MIKE Pritchard reckons his granddaughter, Amelia Rose-Lilly Davies, is a natural.

He introduced the four-year-old to fishing recently, and she has taken to it like a duck to water.

On Friday they visited the River Mersey at Kingsway Allotments, where the youngster used a telescopic whip that had belonged to her mum when she started.

Feeding maggots, she caught six perch and a roach and kissed every one before putting them back into the water.

There were no reports of carp caught over the Bank Holiday weekend (nudge nudge, wink wink…).

If you believe that, then you’ll believe anything!

I’m sure members targeting those fish are happy, and I understand there were a few personal bests landed.

Another positive is there were some quality tench and bream caught that benefit from the high-protein baits.

While on a visit to Grey Mist last week there was encouraging news that small tench are being caught by members float fishing; they've been absent for a while so let’s hope they can evade the cormorant scourge and reach maturity.

Decent roach to 2lbs have been cropping up in catches on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Ian Simms fished pole and caster over hemp there on the stick-ups past the boatyard, and ended up with 20lbs of roach and skimmers.

Jimmy Byrne celebrated a winning double in our Mersey Series matches.

On Saturday, at Kingsway Allotments, he fished a groundbait feeder and maggot for a bream and skimmer haul that tipped the scales at 22-5-4.

And he carried that form into the following day at Mersey Walk, where he kept faith with the same method to accumulate 18-14-0 made up of skimmers and silver bream.

Our Monday match was at Woodshaw Reservoir at Wigan, where Derek Bibby put together a net of skimmers and roach for a winning weight of 6-15-4.

Jimmy was second with a catch of two crucians and a roach for 5-13-0.

A reminder: Cicely Mill will remain closed until further notice.

Send your catch reports - fellow members like to know how waters are fishing - by email to frank@warrington-anglers.org.uk or call me on 01928 716238.

Our association HQ at Parker Street is open every Friday, between 7pm and 9pm, for night-permits, memberships, subscriptions and queries.

Results:

Mersey Series, Saturday: 1, Jimmy Byrne 22-5-4; 2, Jim Gannon 12-0-0; 3, Chris Wray 4-2-0.

Mersey Series, Sunday: 1, Jimmy Byrne 18-14-0; 2, Alan Birchall 11-12-0; 3, Derek Bibby 11-7-0; 4, Ant Higham 9-2-0.

Disabled and over 60s, Monday: 1, Derek Bibby 6-15-4; 2, Jimmy Byrne 5-13-0; 3, Alan Birchall 5-1-0; 4, George Barber 5-0-0.

Fixtures:

Saturday, Mersey Series: Draw 9am, Kingsway Allotments.

Sunday, Mersey Pairs Match: Draw 9am, Victoria Park.

Monday, Disabled and over 60s: Draw 10am, Bridgewater Canal, Pickering's Bridge.