By Kingfisher. . .

LAST weekend was a bit chilly for the time of year for sure.

That and the bright conditions combined to give most anglers a difficult time, yet there were some decent weights from a number of commercials, though not really from anywhere else.

Simply because summer is approaching weights can be expected to improve everywhere, though slightly higher temperatures and some cloud cover will also help enormously.

Carp will begin to figure more prominently, for sure, and you should certainly take the appropriate bait with you if they are the target.

From my perspective, at this time of year, that means pellet and sweetcorn, with the meat held back for a bit later.

Having said that all indications are that caster could well continue to dominate in matches for the time being and will likely be the best bet for pleasure anglers looking for a hectic session.

Brookside was one of the commercials to exceed expectations last weekend, producing the top weight of the year so far to win the big match on Sunday.

Despite being well represented in the 59-pegger this area was unable to provide any of the framers, but all the competitors enjoyed decent sport.

England international Stu Conroy ran out to be the winner, by a very comfortable margin indeed.

He placed his faith entirely in caster, knowing it would attract the attention of just about everything 'Snake' holds. As it was, fishing well up in the water and loose feeding constantly he took a lovely net of small carp, best around two pounds, to total 80-8-0.

The runner up, Maver's Andy May, also chose caster for the hook though he presented it on the bottom (just).

That resulted in a much more expected mixed net of fish; chub, tench and a single carp of 4lbs for a total of 41-8-0. almost 25lbs was needed to frame in this one, though 35lbs was nearer the mark on the previous day.

Pleasure anglers choosing the Stretton fishery should, therefore, be looking now to exceed 50lbs for a session.

Look to catch very shallow indeed, just a few centimetres under the surface I am reliably informed, whilst loose-feeding.

Have a heavier rig ready, set at a full depth, to keep giving it a go underneath for a bigger fish though.

Greenhalgh had been producing ton weights and, more than anywhere else, could reasonably be expected to throw up more, which it did.

Hyndburn's John Rogers, fishing under the Ted Carter Preston banner, will qualify for the prestigious All-Winners match later in the year, as I have stated previously, but he will need a little more luck than he had last week.

He used waggler with pellet to take a superb net of carp to 13lbs that totalled a magnificent 101-3-0. Surely he had won the match with that, he thought. No! he had not.

Team-mate Phil Dewhurst had been catching in exactly the same way as John and his slightly bigger best fish, 15lbs, made all the difference. He weighed in an agonising (for Rogers) 102-13-0 to take the accolades.

Rogers did win one, however, earlier in the week at Whitmore Fishery (almost next door to Greenhalgh) with 49-4-0. Nelson veteran John Fallows was also in the money, though at Copthorne, with 19-0-0 which was worth 5th place.

There are not many anglers fishing the canal, as we all know, but there are some good signs emanating and you should not discount it, if you want to enjoy some old-fashioned fishing.

There are fish, plenty of them at that, on both sides of Robinson Lane Bridge at Brierfield. They are small, in the main, but there are some bigger roach in there that the more adventurous amongst you will enjoy trying to catch.

Access is not so easy here, but a decent walk along an excellent towpath from Barden (towards Nelson), will get you amongst them.