Still Fishing

This last week has found me once again visiting a favourite part of the River Ribble to see if I could catch one or two more barbel. The river was again in fine form following more heavy rain and salmon were running the river and a few were taken by the salmon anglers. My friend Bob is shown above with a salmon  just over eleven pounds which he caught on his birthday.
I was concentrating on the barbel hoping for that elusive double figure fish which still eludes me. The one shown above was eight pounds and was one of several fish caught and safely returned to the river. Another riverside fisher was the kingfisher which was seen on a regular basis patrolling the river banks and catching one or two small fish. It is  nice to spend time by the Ribble at this time of the year and enjoy the peace and quiet and beautiful surroundings of one of Lancashire's premier rivers.

Gone Fishing

Gone Fishin was the title of a record released in 1951 by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong. Some of my readers... of a certain age... may well remember it !! Well that is what I have been doing this last week or so and for a while I have not been doing any bird photography.
The recent heavy Autumnal rains have raised river levels and the salmon have begun to return to their birthplace in the upper reaches of our northern rivers. I was keen to get back to the riverside after an absence of four years.  Having purchased a licence and sorted out my tackle Thursday of last week found me on the banks of the River Ribble at Alston . This is a beautiful stretch of the lower Ribble and is rich in wildlife.
I wasn't fishing for salmon but for chub and barbel which grow to a large size in the Ribble. When I first fished the Ribble back in my youth, barbel were not present, and if you caught a three pound chub it was a big fish. How things have changed with the chub now averaging well over three pounds and four and five pound fish are common. The weather had settled down and the river was fining down nicely having been in spate for a few days and I looked forward to once again being in contact with these specimen fish from the Ribble.
I fished the river on a couple of days and enjoyed catching one or two nice fish. My best fish which I think was probably a double figure barbel managed to snag me and get away. I was a little rusty having not fished for a number of years but enjoyed very much my return to the Ribble. As well as the fish, sightings of kingfishers,buzzards and roe deer were enjoyed but I didn't have the appropriate camera equipment to record these sightings. I did however manage a few snaps of the chub and barbel I caught and I hope to return soon to try and catch the big one that got away !!