Ribble: River Ribble Fishing Reports

[Paul C]

Section of Fishery or river stretch:…River Ribble above Preston
Date:…12/08/10
Time fished:…17:00hrs to 21:00 hrs
Weather conditions:…uummm Thunderstorms, torrential rain, then a nice evening.
Water conditions:… There was a little bit more water in the river and it was rising.
Air temperature:…N/T. Water Temperature:…N/T
Bait:...Hemp and Caster and Sweetcorn.
Method:.. Waggler.
Results:… 15 to 20 dace, a handful of small chub and odd roach, best one 1.25lb and a near record gudgeon.

Brief description of the session & remarks:… The river was busy, so my swim choice was limited to slow, deep pegs. Started off quite well with a good few dace and odd roach, but as the river started to come up it went really patchy with just odd short spells of activity.
I suspect the water temp dropped as it rose, as the river became cold to stand in, for the first time this year.

By 9pm the water had made it’s way over my platform, so it was the prompt I needed to give up!

It also seemed very quite on the feeder with the 4 anglers I was in ear shot of.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Section of Fishery or river stretch:…River Ribble above Preston
Date:…14/08/10
Time fished:…15:00hrs to 24:00hrs
Weather conditions:…Light cloud with very hot sunny intervals, clear sky at dusk. Small crescent moon soon disappeared, one or two nice shooting stars.
Water conditions:…Rivercall @ 03:15 @ NJR 0.1M ANSL and steady.
Air temperature:…23.2C dropping to 17.9C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:…16.7C
Bait:...Sweetcorn, Bread, 3-B Boilies & Paste.
Method:.. 2 rods, upstream rod sweetcorn, liquidised bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod 3-B boilies & curry or cheese paste with PVA bags of micro pellets and JC’s dry ground bait mix.
Results:…2 Barbel to 9lb-2oz, 2 Chub 4lb-12oz and 4lb-6oz
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Nothing happened for 6 hours, just sunbathed and listened to the footy, well done Blackpool. I was just watching a deer on the far bank when my upstream rod slammed over and I was into my first and largest Barbel, once again caught on a single grain of sweetcorn. As soon as it was really dark I picked my first two 4lb plus Chub of the season, about time as well I was beginning to doubt my swim selections which did me well last summer. Nice walk back to the car park and further sightings of deer on the drive home, unfortunately one of them was pretty well squashed at the side of the road.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Section of Fishery or river stretch:…River Ribble above Preston
Date:…21/08/10
Time fished:…18:00hrs to 01:00hrs
Weather conditions:…Light cloud with very hot sunny intervals, clear sky at dusk clouding over again after midnight. Full moon for most of the night session.
Water conditions:…Rivercall @ 03:14 @ NJR 0.28M ANSL and steady.
Air temperature:…20.9C dropping to 14.8C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:…18.2C
Bait:...Sweetcorn, Bread, 3-B Boilies & Paste.
Method:.. 2 rods, upstream rod sweetcorn, liquidised bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod 3-B boilies & curry or cheese paste with PVA bags of micro pellets and JC’s dry ground bait mix.
Results:…3 Barbel to 9lb-1oz and one Chub 4lb-2oz
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Nothing happened for a couple of hours until the sun dropped below the horizon. The first fish to grace the net was the Chub followed by a small Barbel, then the 9lb-1oz and finally another small barbel at 23:10hrs. All the fish came to one single grain of sweetcorn, no knocks on my downstream rod. The river was very atmospheric as the full moon rose and about a foot of mist covered the river, full moon and mist not very good for chub. Unfortunately it was time to go just as full cloud cover rolled in, by the time I’d got back to the Dales it was raining.

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

Section of Fishery or river stretch: Ribble – Above Preston
Date: 16th July 2010
Time fished: 1800-2130
Weather conditions: Warm, light breeze
Water conditions: Initially @NSL but came up approx 1 ft.
Air temperature: 16°C
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: Salmon Pellet
Method: 2 Rods initially, but soon changed to one rod. Swimfeeder with pellet and groundbait. Hookbait, pellet.
Results: Blank
Brief description of the session & remarks: First session of the new season and the river was looking good when I arrived. Much of the weed had gone from the margins and the river was steady. However, by the time I had set up, the level had risen about six inches and the flow was pushing through. Was this to be the kiss of death? Anyway, nothing ventured nothing gained, I’d rather be fishing than not. Two rods very quickly became unmanageable due to the amount of weed building up on the line as it was now coming through quite thick. I decided to give it a shot for a few hours anyway, but didn’t have any high expectations!

