ONE thing which has become patently obvious over the past week or two is the fact that anglers prefer the hot weather.

Temperatures up to 90 degrees have had anglers out basking in the sunshine by the dozen.

Unfortunately, fish like to do much the same in the top layers of water with feeding the last thing on their minds.

Early morning and late evening is the time fish do the majority of their feeding in bright hot weather.

There is of course the exceptions to this general rule, including such waters as Village, Farm, Mossbank and New Pools which are fishing very well despite the conditions.

Rivers are suffering from low flows, something difficult to comprehend when it just seems a few weeks ago that they were bursting their banks up and down the country.

However, the tiny River Bollin is fishing extremely well and our merry band of River Severn devotees have spent the last couple of weeks bagging on this under-rated fishery.

Chub, dace, perch and terch are the order of the day along with the odd surprise, including brown trout.

The women's section fished their NFA National match last Saturday on the River Severn near and around Shrewsbury. Again it was a very well-run event although for the reasons previously mentioned the river did not perform very well at all.

Nevertheless, all the competitors endured the heat wave and fished on in the spirit of friendly rivalry and a very nice, albeit baron, day was enjoyed by all.

The one aspect I do find questonable is that the Women's National is the only national that does not run sections to take into account team entry's. This allows members of the same team to draw the same poor sections and leaving favoured sections devoid of a team member. Why should things be run different for the women?

Congratulations to the Warrington Anglers Association squad, who came third on the day and Helen Thompson, who came fourth overall.

Lymm Dam, despite the conditions, remains very reliable with hundreds of fish being caught from all around by most methods and baits.

Big bream are still falling to tip methods over the drop-off, with castors, sweetcorn and worms the favoured baits.

Carp anglers are continuing to fare very well with fish to 21 pounds reported this week.

Monk's Moat is another water performing well in the heat. Roach, hybrids, carp and bream have been producing some hectic sport.

Having spent a little while there myself, although I was not fishing, the shade offered around this water made it very comfortable indeed.

Incidentally, to all those who complain about it being too hot, dare I remind you it will not be too long before you are complaining that you are having certain extremities of your bodies frozen off. Enjoy it while it lasts!!!

I can be contacted on 411774.

Neil Jupp

Lymm Angling Club's match results:

Tuesday's Sankey Canal match, Carterhouse: 1, Dave Rowe, 20lbs-10ozs-0drms; 2, Dave Adamoson 18-1-0; 3, Ian Armstrong, 10-9-0; 4, Ray Boden, 10-4-0.

Thursday's Lymm Dam match: 1, Kerry Kirkwood, 7-4-0; 2, D. Hollingworth, 6-10-0; 3, Ray Boden, 5-10-0; 4, Gary Whalley, 5-9-0.

Richard Gilmore Memorial Cup, juniors, Sankey Canal: 1, Neil Pope, 5-3-0; 2, Chis Finneran, 2-11-3; 3, Ricky Young, 2-9-10.

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