A NUMBER of stillwater anglers were disappointed with their catches last week, some describing the form as grim.

With the first frosts now upon us they are, unfortunately, unlikely to notice any improvement tomorrow.

Others were more realistic with their expectations, appreciating that the season and weather would have a marked effect.

Having said that, there were some surprisingly poor returns with bigger, exposed, waters suffering most.

Among those was Hyndburn & Blackburn AA's Rishton Reservoir, where 40 top matchmen lined the banks in the hope that the bream would feed. They did not do so and the best of them had to make do with skimmers. Andy Heys led the way for the home club, taking exactly nine pounds of them, on swimfeedered worm/maggot from peg 12, just beyond the second tower. His team's H&B colleague Damian Brierley was runner up with 6-11-0, with GTI Sports G Tonge in third with 6-9-0.

The canal locally was a bit more accommodating for pleasure anglers, being so much more sheltered.

Both roach and skimmers showed, though not in large numbers, with breadpunch and caster the best baits.

The second round of the Mosella Pennine Winter League, fished on the Huddersfield Broad Canal was described as tough going.

That means, I reckon, that the fish were not giving themselves up and the successful anglers had to work for their fish. That is not tough going just what you should expect for a fair winter league venue.

Happily, no carp turned up to spoil a proper winter canal match, in which roach were the mainstay of all the top weights.

The best of them, 5-6-0 fell to Gary Tucker (Fisherman's Way), who switched between breadpunch and caster to take fish to 12 ounces.

Paul Eyres (Tri-Cast Rochdale Black) was runner-up with 5-1-8 and Trevor James (Tri-Cast Rochdale Red) put in a typically excellent performance to take third with 4-10-0.

The winning weight at Greenhalgh Lodge, 52-1-0, was well down on the previous week as were back up weights.

There are no fish other than carp to take on here, so only anglers who know exactly what to do when the chips are down, so to speak, have any chance.

Dave Pickering's winning habit at this venue is exactly for that reason. This week he used the straight lead, with pellet and paste, to take fish to lbs. and finish with 52-1-0.

That was no less than 13lbs clear of the runner-up and a true measure of his superiority on here.

Chorley's Keith Lavelle took one of the best canal catches of the weekend, 9-15-12, in the 140 peg Octoplus Autumn League. Enough to win many a canal match, but not this one!

The bream in the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at New Springs provided the bulk of his weight, but there were three other anglers who fared even better, including winner Ron Partington, who brought 19-5-4 to the scales.

Lavelle's performance helped his team, Chorley Socials, into third place on the day in Division Two. It did not, however, lift them into the frame overall. Octoplus Standish head the First Division, having won on the day, from Van de Eynde in second. It will be cold tomorrow, wherever you decide to go. The northerly wind will be piecing, no doubt, and a sheltered peg must be top of the wish list.