AS so often happens, just as the river season draws to a close, fish start feeding freely, the weather gets better and catches improve dramatically.

Salisbury Angling Club held a club match on the river between the town and Stratford-sub-Castle on Sunday and weights were good in what proved to be a closefought competition. Ian Heydon found a shoal of roach and landed 17lb 2oz of them from a swim by Ashley Road bridge to win the match. Stubbs was runner-up, catching 16lb from a swim near the city's leisure centre and Andy Pratten came third with 15lb 11oz from the top end of the fishery.

The Avon at Britford has been very busy with dozens of anglers arriving to enjoy the final days of the season and for many, the trip was worth it. Plenty of dace and chub from the old river stretch while the carrier has been producing roach to 1lb 4oz, chub to 5lb 4oz and some big pike.

Salisbury angler, Philip Mitchell, had one of the biggest of the season from the carrier weighing 21lb and other pike anglers had fish to 17lb 14oz.

The rivers around Ringwood have been producing chub to 7lb 6oz and more big pike up to 21lb.

The Stour is giving anglers plenty of chub between 4lb and 8lb.

Lake fishing is also steadily improving as the weather slowly warms up. Witherington Farm Fishery reports improving sport for skimmers and silver fish and carp are begining to get about with fish around 17lb and 18lb from Barnmoor and the Snake lakes.

Waldens Farm Fishery is seeing carp around the 10lb mark from Abbotts and Bishops Lakes while Monks Lake is fishing well for perch, with specimens up to 2lb.

Dandy's Ford Lane Fishery, at Wellow, saw a winning match weight on Sunday of 130lb+ and anglers are catching tench, skimmers, carp and silver fish.The sixth round of the Teams of Four competition at Witherington Farm was held on Saturday and put Reid's Tackle skip back into top place after a brief spell as number two. They now have 178 points, just three ahead of close rivals, RTB with 175. Individual winners were John Dewsberry (Dandy's K2) with 57lb 8oz from the Inner Snake, Ray Kelly (Eastleigh Misfits) with 54lb from the same lake and third place to Malc Pepperill (Barney's Blacks) with 52lb 8oz from Cottage Lake. Winning team on the day was Reid's Tackle with 31 points and there are two matches to go.

Reid's Tackle's open mid-week match on Sellwood Lake was won by Gary Naylor with 32lb 1oz.