Fishing over the last couple of weeks has been generally rather poor on most local waters. Our 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 Arrow championship match next Saturday when over 100 matchmen will be trying to win the coveted trophy.

With the Ragley stretches fishing very indifferently, most of the competitors will be hoping for a draw on the downstream Broom section of the river.

By the way, there are still a few tickets left for the match so give Mark Russell a ring on Thursday on 403372 to reserve one.

I have 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.

This Sunday morning there will be an RMG Open on the cut at Yardley Wood. The draw is at 8am on the car park by the bus garage bridge. Ring Steve Savage on 501363 to book in.

Now on to this week's reports, starting with the Astwood Bank pensioners match of Offenham on the Avon. Winner Bob Smith had 2lb 13oz ahead of Jack Parker with 2lb 2oz, Harry Mills was third with 1lb 13oz and John James fourth with 1lb 7oz.

Hymatic AC fished their sixth aggregate match on Friday at Swindon on the Staff's-Worc's canal. On a hot sultry afternoon Stephen Fisher took full advantage of an end peg draw to take some good roach on pinkie fished down the track for 3lb 8oz and a clear win. I believe this is his first match win, well done Steve!

I was runner-up with 2-11-8 of hemp roach just ahead of Les French with 2-10-0 and the winner's dad Dave Fisher fourth with 2-9-11 and club chairman John Oldfield fifth with 2-8-6. Small roach were the dominant species in all these catches.

Saturday afternoon's Studley Road AC club match at Pershore saw much better weights than in the match there last week. Winner Pete Millard fished a small ground bait feeder with caster or maggot on the hook from peg 23 and caught loads of small skimmers up to the 1lb mark for an excellent 12-5-7 top catch. In second place George baker fished in similar style from peg 16 to take one 4lb plus bream with skimmers to give him a 7-6-10 total. In third place Steve Doveydaitis had five skimmers and bits for 5-13-9 from peg 21. Section winners were Alan Dawson with 4-9-13 from peg 1 and Pete Lewis who had the fish of the match, a bream of 4-13-13 in his 5-5-12 bag from peg 17.

Sunday's Studley AS club match on the Arrow at Ragley also fished a little better. On forty acre peg 22 Martin Russell was undeterred by finding a pleasure angler fishing his peg before the match and went on to take barbel of 7lb 1oz and 2lb 10oz for a 9lb 11oz top catch. Up stream on peg 10 Tony Walters had 9lb 10oz of chub for second place with Tony Bradshaw third off peg 53 with 7lb 11oz which included a three pound pike which grabbed a small chub and wouldn't let go until it was in the landing net. Don Palmer was fourth with 5lb 8oz on peg 21. Don had a lovely 1lb 2oz roach taken on the link plus a few chub for his catch. Section winners were Terry Shippley 4lb 11oz and Len Phillpot 4lb 10oz.

Just up the Arrow on the Alcester Trades water 13-year-old Tolly Dean took the ATL club match with a 4lb 15oz catch which included a 2lb 7oz tench from peg 24. John Blunn had a bream of 3lb 11oz in his 3lb 15oz catch from 55 and Ron Wright completed the frame with 2lb 15oz on 38. Section winners were RF Jones with 2-2-8, Steve Rogers 2-4-0, Bob Rogers 2-0-0 and mark Russell 2-9-8.

Tight Lines!