I don't want to go banging on about the crap weather every time I put pen to paper. I'm sure everyone's had it up to the eye balls with too much wind and too little fishing opportunity. The Lancashire coast in particular gets more than its fair share as it looks out right into the teeth of the prevailing wind. So in the so called summer of 2008 with yet more wind forecast and a weekend of small tides in prospect, neither of which boded well for the tope or the bass, I teamed up with Scottish international Mick Duff and his fishing partner John Greenfield for a trip I was promised would be of great interest, would fish well on a small tide, and should not be compromised by the weather, providing the wind wasn't absolutely howling or had any north in it. South westerly 6 was the outlook from the coastguard just before I jumped in the car and headed for New Brighton on Merseyside. Actually, it didn't seem too bad on the motorway. But once I reached the corner of the prom where the river opens right up into the sea it was white horses everywhere. Is it any wonder anglers loose interest and boat manufacturers despair. Fortunately, New Brighton beach takes a south westerly from off the land, so it wasn't too bad, and further up river where Mick and John were planning to take me we would barely notice anything at all.

There was one other small boat on the slip in addition to Mick's Warrior 175 'Highlander', which he and John were getting ready for the off as I arrived. Everyone else had either taken one look and headed back home, or more likely still, not even bothered in the first place. Even an attempt on the inside bass marks at the start of the wall would have seen us up the proverbial creek. Instead, we had plans to go up the actual creek. Rather than slinking off home with long faces, Mick and John have become resigned recently to the fact that unless you have other tricks up your sleeve, it can be a long hard slog between the fish leaving the shelter of the river at the end of the winter and arriving back again around September-October time. You either find yourself some alternatives, or run the risk of many more days ashore than afloat. No contest. With that in mind, Mick and John have been doing a bit of exploring up river past the Manchester ship canal lochs almost as far as the Stanlow oil refinery at Ellesmere Port, where surprisingly, good numbers of fish can found across a fair range of species can be found, some of which you might not expect so far up inland. Bass, mullet, sole, flounders and eels dominate the scene, particularly the flounders and eels. But as well as the species mix, it is the fishing approach that is also likely to turn a few heads.

The river widens out and shallows considerably at this point with great swathes of sand in the form of banks scattered all about the place. These dry at low tide leaving barely navigable channels, even for a small boat. As you can imagine, the fish are forced in these until the flood tide fills the river up again. Picture the concentrating effect this has on the fish. So the plan was to anchor some of these channels at low water then wait for the first hint of the flood tide to stir the fish back into thoughts of feeding, and follow them back up onto the banks as they started to cover. That way we could stay with them and cover them for longer. Coverage here is the key. There are a number of ways you can cover fish scattered about and on the move from a boat. The most obvious approach would be to go on the drift, but with so little tide and usually so much wind you are at the mercy of forces beyond your control. Casting light leads across the tide at anchor and letting the water trundle the baits around and away from the boat is another, though you need the tide to be running properly to be in with a decent chance of success which means that the fish will already be leaving the channels. Alternatively, as we did, you can fish from an anchored boat using whatever wind or tide there is to cover fish with a float rig.

We had a selection of baits on board, though peeler crab has always turned out to be the most effective in the past. Mick and John normally have a peeler crab set up that turns them over ready for use on an almost industrial basis, but even the crabs had had it with the weather in the run up to the trip showing a very noticeable reluctance to peel. Freshwater from the incessant rain reducing salinity levels upstream for the fish has also been a bit of a problem, particularly for the bass and mullet, though less so for the flounders and eels. That was a big concern of the day, though we still caught plenty of fish. Another weather related factor when the run got going was the direction of the wind which fortunately was moving in pretty much the same direction as the tide. That helped both with the positioning of the boat and with running the baits down the channels to cover the fish. So what about the float fishing rigs themselves. Well, these were slider floats fished from long light rods with a fixed spool reel. The float is threaded free running onto the reel line with a bead and adjustable stopper above it, and a small ball or barrel weight and a trace swivel beneath it. A couple of feet of light mono trace with a size 2 carp hook is then attached to the trace swivel to complete the rig.

