whats the oddest place you've caught fish from

At the edge of my council estate there is a small stream not really big enough to fish as it is only a few feet wide and a couple of inches deep. But the stream emerges from underground where they built a shopping centre over it about 10 years ago,the place where it emerges is a concrete tunnel which is about 6ft wide and the water is about 2ft deep. Next to the large tunnel there is a small what looks like a seweragepipe and whilst peering down into the shopping trolley strewn water i noticed alot of fishing swimming in and out of the small pipe, like a moth drawn to the light I had to investigate this further. So early one sunday morning I climb down to the water armed with a float rod, some maggots, and a keepnet,i cast as well as i can up into the tunnel whilst firing maggots and catch chublet, after chublet, also a few nice size roach and a few small perch. No-one else has ever fished it as far as I know and i didn't half get some strangelooks from passers buy but it turned out to be a red hot fishing spot as anyone else ever fished any odd places that no one else would usually try?

A Mill Roof (carp and sticklebacks)

A Spanish sewer (eels and mullet)

and my mates garden pond (goldfish and a frog)

Oh and my mates swim on the far bank



but dont tell him!

Monk what is a mill roof were you fishing off it into water or was the water on the roof.

I think certain fish love sewerage they can feed off all the little bits of food contained in the sh*t, I think thats what the chub were doing swimming in and out of the small pipe mentioned above, do you think these chublets will ever grow to any size they're about 1/2lb at the moment there are loads of them there i caught 17 in a couple of hours.

A carp fisherman that I met a few times once told me that the weather was so bad that he couldn't go night fishing for weeks so he set is rod pods and bivvy up on his bed and cast into his large fish tank, he said he some cracking runs through the night, what a nutter!!!!!!!!!

During the foot and mouth outbreak, with much of the countryside out of bounds, I fly fished the River Calder for trout in the middle of Mytholmroyd (between Burnley & Halifax.Buses were passing just a few feet from where I was fishing. I caught, too.

The actual Mill Roof Nicky, it was called the Malta Mill and still stands in Chadderton near Oldham Lancs, although the water has long since dried up and gone.

I fished what I thought was a feeder stream into the River Exe and caught a chub, it later transpired that I had actually been fishing a farmers access road that was flooded due to the heavy rains at the time.

TROUBLE AT MILL.

I can remember well fishing in my earlier years for small roach and perch in the local pits and canals around Lancashire. Magic days, long summer nights, school holidays that would last forever. New fields with ponds in to explore, many untold adventures learning about life, the excitement and anticipation of an early morning worm dig down at the farm. Close season preparations, soaking the nets in linseed oil, an updated scan through Mr Crabtree?s river map where all the fish were marked out clearly in their swims.

One particular outing sticks in mind, this was when my then fishing companion Tommy G took me fishing behind one of the mills in the Chadderton district of Oldham. It was to be a carp fishing trip, although gratitude would to have shown to anything that pulled the float under. ?There?s a big un up there kid?; said Tommy! ?Up where Tommy?; I replied? ?Up there on`t mill roof?,? yea our kid put it up there last year? replied Tommy! ?Is it dead then? I replied, ?Hell no, its swimming about? said Tommy! ?What you mean there?s a lake on the mill roof? said I? ?Sure is, you wanna see it,? said Tommy? ?Yes I do, but how are we going to get on the roof?? I replied, easy! ?see that fire escape?, well that?s how replied Tommy.

Now being scared of heights and only 11 year old at the time, I put off the roof top fishing trip on that particular occasion, but Tommy being Tommy, it wasn?t long before he was round at my parents house with an invitation to fish the water in the sky. Tommy was much older and more experienced in life than me being a mere 4 months away from his 13th birthday. It didn?t take him long however to convince me just how easy it would be to climb onto the roof of the mill and how safe it would be once we where up there.

Although a little apprehensive at first, my spirit of adventure had got the better of me, and I agreed to make the trip. Two days later Tommy and I made our way down the canal bank and on to the distant mill. Crust was to be the main bait backed up with worms (all four of them). On arrival at the foot of the mill gazing looking up, I began to have second thoughts, but Tommy reassured me that it was perfectly safe and soon put my mind at rest. Through the hole in the gate, and we arrived beneath the iron fire escape. The bottom section was built on a kind of balancing weight system and Tommy had to stand on some old skips in order to reach the first rung and bring the pendulum section down by using his body weight.

Heart in mouth, and nervously gripping the handrail, up and up we went, into the clouds, leaving the little terraced houses far below, some twelve stories in all, leading eventually to a single wrought iron ladder which took us up and over on to the roof itself. The view from up there was incredible, unbelievable, I?d momentary forgotten my fear of heights and was filled with anticipation and adventure. You could see rows of mill workers houses out below, and the surrounding fields which stretched out as far as the eyes could see, way beyond these where the Pennine Chains rising to the East. The mill lodge was but a puddle from up here.

