THE fortunes of members of Lymm Angling Club have been a little hit and miss over the past seven days.

Lymm Dam has been the colour of cocoa over the week with its fishing performance reflected accordingly. However, groundbait feeder methods have resulted in reasonable bags of skimmer bream.

Whitley Pool is as clear as gin, leaving anglers with the decision on how light to fish in view of the power of some of the inhabitant fish. Needless to say presentation becomes more and more important as temperatures drop and fish have less inclination to feed.

The waters of Belmont Estate continue to fish well, although members must not expect the frenetic sport enjoyed during the summer months. Despite this, member Dennis Walker and his grandson Chris reported plenty of action last Saturday on Belmont Pool with them both landing carp to doubles and both losing bigger fish.

Dennis reported the presence of a cormorant during his outing. Members are encouraged to scare these birds from our waters, although such scaring must be non-harmful. Often it is only necessary to clap or wave your arms about to dissuade them from alighting on to the water. To the uninitiated it is widely believed that cormorants do immense damage to fisheries by either eating or mortally wounding the resident fish stocks.

Village Pool has been producing some fine roach specimens. Brian Ellis and friends concentrated on this species during a session last Wednesday. Fishing on the drop to about half depth Brian landed these silver beauties up to 1.5lbs, by just keeping a steady trickle of pinkies going in over his float.

On Monday at 8pm the club's annual meeting takes place at the Railway Club, next to Central Station in Warrington. Proposals relate to the ceasing of the trout fishing on Lymmvale and a change to the overstamp rule, which will allow all members to fish all member-only waters from June 16. If it is your intention to attend you will need to bring your fully paid-up club licence to gain admission.

The club's fur and feather match has been scheduled for Sunday, November 14, with the draw taking place at Waterways Car Park, off Cromwell Avenue at 10am. Entry is £5 and only available to members. To book your peg give Ray Boden a ring on 632271.

I can be contacted on 411774.

Neil Jupp

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.