WEATHER conditions permitting, you should find most local waters show some improvement on last week's catches which were, in general, quite good in themselves.

Despite the chill last week, and some quite bright sunshine, anglers found the fish in co-operative mood. Clearly, the temperature change had not been so dramatic as far as the fish were concerned, and with a gentle rise in them towards the end of this week, prospects are quite good.

At the time of writing the canals locally remained quite clear but, by tomorrow, welcome colour should have returned.

That would make the pole probably the most productive method, though you should have little problem catching on the rod/reel also. You need look no further than breadpunch and caster for hookbait, and a little liquidised bread and a quarter pint of hempseed for feed.

Though you would expect the caster to produce better quality roach than breadpunch, and you'd generally be right to do so, bread is producing decent fish also. Having introduced a fair amount of liquidised bread (at least one handful) initially at only four metres range, try a large piece of flake on a size 14 hook fished well overdepth - you may have a wonderful surprise. Most definitely NOT a tactic ever considered by a matchman, I have taken some tremendous fish like this in pleasure sessions. Most matchmen will opt for a start on breadpunch, reserving caster for later, in the hope of quickly putting some weight in the net. Sometimes they wish they had started on caster.

And caster it was which produced the quality roach which featured in the 6-7-0 winning weight of Accrington's Terry Ratledge last week. Due to winter league clashes, only 31 anglers joined Terry to fish the Hyndburn and Blackburn AA Open on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Rishton last week. Terry was pegged just to the left of the cafe and in the end, ran out a very comfortable winner.

Rochdale GTI angler Tony Price was on the other side of the main road bridge and was well off the pace with 4-7-5. None of the anglers had any problem catching a fish or two and backing weights were quite reasonable. Many of the winter leagues I mentioned are in their second or even third round by now. The early start in the old days was to ensure the six match series were completed either before the canal froze or, if it did, to ensure there was enough time by March 15 to rearrange the postponed rounds. Those of you not that old will scarcely believe it was that bad, but it was. Now the leagues should be renamed Autumn Leagues.

There are loads of local anglers taking part, not all regular matchmen. the camaraderie you experience at these match series is great, even better in some respects than national championships. Sometimes that has to be the only compensation for some atrocious fishing. And it is often enough.

One of these is the Pennine Winter League, which last week saw 108 anglers lining the banks of the Rochdale Canal at Todmorden. Durdale Basin was, as any of you who regularly read this column would expect, a very favourable draw. Saltaire's Richard East drew it, and made no mistake.

He offered red maggot to the resident skimmers, on pole at 13 metres, and took 10 of them for 8-9-0 and an easy individual win. The runner-up was Tim Worsnop of Halifax, who used caster just a few pegs away on the edge of the basin, took two bream in his 4-14-0. Squatt produced plenty of small fish, including around 1lb of them for Tim Worsnop, from pegs throughout the stretch. Consequently, most anglers had a bite or two, on punch if not squatt.

In the team stakes host club Todmorden, and Burnley side Mack's Tackle, made best use of local knowledge to finish first and second respectively.

Overall then that put both these teams in a three-way tie with Tri-Cast Calder for second spot, three points behind GTI Rochdale whose third place on the day was just enough to hold onto top spot. It is promising to be a very tight, and very exciting, league this year. There are those who would say that this league lacks the glamour of others by not having nationally known teams such as Highfield or Saints competing. To me the league is probably more competitive and much more attractive without them, and, in any case, these local anglers are better on these local venues than the Marle Addys of this world, aren't they? The 160-peg Van Den Eynde Crown Winter League, on the Leeds-Liverpool, is another. In this Chorley Socials are mixing it with the likes of Platt Bridge and Morris Street.

Nevertheless it was one of the sponsored teams, Wigan ASI, who ran out winners on the day. Wigan also head the league from Van Den Eynde Crown.

Chorley are not troubling them in the team stakes (just yet) but produced a decent performance last weekend to take third place on the day.

Platt Bridge angler Steve Wharton easily won the match at Scarisbrick, with five bream on caster from Saracen's Head, for 13-5-0.

None of the 85 anglers who turned up for the Wigan open at Adlington last Sunday could get the Leeds and Liverpool Canal's decent fish feeding. It was fortunate indeed then, that smaller samples proved willing. 3-10-0 was the winning weight, and Dream Angling's John Grimshaw fished breadpunch down the boat track for fish to two ounces. I think the canal is worth a try this weekend, but if you fish a reservoir or lake/pond head for the deeper water. The Ribble is running a little low at the moment.

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