JAMIE Hodgeson christened his new membership book on Thursday, choosing Appleton Reservoir for his first visit to a WAA fishery.

Within two minutes of casting in, he was into his first fish – a mirror carp of 15lbs. Twenty minutes later he was playing another, eventually landing one of 20lbs.

I have no idea if he caught further fish and hope his mate Alan Hunter – also a new member – caught.

On the opposite bank, 15-year-old Bob Shaw ended his day session with a carp of 17lbs 6ozs 0 drs watched by his dad David, who informed me this was the second visit in succession that he had been bested by his son.

Neil Plunkett didn’t fancy driving far on Thursday so decided to give Statham Pool a try as it’s only a couple of miles from home and he hadn’t fished it since last year.

On what was a blustery day, Neil caught 10 large bream plus assorted skimmers, roach and perch. The bream were all between two to 4lbs and a lovely bronze colour.

They were all caught on luncheon meat and micro pellets in a method feeder. One male fish – the largest – was nearly black and covered in spawning tubercles, a real old warrior.

Neil was out again on Tuesday with a change of venue to the Mount at Buckley for the first time since late last summer.

He caught a brace of carp about 8lbs – a mirror and a leather – three tench up to about 3lbs and five bream up to about 2.5lbs.

All fell to either meat or corn using a method feeder and for good measure, Neil also set-up a slider float at 15ft depth.

After catching some small silvers on maggot, he switched to corn for half a dozen nice roach up to 1lb. According to our bailiff, carp and bream are showing throughout the lake.

Ted Small settled on Cicely Mill Pool, which he hadn’t fished so far this year, and had bite after bite for four hours.

He ended up with about 50 fish – mostly roach, a few skimmers and perch – but also a good number of roach/bream hybrids up to about 12oz.

The biggest roach were about 8oz. Waggler fished red maggot was the best bait but Ted also had some on sweetcorn.

Our disabled and over 60s match was on Monday and unusually, winner George Barber – aka ‘The Breadman’ – didn’t even know he had won!

It just so happened that I was chatting to him on Tuesday and thought he was joking when he asked me if I knew who had won.

It transpired that he had to leave immediately the match finished to go to a concert so his catch of skimmers to 1lb taken on punched bread for a weight of 3-13-4 put him in the money.

Graham Belton took second place with a similar catch with 2-8-10.

I am looking for information relating to a blue-coloured plastic algae control pipe at Worthington Reservoir, which has been removed from the water and cut neatly into lengths on the bank.

Please get in touch if you know anything on the number below or by email.

Thanks to those members who send catch reports as they help fellow members to weigh up how waters are fishing to plan their outings and give me something to write about.

Email 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 9pm. New members are welcome to call in and join, current ones can renew their subscription, or night permit.

Results:

Disabled and over 60s: 1, George Barber 3-13-4; 2, Graham Belton 2-8-10; 3, John Dagnall 2-7-2; 4, Jimmy Byrne 2-5-2

Fixtures:

Monday, disabled and over 60s: Draw 10am at Woodshaw Reservoir, Wigan