A GOOD turn out of 26 anglers fished the Monday night open on the Bolton Canal at Little Lever and variety proved the spice of life when the top three anglers had success on different methods.

But the one who really got it right was Mick Sharples of Izaac Walton who fished garden worm and caught a small tench in his winning weight of 2lb 1oz 12dr.

Jim Smith (Little Lever) caught some nice roach on the caster for 1lb 15oz 6dr to take second spot. Jim Clayton (Good Companions) tried the bread punch and caught small roach for his third place weight of 1lb 6oz 8dr.

Section winners: Jeff Terry senior 1-3-0; Tommy Carter 1-2-5.

The matches continue through the spring and summer with the draw taking place at 5.30pm, fishing from 6pm. Pools and £6 inclusive. ENTRIES are invited for the Bolton Anglers Association's Little Lever Shield. The match will be fished on May 5 and the venue is the Lancaster Canal at Headnook. The draw will take place at the White Bull at 8am, fishing 9am until 2pm. Entries close on Wednesday May 1. Entry fees are £2 for individuals and £8 for teams of four. Bookings are being taken at the Angling Club on Rishton Lane.

FOLLOWING some patchy winter form, Bradshaw Fisheries came roaring back to life when the water produced bumper weights in the Crown Tackle and Bait AC open fished on number four lodge last Sunday. Carp, roach, skimmers and bream were the order of the day for Crown Tackle's Roy Foster who finished top of the show with 24lb-11oz-3dr. Not far behind was K Nicholson (Little Lever AC) who had 23lb-13oz-3dr.

Another Crown Tackle man, W Haslam was third with 18lb-6oz-9dr.

Others: 4th: S Wharton (Lee Sports) 15lb-12oz-9dr; 5th: H Foster (Crown T&B) 15lb-2oz-2dr; 6th: D Cooper (Crown T&B) 14lb-13oz-2dr.

THE tench were on the move in last Sunday's Boathouse AC open on the Old River at Irlam.

S Prince of Team Trafford caught a brace plus a nice bream in his winning weight of 9lb-6oz-0dr.

Second place Ken Wright (Eccles Angling) caught three tench plus a jack pike for a weight of 9lb-2oz-8dr. Harry Schofield (Boathouse AC) caught five smaller tench and finished third with 5lb-6oz-0dr.

Others: 4th: E Coletrup (Boathouse AC) 5-4-8; 5th: S Berry (Lord Nelson AC) 5-3-0; 6th: S Brown (unattached) 5-0-0. A GROUP of 37 members of Bolton Co-op AC travelled to Barnsley to Fish Fleets Dam last Sunday but 17 of them wished they hadn't when they blanked!

Mark Homes was happy enough though when he finished up the winner of the match with 4lb-13oz-6dr of carp taken on the quivertip with pinkie.

Just behind Mark was Stuart Prince who had one carp with the best roach in his weight of 4lb-10oz-4dr.

Sam Merger was third with 1lb-11oz-8dr. Section winners: Rodney Makin, Rod Mills, Steven Milward, Kevin Houghton and Andy Holme.

SILCOMS Angling Society held their second match of the season at Copthorne Fisheries at Garstang.

Tim Field made sure the match was his when he caught a 2lb bream in the dying seconds. Caught on caster, it boosted his weight to a creditable 4lb-11oz-0dr. Dave Bold was second with 1lb-14oz-8dr with small carp caught on pinkie.

Third was Ian Hayes who had small tench and carp on pinkie for a weight of 1lb-4oz-8dr. All three anglers fished the long pole. TO get the most out of the sport, anglers have to be prepared to put something into the sport and two such opportunities arise with working parties on local waters.

The first is on Saturday, April 27 on Bradford's Reservoir and the following (4th May) sees the second one on Smiths Reservoirs. Anyone interested in volunteering a few hours would be very much appreciated. Meet on the water at 10am or contact Head Bailiff (Pete O'Neil) on 01204 417119 for more information.

Working parties have been busy throughout the winter on Firwoods and over 30 permanent pegs have been made. Their efforts have been rewarded with the form of the waters being described as cracking. Nine Tench were caught by one angler in a single session and another caught a 9lb Carp on the pole.

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