TWO Christmas matches both provided anglers with reasonable bags of fish.

Salisbury Angling Club held their annual Christmas match on the Avon and Nadder rivers and, rather surprisingly, the Avon produced all four top places in a match which ended with the top weights very close to one another.

The Christmas hamper went to Steve Trevett who landed five big chub from a peg on the top field at Stratford for a total weight of 16lb 1oz. Exactly one pound behind him was Malcolm Stubbs, whose mixed bag came from a peg off Brunel Road in Salisbury. Third was Shaun Gumbleton with another mixed bag weighing 14lb 1oz from the Pony Field at Stratford and fourth was Gary Wright with 13lb 14oz.

Reid's Tackle held their Christmas match on two lakes at Witherington Farm Fishery and weights were quite good. On Cottage Lake the winner was Martin Rogers with 55lb 10oz, second was Andy Heydon with 51lb 12oz and third was Johnny Gray with 24lb 10oz. The winner on Sellwood Lake was Lee Goodfellow with 44lb 8oz, Stan Mayo was second with 33lb and third was Paul Hough with 25lb 14oz.

Pleasure anglers fishing the lakes and rivers around the region found sport fairly slow with coloured water and temperatures rising and falling like a yo-yo. Some chub, dace and grayling have been landed along with a few perch but, overall, the end of the year saw difficult fishing conditions and not that many fish.

Three Salisbury anglers appeared in a list of the ten top match anglers voted for by fishermen in an online poll, which collated votes before Christmas. The poll was to find the top ten match anglers over the past 40 years in the Wessex area, covering rivers, lakes and commercial fisheries.

Among the top ten were James Knight, Lee Woodhouse and Dave Moody.