DESPITE the lowest January river levels for many years, some stretches of the rivers Avon and Nadder have been fishing very well over the last week or so.

Large bags of quality roach and dace from the Britford fishery and a fine bag of big dace from the Nadder are among the highlights to start the new year.

One bag of quality fish came in Salisbury Angling Club’s Open Match, fished on both the club’s Avon and Nadder stretches, on Sunday. A total of 45 anglers turned out for the match, fished on rivers that were very low but with a tinge of colour.

Overall winner was Mick Keynes, fishing the Nadder from a peg off Brunel Road in the city’s Churchfields industrial estate, from which he landed 35lb 12oz of quality dace and roach using both stick float and waggler. A short distance away was Tom Bartowz and he banked 22lb of roach and dace for second place.

On the Avon, the top weight was caught by Gary Wright, fishing a swim in the city and he caught 8lb 10oz of roach and dace. Shaun Gumbleton, fishing for GT Baits, and Chris Open were joint second best on the Avon with 6lb 9oz each.

One highlight of the competition was Richard Chase’s capture of a 5lb 10oz barbel from a swim in the Nadder, an unusual capture from this river and so far upstream as Brunel Road.

The main carrier and swims just south of the island on the Britford fishery have been fishing very well, after the recent cold snap persuaded the shoals of minnows to seek shelter and stop feeding. The island swims produced a 35lb bag of roach up to 1lb 10oz for Charlie Kemmett while Steve Tubbs spent two days fishing between the island and the hatches and caught 15 roach to 1lb 8oz on the first day and the following day landed specimens weighing 2lb down to 1lb 6oz with several others around the 1lb mark. Ian Pender had 25lb of roach from the carrier while Steve Brown enjoyed a day’s fishing for chub with half a dozen fish weighing between 4lb and 5lb.

Meanwhile, the old river stretch is producing good bags of dace and grayling and with an abundance of salmon in the river, some have been hooked and all released to continue their journey upstream to breed even though the low river levels are causing them some problems.

Lake fishing is also remaining quite good with the mild conditions. A weekend match on the Snake Lake at Witherington Farm Fishery was won by Ray Kelly with 74lb while an earlier Silvers Only match on Barnmoor Lake was won by Johnny Gray with 26lb.