Ribble: River Ribble Fishing Reports

[Paul C]

Date 5.8.12
Section River Ribble
Time: 1:30pm till 5:45pm
Weather conditions: warm and sunny
Water conditions : About 10 inches up and lots of colour. Risingf slightly
Bait - hemp, maggot and corn
Air temp - n/t
Water temp: n/t
Method: Float
Results: around 25 dace, 6 small chub and 4 roach

A quick float session which I cut short a little when it started lightening and the weather turned.

Slow again and just not enough action or bites. Fish came and went and the majority of the fish came in the last 2 hours when I switched to maggot from caster / corn.

No decent size fish either albeit it's never been much of a peg for larger chub to be honest, but they did used to be plentiful with odd barbel showing too.

This could be my last session for the month as I switch now to child duties and some time away with them. If I take the lads fishing over the holidays I won't be doing any myself as I'll be supervising I suspect!

 

[Paul C]

Date 13.9.12
Section River Ribble
Time: 16:30 till 22:20
Weather conditions: Overcast but mild
Water conditions : 0.66m at Ribchester
Bait – pellet & corn
Air temp – n/t
Water temp: n/t
Method: Single feeder rod
Results: 9 barbel, 1 large roach, 1 eel

It's been a long time since I was out! I've had my two boys for the last 4 weeks and then I had to pick my day this week as my hope was to fish the day before, but the level was rising fast. After such a long abscence it was nice to manage to fish a favourite peg.

I caught fairly steady through the evening although it was a bit quieter into dark than it was prior.

I started fairly slow and switched to very small baits and caught immediately once I changed and had 3 barbel in a short space of time.

All evening the bigger baits wouldn't entice a take, so despite having plenty of lead on the feeder the end tackle was small hook small bait and it made a difference.

The last fish of the session was my best at 8lb 14oz. I also lost two, one to a break and another to a hook pull late on.

My roach was a nice surprise and weighed 1lb 7oz.

The kids are back with me next week, so it might be a fortnight now before I can venture out again...

 

[Paul C]

Date 28.9.12
Section River Ribble
Time: 14:30 till 21:00
Weather conditions: Showery and blustery winds
Water conditions : 0.65m at Ribchester and holding steady
Bait – pellet & corn
Air temp – n/t
Water temp: n/t
Method: Single feeder rod
Results: 7 barbel, 2 chub, 1 large roach, 1 dace, 4 brown trout

A friend of mine fancied a session on the river, so I took him on. He's rarely fished it and not in recent times, so I wanted to get a few fish between us.

We shared a decent size peg, so I could provide a little guidance where needed. Things got off to a slow start with very little activity early doors. My mate had a nice barbel first and I was having field day with some big brown trout!

It took a fair bit longer than normal to get the swim going. It may have been because there were two of us on the one peg. After a couple of hours I started to catch fairly steady and a few chub showed up. We had 4 between us.

No sizeable barbel, my mates first being the best of the day and he had the best chub at 4lb 4oz, so he was happy enough.

Some very heavy downpours came into dark and we were lucky to pack up and get back to the car between them.

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

Paul...can I just say thank you for these reports. They are always an excellent read and carry on the tradition started by John Conway in a fine manner. Ta mate!

 

[Paul C]

Thanks Paul. I wish I could get out more often!!

 

[tigger]

Thanks Paul. I wish I could get out more often!!

Hey Paul, I enjoy reading your results myself. I fish the ribble quite often and so it's good to hear how others are going on.

 

[chris hall]

Hello Paul,
I too like fishing the Ribble, but have never fished it at Ribchester before. Is this a day ticket stretch or a club stretch, I want to try different places on the river but many are club waters that don't allow day tickets, or involve long walks to swims, which I can no longer do. Any info would be great as my usual stretches have been pretty dire of late. I fished behind the Capitol centre yesterday where the Darwen flows in and didn't have a thing in 8 hours. I am persistent if nothing else.
Chris

 

[Matthew Nightingale (ACA)]

The Ribchester village front stretch is a day ticket water which you can buy from the villages SPAR. You can park quite near; in front of the church (make sure you make a donation!). There is another day ticket stretch if you drive towards Ribchester Bridge and head down towards the log seller. He sells tickets for the stretch between the bridge and his farm.

 

[chris hall]

Thankyou for the reply Matthew, much appreciated, which one would you recommend for this time of year as a worthwhile stretch to fish.
Cheers
Chris.

 

[Matthew Nightingale (ACA)]

Chris,

I'm afraid I can't really help there because I tend to fish further down as a member of RADAC. Both stretches seem to get well used so I think you'd have a reasonable day on either.

