THE form of just about all local stretches of the Leeds and Liverpool canal over the holiday period has been little short of brilliant.

Though the weather has not been perfect, every day sport has remained consistent. Matchmen and pleasure anglers alike have found the fish, mainly roach, ready to feed. The result has been a string of double-figure weights at best (some over 20lbs), and some very acceptable fives and sixes at worst.

None of the anglers who fished during this time, many of whom were on the water every day, could have hoped for much better.

There can be no guarantees of course, but it's difficult to imagine such a dramatic deterioration over the past few days that it will not fish well for you tomorrow.

Not every peg will produce a netful, but it seems just about every stretch has more than one or two that will and you could find them anywhere.

All the usual stretches are worth a visit and all you need is breadpunch and caster. The punch has, in fact, produced some of the best weights of quality fish but there are sections where it is immediately attacked by immature fish. You will soon discover whether a change to caster is necessary.

Small club matches, generally unreported, have produced some of the biggest weights. It doesn't surprise me since the organisers of these matches, often with only 15 or 20 entrants, know exactly where the best pegs are - and that's where you fish. Otherwise it has been the pleasure anglers, often following the lead given to them by these small matches, who have cashed in. Burnley's Wiseman Street and Wilkinson stretches are worth a mention for this reason, though there are many likely stretches which have not been fished at all.

Some stretches in Nelson - Whitefield for example - are worthy of consideration.

Hyndburn & Blackburn AA host some of the bigger matches locally, and the stretch used just before and just after Christmas at Church has also fished well. It hasn't produced the superb double-figure weights I expected - but it has been close.

The last weekend before the break, 77 anglers fished and the match was won, on breadpunch at six metres, by the home club's Peter Butterworth with 6-15-0. John Rogers, fishing under the Ted Carter Southport banner, but very much a local, was second with 6-13-11. Lostock's Graham Edgerley had 6-13-6 and Bill Lyon was also close with 6-2-0.

The weights are a clear indication of what an excellent match this was, and the anglers booked in for the teams of four event last weekend must have been inspired.

Burnley's Kass Jedd seems to do little else but fish these days, mostly local stretches of canal, and it's no surprise that he catches plenty from a good peg. Punch, fished down the middle on a longish line to six metres of pole is his favoured method and it produced a superb net of 9-10-0 to win the match.

He was pegged on the Blackburn side of the Graham & Brown bridge, and included just one skimmer in an otherwise all-roach catch. His team, the Musketeers, includes another highly experienced local canal angler in Mick Naylor - also of Burnley. His peg was close to Blyth's Chemicals and he used both punch and caster to take an all-roach runner's-up net of 8-8-13.

Despite these two great performances Musketeers managed to come only second in the team stakes, with the Van den Eynde Crown squad totalling just 10 penalty points to Musketeers 13.

Crown's top rod was third-placed Mick Mulligan who was also pegged in the Blyths section and put 7-2-0 of roach on the scales.

Backing weights along here were excellent, and over 6lbs was needed to frame.

I have examined canal weights from all over the north-west, and many other areas, and I have reached the conclusion that our local stretches are just about the best in the country. I am really not exaggerating - you cannot ignore it.

They are certainly much better than the Calder & Hebble at Brighouse, where there were a few Lancastrians joining the locals over the holiday. Just over 3lbs was needed to win a 50-pegger here and 2lbs had you in the money. It really isn't worth travelling away.

The only alternative which seemed viable to me is also on the Leeds and Liverpool, but you have to go all the way to Maghull. Here it is also roach that figure strongly, almost exclusively in weights similar to those locally.

Elsewhere, I can find some comparable winning weights, but they all feature 'bonus' fish in the form of bream or carp. Backing weights, the best indicator of the form, are generally poor. The phrase make hay while the sun shines is not very seasonal or apt - but you get the idea.

While all these poles have been taking all these roach there has been some slightly heavier gear in action on the Ribble, with some success.

Levels have been up and down a bit, but it has been fishable most days. Luncheon meat remains the top bait with some barbel to almost double figures and chub to 5lbs from the usual areas, Balderstone seemingly quite consistent.

It's a great time of the year to fish either water with equally good prospects. It's just a matter of personal choice but, whichever you choose you would be wise to approach positively - you will catch.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.