NORTHERN luck was not enough this year to carry away the spoils in the Embassy pairs final in Denmark.

Despite some excellent representation from the North-west, including our intrepid pair from Chorley, the big money, in fact almost all the money, ended up in the hands of anglers from well away.

I'm sure all the qualifiers had a great time, though the fishing in JELS was pretty poor. The bream hardly fed at all so the question of setting new records didn't arise. Roach were an important feature.

Since we didn't win I won't delve too deeply into the details but as always there's a background story which must be told.

The winners, brothers-in-law and next door neighbours from Milton Keynes, Phil Bardell and Roy Hefferon had good reason to shake the hand of every other competitor after pocketing £8,000. Without them undoubtedly, they wouldn't have even fished, never mind win.

Due, clearly, to their inexperience in these matters, they failed to pack their bait properly for the journey to Denmark. As a result, both worms and casters overheated and were ruined.

It was a desperate situation for replacement bait is just not available over there. They really needn't have worried for, in a spirit of true comradeship, the rest of the qualifiers rallied round and they soon had plenty.

"This is a big money contest, but once the other anglers heard of our problem they didn't even need to be asked to help out. They made sure we had enough bait to compete. I can't think of any other sport where you would find that sort of attitude" said Roy. He may (or may not) be right. Whichever, it is still a great story. Wednesday was fantastic, wasn't it. Blue skies, a nice south-westerly breeze and that magical 20c. It was also June 16 - what more can a coarse fisherman ask for?

The answer is, of course, FISH. But that's what we always ask for, whatever the date and whatever the weather. You know you can't have it every way.

So, not surprisingly, there were some disappointed anglers on the great day - but not many. Most caught something, some caught plenty, and very few caught nothing.

The warm weather and, most importantly, the bright sun combined to ensure that anglers on the water at first light or at dusk fared best.

The Ribble was in reasonable trim and, though short of a lot of information, I can say that a good number of barbel seemed to be just waiting for a baited hook, and that bread-flake is very much worth a try for decent roach at Church Deeps.

Church Deeps is not, of course, the right place for the barbel, and feeder fished multiple caster is the bait. Try Balderstone and Red Scar with well-cooked hemp in the feeder.

Midweek weather was pretty good for bream too, though we could have done with a stronger breeze. This weekend promises to be somewhat cooler, though the overcast skies should ensure fish will feed throughout the day.

Fish the bank that faces the wind, wherever you choose to fish. You will not go far wrong with a worm/red maggot combination, hookbait and caster/chopped worm in an open end feeder.

Foulridge Reservoir, Elton Reservoir and Rishton Reservoir would figure highly on my venue list. Burnley's Rowley Lake is worth a look, and is fishing well. The reasons why I don't fancy the canal this week are the same I gave last week, inasmuch as the roach will not be feeding in any quantity, though there are sections of different canals which will give decent sport with other species.

Bream are, of course, one of these other species. The difference this week is that I have two (or three) great alternatives. Bigger catches of bream will be made from the reservoirs, the season is open on the river - and local trout fishing is superb.

Having said that, I know many of you will be fishing the canal somewhere, and you won't be surprised if I advise that bream will be your best target.

I know I always favour worm and/or caster for skimmers on the canal but, when the boats start to move in great numbers and the canal remains coloured all day, I have found large pieces of bread-flake to prove irresistible. Introduce a good walnut-sized ball of liquidised bread (squeezed enough to let it sink almost to the bottom before it breaks up), and fish a 5p-sized piece of flake overdepth on a size 16 hook.

I have struggled this week to find any reports of local canal hotspots. Nowhere, it seems, is fishing brilliantly - but you have a chance of catching a bream almost anywhere.

Nevertheless, I would definitely choose a peg in a wide part of the canal, against moored boats if possible.

A word of warning however, regarding the boat swims. On numerous occasions I have fished a likely looking swim of this type, and got the fish feeding well - only for the boat to move off, taking the fish with it. Choose your boat with care.

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