ANGLING: With Kingfisher

The dramatic drop in temperatures over that period, with it feeling more like November than August at times, has depressed catches - and they are unlikely to recover that quickly.

I stick by my declaration that 20C is just right at this time of year. You will not see that tomorrow and it has been as low as 15C (daytime) over the week.

You will catch, and you must take advantage of the fine weather. You will find you need to work hard for your fish however, and you must be prepared to do this.

Venues with water deeper than nine feet (local reservoirs) will have suffered least. Foulridge Reservoir has continued to produce bream through the week to feeder fished worm/caster combination.

Here, in particular from the match bank, the anglers seem to be fishing a little short. A cast of 35 yards will produce more bream than one of 20 yards.

The breeze, such as it is likely to be tomorrow, will remain in the North/North East. This is just not right for bream fishing in general, and certainly not for fishing close in, where the water is cooled quickly by the wind.

Just as soon as that wind turns into the West/South West you should make every effort to get to one of these larger waters - for the bream will feed heavily.

If there is a reasonable depth of water in floatfishing range, particularly pole (Jumbles), then you should not ignore the roach possibility with hemp/caster. Local stretches of canal have not been brilliant this week, following the pattern of the previous week. There are fish to be caught but it is not easy.

This applies to pleasure anglers and matchmen alike but at least the pleasure angler can move on if he wants. With the bigger bonus fish winning most matches, there are many competitors who envy the pleasure angler's options right now.

Nowhere does this apply more than on the Rochdale Canal where large numbers of anglers continue to practice for next month's Fourth Division National, and 123 of them were on Todmorden's sections last weekend and it was a Yorkshireman, Bob Thornton (Watercroft Idle) who latched into the biggest bonus. It was a carp weighing just over five kilos and, added to a small tench and a couple of small perch, was enough to give Bob the major prize with six and a half kilos.

He was pegged at Sandholme where he fished with worm on pole tackle. Todmorden's Paul Cryer knows the water like the back of his hand, and it was no surprise that he got the skimmers feeding opposite Durdale boats, netting 6.430 kilos for second place.

The weights don't look too bad here really, with 4.240 needed to frame, but don't forget that it was important for all of them to take a big fish. The same cannot be said for the Hebden length where 71 turned up for that match. Here there are fewer bonus fish and consequently lower weights. It's perhaps slightly more fair, but certainly less exciting for some.

The bream are fairly easily landed when they show, with the tench less so. Big perch are also a target and often, by going for big fish, anglers ignore smaller ones.

This will not be the case in a team event like the National. Sure some big fish will be landed on both stretches, but many more will be left with anglers fishing light for small fish (team orders - and quite sensible, too).

Maybe then, the 6-8-0 of roach and perch that Keighley's Alan Copperthwaite took on pole and caster from peg 69, will be of more interest to the National captains than the 6-8-0 of Handsworth Angling's (Sheffield) Richard Vaughn, which consisted of three tench and a few small perch from peg 32.

Local names to figure here were Hyndburn's Mick Teale and GTI Rochdale's Kevin James, in third and fourth places respectively with 5-7-0 and 4-15-8. Todmorden's Simon Beswick was in the money again last weekend at his favourite Pilsworth Fisheries. This time it was the Carp Lake from which he landed a mixed bag on pole for exactly 10lbs. It was enough for second place behind Swinton's Steve Blain, but it couldn't have been much closer here, as Steve weighed in just three ounces more.

I have, as regular readers will know, been singing the praises of the Ribble as a big fish water.

I have been delighted to report the capture of double figure barbel in the past, and some very sizeable chub. Word does get round, and the Ribble has been the barbel target of anglers from all corners of the country, following the reports of a couple of double-figure fish last season.

Though they have come from far and wide, these new Ribble anglers are not large in number and have not really been noticed.

That may now be about to change. I am not delighted to note that, this week, the Ribble has been included in a list of just 25 venues nationwide which have the potential to deliver a six-pound chub.

It has been mentioned, by the chairman of the 27-year-old Chub Study Group Robin Wallis, in the same breath as the Hampshire Avon and the Suffolk Stour. This is not good news for local specimen hunters or casual Ribble anglers alike.

I remember the times when foreigners had Cheshire accents!

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