The stretches are only about 10 minutes drive apart and you can see all of the village stretch from your car so you can have a look and see how many anglers there are and take your pick.

As far as the village stretch is concerned most visitors prefer the deeper water which is at the downstream end.

Hope this helps: Day Tickets

Matthew

 

[Paul C]

Chris

I think Matthew has covered the question. There's not a great deal of day ticket water on the river.

If you want greater access, the best bet is to get your name down for one of the clubs that have some stretches.

A lot of the ribble is peggy, so fishing the day ticket parts around ribchester is not necessarily going to be more productive than the stretch you have used at the lower end. It's a case of learning about the areas you want to fish and finding out the parts worth concentrating on.

 

[chris hall]

Thankyou again for your replies lads, I will have a ride over before going up and look at the water.
Cheers,
Chris

 

[mark brailsford 2]

I joined both the Wigan and the Southport clubs so I have a few good options. I don't think that by spending £60 quid on season tickets is expensive as I have a vast choice of waters to fish on those two tickets alone and if I was to buy day tickets at £5 a time it would cost me a dam site more than that over the course of a year!

 

[chris hall]

I agree having access to those good waters is an advantage for sure, but the total cost for these club tickets is way too much for me to stump up. I fish as and when I can as health and wealth are a major limiting factor for me. The weather this year has not done fishing any favours on the Ribble either, so to me I would never get my monies worth out of either of those club tickets.
Chris

 

[Paul C]

Date 23.10.12
Section River Ribble
Time: 17:20 till 21:10
Weather conditions: Dry, mild and calm
Water conditions : 0.20m at Ribchester
Bait – pellet & corn
Air temp – n/t
Water temp: n/t
Method: Single feeder rod
Results: 4 barbel and 1 dace

I decided to get a short evening session in before the weather turns cold for the weekend and the clocks reduce the evening light even more.

I managed to fish a peg I’ve not been on all season. It’s a sod of a peg to fish and no good with extra water in the river. Each recent visit has been when the river was up, so it’s been out of the reckoning.

This peg has always given me some good early action but then always seems to hit a bit of a lull before fish move back in later. It seems to always hold fish but after a few they back off and things go very quiet. Today was no different. I had a barbel on cast number 2 and then another of about 5.5lb instantly on cast 3 before the swim just died. No activity or signs at all for probably the best part of 2 hours.

I then had a good take and a heavy slow fight but I lost it on a broken hooklength that looked to have come out worse off in it’s battle with a rock and split. I had another fish of about 5lb shortly after that and then no activity again until I had a take just as I was giving up hope. The last fish was a rare one for me. A double figure fish, albeit only just at 10lb 2oz. I fished on for a short while but there was no further activity and I didn’t think it was going to burst into life or I was going top my last fish of the session.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

I just thought I'd pop a couple of sessions on, the good and the bad, but that's the Ribble for you: -

Date:.. Wednesday 24/10/12 .
Venue:... River Ribble
Time fished:...18:00hrs 01:00hrs
Weather conditions:... Overcast and windy, 60% cloud cover over a big moon
Water conditions:... EA River level at 04:30hrs @ NJR 0.48M & falling
Air temperature:... 13C falling to 11.5C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:... 11.9C
Bait:... Bread Flake, Crust & Cheese Paste, Sweetcorn, Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste
Method:.. 2 rods. Upstream rod - bread flake and Popped up artificial corn – liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod – Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste – Loose fed Corn and Halibut Pellets.
Results:... 6 chub to 4lb-3oz and two Barbel at 9lb-3oz and 8lb-3oz.
Brief description of the session & remarks:… The river looked good and was 1.3 degs up on last session. Nearly one and half hours before the first chub, then it was steady away through out the session. The 4lb-3oz chub was very long, thin and empty, almost deformed.. The two barbel were nice fish and had plenty of fight left in then when retuned. Pleasant session and the walk back to the car park is now much better now its drying up nicely.

Date:.. Saturday 10/11/12
Venue:... River Ribble
Time fished:...17:00hrs 00:00hrs
Weather conditions:... Cloudy with sunny intervals, odd shower after dusk
Water conditions:... EA River level at 04:30hrs @ NJR 0.76M & falling
Air temperature:... 7.6C falling to 4.5C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:... 7.6C
Bait:... Bread Flake, Crust & Cheese Paste, Sweetcorn, Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste
Method:.. 2 rods. Upstream rod - bread flake and Popped up artificial corn – liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod – Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste – Loose fed Corn and Halibut Pellets.
Results:... Blank.
Brief description of the session & remarks:… The river was dropping nicely however there was quite a bit of debris coming down which meant casting at least every 15 mins. Very few bites but I did connect with something big, probably a barbel, but lost it almost immediately. Stayed until mid-night because of the occasionally knock. At mid-night it became quite misty and extremely dark, took some time to find my way back across the field to the car park.

