AFTER several days of prolific sport for many anglers, the weekend tailed off as river levels slowly started to drop and the water became clearer.

Fish were still being caught but not in the numbers banked earlier in the week when good bags of dace, chub and small roach were the norm.

The London AA fishery at Britford saw large numbers of anglers visiting during the week and at the weekend. It may be that the pressure from so many anglers also contributed to a drop in catches but during the week chub to 4lb 7oz were caught, grayling to over 1lb and a handful of perch up to three quarters of a pound.

One angler was surprised to hook into a 7lb salmon which was safely landed and returned unharmed. Pike angler, Richard Curtis, used a deadbait to land a 21lb pike from the main carrier stretch of the fishery.

One problem facing anglers at Britford, and all the way through the Avon, is the abundance of minnows which on some stretches are in plagued numbers.

Roach up to 2lb have been banked from Fordingbridge Park but reports from stretches between Fordingbridge and Ringwood suggest sport is hit and miss. One of the biggest chub reported this season has been caught from Christchurch AA's Manor Farm fishery at 8lb 4oz, another was landed at 7lb 12oz and reports of a 24lb pike from the same fishery.

Fishing has been quiet on the lakes with Salisbury Angling Club members catching only small fish in their club match on the Petersfinger Lakes on Sunday. Paul Barnard won the match with 7lb 5oz of very small roach and silver fish, Malc Pepperill was second with 7lb 1oz and John Burt was third with 5lb 1oz.

Across at Witherington Farm Fishery there have been few anglers about but Nigel Tupper fished Barnmoor Lake and was again among the big carp landing one of 30lb 4oz on maggot. A mid-week match was won with 77lb and the fishery reports that with the mild weather fish are still feeding but high winds and some rain does make difficult fishing conditions.