TODMORDEN AS had little difficulty in retaining their Division One National status last Saturday and, with a little luck, will be challenging for honours next year.

The team travelled to the South West of England where the 12 members joined the other 960 competitors who fished the nation's premier angling competition.

The venue was split between the Huntspill, the King's Sedgemoor Drain, the River Cripps, and the South Drain - each a million miles from their home Rochdale Canal, but the Tod lads were not fazed.

They have decades of experience in their ranks, with a wide range of skills on venues of all types. In this instance, so it would appear, the two main methods to be used would be pole and feeder.

In fact, according to Barnsley (runners-up) captain Tony Peel, on the Cripps and South Drain: "We knew it would be like fishing canals." That left the Kings Sedgemoor for the feeder where "It would be a big fish job."

The Tod lads had a decent enough draw on 29 which, though not fancied to have winning potential, should have been good enough to be safe.

And so it proved. All the team members returned with some reasonable points. There were no section winners amongst them though two of them, Jim Newham and Dave Williams, beat the anglers pegged on either side of them (always important to a matchman - for some reason).

There were numerous problems facing all the anglers on the day. Torrential rain (as we know all about that this week, don't we?) caused a flood red alert warning across parts of Somerset. This caused the authorities to run water off through the drains (what they were built for of course) and this caused unusual conditions.

The King's Sedgemoor Drain, for example, ran fast enough to drop 18 inches over the match period. The Cripps river level rose dramatically overnight and had to be partially re-pegged on the day and, where smaller drains poured in, previous no hope pegs became flyers. There will be no such problems for the Todmorden team next year - and practice costs will be much less. That's because the venue is the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, with Wigan DAA being the hosts. That's why these 12 heroes must fancy their chances of both team and individual glory. They are our only remaining local team in the top league.

There are anglers from round these parts fishing for other First Division teams (from Southport and Rochdale), but that really isn't the same. They deserve our support, though I'm sure they don't necessarily expect it.

Next year's Division One National takes place in July, not always a great month on this venue. It may be okay in parts, but it certainly will not fish as it is right now - excellent.

Not everywhere, of course, but sections right through our area and beyond are fishing great at the moment (or they were last week).

It has of course, rained very heavily since then. Night-time temperatures have dropped sharply from Thursday onwards. Together these two elements of the weather may conspire to reduce catches but not, I hope, dramatically.

The Adlington section is almost sure to feature in the big match next year and many would-be competitors may fancy it if they see the result from last Sunday's Open match. No less than four pounds was needed to make the top 20 of the 52 entry event and it was roach, in the two to four ounce bracket and taken on hemp, which showed in great numbers.

You do not need to go all the way to Adlington though, to get an excellent autumn roach catch from the canal.

I wouldn't, personally speaking, pin my faith in hempseed. Rather try punched bread for the smaller tamp fish, and caster over hempseed for better quality.

Exposed sections of canal may prove difficult to fish, but if you know fish are definitely present, you must give it a go.

It is for that reason my top tip for the canal locally has to be Burnley's straight mile.

The half of it right above the pay/display car park is absolutely stuffed with fish.

I couldn't possibly recommend any river pegs for, at the time of writing, they may be under six feet of floodwater. It is however, worth keeping your eye on the Ribble if possible. If you can fish it as the level drops and it begins to clear then you will definitely bag up.

NOW is the time when the fish really get their heads down, as I said last week. This fresh water going in right now is definitely a heaven-sent gift. I'm sure we must all have been very good recently.

Both chub and barbel will now start to pack on weight, and become a much more sporting proposition. Do not forget to get out there collecting lobworms for they will be the number one bait for a week or more.

There's no need to fish with a feeder right now, just bounce a juicy lobworm into a likely looking spot - and wait for the fireworks.

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