Matt Hall wins Rilmac match

Rilmac Winter League

Once again, the 50 anglers who competed in this competition were met by a very coloured canal that was pulling hard towards Lincoln.

Unlike the day before, the canal was within its banks and over the match duration, the water level dropped by between four and five inches.

The day started cool but dry with hardly any breeze. Halfway through the match a steady drizzle set in which remained for the rest of the day which made things unpleasant for the anglers.

The poor recorded weights from the day before meant that most of the anglers were pessimistic of enjoying a good day's sport and, although the final weights were better than the Saturday, they were still well short of what would be classed as respectable for this venue.

The winner on the day was two-times Fish O Mania champion Matt Hall.

Matt, who was fishing for the Whisby A team, drew peg 32 and had 90 small roach on bloodworm and boosted his weight with a perch of 1lb to finish the day with a modest match winning weight of 4lb 13oz.

Consistent Steve Wright (Garbolino/Harrisons Lincs County) finished in the runners up position.

Steve could not manage to find a bonus fish but did manage to catch 140 roach on bloodworm for a weight of 4lb 10oz from peg 25.

Phil Turner (Whisby A) took full advantage of his end peg draw by finishing in third place.

Phil caught over 100 small roach on bloodworm for his catch and like the anglers above him caught at 6, 11 and 14 ½ metres lines on the pole.

Fourth was local ace John Small (SPRO Lincoln Whisby AC) with 4lb 3oz from peg 58 and fifth was team mate Rob Thorley from peg 21 with 3lb 11oz.

On the day the SPRO Lincoln Whisby AC team took the honours with an impressive 42 points and Garbolino/Harrisons Lincs County were second with 38 points.

After two rounds, these teams are joint first with three points followed by Pelham and Whisby A, both with seven points and Whisby B with 10 points.

Ruskington Winter League

Only one match result has been recorded from lakes this week even though the frost has now disappeared.

On some venues the water has turned completely clear meaning that the fish are unlikely to feed during the day which obviously makes fishing difficult.

One fishing match that did go ahead as normal was the Ruskington Winter League match at Moon Lake Fisheries.

This venue has managed to remain open through most of the recent arctic weather conditions that we have experienced.

It was Mike Bond of Ruskington who won the event on Sunday.

Mike alternated between the pole and the bomb to catch several small carp and "one lump" to finish the day with a winning weight of 33lb from peg three.

Paul Mosley (Windmill Tackle) finished in second place.

Paul also fished pellet on the pole and corn on the bomb at peg five and he finished the day with 30lb 5oz of small carp and skimmers.

Peg 10 saw Trevor Tute (Ruskington) finish in third place.

Trevor fished corn on the bomb to take 28lb 10oz to the scales.

Fourth place went to Edgar Purnell with 26lb 12oz from peg 19.

The next round in the series is again at Moon Lake next Sunday and anyone wanting to fish should contact Barry Gadsby on Tel 01400 273384.

SPRO Saturday League

Round six of the SPRO Saturday League Series took place at the weekend with the 42 anglers in attendance fishing the roadside stretch of the Fossdyke Canal.

Once again, the anglers found the canal carrying over 12 inches of extra water due to the prolonged downpour from the day before.

Although heavily coloured, the canal was not moving and this resulted in the fish being hard to come by and weights being substantially down.

A lot of the roach that were caught were tiny and sometimes you needed three or four to the once.

This meant that landing a big fish was a huge bonus and four of the top five placed anglers all benefited from catching a "bonus".

It was Keith Clifton, who fishes for Garbolino/Harrison Lincs County, who won the event.

Keith fished bloodworm over joker and had a bream of 3 ½ lb and a perch of 1lb at peg 65 to finish the day with a weight of 4lb 11oz.

This was enough to see off the challenge of team mate Steve Wright. Steve had an all-roach catch on bloodworm, with no bonus fish to finish the day with 4lb 7oz.

In joint second place was another Garbolino/Harrisons Lincs County angler Dale Whelan.

Dale fished at peg 27 and caught four skimmers to 1lb and some small roach on bloodworm to also register 4lb 7oz. Fourth was Andy Rodziewcz with 4lb 3oz which consisted of a bream of 3 ½ lb and fifth was Dale Lynch of Nottingham who finished the day with 4lb 1oz where he also had a good skimmer of 1 ½ lb in his weight.

With four matches remaining the individual points leader is Chris Jenkinson (Van Den Eynde) with 45 points and leading pairs are Chris Jenkinson and Alan Henry (SPRO Lincoln Whisby AC) with 31 points.

Blue Lagoon

During December, work continued with the stocking of this lake.

Funds raised from previous match entries purchased 300 eight-inch-long roach and skimmer bream.

Thanks to all those who participated, your support is greatly appreciated.

The association received an early Christmas present in the guise of Ruben Paige of the Environmental Agency who contacted the lake bailiff with an offer of an amount of fish from Calverton fish farm that had surplus stock.

These fish took the form of 750 young tench, and they were introduced into the lake just before the seasonal break.

Although only two summers old these tench are mostly large enough to avoid most of the lake's natural predators. This contribution is viewed as a tremendous boost for the lakes stock.

It is thought that these strong young fish will thrive in this venue and provide good sport for anglers in the future.

Anglers are reminded that the next match will take place on Saturday, February 13.