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Section of Fishery or river stretch: Ribble – Above Preston
Date: 2nd August 2010
Time fished: 1730 - 0000
Weather conditions: Warm, slight breeze.
Water conditions: Just up on NSL and steady.
Air temperature: 20°C to 16°C
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: Pellet and paste
Method: 2 rods, with swim feeder filled with pellet and ground bait. Upstream 14mm halibut pellet. Downstream small salmon pellets.
Results: Me: 1 x chub 4-10, 2 x barbel 5-12 and 9-1 (my new PB for the stretch). Josh: 1 x chub 4-1
Brief description of the session & remarks: First trip on the river with my son Josh (12). We didn’t have a bite until 2150 when Josh hooked the first chub. While baiting him up again my down strip rod wrapped round and I hooked into the first barbel (5-12), which came to two small salmon pellets. This was quickly followed by the second barbel on the same rod. The chub came about 1100 on my upstream rod. After that the swim went quiet. The walk back nearly killed me as I was carrying all HIS gear too!

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Section of Fishery or river stretch: Ribble – Above Preston
Date: 19th August 2010
Time fished: 1830-2230
Weather conditions: Warm, breezy, light rain showers.
Water conditions: NSL and steady.
Air temperature: 20°C – 13°C
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: Giant sweetcorn, salmon pellet and paste.
Method: 2 rods with swim feeder. Upstream feeder hemp, corn & ground bait, giant corn on the hook. Downstream feeder, hemp, pellet & ground bait, salmon pellets on the hook.
Results: 2 x barbel. 1 at 9-1 (the same fish that I caught during the previous session, very clear marks on side and split anal fin), 1 at 9-5 a new pb for the stretch.
Brief description of the session & remarks: I only had a few small knocks before I hooked the first fish on the downstream rod. Interestingly it came from the same spot at approximately the same time on the same bait. The larger fish came from the same spot on the same bait also. Both fish gave a good account of themselves. The giant sweetcorn didn’t produce a single bite.

 

[Paul C]

Section of Fishery or river stretch: Ribble – Above Preston
Date: 22 August 2010
Time fished: 16:30 – 20:30
Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, bright with light breeze
Water conditions: Level normal but the colour of tea.
Air temperature: N/T
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: Caster & Hemp
Method: Waggler
Results: Odd chub, one decent roach, one reasonable chub
Brief description of the session & remarks: New stretch to me, so fished it blind as the river was coloured it was hard to know where to start.
Fished a deep area first, but no bites at all. Moved to a shallow run and gradually got a few bites over time, but it was very hard work. There was a severe weather warning so I bailed out early just in case it moved in.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Date:…27/08/10
Time fished:…19:00hrs to 23:30hrs
Weather conditions:…Clear sky warm and sunny. Full moon rising just before mid-night.
Water conditions:…Rivercall @ 03:15 @ NJR 0.08M ANSL and steady.
Air temperature:…15.2C dropping to 10.9C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:…16.5C
Bait:...Sweetcorn, Crust & Cheese Paste.
Method:.. 2 rods, upstream rod sweetcorn, liquidised bread and sweetcorn in feeder, downstream rod Crust & Cheese Paste and liquidised bread in feeder,
Results:…1 Roach just under 1lb, 1 Barbel to 4lb-8oz and 2 Chub 4lb-14oz and 4lb-2oz
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Very pleasant start to the session with plenty of knocks and plucks after the sun went down. The roach was caught during day light and the Barbel and two Chub after it had gone dark, all the fish came to my up stream rod on sweetcorn. Although I’d a couple of knocks on my downstream rod none of them developed. I had to leave earlier than I’d planned because I’d developed a pain in the right side of my chest which after going into hospital on the Saturday night turn out to be a ripped mussel between my ribs, which has probably put an end to fishing on the Ribble for a couple of weeks if it involves a heavy rucksack and a long walk.

 

[ryboyd]

Date:…27/08/10
Time fished:…19:00hrs to 23:30hrs
Weather conditions:…Clear sky warm and sunny. Full moon rising just before mid-night.
Water conditions:…Rivercall @ 03:15 @ NJR 0.08M ANSL and steady.
Air temperature:…15.2C dropping to 10.9C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:…16.5C
Bait:...Sweetcorn, Crust & Cheese Paste.
Method:.. 2 rods, upstream rod sweetcorn, liquidised bread and sweetcorn in feeder, downstream rod Crust & Cheese Paste and liquidised bread in feeder,
Results:…1 Roach just under 1lb, 1 Barbel to 4lb-8oz and 2 Chub 4lb-14oz and 4lb-2oz
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Very pleasant start to the session with plenty of knocks and plucks after the sun went down. The roach was caught during day light and the Barbel and two Chub after it had gone dark, all the fish came to my up stream rod on sweetcorn. Although I’d a couple of knocks on my downstream rod none of them developed. I had to leave earlier than I’d planned because I’d developed a pain in the right side of my chest which after going into hospital on the Saturday night turn out to be a ripped mussel between my ribs, which has probably put an end to fishing on the Ribble for a couple of weeks if it involves a heavy rucksack and a long walk.

