PERHAPS surprisingly anglers found most local venues extremely difficult last weekend, but will not be surprised to find them even more difficult this.

Temperatures had, until the middle of this week, held up quite well. Last weekend in fact, it was quite pleasant and anglers had every reason to expect sport to be reasonable - until they arrived at their chosen venue.

They then found that, despite the relative warmth, most if not all the colour had dropped out of the water. On canals, in particular, this always indicates that catching will be a hard task.

Combine this with overnight frosts, as we have endured lately, and you can expect it to be even more of a struggle. If you have a decent catch from any local stillwater this weekend you will have done very well.

Last week, you will recall, I suggested that the results in the latest Pennine Winter League match would be very interesting. The practice had produced some very decent weights with quality roach to caster a significant feature.

The 108 anglers who fished, most well seasoned canal matchmen, would certainly have feared the worst when they found the stretch to be 'gin' clear.

And they were quite right to do so. Bloodworm and joker had to be the method under such difficult conditions and, from a peg in the middle of Saltaire, Tri-Cast Calder angler Steve Allinson took a typical Leeds and Liverpool Canal winter roach catch weighing 4-10-0, for a comfortable win. Very comfortable, in fact, for the runner-up John Leeds, Todmorden, was a full pound short from his peg at Jane Mills.

In the team takes Fishamania won, Tri-Cast Calder were second, and Todmorden third. GTI Rochdale's relative failure has tightened the overall positions and, though retaining top spot, they are now only four points ahead of Todmorden.

It was slightly better, on the same canal, at Chorley where the Wigan Winter League held its third match.

Here, fishing both punched-bread and caster down the middle of the canal at Cowling, Dream Angling's Tex Stothers had some nice roach in his 5-7-7 winning weight.

Mark Ellement was the top local rod, finishing in fifth place with 3-7-8 but unable to help his team Blackburn's Geoff Done Tackle, to any better position than sixth.

Unfortunately, despite there still being three matches left, it looks unlikely that the Blackburn outfit will be in the shake-up at the end.

Chorley Socials stalwart Les Riding fished the Dream Angling match, on the Leeds and Liverpool, at Martland Mill. Here, fishing pole and punched bread on the short length at the top of the locks, Les took roach in the two to three ounce bracket to total 4-10-2, and take the top money.

This was not one of the worst matches by any means, and Les was just an ounce clear of the runner-up. Most anglers found a few fish here, with over three pounds needed to frame, and it is a stretch worth serious consideration. I am a traditionalist, as regular readers will know, and so I have great sympathy with John Croasdale (Ted Carter Preston), who must have been the most annoyed, and unluckiest, match angler last weekend.

I don't know whether John would have shared my view before the Lancs Winter League practice on the Bridgewater Canal last weekend, but maybe he does now.

That view is that there is a definite case for excluding carp, as we have pike, in some matches. I'm really not on the one hand, in favour of banning anything but reasons to reconsider keep arising.

In this match John fished apparently brilliantly with bloodworm and joker to put a nice 6-6-0 mixed bag on the scales. In a (relatively) tight event John was just 10 ounces clear of Andy Davis and Steve Fleming was only four ounces behind him. Upsetting the applecart, so to speak, though was stranger Colin Tillet from Cannock. He drew well at Edge Lane and, having good local info, fished for a carp. Unfortunately for John he caught one. It weighed 15lbs 10 ounces and took a large worm. The couple of decent perch and a roach which pushed his eight up to 18-4-0 were in the end, irrelevant.

I have no complaint with Colin Tillet. He set out his stall and, having landed such a fish on the pole deserved his win. It's just that it clearly was a much better match without that fish.

I have argued with match organisers in the past, who believed that leaving out the best pegs would lead to a more event contest. They were right, but why deny anyone the chance of a decent weight? I argued maybe the angler on the best peg would waste it?

I've now almost convinced myself I'm wrong. Rules are rules - and I can always go pleasure fishing anyway, can't I? And perhaps I should, especially with the barbel clearly feeding well on the Ribble. There have been numerous decent fish, and some good bags over the past couple of weeks. I have highlighted some of the top areas, and baits, recently.

Ribchester was not one of those areas, but it is this stretch identified as that to produce a wonderful 11lb 6oz specimen for Preston specimen hunter Stuart Brown.

Stuart has had double figure whiskers before, but this superbly conditioned fish eclipsed his personal best by a clear pound.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.