Well that was almost a lovely weekend.

I am saying that as I got absolutely drenched on Sunday evening at Elmbridge fishery. But never mind, the rain stopped and we managed to catch a few carp before the light went.

I had a lovely day on Saturday when I made a return trip to the Redditch Fed stretch of the Stratford cut by the bakery at Warings Green.

You may recall I fished a Hymatic match there a week or so ago when the roach potential was obvious although they didn't feed too well on the day.

This time I caught well, starting with small roach on the punch for an hour or so before switching to the hemp to take a lot of better fish up to the 12oz mark and finish with a catch of about ten pounds, what a brilliant session!

Talking to the lads it seems that several local canal stretches switched on at the weekend with fish feeding freely to a variety of baits.

There was a 14lbs catch of roach on the seed in a match on the Worcester cut at Selly Oak and plenty of fish were caught on the Grand Union at Knowle with skimmers and roach showing strongly.

I hear that one our top young match anglers, Woodrow's Alex Powell, has been invited to fish the England youth trial at Salford Park, Birmingham, on May, 26.

This is some achievement as Alex is only 15 and the match is for lads of up to 19 which shows just what a good prospect he is!

Good luck Alex and even if you don't make it into the team for this year's world match in Hungary I'm sure it won't be too long before you do.

Tim Savage, treasurer of Lodge Park AC, tells me he will be taking subs at the club on Sunday mornings for the next two weeks (May 20 and 27) between 12.15pm and 1.45pm.

Oh and all you juniors out there don't forget that the St. David's AC series of junior matches on Batchley pool starts this Sunday. Ring Paul Morris on 451156 to enter.

There is a 50p entry fee and loads of tackle prizes to fish for! I'll be giving you the rest of the dates for this series of seven matches next week.

Our match reports this week start at Beoley pool on Thursday night with this week's round of the South Redditch AC summer series.

The match went ahead despite a violent storm with thunder and lightning, heavy rain and hailstones peppering the anglers. Winner Lee Osland was undaunted and took three bream a tench and a roach from peg 31 to finish with a good score of 10lb 15oz to head Shayne Harrison with 8lb 7oz and experienced campaigner John Bailey with 2lb 10oz of roach on the punch.

The second round of the Lodge Park/ Studley Rd AC spring canal series took place on Sunday morning, at Lapworth on the Stratford Canal.

Pete Lewis took the match with 4-0-3 of mainly small roach and gudgeon boosted by a perch of around the pound mark taken on the squatt.

Phil Rutter was second with one skimmer plus a rake of bits for his catch of 3-14-12. Glyn Blewett took third spot with 3-1-0 of roach. Section awards went to Frank James with 2-12-9, Monty Salisbury (2-1-8) and Larry Holden (1-14-10). Everybody caught with small gudgeon showing well after disappearing for some time.

Pete Lewis leads the series with an 18 point total two more than Phil Rutter with two rounds to go.

Better weights were taken in the Pipco open at Warstock, also on the Stratford canal.

Dave Rollason (Bell AC) took top spot with a good catch of 5lb 12oz of roach taken on caster hookbait. Match organiser Barry Fitzgerald (Maver) was second with 4-8-12 of roach on the squatt ahead of his team mate Jim Wills with 3-12-0 and Ron Holland (unattached) with 3-8-0.

Tight Lines