Sorry to hear about that John.
Hope you get over it quickly mate.

 

[coelacanth]

Section of Fishery or river stretch: Tidal Ribble
Date: 30 August 2010
Time fished: 18:30 – 21:00
Weather conditions: Warm, sunny periods
Water conditions: Low with a bit of colour
Air temperature: Not taken, would guess mid teens but dropping rapidly as the sun set
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: maggots
Method: Waggler and stick
Results: Plenty dace of all sizes, few plump roach and a decent perch
Brief description of the session & remarks: Not exactly the most picturesque stretch of the Ribble, but plenty of fish to be caught. Few people doggedly fishing for them bearded jobs in spite of the conditions, didn't see any caught.
Some poor sod on the other side was getting a right earful off a woman (I'm guessing his soon-to-be-ex), she had impressive command of some anglo-saxon terms of abuse.

Section of Fishery or river stretch: Ribble – Above Preston
Date: 2 Sept 2010
Time fished: 14:30 – 21:00
Weather conditions: Warm and sunny
Water conditions: Low and clear
Air temperature: 22C to start with but felt higher
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: Maggots
Method: Stick
Results: Few chub and sea trout, nice brownie and many dace.
Brief description of the session & remarks: Took my time, started off at the bottom of the stretch and worked my way up (and it was hard work in chest waders!), feeding each spot then fishing until I'd caught what I felt were enough. Saw lots of parr in a side stream mixed in amongst the minnows and small silvers, they got a few handfuls of maggots to help them on their way.
Spent the last two hours in one swim that's usually kind to me, excelled itself this time, every cast a fish for a while, the float was going before it even settled properly, the flick to mend the line had to turn into a strike more often than not. Few pup chub mixed in, plus small sea trout, but the dace were the stars of the show, all big enough to put a bend in the rod and all in perfect condition.
By the time I'd walked back to the car the light had almost gone, but there were a lot of cars, bivvies and head torches around for a stretch with supposedly no night fishing....

 

[Paul C]

Date: 12 September 2010
Time fished: 17:15 – 23:40
Weather conditions: Warm and bright, clouded over later, started to rain on the way back to the car.
Water conditions: According to EA website about .75m up, plenty of colour and falling.
Air temperature: N/T
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: pellet
Method: Single feeder rod - rhythm style
Results: 13 Barbel and 2 large eels. Best barbel 8lb 14oz

Brief description of the session & remarks: The river was busy, so didn’t fish where I had intended (or my backup area either). It was perhaps a blessing, as speaking to the lads on those pegs as I came away, they had really struggled with just one small barbel between them.
First session where I've not fished the float this season. Caught after about half an hour and then 2 more in quick succession before the monster eels moved it. I had one more fish before the light faded and then a good spell where I had 4 fish one after the other and two were over 8lb. After a short quiet spell I then caught consistently until I had to drag myself away whilst the barbel were still feeding well, but I had to be up for work in the morning. Lost one fish which I pulled out of within a few seconds of it picking up the bait.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Section of Fishery or river stretch:…River Ribble above Preston
Date:…17/09/10
Time fished:…18:30hrs to 24:00hrs
Weather conditions:…Light cloud, no wind. Hazy big half moon at dusk getting very bright by midnight as the sky cleared.
Water conditions:…Rivercall @ 03:15 @ NJR 0.3M ANSL and falling.
Air temperature:…11.6C dropping to 7.1C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:…13.2C
Bait:...Sweetcorn, Bread Flake, 3-B boilies, halibut pellets and cheese paste.
Method:.. 2 rods, upstream rod sweetcorn and bread flake, liquidised bread and sweetcorn in feeder, downstream rod boilies & pellet with Cheese Paste and PVA bags of micro pellets and JC’s dry mix.
Results:…1 Barbel to 4lb-12oz
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Nice to get back on river after my little accident The river was very quiet after a couple of very stormy windy days up here in the Dales. The only fish of the session came just before dusk, a 4lb barbel on 3-B Boilie. At dusk I started to get the odd knock on both rods however, as the sky cleared and the moon got much brighter all the knocks stopped and it also started to get quite cold. By the time I’d got back to the Dales the temp had dropped to 5C. There was one strange incident during the session. Just after dusk a herd of cows came crashing down through the woods and got quite inquisitive. When I tuned up my radio a wee bit they eventually drifted off all bar one cow. I was listening to “Beth Nielsen Chapman” in concert on BBC 2, the cow laid down about a rods length behind me and slept all through the concert, at the end of which she got up and disappeared back into the woods.

