LYMMVALE has produced good sport over the past week for Lymm Angling Club members.

Tench between 2lbs and 3lbs have dominated catches, with orfe, chub and barbel intermixing with most catches.

Interestingly, site water keeper Mike Wilkinson believes that barbel successfully spawned in Lymmvale in 2003, which, if confirmed, would rewrite the text books that state that barbel will not breed in still water.

There is strong evidence to support Mike's beliefs and this comes in the form of barbel that were caught recently weighing 8ozs to 10ozs, and these fish have certainly not been introduced by the club.

Considerable time has passed since barbel were introduced into Lymmvale, and these were mature fish which were the results of fish-out operations on the River Teme that were conducted nearly 10 years ago.

At the same venue, only one carp has been landed over the last week or so, and that came in at 26lbs to member Tony Bicton.

On Sunday, operations to remove small rudd from Woodside Pool commenced. Further removals of these fish will continue until officials are happy that ratios of fish leave crucian carp as the dominant species, as it was a number of years ago.

It was pleasing to hear from members of the netting team that significant numbers of crucian carp did come up in the net. Hopefully, these fish will breed and grow into the gap left by the removal of rudd.

This is a similar operation to that which took place on Farm Pool, where large numbers of small fish have been removed to make room for a stocking of tench and other large species of fish.

This is an attempt to make this water more popular by providing a more varied species range, which will hopefully provide improved sport.

Shakerley Mere has produced some good carp, although it did slow over the weekend following the cooler weather conditions.

However, the main topic of discussion surrounding this water is the rumoured capture of a massive catfish. Apparently this fish is very close to 40lbs and its capture was witnessed by a number of anglers, whom at the time of writing were being sought by club officials in order to try and secure confirmation of the capture.

Grimsditch and Founders Pool remain reliable with decent bags of silver fish reported. No specimens have been reported, with carp remaining a little elusive on both these waters.

Bread punch has produced well on the hook, closely followed by maggot or pinkies and another bait becoming effective is sweetcorn, which has accounted for the bigger roach on Founders Pool.

I can be contacted on 411774, and please be prepared to leave a message.

Neil Jupp