Morning all....
I will be fishing the Ribble (Skirbeck Farm) this weekend and would like a little advice.
I have never fished this place before and so i have no idea if its worth the trip, what the fish like, which part of the river is best etc...

I am also a newbie to rivers so any help and advice is welcome.


Thanks in advance.

Hi, you must be a fellow member of the BCAA, the best person to contact is Aurthur Padgett (fly secetary) he knows the yorkshire rivers as well as anyone and is a very helpful bloke.

I've fished it once and struggled with just one brownie and several missed grayling. Like you though at the time I was a relative newbie to the rivers. The river meanders from Skirbeck and is slow and sluggish so not really suitable for nymphing at that point, dries and spiders perhaps being a better option. There are a couple of places of faster riffles but thats about it on the BCAA stretch.
Also its not really suitable for wading either, you need to be very careful if you do.

Hopefully someone more familiar with the Ribble at Skirbeck will give you a better reply than I can. Just thought I'd give you the benefit of my limited experience on that part of the ribble.

You may be a little disappointed, its very slow and deep for most of it, although I believe there's a bit of stream near the top. I suppose deep and slow with goldheads etc would be best, if its salmon you're after it's a back end beat

My thoughts were to take a 3wt fly rod for brownies/grayling and hope for a good session on floating line & dry flies .. I would probably have a few wets & gold heads tucked in the box just in case conditions dont favour dry.

I was also going to put a couple of other rods in the car .. my 8wt or 10wt and try and get a salmon using the tubology kit i have acquired... and also my light spinning rod just in case things get desperate!

I have done a few google searches and the consensus appears to be that this stretch of the ribble isn't fishing too well.

I have the Bradford City book and was trying to find alternative locations but most don't appear to open until the 25th March?

I will give Arthur a call later in the week and see what advice he has to offer...

Thanks..