THE fishing last week was generally rather poor. Rivers are in need of heavy rainfall to give them much needed colour before the fish will start to feed confidently again.

Reports from the Arrow in particular are of fish shoaled up tightly on a few pegs with only modest interest in taking a bait.

I hope things improve for the forthcoming John Smith's festival at Evesham over the bank holiday and the Arrow champ's match early in September.

I received a smashing letter from Mrs Maxted of Hollywood who, like me, is a ''fishing nut'', telling me of the unique enjoyment she gets from fishing and of her angling exploits at Elmbridge fishery.

She gets out on the bank there at every opportunity with her family and her best fish so far is an 11lb 8oz common carp.

Well done Mrs Maxted and keep on enjoying your fishing hopefully as much as I enjoy mine.

Tickets are now on sale for this year's Redditch carnival match, which takes place at Arrow Valley Lake on September 9.

They are available at £12 each from Powell's, the Corn Stores, Alcester Sports and John's FT and are selling well I believe.

Malcolm Hayes is still looking for entries for the Broadacres annual events, the disabled match on Friday September 15 and one for the ladies the following day so come on guys and gals, give Mal a ring on 836461 if you fancy a dabble.

Next Sunday's RMG open at Yardley Wood bus garage will not now take place but Barry Fitzgerald is running a PIPCO open on his stretch of the canal at Warstock on the same day Draw is at the Horseshoes pub on Alcester Road at 8am. Ring Baz on 50000 to book in.

This week's match reports are a little less numerous than of late. The evening matches have now all but finished as the nights draw in.

Graham Upton (Athol AC) took the last of the Broadacres Monday night matches with 20lb 12oz of carp from peg 7 to pole fished sweet corn.

Jon Newton (Faps Trinders) was runner-up on peg 32 with 16lb 4oz of carp ahead of brother Chris (New End AC) third with 14lb 6oz.

The Astwood Bank AC pensioners found Wood Bevington pool very difficult on Thursday.

Clive Lancaster took top spot with a 4lb 14oz mixed bag on maggot from peg 10 with Ken Butler in second place with 4lb 6oz from peg 4. Bob Smith and Tony Lee tied for third place with 3lb 6oz.

Back to Broadacres on Friday night where Rob Francis (100 AC) continued his strong form of late with an excellent 39-7-0 winning catch.

Casters were once again the successful bait for Rob and his haul was about half-and-half carp and silver fish taken up in the water on peg 19.

John Bailon (Ovation Leisure) was runner-up with a mixed bag of 25-4-0 from peg 11 with, Graham Upton making up the frame with 16-11-0 of carp from peg 22.

Graham, who has run most of the matches at Broadacres through the summe,r has decided it is time to let someone else have a go and has asked me to thank all the anglers who have given him such good support over the last few months.

My good friend Colin Govier won the Enfield AC club match at Hillborough on Saturday, taking a total weight of 6lb 9oz from peg 31.

Colin included a small pike of about 3lb plus bits in his winning bag.

Richard Hall was second with 5lb 9oz ahead of Lenny Philpott, who also had a small pike with perch for 5lb 5oz for third place.

Fourth man Glen Ralph had to scale down to some very fine gear before he could tempt a few roach but lost a big barbel late in the match and had to settle for 4lb 6oz.

I fished the Studley Rd club match at Pershore on the Avon, which was a real struggle for most.

Experienced Pete Taylor took four skimmers on the feeder from peg 15 for 5-4-8 to win ahead of Brian Hately with 4-15-14 of chub and perch from fancied peg 1.

Neville Collis was third with one ''proper'' bream and a skimmer on worm from peg 16.

George Blewitt was third with one good perch and some small fish for 2-10-11 from peg 10.

Section winners were Pete Millard with 1-3-4, Joe Shaw (1-9-13) and Pete Barnes (1-9-9).

As for me, I fished like a hero for the grand total of 11oz of bleak finishing well down the list.

The Arrow was dire on Sunday for the Wixford AC club match at Ragley.

Graham Blowers on pipe bridge peg 37 had one decent barbel plus chub to pole fished casters for a 5-9-0 top catch.

Runner-up Alan Bradshaw had 5-6-0 from peg 59. On peg 23, Ady Leach took third place with 4-5-0 ahead of Glen Ralph in the frame again with 3-12-0 from peg 65. Richard Hall was fifth with 3-7-0.

The Stratford canal at Yardley Wood was also pretty tough for the latest RMG open.

Ian Wallsgrove (Tackle Cellar) was top rod with 3-7-10 of roach and gudgeon on pinkie from a peg behind the bus garage.

Arnie Duggan (Studley Road) was runner-up with 2-15-11 ahead of Jeff Warmington (Shimano) third with 2-12-0.

Section winners were A - Derek Martin 2-11-3; B - Roger Martin 1-15-14; and C - John Bushell (Studley Road) 2-0-8.

Tight Lines!