WINTER fishing remains hard going for river anglers due to low water levels and frequent lack of colour, but those who persevere have found fish.

Fishermen visiting London’s AA Britford fishery have caught from both the main carrier stretch and the old river with Ray Ridgers enjoying catching dace and grayling all day long and Ian Pender landing 35lb of roach and dace, some of his roach weighing 1lb 8oz.

The fishery is also producing quite a few sea trout and one angler also landed, after a 40-minute tussle, a 10lb-plus salmon which snapped at his red maggot as he trotted for dace and grayling. Last week’s Journal Postbag photograph of a salmon jumping a weir at Downton is proof that salmon are making their way upstream to breed and this year there appears to be more of them than usual.

Anglers at Britford, and fishery bailiff, Stuart Wilson, have seen dozens of salmon moving through the fishery and holding up in slack water areas as they rest after tackling weirs and obstacles. Given the low water conditions, it is good news that this year their numbers seem to be high.

Salisbury Angling Club matchmen found the river unusually low for their visit to the Countess stretch of the Avon at Amesbury on Sunday and also had to contend with an unusual and unexplained colouring of the water. Shaun Gumbleton won the club match with 18lb 12oz of grayling up to 1lb 14oz, Mick Keynes was second with 13lb 12oz and Malcolm Stubbs was third with 9lb 8oz. Despite the difficult river conditions, two or three other competitors from the total of 14 who fished, weighed in 9lb, 8lb and a few at around 6lb.

Charlie Wernham is this year’s winner of Salisbury Angling Club’s Stuart Casey Memorial Trophy following a hard match on the River Nadder. He landed 17lb 12oz of mainly dace from below Harnham Mill. Jimmy Smith was second with 9lb 10oz of chub and Andy Palmer was third with 8lb 12oz. Both matches raised concerns about the lack of several species of fish – dace and roach – the low levels of both rivers and the unusual colouration of the water.

Sport has picked up a bit on the lakes at Witherington Farm Fishery. A mid-week match on the Snake and Cottage lakes was won by Brian Shutler with 51lb with several others weighing-in 40lb and 30lb of fish. An open match on Barnmoor Lake saw Ian Heydon take the honours with two carp and silver fish for 25lb, Dave Moody in runners-up spot with 24lb 6oz of skimmers and Tony Rolfe in third place with 22lb 4oz of carp and skimmers.