Seems quite a long time since I've posted, nice to read the last few Ribble post

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

It's absolutely great to see you online again John. Welcome back

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Date:.. Thursday 15/11/12

Venue:... River Ribble
Time fished:...16:30hrs 01:00hrs
Weather conditions:... Clear sky clouding over slowly by end of session, no wind, no moon.
Water conditions:... EA River level at 04:30hrs @ NJR 0.49M & steady
Air temperature:... 7C falling to 6.7C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:... 7C
Bait:... Bread Flake, Crust & Cheese Paste, Sweetcorn, Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste
Method:.. 2 rods. Upstream rod - bread flake and Popped up artificial corn – liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod – Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste – Loose fed Corn and Halibut Pellets.
Results:... 5 Chub (three 4lb plus best 4lb-10oz) and a 10lb-8oz Barbel.
Brief description of the session & remarks:… Conditions looked good for Chub with a chance of a Barbel. Half an hour into the session, the first chub came to my upstream rod, the next 2 chub and a 10lb-8oz Barbel to my down stream rod. The next fell to the upstream rod and the final Chub to the down stream rod. This was another very, very dark night, no moon and no stars. Very spookie because it was so very quiet, probably the wee bit of mist damping very thing down.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Date:.. Friday 23/11/12

Venue:... River Ribble
Time fished:...18:00hrs 24:00hrs
Weather conditions:... Intermittent showers, wintry at times, clearing around 20:00hrs, bright half moon
Water conditions:... EA River level at 15:300hrs @ NJR 1.02M & falling
Air temperature:... 7.4C falling to 2C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:... 7.4C
Bait:... Bread Flake, Crust & Cheese Paste, Sweetcorn, Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste
Method:.. 2 rods. Upstream rod - bread flake and Popped up artificial corn – liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod – Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste – Loose fed Corn and Halibut Pellets.
Results:... Blank.
Brief description of the session & remarks:… An opportune trip between wintry flood pulses, unfortunately most of the session was in bright moon light and there was still quite a bit of debris coming down. Only one bite, which pulled my rod completely off its rest, one minute it was there the next it had gone. On retrieving the rod there was nothing attached apart from three large scales all attached to the hook??? The walk to and from the river was by far the worst I can remember for boggy going. It took a good half an hour to do what is normally a 15 min walk back to my van. This was just one of those trips you have to put in to get a good one. To get one last trip in during November, Friday will be the best re avoiding a bright moon, if the sky is clear, it does not rise until 17:35 hrs and I know just the peg to make it quite late before it shines on the water. Let us hope the river is falling and not rising.

 

[john conway (CSG - ACA)]

Date:.. Friday 30/11/12

Venue:... River Ribble
Time fished:...16:00hrs 22:00hrs
Weather conditions:... Light cloud, hazy sun, no wind, full moon on water by the end of the session and freezing fog.
Water conditions:... EA River level at 04:300hrs @ NJR 0.53M & falling
Air temperature:... Zero deg C falling to -2C by the end of the session.
Water Temperature:... 3.6C
Bait:... Bread Flake, Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste
Method:.. 2 rods. Upstream rod - bread flake with liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder. Downstream rod – Halibut Pellet/Cheese Paste with liquidized bread and sweetcorn in feeder.
Results:... One 4lb-15oz Chub
Brief description of the session & remarks:… This was the last chance of getting a chub in Nov 20012. The river was nicely down and steady and there was a latish moonrise. The temperature was at zero when I arrived and quickly dropped to minus 2C at sunset. Lost a chub early on after the hook pulled, then an hour later a good slow pull round resulted in a decent chub. After that, it was just a couple of knocks every hour and one or two good pull rounds but each time I lifted into nothing. By the time the full moon hit the river and all bites stopped I'd had enough. My rod rings had been freezing up for the last couple of hours, however, my core body temperature was OK but my feet where freezing. By the end of the session, the far bank was a beautiful winter wonderland and so was all my gear including myself. It was a hard but beautiful walk back to my van under a full hazy moon with everything turning white. I needed my credit card to clear by windscreen and the minor roads were a wee bit icy in places.