Angling, with KINGFISHER

EVERYTHING seems to be set fair for a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend for anglers. The weather should be almost perfect and the fish are feeding. What more can we ask for?

Almost perfect, but not quite. It could be a bit warmer, I'm sure we will all agree, but that is a bit greedy.

The fish most certainly are feeding on commercial pools and results from bigger reservoirs are most certainly improving. Only the canal will provide a severe challenge and even here there is a chance you could do well.

All commercial pools will, I'm absolutely certain, be packed. Almost without exception they have been fishing well, for carp in particular, and latecomers at some of the smaller fisheries may well find all pegs taken.

You will of course, have no difficulty finding somewhere to fish on the canal locally. It has been however, very underfished of late and pointers for where to go are difficult to find.

Roach for certain, will have taken a back seat to bream, skimmers and hybrids. It is a bit early, about three weeks or so, to find them shoaled tightly for spawning but they will not be far from their traditional breeding areas.

You know where those areas are closest to you, but the stretch at Silentnight in Barnoldswick may be one that springs immediately to mind. I think it is a little too early for these pegs and you could even blank. A little closer to home then, but wherever you choose bear in mind that boat traffic will be heavy.

That means an early start, with your first cast being made around 5am to give you a decent session. If you have chosen the wrong section however, there is little time to find somewhere else before it becomes too busy. Maybe a different type of venue would be a more appropriate choice.

Groundbait feeder with red maggot is the top tactic at all reservoirs within reach. Bream, skimmers and hybrids are again the target, with a good response reported from Foulridge, Elton, Rishton and Rudyard Lake if you want to go even further. Lots of bites everywhere for this tactic, but you are unlikely to fill your net anywhere.

At least you can use a keepnet though. At most, if not all, local commercial fisheries keepnets are frowned upon if not banned all together. I do not have a problem with that, personally, though I do appreciate how satisfying it is for many anglers to see their total catch at the end of the day.

Keepnets have to be used in matches obviously, but matchmen are now carrying two, or even three nets with them to commercial carp fisheries like Bradshaw Hall. That's not surprising really, with weights of fish being taken like those just over a week ago. That was before the weather turned but even then, catches were fantastic.

A week last Wednesday, on Lake Six, the winner had 142-4-0. The runner-up brought 123-0-0 to the scalesman and even the third placed topped a ton. By Sunday it was cooler, wet and windy with catches accordingly affected.

They were not too bad though, with the sell-out Bonanza match on Lake Four being won with 64-8-0. Weights were however, generally still very impressive with both pole and feeder tactics accounting for loads of carp to three pounds. The winner turned out to be just a pound clear of the runner-up, who took better quality fish on paste than the winner did on pellet.

Everybody enjoyed a decent day's fishing on here despite the weather. Catches have improved once again during the week and promise to be topping the ton again for the holiday. There are plenty of pegs here, but to get a decent choice you will have to be on the ball.

I could point out some results from last weekend which were, on the face of it, extremely poor. Sunday was a pretty awful day, weather-wise, and many anglers struggled to fish, never mind catch, so it would be a bit unfair and misleading. Everywhere will, I promise you, be in much better form this weekend.

Regular readers will know that local anglers, notably John Rogers of Hyndburn, fare particularly well at Greenhalgh Lodge, Kirkham. He did so again last weekend, finishing in third place with 43-3-0. He was joined in the frame this time by two other locals, Phil Dewhurst and Dave Ashcroft in fifth and sixth respectively.

Meat was a telling bait, on both pole and feeder, here at Greenhalgh with some anglers making a real meaty effort and succeeding.

Original spam remains a top choice, but anglers are choosing to do more with it than simply put a bit on the hook. They are finely dicing the oily meat, some using the food processor at home, to use as loosefeed with a bigger piece on the hook.

On the bank they are pushing the meat through a maggot riddle and mixing it with groundbait for use with a feeder. It can be gently squeezed together and thrown in by hand also.

A consequence of this developed use of meat has led to its use in other forms of fishing as well. It has been discovered that bream and tench, as well as carp, have reacted well to the introduction of meat, at the commercial fishery.

So some enterprising anglers have tried adding it to their groundbait when targeting bream specifically.

They haven't used the meat on the hook in matches, but maggot or caster.

The minced luncheon meat has simply replaced chopped worm as an attractant for them. I do know however, that pleasure anglers have most certainly taken big bream and roach on the meat.