waters for our local canals comes from high up on the hills and moors above Littleborough and Saddleworth – and is some of the cleanest water in the country. Untainted by the pollution of our cities, industries and the poor agricultural practices of our nations farmers – it flows like a clean bright ribbon through the centre of our city.

Anglers have known this for years, and are aware that our local canals, the Rochdale, the Ashton , and the Bridgewater are fantastic fisheries, stuffed with species of fish such as Roach, Perch, Rudd, Tench, Bream, Gudgeon and Carp…. an angling mecca.

These clean water corridors also act as nature superhighways through our suburbs and city centres.  They’re  ribbons of high quality habitat allowing nature such as Kingfishers, Otters, Herons, Water Voles and Dippers to make their homes and thrive in the most unlikely urban locations.

At the top of the food chain in this watery sometimes murky ecosystem is a super apex predator Esox Lucius – commonly known as the Pike.

Huge numbers of small jack pike live in our canals – in many areas comprising over 10% of the canals biomass.

Rarely exceeding a couple of feet in length they are greedy customers for anglers worms and lures its not too difficult to catch up to a dozen in an afternoons fishing if you know what your about and the conditions are right… However catching the bigger, wiser older Pike who prey on the jack pike is an altogether different task.

Huge, cunning old pike can grow up to 5 feet long and reach nearly 50lbs in weight. Our local canals in Greater Manchester have been known to produce the very occasional exceptional Pike of up to 30lbs

A 20lb Pike from a Greater Manchester canal is a real specimen,,,, the fish of a lifetime. The vast majority of our regions thousands of anglers have never seen a 20lb pike let alone caught one.

One or two might be lucky or sufficiently skilled to tempt one of these huge underwater leviathans – most probably from a larger river or lake where the Pike have the space to grow large… but catching one from a canal is the challenge of a lifetime, and a serious undertaking in terms of time and planning.

Catching two of these supersized fish is a special achievement – something that garners the respects of your angling peers.

Catching three is something most anglers could ever dream about..

But catching four – then you quite rightly achieve an inconic status and are revered, acclaimed and envied by anglers on a national basis.

This leads us to young Kaden McCarthy – a 14 year old boy from an inner city estate in Salford.

Kaden sent me this photo today – of yet another remarkable pike he has caught in the canal that runs through city centre Manchester.

A fantastic specimen fish – the Pike of a lifetime for mere mortal anglers.

However young Kaden has developed into a special angler, with ability and instinct far beyond his 14 years.

He has a developed a special aptitude for catching big fish from Manchester waterways.

Heres a picture (below) of another monster Pike he caught last year in Manchester City Centre – which gave him the accolade of being the youngest angler to win the prestigious Salford Friendly Anglers “Fish Of The Year” award in 2016.

And then sandwiched between the capture of these two huge pike – he has managed to catch two more – taking his total of 20lb+ pike  to the mystical 4 – A remarkable achievement for someone so young.

But the story regarding this young anglers abilities is still far from completely told…..

In addition to the capture of these amazing Pike,,,, young Kaden is proving himself to be an all round angler – catching great fish of all species…

Like this bream, again a great fish from an urban canal, and this carp from the River Irwell.

The exploits of this excellent young fisherman are now coming to be recognised on a national basis,,,,, a firm friendship has developed between Kaden and local fishing legend Ant Glascoe Jnr…….. and the UKs most famous angler Matt Hayes name checks Kaden on his Facebook posts on a regular basis…

So — This article was written in November 2017 – and only a couple of weeks later in December – our young angler caught this great fish from the canal system in the city centre of Manchester..

Kaden – SFAS fish of the year winner 2017

What a belter – and a week later Kaden was rewarded by becoming the first angler ever to with the prestigious Salford Friendly Anglers Society Fish Of The Year Competition for a second time…… he attended the societies annual Xmas dinner and was presented with a new pike fishing rod as his prize by Sky TV Angling Expert Ant Glascoe Jnr…..

And then to cap off a fine year  (or maybe not) young Kaden headed out to the canal bank the very next morning and caught this whopper of a pike with his new rod

We all wait to see what this young angling prodigy is going to do next !!

We have a long, and ever growing dialogue with the Environment Agency regarding the large number of pollution incidents which take place on the River Irwell system…

In addition to this dialogue with the EA about incidents… we are also in regular contact about the long standing poor (but improving) chemical content of the water…… and the frequency and volume of legal discharges of raw untreated sewage from our local utility company

Here is an update on some of the recent pollution events.

Crown Oil, 10,000+ litres of heating oil allowed to escape into River Roch – – a 2012 Category 2 (significant) incident resulted in the company receiving a formal caution. A 2014 incident was attended but not substantiated

Briggs Demolition – long term effects of poor enforcement? (Diffuse pollution from illegal landfill site, already prosecuted by the EA and let off by courts with reduced fine to enable environmental clean up which has never taken place. Ongoing pollution from this site results in massively depleted kick sample results downstream of this point.) Our enforcement was completed several years ago. This is now a contaminated land site for which queries should be addressed to the local authority   – a further update on this site is that UU are considering remediation works to enable access to their sewer network – this has to be good news

 Bradshaw Brook 2013 UU contractor HCL acid – hundreds of fish deaths – Prosecution complete nearly £1m in fines https://www.gov.uk/government/news/united-utilities-and-contractors-fined-almost-1m-for-polluting-brook-with-corrosive-bleach

Warth Fold Hydro – built without a fish pass! – regularly breaches abstraction consents by running all the river flow through its turbine and sometimes taking more flow than the river has, thus depleting pool above, then drying out river below while the pool above the weir refills. Also EA have allowed the hydro operator to but batons on top of the weir to increase the head of the retained pool of water above the weir, and direct more flow through the turbine!!! How can any of this be legal? – No response from the EA – update 2017 The EA cannot enforce a fish pass be constructed on these dreadful schemes (example Bury Community Hydro)  

Ringley Waste Water Treatment Works  split main 1 2013–massive amount of eaw sewage entered the watercourse during low flow dry period….. category 2 (significant) incident United Utilities accepted a formal caution

Ringley Waste Water Treatment Works / Rhodes Farm split sludge pipe 2 2013 same area – different pipe – (a second low pressure pipe rupture under the River Irwell – Category 3 (minor) incident warning letter

Bury Waste Water Treatment Works –  no screening on inlet (EA no comment – UU’s comment was that they don’t need one because the EA have never asked them to put one in) Assessment of the impact of this is ongoing in order to establish what improvements if any are required under forthcoming AMP schemes – SFAS will be asking for this practice to be reviewed in the next round of United Utilties Asset Management Planing 6