BITES are hard to come by on most of our fisheries at this time of the year, but Phil Smythe certainly ‘dropped on’ when he fished a wet and windy Macclesfield Canal at Astbury on New Year’s Day.

Fishing canals can be hit and miss during the winter, especially with the unsettled weather of late, and to make it more difficult, fish are prone to shoaling up.

Undeterred, Phil kicked off 2018 in good style as he means to go on, catching a roach on his first put-in.

He started off putting in three tiny thumb-sized balls of groundbait with a few pinkies fishing the pole down the track.

He had caught four roach when, striking into another bite, the fish torpedoed across the canal stretching his 4’s elastic to the limit and after what seemed like an age, a cracking perch of around 2lbs lay in his landing net.

A quiet period followed until the roach came back on the feed and Phil ended his session more than happy with another 20-plus roach.

Not too far away is our Association-owned Wide Hole Fishery which, if you have ever fished there, the name is self-explanatory.

It is immediately adjacent to the Macclesfield Canal and if you can picture the canal with the side opposite the towpath being non-existent and blending perfectly without any meaningful physical boundaries with our pool due to subsidence.

It is a cracking fishery being a holding area and refuge from boat traffic, producing good bream, roach, and pike catches.

Currently, we are looking for a local bailiff to take over from Mike Burdock, who has moved away from the area.

Interested? Please give drop me an email and I will pass it to our head bailiff.

Our Sunday Mersey match saw a change of winner this week when Al Morris put his catch of six small roach and an eel on the scales for a weight of 0lbs 13ozs 0drs.

Match ace Jimmy Byrne, who has won the past four matches in succession, was relegated to second place in what was an extremely low-weight match with 0-3-14.

Ground-bait feeder and maggot was the method used by both anglers.

Please send me your catch reports, email to frank@warrington-anglers.org.uk or give me a call on 01928 716238.

WAA headquarters at 52 Parker Street are open as usual every Friday, between 7pm and 8.30pm for 2018 night permits, membership renewals, new members, subscriptions, and any queries.

Results:

Sunday Mersey Series: 1, Alan Morris 0-13-0; 2, Jimmy Byrne 0-3-14; 3, Jim Gannon 2-8-0; 4, Alan Faulkner 0-2-0.

Fixtures:

Sunday, River Mersey Series: Draw 10am at Kingsway Allotments.

Monday, disabled and over 60s: Draw 10am at Bridgewater Canal, Houghs Bridge.