Shes a growin!!

[travisbickle]

Been for a walk today along the string of flashes that run behind my cottage....moston through to crabmill and on to micklewrights (mick you know these waters mate)....the dogs were loving it...rolling in shox fit...filthy swines...was mooching over a fence in a fashion(trying to hold the dogs safe and pull the barb down one handed is not advised!!....anyway...by the time I got in view of my late spring/summer cat water for next year... I realised it has grown a touch due to the rains....(we're a fairly marshy area anyway due to all the salt mining and marl excavation that went on over the years...infact thats what caused the flashes to start with and was responsible for the higher salinity of these waters making them ideal for crays...hence BIG weights attained in the fish)...but its gained around eight acres .....now I know about the trent etc but this is not a river...its a lake.....slowly running away down the valley to HOPEFULLY meet up with the ones either end.....now THAT would be a mammoth water worth a good hard slog on it...anyone else seen their stillwaters really hoofing its way onward?? ....now I realise its not ideal for most to see that......but I do hold tickets for all three

[liamclose]

Went to look at next years target water other day, its a beast of a water anyway over 150 acres. With the extra water thats on at the moment its over 200 acres!

[travisbickle]

yes when I was fishing the res it would jump by around thirty to fourty acres...getting close to 300 makes it more interesting....but if these three join...well I would imagine around 600/650 acres....now were getting interesting

[peg101]

Is Moston flash sometimes called Elworth flash?

[matt859]

probably called mosworth ice rink at the moment....

[travisbickle]

Is Moston flash sometimes called Elworth flash?

...yes sometimes its called that......you know it??

[peg101]

Yes I’ve fished it a few times as a kid. Daves of Middlewich used run a big junior competition on it every year. I managed a 3rd place and 2 wins in 3 years! Very nice mixed venue. It seemed like there were lots (and lots) of smallish carp and I didn’t realise about the salinity, crays or bigger fish but then again I had different interests back then (match fishing).

 

Those flashes are fairly typical of the other Cheshire salt plain flashes (e.g. Little and Big Billinge on the Northwich card).

 

I’ve also fished another flash in that valley that had a lower stock all round; not the small one across the road from Elworth / Moston but the one across the bank from there. I guess this is the third flash you are referring to? It would be interesting if there was enough subsidence/high water to sink the road and bank to make one long/big lake with room for the fish to grow!

[travisbickle]

Yes Ive fished all of the above...had Bully...Lady Penelope and the cricket bat out of big Billinge...many years ago...the harder flash you are thinking of is Crabmill flash...big cats and good sized OLD fish...I live above the flash on the hill so ideally the road needs to stay open ...but they all follow the natural line of the valley(as you know...manmade valley via salt extraction) so they would definately flow into each other...the one possible exception being big moor which is the biggest shame as it would benefit most from upping the salinity again

[welder]

Del, can you tell me what benefit increased salinity gives, please?

 

I know jack about this and it's high time that I knew.

 

Ian

[travisbickle]

It only helps by it creating a more ideal environment for the crays to be honest Ian...they were prolific amongst all the waters in this string in late 70s through to early 00s...and the fish were benefiting from it via very good weight gains obviously (Chris Balls own words on Big moor were that it equalled Redmire back in those early days).....they were run as good specimen waters up until there was a change in club committee politics....which saw a swing towards match/pleasure anglers...so they cut the salinity in them....killed the crays...dropped the weights on the fish...and increased the biomass.......they are all owned by different clubs now...and its starting to get some of its old appeal back

[hnv]

Crabmill Flash... Surely the best name for a fishery in the world. I love it. Sure I've read about it ages ago. Can't remember who wrote it... Paul Selman?

[travisbickle]

Yes Paul Selman wrote extensively on it in late ish 80s..in carpworld..... thinly veiled under "bamcrill"...along with Bernie Loftus etc

[welder]

It only helps by it creating a more ideal environment for the crays to be honest Ian...they were prolific amongst all the waters in this string in late 70s through to early 00s...and the fish were benefiting from it via very good weight gains obviously (Chris Balls own words on Big moor were that it equalled Redmire back in those early days).....they were run as good specimen waters up until there was a change in club committee politics....which saw a swing towards match/pleasure anglers...so they cut the salinity in them....killed the crays...dropped the weights on the fish...and increased the biomass.......they are all owned by different clubs now...and its starting to get some of its old appeal back

 

Thanks for that, Del. Sorted.

 

Ian

[hnv]

Found a chapter in Selman's "carp reflections" about Crabmill. It sounds like a really interesting water with some real history to it.

I'm Jealous...

[travisbickle]

It most certainly is......a love or hate relationship

[peg101]

I just finished reading Carp Reflections by Paul Selman and the flash I was thinking about isn`t Crabmill Flash; it is the larger one between Dragon`s Lane and Tetton Lane. In the book, when he started talking about it being deep and about visiting The Rookery i knew something didn`t add up. I looked on Google maps and Crabmill Flash is obviously in the same seam/valley but at the other end of Elworth Flash. I can`t imagine how big the salt mines must have been to sink all that land!

 

The book was a very good read and it was great to read about some Northwest venues for a change. It did become a little "Harefield/Zenon Bojko just caught Nelson opposite me on the road bank at 293yards in the silt gully over the second gravel bar/we had a social in the Horse and Barge, gay club and curry house" in the middle few chapters (inaccurate paraphrasing by me....) but I guess this book was published long before before the mass publishing of those events over the last few years.

 

As a fellow Northerner, I could relate a lot to Paul`s approach and logic. The Stroke Pulling chapter towards the end of the book is a classic that will make you laugh.

[travisbickle]

Ah right...opposite end.....yes...thats the true moston flash....little moston can be seen from dragons lane....this one is further from the road.....elworth flash is the other side of dragons lane

Makes for a good read for any northener I think....even moreso when they are literally on your doorstep.