THE winner of a section in a National Championship deserves to hit the headlines. Nelson's Dave Phillips therefore, fishing for Pendle Anglers of Burnley, should be very proud.

The event was the Division Five National, fished on a marvellously "in-form" River Nene.

Admittedly it was a smaller National that most, but this is a very difficult fishery for a canal angler from Nelson.

Dave very easily beat the other 31 anglers in his section with a nice weight of 7.25kg, his nearest challenger bringing only 4.75 kg to the scales.

The Pendle Anglers team finished in 13th place, and gained promotion to Division Four next year.

Another Nelson angler, Terry Clarke, also deserves a special mention. He was unlucky to finish second in his section, beaten only by one decent fish.

The rest of the Pendle team, including Geoff Townley with the best Pendle weight of the day of 8.45kg (25 points), may have thought they could have done better.

I'm sure they were all envious of the winner, Bristol's Jerry Pocock, who, on a day when skimmer bream fed all over, managed to land on a great pocket of slabs.

The day was like a dream for Jerry, one I'm sure all matchmen have had from time to time, and one they will continue to have whilst matches exist.

He was fishing his first National Championship. A freak accident at the locks controlling the match length flow made the river run off and caused the fish to feed very heavily, particularly on Jerry's section which he found nicely coloured, and very inviting. He had a feeling he might do well and set up the exact same feeder rig he had used successfully the previous week in practice.

A rod he had ordered for the match was not delivered, so he fished with a borrowed one. He broke his landing net and had to rely on his keepnet top.

Nevertheless, catching from the off, he landed no less than 39 of these sizeable bream for a new National record of 115lbs (51.8kg). I'm sure that this day will live long in the memories of both Jerry Pocock from Bristol and Dave Phillips from Nelson - they both won their section.

Moving on then to last week and the pleasure scene, I'm pleased to say roach have started to show locally. Quality fish are falling to single and double caster on numerous sections of canal, and hempseed is producing less quality but more quantity.

There are still bream to be caught but most canal anglers, given the choice, will settle for some decent roach.

Leave the groundbait at home then, relying on the hempseed/caster combination. You may not catch immediately, but perseverance will pay off in most pegs.

Popular local stillwaters are also producing to hempseed. Burnley's Rowley Lake has been popular during the town's annual fortnight's holiday (which finishes this weekend), with all sorts of fish falling to all sorts of baits and methods.

If you're about to start a holiday then this day ticket water should be on your list. You will find school children there, but maggot, caster, worm and sweetcorn are producing decent roach, bream, carp and tench, which should compensate. Simple light feeder tactics seem most popular here, but both float and pole tactics will also catch.

Handy larger waters should also be on the list. Pilsworth Main Lake, Elton Reservoir, and Foulridge Reservoir each offer a different angling experience and good prospects.

Big bream catches will be taken from each of them on feeder tactics, with shallower water your target pegs.

Pole will also be productive on each of them, with roach the target. Dam wall pegs for this method, with hempseed an/or tare the hookbait. There is no reason why you should not fill your keepnet any one one of them before the month is out.

Big barbel have been a feature of the lower Ribble in the past week, though some decent roach and chub are also reported.

Maggot is very much a "definitely not" bait at the moment, with odd eels entering the river. Breadflake is popular but luncheon meat is tops amongst the barbel specialists. Many of them swear by flavouring their meat with Indian spices, and of having sweetcorn as a back-up bait.

Whichever the hookbait, it seems all barbel anglers are introducing lots of hempseed, through the feeder, to attract and hold the fish. Back to the match scene now, and the latest Division Four National Championship practice match on the Rochdale Canal.

Seventy one anglers turned out on the Hebden Bridge section (F in the big match in September) and found the fish in a more receptive mood.

Loads of boats definitely had a detrimental effect and, despite the improvement, it was still a pretty poor affair. At least there were a few roach showing to offer encouragement to visiting anglers.

The winner, Dave Hannell of Metro MG, took roach from a notable roach peg at Stubbins on caster and squatt for 6-6-0. Rishton's Trevor James was second with 6-5-0 (including one bream).

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