By Kingfisher

THE Church section of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal was the choice of venue for the latest Octoplus Blackburn open match and it proved to be a bit more difficult for the competitors than they have become used to.

Caster outfished the punch on a difficult day, but I am sure the majority of anglers will be relishing a return to the more prolific sections at Rishton where more than 1-8-0 will certainly be needed to make the frame.

George Falconer (Octoplus Blackburn) was pegged behind the Commercial pub where the shell, presented at distance, attracted the attention of some reasonable roach.

They went to around six ounces and he totalled 4-0-7 to grab the honours -and top money - for Falconer.

It was not a comprehensive victory, by any stretch of the imagination, however with just over an ounce separating him from the runner up, Burnley's Chris Durkin.

Pleasure anglers take note of how tightly these fish were shoaled - these two anglers were on adjacent pegs.

Hyndburn expert Arthur Hargreaves has been at it again, winning that is, at Bannister House Fisheries.

This time it was a dominant performance from the veteran performer, as he finished a good 10 pounds clear of the field with 32-8-0.

Clearly not letting any superstition get in the way, he presented pellet at 14 metres

To take a succession of carp and small chub from peg 13.

Anglers from this neck of the woods were again present in numbers at Saltaire for the latest open on that stretch of canal. Clearly news of the abundance of small fish here is getting round and a turnout of 36 is a clear improvement.

They fed yet again and everybody had a few bites for sure.

They did not, however, tempt all of the Lancashire raiders and Paul Cryer proved that a landing net is indeed needed everywhere.

He pinned all his faith in caster at peg 40 and it produced fish to six ounces for a winning total of 6-8-8. In yet another very close canal affair it turned out to be only just enough however, a single tiny fish in fact.

Burnley's Ray O'Sullivan not surprisingly chose to target the small fish at peg 31, near the boats, but chose to bait with squatt in the hope of increasing the average size of his fish over those using punch.

It would be fair to say the plan succeeded, since he needed only just over 100 of them to total 6-8-0.

That means at around one ounce each he only needed one more to win, so I suspect spitting feathers might accurately describe his reaction to the result.

Back to the note for the pleasure anglers then, regarding tightly shoaled roach.

Local stretches of canal have been producing some very good weights of roach for pleasure anglers, with some sections being particularly good, not every peg though.

It is possible for a good angler on the best peg, using the right bait with excellent presentation at the right distance, to bag themselves a net of fish totalling over 20 pounds - honest.