Ukraine river fishing...if you dare

I do! But I will be staying on the lash if too many of these turn up during the Euro 2012 championships. You never know what a bit of research will throw up!

http://www.fishingfury.com/categories/world/ukraine/

The shortest day, on the Tame

December 21st, the shortest day in the calendar found me nursing a headache after the previous evenings Salford friendly anglers Xmas do. Buoyed up by an evening of tall fishing stories in the fishing call my bluff contest (believe me there are some fantastic liars in the fishing club!) I decided to put a little reality back in to the week and found me heading for the River Tame. Mossley is a small town about 15 miles north east of Manchester, most famous for its football teams exploits in the FA Trophy, getting to Wembley on a few occasions. However running through Bottom Mossley is the beautiful River Tame, a streamy river with some deeper wide bends and reputedly some big fish.  I set up on a swim by the Roaches lock pub and tried to battle the raging current on a very high river, switching feeders several times to try and hold bottom. I have fancied this swim for a long time, trust me to pick a day to try it when it was unfishable.

Down but not out I began walking downstream, fancying a bash at the adjacent Huddersfield narrow canal, which really does have some fantastic looking pegs. Determined to bag a river fish I found a slacker corner a few hundred metres on, and plonked my gear down on the first fishable spot of the river I came by. Having only a few metres of slack water to aim at I cast a medium drennan feeder perfectly into the hole, placed the rod down and waited, all of two seconds, for a big rap on the tip. It turned out to be a greedy brown trout which gave a good account of itself in the fast current.

Arriving at this swim around 1.30pm I fished until darkness fell at around 3.45pm and managed to catch thirteen trout of various sizes, nothing big, but all welcome on a miserable overcast afternoon.

All told a really enjoyable afternoon, which started as an exercise to blow the cobwebs of a hangover away. As I walked back up the towpath of the canal to the car park I could see the lights of the Roaches lock pub in the distance, looking very welcoming.

My apologies for the quality of the pictures. Today's trip was so impromptu I forgot the camera. This river rises in the Pennine hills and runs right through  Saddleworth and the delightful Uppermill village, on to Mossley, Stalybridge and on through Tameside to Stockport where there are some very large Barbel and chub. We really are blessed with some fantastic river fishing around Manchester, some of it in really pleasant locations, for those that have the appetite to try.

Ukraine in June

So finally it was the draw for the Euro 2012 championships, and as I sat with fingers crossed for Poland on the basis of cost of travel, I knew nothing would go to plan,, as it never does. Ukraine it is for England, and not only that the group we drew is the costliest to travel to. So after a stressful evening the flights are booked to Donetsk and all that remains is accomodation (minor issue), match tickets, and places to fish. I have made a promising start..........
http://www.ribaki.org.ua/forum/   Thank heavens for Google translate.
I can see the tent getting an airing on this tourament, which will be a first. Better make sure there is a good river or lake nearby.