Bike Fishing the Old River in Irlam
I decided to spend bank holiday Monday on the water’s edge, snapping up what little there was left of this year’s warm weather. After restlessly watching the rain and wind from my window for a few days, I just had to get out there when the sun finally showed up!
The location of choice was the River Irwell Old Course in Irlam, locally known as the Old River. Contrary to its name it is now a lake, presumably disconnected from the Irwell during the construction of the Manchester Shipping Canal.
Sadly, it was devastated by a pollution incident in 2008, when it was discovered that several malfunctioning pipes were pumping out raw sewage which filtered out into the lake. Unsurprisingly, it caused the vast majority of fish to go belly-up (aside from a few stoic perch, pike and roach). Since then, it has been taken over by a local fishing club which, together with the EA and local council, has cleaned and restocked it with thousands of fish which are now reportedly thriving in their new home.
Getting There
There are a few regrets in my life that I just can’t get over — one of them being getting rid of my car before going to university. After a few years’ fishing hiatus and still without a car, I soon realised that transporting myself and all my tackle with a bicycle was going to be a cumbersome experience. Nevertheless, my passion for fishing had overcome my reluctance to exercise, so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go!
I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but I managed to strap my rod and landing net to my bike frame using about a dozen haphazarly placed velcro straps. It was a bit of a faff to get everything strapped on safely enough, but it did the job — I’ll do a write-up of that process once I’ve refined it a little.
First Impressions
Having cycled through much of Eccles and a bit of Irlam to get here, I wasn’t exactly expecting untouched nature — I had been surrounded by dense city and dual carriageways for pretty much the whole journey. So when I did arrive I was really surprised, and pleasantly so!
Nestled in a quiet Irlam suburb, the lake is almost completely surrounded by a thin strip of forest. If I wasn’t able to see some nearby houses every now and then, I really would have thought I was in the middle of nowhere. Having recently only fished in very urban settings due to my location, this was a breath of fresh air (literally) and the perfect space to unwind.
Tackle
I chose to bring my spinning rod for this little adventure for three reasons:
First, lure fishing is a great way to learn about the swim. A small soft plastic with a ~10g jighead is a great way to suss out the depth around each peg, and to identify any snaggy areas for when I’m fishing with much lighter line on my feeder rod. RIP to my lost firetiger shad, your sacrifices will not be forgotten.
Second, it’s great for cycling! My spinning rod is just over 7ft long, so it fits nicely along my bike frame when taken apart. The only other tackle I need is lures, traces, a reel and some unhooking tools. Everything fits easily in my backpack and no worrying about maggot spillage. The only trouble I had was strapping on my puffy unhooking mat (it ended up acting as a very unhelpful parachute), so I might end up buying myself a more portable one for trips like these in the future.
Finally, the Old River is apparently known for its pike fishing, so I was hoping to have a chance at catching one of ‘em.
Having not fished the lake before, and not knowing much about the water itself, I decided to bring a little bit of everything with me. I found the water to be quite murky, so I quickly focused on using some of my brighter and more colourful lures. From my perspective, the tinted spoon I had seemed perfect for the job — reflecting the bright sun while also providing a splash of colour in the more densely overgrown areas.
The plan was to explore the water and target perch at first, followed by pike once I found some decent-looking pegs where I would be less likely to lose some of my more precious lures.
Location, Location, Location!
The golden rule of fishing is knowing where to fish. When using lures, this becomes exponentially more important. There’s no prebaiting and no delicious smells wafting off my hook, so it’s absolutely crucial to get that lure right in front of the fish’s nose.
With that in mind, I focused most of my casts around the vast swathes of lily pads surrounding the swim. The pegs are heavily biased towards one side of the lake, which means the far bank is less pruned and therefore full of vegetation in which predators could be hiding, ready to strike when tempted. Luckily, it’s a very long and narrow water, so casting to the other side is easy enough with small jigheads.
The rest was pretty much rinse & repeat! I started on the southern side and moved my way north, stopping at most available pegs for a few minutes at a time while rotating my lures. After completing the stretch and pausing for a lunch break, I moved back down, now targeting a few chosen pegs with my larger pike lures.
Results
I’d love to say I caught a PB perch or pike that day, but mother nature wasn’t having it! I had what I think was one bite all day, and I’m starting to suspect that it was actually just an underwater branch that my lure jigged over. After speaking to a few other anglers who were out and about, it seemed that the fish just weren’t in a feeding mood.
With that said, I did manage to catch something pretty special — someone’s old landing net! I’m willing to bet money that I was the only one in the UK who caught one of those that day, so all in all I did get lucky; just not lucky in the way I would have hoped.
If I had to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why the fish were bite-shy (to protect my stellar reputation, of course), I would say that the water temperature dropped quite substantially in the past week because of a set of storms that abruptly ended the warm front we were having in the UK. My best guess would be that this sharp drop sent the fish off to sleep for a while until temperatures stabilised. I might be a foreign national, but I’ve certainly adopted some British customs over the years I’ve lived here; always blame the weather!
Blanking aside, it was a lovely day spent outdoors and I’ll be back soon, possibly with a tub of maggots if I can figure out how to attach the blasted feeder rod to my bike.
If you’re in the area, I’d definitely recommend spending a day here — it’s managed by Salford Friendly Anglers, and they are a free-to-join club with some awesome-looking waters around Salford.
Until next time, tight lines 🎣