 

[ribble rambler]

Date 24.9.10
Section River Ribble
Time 4 pm till 11pm
EA River level website 1.75 m dropping to 1.6 m towards the end
Bait Breadcrumb and pellet in feeder with pellet wrapped in either cheese paste or curry paste on both rods
Result 4 Barbel biggest 12 lb 8 oz
Had the stretch to myself until joined by a friend at 7pm .First fish arrived 40 minutes into the session 3lb 7oz ,next thirty minutes later 5 lb 2 oz and took the bait on the drop before i had chance to put the rod in the rest.Had to wait until 8.45 before a 7 lb 2 oz was landed and finished with the 12 lb 8 oz just after 10 pm ,my second 12 lb + in a week.The 12 lb fish had earlier snapped off my rig around 6 pm on my other rod so i was able to retrieve it from its mouth located right next to were i had hooked it second time around My friend fished 7 till 11 pm and had a 7 lb + and a 10 lb exactly around 10 pm.Pictured is the 12 lber .

 

[Paul C]

Date: 25 September 2010
Time fished: 16:30 – 21:00
Weather conditions: Dry and bright but a cold wind.
Water conditions: According to EA website about .50m up, but to me it looked a tad higher than I was expecting.
Air temperature: dropped down to 7 c
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: pellet
Method: Single feeder rod - rhythm style
Results: 3 Barbel to 6lb and 2 chub to 4lb 8oz

Brief description of the session & remarks: It felt like a winters day with a cold biting breeze. I had a chub about 4lb after 20 mins, then a quiet spell until 2 barbel in the space of 20 mins about 6pm. I had slightly bigger chub into dark and another barbel.
I had planned to fish a little later, but apart from the two fish, taps and knocks slowed off into dark, so a combination of the full moon, cold conditions, MOD on TV tempted an earlier finish.

 

[Paul C]

Date: 3rd October 2010
Time fished: 13:30 – 17:30
Weather conditions: Raining, drying out mid afternoon.
Water conditions: Approx .75m up and rising fast on arrival. 2.5m up and still rising when left.
Air temperature: n/t
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: pellet
Method: Single feeder rod
Results: 2 Barbel 11lb 4oz and 8lb 2oz

Brief description of the session & remarks: Arrived to an expected rising river, lots of colour and it was getting bigger by the minute. It rose somewhere in the region of 5 feet in the short time we were there.
Fished some slacker water and after 15 mins moved to a different peg with a bit more depth under foot and fished close in as there was so much veg flowing down otherwise. Caught the bigger fish and a new pb on first cast within 2 mins.
Had to wait for the second which came as the river really started to come over the bank and was caught within 2 yards of the bank. Proper flood water fishing!!
By 5pm it was getting very hard to fish as there were just too many leaves and rubbish coming down, so went home happy to have done so well based on the conditions.

 

[Rickrod]

well done Paul on your pb

 

[Matthew Nightingale (ACA)]

The fish do seem to be there in the margins; especially in spate. Well done.

 

[ribble rambler]

Date 7.10.10
Section River Ribble
Time 4.30 pm till 8.30pm
EA River level website 1.39 m and falling
Bait -Trying a new bait recommended by a friend and Elips pellets
Air temp 20.1C dropping to end of session to 10.3C
Water temp 11.2C dropping to 10.4C
Result two barbel biggest 9 lb 13oz

Brief description of the session & remarks:When i arrived there were already a few anglers fishing.The sun was out and it was very warm ,started fishing at 4.30 and soon after managed to break my chair when the stitching came apart at the front so not a good start.Wasn`t expecting any action till darkness until the baitrunner set off an hour later resulting in a 5 lb 4 oz Barbel.Lost a fish on my upstream rod due to it finding a snag mid river which snapped my rig 10 minutes later .Then at 6.20pm rod bent over resulting in the second Barbel both caught on a new shop bought bait .Was surprised catching early on as the sun was beating down and level was pretty low.Expected much more action when sun disappeared just after 7pm though had nothing more apart from losing a fish near the net just before 8pm .One angler spoke to me when passing and commented he had only had 1 Chub so was going home early.I followed soon after as the temperature had dropped alot since the sun set and my chair was not the most comfortable place to be sitting