Setting the float to work effectively is key to covering fish with baits positioned exactly where they want them. You get an idea of the depth from the echo sounder. Where we first stopped is was around five feet. As the weight is lowered to the bottom, the float slides up the line until it hits the bead and the stopper which is used to control the fishing depth. It doesn't matter too much if you end up fishing slightly over depth with the float lying on top of the water. But fishing under depth with the float submerged rather defeats the objective of sight fishing. Remember that when the weight is in contact with the bottom, the bait will be trailing bottom as the hook length is being fished below the lead. Accurately gauging the right amount of lead under the float is also important. It needs to be light enough to trundle along in the tide, but at the same time heavy enough not to lift clear of the bottom. Mick favoured quite a large float and a barrel lead while John had a slightly smaller float and smaller barrel lead around which he wrapped narrow strips of lead flashing to beef up the weight without cutting the line at the swivel to put a bigger lead on. But both men cast their floats out across the tide which, once they had washed around off the back of the boat, were allowed to run with the tide by opening the bale arm of the reel.

We actually arrived too early for the main feeding even though it was quite a bit later than we had planned. Mick had inadvertently brought along the wrong end piece for his favourite Fladden Warbird rod and so had to nip back home to get it. Unfortunately, he only managed to swap one wrong tip section for another and there wasn't time to nip back a third time. The plan was to get ourselves through a particular series of channels before the last of the ebb made the water too shallow for the boat. But unfortunately we missed it and had to settle for one of the other channels instead with Mick having to settle for just the bottom two sections of his favoured rod which by this stage had been renamed the Warbird stumpy. Fortunately he had a second fully functional outfit with him as well, though sods law saw to it that most of the early fish came to stumpy. These were mainly eels over the quieter slack water period, and while both Mick and John had earlier predicted that most of the flounder action would come when the floats were covering ground in the new tide and the fish were starting to push back onto the rapidly submerging banks, there was still a little apprehension in the camp that the freshwater being carried by the river might be enough to push less tolerant fish further down towards the estuary mouth.

Fortunately, that apprehension was to prove unfounded once the weed and debris starting tracking back inland past the boat signalling the start of the flood tide. Like flicking the proverbial switch, this brought the flounders right into the mix where they all but dominated proceedings. Nothing big, but very spirited on the light outfits being used, which is true of many species of fish if only anglers would give them the opportunity to put on a good show, with virtually every fish falling to the combination of half a crab tipped off with a couple of peeled legs. But they didn't all take or show in the same way. Some would simply stop the float which wasn't always noticed, then 'suddenly appear' to be there when it was time for a bait check, while others would take off with such venom as to pull the rod tip right over before you could react to the float. And for the rest, well they registered on the float in the traditional time honoured fashion, though on a number of occasions moving the bait slowly away from them either with the reel handle or a gentle lift of the float as they tentatively mouthed the bait would be the necessary final ingredient necessary to seal their fate. Not that any fish were taken. Everything went back. This was supposed to be a fun day, which it most definitely was. And one further example of how using a slider float, regardless (within reason) of depth, saw fish which otherwise might not have been caught ending up in the boat. That's tope, black bream, whiting, and now eels and flounders. Mick has also had bass on the outside banks and mullet in the river, and I'm sure there are yet more species to come.

SEE ALSO VIDEO VAULT – Float Flounders.

FOOT NOTE

Had the breeze been more around to the west or worse still the north west, we might have had difficulties getting on and off the beach. New Brighton is situated right on the very outer lip of the estuary. Not the best small boat beach in the world for a number of reasons which also include soft sand and the need to get in well before high water due to the wall. And yet, as we sailed up river on the Wirrall side, we passed a number of excellent launching ramps, some tucked into sheltered little coves or behind breakwaters where none of the above would have been a problem. Yet in every case they had locked barriers across them.

I'm sure this is a situation that is not going to be unique to the Wirrall. The big question has to be why. You can understand a reluctance for local authorities to spend new money, and it would be a lot of money, on constructing a facility of the that quality. But these are already there and waiting to make money rather than sap it up. I'm not advocating charges here. But I am realistic enough to know that's what will happen. At New Brighton you have to buy a permit which can only be bought on production of valid car and boat insurance, plus an RYA power boat level 2 certificate. So not much different in many respects to being in a small boat club. And anglers will 'happily' pay this for good facilities, providing the rules are applied evenly to everyone. We understand the current era of litigation and appreciate that local authorities need to protect the public and to cover their own backs. But we are rate payers, voters, and responsible citizens too. So why are we being denied the use of facilities that have already been constructed and financed.