THERE have been some bumper bags of fish from the Avon over the past few days thanks to the recent rain which put some colour into the water and raised river levels a little.

The London AA fishery at Britford provided anglers with a good mix of fish with carp to 11lb, bream to 8lb,two quality grayling and bags of dace, roach and chub.

Over the weekend, Dave Curtis was fishing the fishery's main carrier for roach and had a tussle with an 11lb carp while another angler on the old river stretch caught two bream, both over 8lb while trotting with a stick float and double-red maggot.

Chris Barrett had around 36lb of dace and chub, Adam Gilmore banked two lovely grayling of 2lb 6oz and 2lb 2oz as well as around 50lb of dace and chub. One of the best bags was caught by Ian Crabb, comprising 22 chub, 15lb of dace and 17 grayling, all of these from the main Avon below B&Q.

Bailiff, Stuart Wilson, said a couple of sluice hatches had been opened after last week's rain and this brought the level up slightly. With a tinge of colour and the mild weather, conditions were good and this was reflected in the catches. "It has been a good few days," he said.

Further upstream, Salisbury Angling Club held their match on the stretch from Stratford-sub-Castle down to the city on Sunday and it fished well. Andy West won the match with 20lb 6oz, made up of seven chub caught from the top field. Paul Barnard was second, fishing close, by with six chub and some grayling for 19lb 12oz, Andy Palmer was third with an all-roach bag weighing 11lb 3oz from a peg near Salisbury Fire Station and Steve Trevett was fourth with 11lb 1oz from the Horse Field.

In the Fordingbridge and Ringwood area, dredging work on the river has affected sport but in other areas, barbel to 13lb-plus have come from Hale syndicate stretch, 2lb-plus roach from Horseport and Ringwood AC's King's Stream has fished well.

Lake fishing continues to be good thanks to the mild weather. Pleasure anglers are catching reasonable bags from most fisheries with Witherington Farm reporting match weights of 70lb plus in the weekend's Teams of Four competition and mixed bags of carp, bream and silver fish for pleasure anglers, a picture echoed at the region's other lake fisheries.