As I turned to the roof itself I couldn?t have possibly imagined the sight that met my eyes. High up there in the clouds was the most unusual lake with water iris, weed beds, a variety of grasses and even a tree at one end. It was a truly magical place away from everyone, with no bailiffs to hide from, our own private water.

The mill roof had a large tower at one end while the floor of the roof was tarred and flat, but over the years the upper roof section had warped and sunken considerably and allowed for flooding by rain water, while over the proceeding years grass seeds and fish eggs carried by birds, had presumably become established. The mill was in a semi-derelict state and had been so for some time.

At the edge of the pool the water was quite shallow, but due to the weight of the water and the nature of the roof surface, some inverted deep bubbles lay below the water line where the tar had been warped and stretched. Numerous fry were in evidence, stick backs mainly, but with a few roach and possibly perch. Tommy told me he had seen the carp that his brother had put in, only days before. He had seen this over towards the weed fringes near the over-hanging tree.

We walked round to the weed margin where Tommy decided to cast a crust with the aid of a bubble float for extra weight. Suddenly a huge dorsal fin appeared only feet away from Tommy?s bait. The carp moved in for the kill, then all of a sudden!

?Right lets be having you?, I turned round and noticed a policeman had appeared behind us? Tommy jumped six feet in the air and the carp also made a quick getaway. Apparently we had been spotted climbing the fire escape from one of the houses in the village and the local policeman had been informed, we were busted.

Led off like criminals with a policeman?s thumb on each of our ears, heads down in disgrace, he took us through a door in the tower and down an internal stairway. The policeman took us home, this resulted in a good hiding from my father, I was kept in for a month and my Eagle comic was cancelled indefinitely. Needless to say it was a long time before I went fishing with Tommy again and I never did catch the roof top carp. Great days though!

The River I have at the bottom of my garden is the River Irk, it was for well over 100 years one of the dirtiest river in Northern Europe, it now contains both Rainbow and Brown trout and i catch them regularly on fly

Priceless, theres not many can say that they fished the top of a building.

You obviously dont know North Mankyland

That's my type of fishing spot i bet as small lads it must have been the most amazing place shame you got caught!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brilliant as well tom I like that

caught one in a funfair in Ostend at about 2am !

Ostend, been there Cakey mate, nice place, lovely women, I Love Dutch Girls, something about them!

When i was about 14 on the way home from rabbiting myself and a few mates spotted some fish rising on the mouth of a small stream, there was a pipe coming out of a banking which was in fact a slag tip which had been built up from the waste from one of the local coal mines, the water was a vibrant orange from all the iron leaching into it suprising any fish could survive but they did no problem the pool was only a few feet wide and was where the stream began. None of my friends even contemplated fishing it but i had to go and have a look it was one of those places that looked very interesting and made me extremely curiuos. so a month or two later I walked the five miles back cast out a tiny litle float with a worm on the end and waited, nothing happened so I got bored and went for a walk, when i came back my float had disappeared and when i picked it up I realised I had a fish on, I reeled in and discovered I had the tiniest litte trout, I know everyone sais you should have seen the colours but this really was something else the trout looked almost green with the brightest red spots i have seen, i put it down to the colour of the waterwhat with it being orange, I went on to catch another four or five fish, I felt on top of the world and went home a very happy kid.
We used to do a fair bit of night fishing as young teenagers, and my mates always wanted to go poaching at the local trout pond or somewhere similar put i was always much happier to go down the local river or canal where you wouldn't catch much but when you did it meant something, had some good times as a kid because of fishing and rabbiting which was my main passion at the time.

Monk........theres some ugly ones in them windows with the red light on !

In 1972 I was in the Army and posted to Berlin, at that time it was the walled "West German " city in East Germany.. I was an MP (Military Police) and as such had access to areas restricted to others.. when on patrol in an area called "The Grunewald" I noticed that the woodland had small drains running through them, no more than a couple of feet wide and only 18" deep or so...one day I was patrolling ,one of these drains ran alongside the Berlin Wall, which as my patrol area and noticed tiny pinprick bubbles rising to the surface,yes, you have guessed. I thought..Tench. the next patrol day myself and my patrol partner who was also an angler had bought some basic tackle, we went to the drain and fished , and caught several Golden Tench,on Army Rations ,(Bread rolls) a species I had not seen before..the Tench not the rolls...I still have the photos, what you could call full combat fishing.. camo gear, which was the usual uniform, side arms and automatic weapons. I have fished all over the world since then, but that always sticks in my mind.

My old school in Nuneaton (Etone) had a memorial garden. Not many of us treated it with the respect it deserved. In the garden was a fish pond, in the fish pond were fish, the best bait for these fish, in my experience were, believe it or not, bits of victory v lozenges, chewed up and "spat" in the pool. You could get the fish virtually taking the bits out of your hand. Alas, the inevitable happened, hooks, line and bait! NO it wasn't me.