Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 21st June, 2024)

Is Orrell Water Park the place that used to be called Abbey Lakes.
If not, where is it located ?

Rod licence alone without concessions is £35-50 for two rods and £53-70 for three rods. You could pay hundreds for your rods/reels/poles so not a cheap hobby any more.

It’s a place I have never been but it looks a nice .Just two mates enjoying their hobby and probably putting the world to right.

I have often wondered what Orrell Water Pk was like. Not being into fishing, it looks a nice place for a walk.
Fishing with rods like that don't say much for the thrill of the catch....

these two are traveling light wait till the barrow men /women arrive lol

And expensive

You certainly caught a couple there Dennis.

I wonder what Mr. Crabtree would make of it all .
' Peter , I shall just cast some nylon line from the fixed spool using the figure 8 method ideal for the split cane rod . If we trot the quill round the eddy of those lily pads we ought to tempt a curious Chub ' . Aye , it was skill and guile then .
I took a walk round Worthington Lake yesterday and one chap was wheeling all his gear on a handcart . It looked like a flittin' . Theres no doubt when you're into something you spend a fortune on useless unnecessary junk . No wonder they need all those cars parked up .
We used to arrive on our bikes with rods tied to the crossbar and our only bait , a box of maggots from Finches tackle shop .
Sweet Corn and Tiger nuts ? .... the fish back then would have considered that 'foreign muck ' .

Alan P - Orrell Water Park is what was once Orrell Reservoirs, on Lodge Road, Orrell, about 200 yards south of Orrell rail ststion.

A friend of ours who used to look after our dog Ben whenever we were away lived near there and he used to walk Ben around the water park. I never saw it myself but it looks a pleasant place. I missed the other p-a-d of it earlier this week as we were at the caravan and I couldn't access the internet. I missed you all!

Alan P, it’s just round the corner from Orrell Railway Station.
Lovely place for a walk.

AlanP if you drive from the top of Windy Arbour down Winstanley Rd past Winstanley college there is a sharp right hand bend with Lodge Lane to your left,Turn left there and follow this Road for a few hundred yards entrance on your left

There's a lot of truth in what you say, Poet.
My uncle lived at Crooke, and I remember him going fishing on the cut in the late 50s/early 60s.
Apart from his rod and landing net, all the tackle he needed was either in an old gas mask case or in his jacket pockets.
He didn't need a seat either - he 'keawerd him deawn on t'cut bank'. As a pitman used to working in confined spaces, he was as comfy squatting on his haunches as he was sitting in a chair.

Orrell water park is opposite St Luke's church on Lodge road, nowhere near Abbey lakes .

We couldn’t afford maggots in Howfen just a couple of crusts would do Poet,good photo Dennis.

He fished in black and white ,
On pages of Basildon Bond ,
Curling his silken line
Onto magical waterless ponds

In collar , jacket and tie
He twitched his Ronald Coleman moustache ,
As he artfully tied the fly
And into the arid pool cast ,

And quick before you turned the page
A trout had succumbed to the Sage ,
To the sound of the clicking centre pin reel
Lay glistening in his wicker creel .

Poet

Don't forget, the fish don't know what equipment is on the other end of the line, what colour it is, who designed it or how much it costs. They don't even know there's a line there! They're only interested in what they can eat. It means that the bait is most important. Fishing tackle has got to be a fashion thing in which you make your mark by the amount of tackle you carry rather than how many fish you catch.

For Poet .......

https://i.ibb.co/9W79T3q/IMG-8213.png

Look a nice place Dennis.
I thought fishing was one man with one rod cleverly outwitting a fish , they may as well have just gone to the pub for pint.
To me this looks like cheating, why don’t the they just trawl the lake with nets or use depth charges?

You don’t see many women fishing..is it because men like to seek some solace away from home just to think awhile in peace and quiet? Mmm.

Thanks everybody for enlightening me on the location of the Water Park. I was a student of Upholland Grammar School from 1948 to 1955 so I can envisage the location. I am currently on Vancouver Island, western Canada.

Thanks James, I forgot about the pipe . A St.Bruno man no doubt.

Peter goes fishing occasionally, Veronica, and I assure you it's ME who gets to have a bit of peace and quiet!

So when you leave rods like that 'unattended' what happens if the rod gets a 'BIG' bite, a big Carp swims off at speed with the bait and hook in it's mouth, is it possible that the rod will just get pulled into the lake, before the fisherman can grab it, thus losing his expensive rod and tackle ?

Poet - we have a copy of 'Mr Crabtree goes Fishing'- a really lovely book. My husband used to fish the Flash and Black Waters in the mid 1960s, often these fishing expeditions were 'all nighters'.
A beautiful photo - many thanks.

Does anyone have a copy of "Fly Fishing" by J. R. Hartley?

It’s amazing how many people still remember that advert Irene.
Was J.R. Hartley a real person, or just the figment of someone’s imagination?

DTease, J.R.Hartley's real name was Michael Russell. He was the author of several books about fishing. Probably.

Misty wind ruff lake ,
Big Carp move like Das Boot
Through the murk unseen
Until bubbles break the quiet water ,
The scaly armour keel
In spangling ripples rose
The dorsal billowing in the breeze ,
That eye , the still staring eye
After 50 years glaring at me
Before sinking back to the inky dark ,
Big Carp
Haunting my boyhood dreams ,
I caught him from my pillow once ,
At night tucked under sheets .....

Poet