UNFORTUNATELY occasional river anglers like myself are finding a session hard to schedule at the moment due to the very high water levels currently affecting all of Lymm Angling Club's stretches.

Only the seasoned river specialist can expect to catch in these conditions and therefore it only tends to be those anglers that venture out in the current conditions.

Still waters are fishing nice and steady at the moment with good bags of fish reported from many of the club's fisheries.

A typical catch was reported by member Roger Neal, who landed 65 roach between 3ozs to 4ozs on Village Pool last week as well as a similar number of skimmers, six crucians of about 1lb, four carp to 6lbs and a perch of 4ozs. Roger caught most of his fish on a float set-up at the tip of his rod.

Woodside Pool is producing more and more crucians, which is a tribute to the work done by our Fisheries Department.

They, in conjunction with the Environment Agency, thinned out the very small rudd that often prevented bait getting to the bottom. It is planned to continue these operations until crucians are once again the dominant species.

Grimsditch Mill Pool is producing an enormous amount of fish, mostly skimmers up to 1lb in weight. Roach are also being caught in numbers and even the carp anglers have had some joy.

While on the carp scene, I'll report a typical catch from Belmont Pool.

This one was made by Steven Hogg using standard carp tactics.

He landed four carp between 14lbs and 23lbs.

Lymmvale carp action is a little slow at the moment with rising water levels making fishing on some pegs a little difficult.

Water keeper Mike Wilkinson advises taking Wellington boots because they will allow fishing to take place on a lot of pegs where it would otherwise result in wet feet.

Mike Wilkinson himself enjoyed a session on Crabmill, where he broke his personal best bream record on three consecutive occasions with fish of 8-15-0, 10-3-0 and 10-14-0.

Over the period that should have been our summer, I have received a number of reports of the adverse affects of anglers being bitten by insects, in particular horse flies.

Bites from these creatures can cause nasty injuries, especially if they become infected.

One of our bailiffs has had to take two courses of antibiotics to address the situation and still the wound and the swelling has not completely healed.

It is advisable to seek a powerful insect repellent and keep as much of your skin covered as possible.

When purchasing products such as insect repellent, it is strongly advised that you read the information supplied with it very carefully.

I can be contacted on 411774 but be prepared to leave a message.