Nature has a habit of bouncing back

Decades ago, there was a time when travelling great lengths of the country was something of a norm when it came to searching for a good river that was in form to just simply run a stick float down. The days when mighty rivers like the Trent and more locally the Ribble, that produced huge nets of roach, that over the course of time once seemed such a distant memory given a whole multitude of reasons leading up to these vast shoals disappearing.

Admittedly, as frustration grew, more and more anglers soon lost there faith on their favourite venues. With that said and in the midst of an interesting conversation with readers last week, this actually came to light over what seems to be the lack of coverage that I personally introduce to my article, the very subject of river fishing.

Again on losing faith on these venues, it did see many anglers write off visiting our rivers and with the steady emergence of commercial fisheries that could practically offer everyone a guaranteed successful day’s fishing, sadly the once favoured rivers became overgrown and inaccessible on many parts all over the country.

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But like everything, nature has a habit of bouncing back from even the most challenging of circumstances and over the course of time, unpredictably, the same rivers have once again began to flourish. This to see many anglers now lining up to take part in catching some excellent nets of roach that are being recorded.

Take the River Ribble at Preston for example, as a river nothing more than a stones throw for many of Merseyside’s travelling anglers. This fabulous water has been massively rejuvenated over the years and its roach shoals alone are proving a ‘go-to’ venue with regards catching nets of red fins using traditional stick float tactics.

As many will know, tactically river fishing is one of the most exciting methods within angling that can be used and it certainly doesn’t allow anything to go unnoticed as the prime focus is on working the rod, line and float along the river. Make no mistake, fishing a river and a big one at that is not for the inexperienced, but its also a method that can be easily adapted to with some practice and of course some valuable patience, a method that is ultimately one of the most enjoyable.

As a tidal river, I must stress the dangers that can be before us on a river the size of the Ribble. Southport and District Angling Association hold some exclusive fishing rights on this venue.

For more information, visit: www.sdaa.org.uk