 

[Paul C]

Date: 10th October 2010
Time fished: 13:30 – 19:00
Weather conditions: Bright, sunny and strong wind.
Water conditions: Carry a very small amount of water but very clear.
Air temperature: n/t
Water Temperature: Not taken
Bait: pellet
Method: Single feeder rod
Results: 2 Barbel to 5.5lb, 1 chub and 1 brown trout

Brief description of the session & remarks: Very bright conditions made it tough going. We were actually hoping for some chub with my mate fishing maggot feeder. Fished an area that's usually got a few, more so than barbel.

I therefore might have guessed it, I had a barbel on my second cast. Then nothing until early evening, when I had a second, followed by a brownie on pellet. I managed one chub late on. Lots of small dace and odd chublets came to the maggot and one better chub, but we were hoping for a few more as the sun dropped and light faded.

 

[ribble rambler]

Date 16.10.10
Section River Ribble
Time: 5.30 pm till 10.30pm
Weather conditions: clear sunny skies with half moon at dusk
Water conditions :EA River level website 0.95 m and clear
Bait -Boilie and pva bag of boilies and Garlic Spam and pva bag pellets
Air temp 3.6C dropping to end of session to 2.4C
Water temp: 8.7C dropping to 7.9C
Result: Three barbel biggest 11 lb 3oz and one Chub 2 lb 1oz

Started fishing around 5.30 ,first action came around 7pm when the first barbel arrived to boilie 5 lb 8 oz and whilst netting it the other baitrunner stirred into life.I hooked into the second fish and instantly knew it was large.Fortunately it just stayed midstream not moving so this gave me time to unhook and quickly weigh the first Barbel and rest it in net whilst reeling in the second rod.The net was now empty to land the biggest fish of the night caught using a cube of Garlic Spam.
The air temperature was very cold so was glad i had my thermal suit on.
Just after 8 pm whilst releasing a 2 lb Chub caught on boilie the other baitrunner set off again resulting in a 6 lb Barbel to garlic spam again .
Had a couple of knocks on either rod and lost a fish whilst trying to answer my phone .
All in all a good session ,surprising what you can catch in low levels as long as you know which swims too choose and best of all the banks are deserted .,

 

[ribble rambler]

Date 21.10.10
Section River Ribble
Time: 4.00 pm till 10.30pm
Weather conditions: cloudy with an upstream westerly wind
Water conditions :EA River level website 0.95 m and clear
Bait -Boilie with breadcrumb/pellets in feeder and Garlic Spam and pva bag pellets
Air temp 9.1C increasing to 9.4C towards end of session
Water temp: 7.2C dropping to 6.4C
Result: Four barbel biggest 6 lb 1oz and two Chub biggest 4 lb 13oz


Just four of us on the bank today.Started fishing just after 4 pm and the first Barbel arrived soon after at 4.30 pm.Then it was another 2 hours before the next Barbel after which things went quiet for an hour then livened up just before 9 pm.The Barbel all increased in size as the night went on .Two Chub also made an appearance during the last couple of hours.Temperature was fine though the constant wind made it feel colder than it was so was glad of my shelter .No point in being uncomfortable especially when your sat stationary for long periods.The Barbel weighed 4.7,5.0,5.7 and 6 .1 .My friend fishing 50 metres downstream had 5 Chub and 1 Barbel at eight pounds.Hope to get a few more sessions in before the temperature drops for Winter.

 

[ribble rambler]

Date 23.10.10
Section River Ribble
Time: 6.30 pm till 10.00pm
Weather conditions: full moon clear sky
Water conditions :EA River level website 2.03 m at 3 pm
Bait -Boilie or pellet with breadcrumb/pellets in feeder
Air temp 6.7C dropping to 4.9C towards end of session
Water temp: 8.3C dropping to 7.2C
Result: Blank

An unplanned trip today to meet up with a friend on the bank.After the first cast i knew it was going to be a struggle as i needed 3 ounce to hold bottom.Then realised there was too much debris coming downstream so had to fish close in.With the full moon it was like fishing under floodlights .Enjoyed the session all the same despite the conditions .Around 10 pm with my friend packing his rods away i decided tonight was not going to be productive so i packed up early.Another angler passed walking back to his car informing us he had no fish too .When we got back to our cars there was a frost covering the roofs .Will try again midweek .