9th December   Warrington Guardian Notes

The river Mersey has been producing double figure nets of prime roach all last week but conditions for Sundays match were absolutely dreadful.  The extra snow water in the river made fishing difficult added to that the river was badly coloured and certainly carrying far more distasteful matter than just flood water. Just a few ounces was Jimmy Gannon's winning weight, afterwards he commented that it was absolutely amazing how in all those millions of gallons of water his and other anglers tiny little hooks were able to collect condoms and other unpleasant items. 

There must have been a serious amount of untreated sewerage entering the river further upstream I guess the result of thousands of new homes being built without proper infrastructure in place and the effluent has to go somewhere unless you are fishing you probably never think about where all that stuff goes to.
It's bad enough having to remove water borne detritus like this from your gear but  spare a thought for the youngsters from the rowing club innocently enjoying their sport, sadly at least one of whom fell in and hopefully suffered no adverse effects from the polluted water.

The match would normally have been moved to Appleton Reservoir which is the back up venue unfortunately it was covered in ice so on this occasion it was not  an option.

Tickets for the pairs match on 28th will be on sale from Cheshire Angling at weekend the match will be fished on the Bridgewater and the Mersey.

The National Federation of Anglers held an EGM last Saturday to finalise the process which will see the NFA join with the NFSA, ACA, SAA and NAFAC to become the ANGLING TRUST a single recognised governing body for the whole sport of angling.  The new organisation will be far stronger than any one of its constituent parts and avoid duplication of services.

The delegates present voted overwhelmingly to wind up the NFA and go forward into the new combined organisation from January 2009.