THE JOURNEY...
It was me, the trusty man that is Will Maull and the legend that is my brother Danny. The dynamic trio on-route to the Bradshaw fisheries located in Bolton. We'd heard a few good recommendations. I wouldn't have believed it myslef but a great start to a fishing trip happens to be blareing out Stormzy and Levels as our excitement was boosted by the bars. One note about the journey was a single mad road down to the fishery where it was a single lane with passing sections on each side meaning drivers had stop and let each car through and hope a driver would do the same for you.
PICKING A LAKE...
As we drove in it hit us that it was quite. Only two cars in the car park which came to a surprise. We paid for a ticket and halted for a quick trip to the toilet. A sign saying "only fisherman allowed beyond this point" made me smile as now we were proper. Bradshaws had a good selection of lakes, 9 in total. Lake 4 is the large one first greeted on the way in but we had heard Lake 6 was the best and we were out for big fish so that was to be our destination. It was down at the far end a little out the way which is what we liked about it. A perfect square lake with several posts and we picked the two closest together at the furthest side of the lake.
HELPING A BROTHER OUT...
It was to be Danny's turn for me to help rig up while having confidence Will could remember from our time at meadow view. A little over half an hour and sure enough, we all had the floats in the water. The weather was amazing to say it was winter eventually reaching blue skies and warm temperatures which lofted the spirits that this was Gunna be a good days fishing.
QUITE BEFORE THE STORM...
We hadn't even had a nibble the conditions were perfect and yet not a bite to be seen. A question of rigging maybe but we couldn't put our finger on it. This didn't ruin anything though as said once before, the sheer relaxation and tranquility is just bliss.
HORRORS...
The horrific moment of the day turned out to be the destruction of our thermos flasks. One toppled over and smashed the inner lining of glass aswell as a leek pouring coffee over the bank. Will the maddest of geezers managed to save a little for one last brew before it all spilled out. A moment of pure genius on his part. The second thermos of soup we had was more of a tragic story. Trying to put our stuff in the bag it just slipped out and fell 5 to 6 feet and the crunch of smashed glass was just torturous. Warm delicious soup just gone in a flash. Will tried to pour a last cup full but shards just filled the cup.
All wasn't lost however as will manged to catch the first fish of the day. A good sized Roach that gave us a little hope we'd see more fish to come as the hours went bye.
WORTH IT'S WEIGHT IN GOLD...
After even the experienced fisherman sharing our lake only managed to catch two fish between them all, we believed it was time to try a different lake as it was obvious the big fish weren't biting. And so, Danny took the first initiative and tried over at Lake 5 just over the other side of the bushes. WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT! He comes running over screaming he's caught a fish literally he must have been their 5 minutes!! So the troopers we were we ran over with the net bay watch style and helped him with his first ever fish. A small Barbel around a pound and what a good looking fish it was. I'd never seen a Barbel before but what a sight. We then moved the gear and the chairs and made lake 5 the fishing place to be.
Danny Continued to catch with a smart looking Rudd and the Virgin had become the master it seamed. Will the top dog then caught his second of the day continuing his streak of roach. I was still not to catch but the bites were there.
Finally I hooked. I didn't waste anytime realing it in but before we could get the net ready It was gone!! It had unhooked himself! I waa determined to count that as my first fish of the day but Will and Dan were having none of it. They managed a tally of 3 fish each for the both of them but an unlucky 2 for me but it would have been 3 and I'm still convinced it was 3.
LOCATION...
A note to take was the crazily expensive but real nice houses located just past Lake 5. They were awesome but we were saying they were that close to the lake we could throw a line from the window. On our particular day the managers of Bradshaws were cutting down some trees with a loud as hell chainsaw. It was annoying to say the least but the sun was shining and we all had a tally of some good fish so it was an inconvenience to the amazing day of fishing.
To say we're catching in the winter I can't wait to see what summer has to bring us...
