LYMM Angling Club life member John Prescott used his 70-plus years of experience last week to land two personal best fish from one of the most difficult waters on the club’s books, Crabmill Flash.

Arriving at 7am, John set his stall out with two rods, one targeting the water’s tench and the other the specimen catfish.

After just a couple of hours, the alarm on the rod baited with a corn and maggot cocktail sung out. A few minutes later, an immaculately-conditioned tench weighing 8lbs 6ozs graced his landing net.

Despite many years fishing the club’s primary tench water, Lymmvale, John had never caught a tench of this size.

But, just an hour later, the large lump of luncheon meat offered on his other rod was snaffled by a catfish.

After a 20-minute tug-of-war, John could hardly believe his eyes when it came to weighing the fish, as the scales swung around to 47lbs 8ozs, another personal best.

This is the largest catfish from Crabmill Flash since the club took over the water two years ago.

Sport on Lymmvale continues to fluctuate, with carp captures few and far between and tench feeding well only in brief spells.

The best reported tench haul of the week was 21 fish ranging from 4lbs to 7lbs.

Form on Shakerley Mere has picked up after a couple of weeks in the doldrums.

A local bailiff fished the water last week and landed four common carp and five mirror carp, with the best of the bunch tipping the scales at 22lbs 6ozs.

A new club member also landed a mirror carp of a little over 28lbs.

All three of the currently fishable waters on the Belmont Estate are continuing their excellent early season form.

Willow Pool has produced good mixed bags of silver fish to over 1lb and carp to low double figures.

Beech Pool has had plenty of angler attention and has produced a steady stream of carp to around the 20lbs mark.

Over on Belmont Pool, carp in excess of 20lbs are being landed regularly and are usually backed up by a few smaller samples from 7lbs upwards.

On their latest visit, Darrell Bate and his stepson Gage Lewinski managed seven carp between them, ranging from 10lbs to 20lbs.

The largest of these fish is the fourth fish of 20lbs or more that they have landed on their last three visits to the water.

Ending on a disappointing note, two members have recently had their memberships withdrawn after they were involved in littering and fouling while fishing on club waters.

This type of behaviour is not tolerated by the club and expulsion occurs in all cases once sufficient proof has been gathered.

To contact the club, e-mail secretary@lymmanglersclub.com or use the new help-line number 07928 933453 but be prepared to leave a message.