BRIGHT sunshine in cloudless skies, low, clear rivers with little weed cover, have not made fishing easy for river anglers over the past week.

Reports from most parts of the River Avon and its tributaries say sport has been patchy and difficult, with the best of any activity in the evenings after the sun has started to set.

Lake anglers, on the other hand, appear to have been doing well with fisheries reporting good sport from carp, bream and silver fish. Carp to 26lb have been caught from Barnmoor Lake at Witherington Farm Fishery while the fishery's other lakes, Cottage and Sellwood, have been producing good bags of mixed fish. Matches on the Inner and Outer Snake lakes have seen winning weights in excess of 100lb.

Reports from anglers visiting Waldens Farm, Dandy's Ford Lane and Watergate Farm Fishery suggest that sport remains good at them all as the late summer spell keeps fish active.

Salisbury Angling Club members visiting the club's Nightingale Lake at Wellow during the week, enjoyed sport with carp up to 9lb and tench to 2lb with some bags topping 40lb. The club's Petersfinger Lakes have now reopened after being closed for a few weeks as oxygen levels reached dangerously low levels. The decision to close the lakes and carry out aeration seems to have worked as the club reports no fishes losses.

Anglers visiting the London AA fishery at Britford found the river low and crystal clear with little weed about. One angler fished the lower end of the fishery at Kitts Island and trotting the main current bagged up with around 30 chub ranging in size from 1lb to 2lb as well as a few dace and grayling. Further upstream the river depth was a lot shallower and anglers struggled. A few small roach were caught along with dace and grayling but sport has been patchy.

The Angling Trust's South West Forum visited the region on Saturday for a meeting at Burgate Manor, Fordingbridge. The meeting was held in conjunction with the Environment Agency and topics discussed included reports on various river enhancement schemes being undertaken on the Nadder and Avon around Salisbury and Ringwood.

The serious predation problems being caused to British fish stocks by European cormorants now residing in the UK was also discussed with up-to-date information from various agencies and government departments on proposed action to tackle the crisis.