THE 2016/17 river season came to a close with anglers enjoying good sport, although it did tail off after the previous week’s bumper bags.

Salisbury angler, Ray Ridgers, enjoyed one of his better days of the season by catching three chub and a netful of dace, weighing 21lb from the main river on the Britford fishery. Jake Timms fished the carrier stretch and landed a 19lb 10oz pike.

With more than 50 anglers a day visiting the fishery during the last week or so of the season, the river was under a lot of pressure and weights did drop. The season as a whole was notable for long periods of low water levels and this was the probable cause of a lack of fish. Although catches of grayling and dace were good, the numbers of roach caught were well down on previous seasons and chub were only marginally better. The general opinion is that the season was a difficult one and catches of all species lower than expected with river levels also very low throughout the year.

Salisbury Angling Club visited Tisbury Angling Club’s Longhouse Lake for their match on Sunday and plenty of carp up to 4lb gave competitors good sport. Paul Barnard won the day with 72lb 4oz of them and Malc Pepperill was runner-up with 66lb 12oz.

The club’s Petersfinger lakes, Steeple Langford lakes and Hayward’s Pond Fishery at Landford, all close on March 31st. Petersfinger and Steeple Langford re-open on June 1st but Hayward’s Pond does not open until October 1. Wellow Lakes remain open all year.

All lakes at the Witherington Farm Fishery are fishing well with Barnmoor Lake producing good bags of silver fish as well as carp. A mid-week silvers match on the lake saw a total weight caught of more than 200lb with Gary Etheridge leading the way with 32lb 8oz, Brian Shutler in second place with 31lb 6oz and Dave Moody third with 25lb 8oz. Nigel Tupper had further successes with Barnmoor’s carp, landing eight doubles in one session, the largest just a fraction under 20lb.