ANGLING By BOB FITZJOHN MANY will have noticed an absence of last week s column. This is because I was on holiday in Spain fishing the River Ebro for carp and cat fish with a couple of friends, one of which was Bob Moorhouse, from Chatteris, who had neve

ANGLING

By BOB FITZJOHN

MANY will have noticed an absence of last week's column. This is because I was on holiday in Spain fishing the River Ebro for carp and cat fish with a couple of friends, one of which was Bob Moorhouse, from Chatteris, who had never been fishing before, but I think he could be hooked after landing carp to 15lb and saw cat fish to 144lb.

I've heard that local fishing was hard last week and 20lb was a good weight on several lakes in the Fenland area.

Townsend Angling Club fished East Delph last Sunday and most of the carp in the lake were spawning instead of eating and Gavin Wright only needed 22lb 8oz of carp to 5lb to take top spot. He fished cat meat over pellet at 12 metres.

Second place went to Simon Church with 18lb 12oz and Jake Bedford was third with 14lb 11oz.

Mill View Angling Club also found the going hard on Elm Lake at Decoy and Kevin Medlock only needed 24lb for top spot. This Sunday Mill View will be fishing on Magpie Lake at Pidley.

Last Saturday a team from the Braza Club fished the Eastern Region Railway Club's match on Hallcroft Lakes at Retford and came away with first place in the team event, while Steve Smalley was second overall in the individual event.

The Braza team, made up of Smalley, Jon Young Jonny Smally, Martin Kirk and Alex Bates, now go through to the final, which is fished in July.

Whitemoor Angling Club fished over at Highflyers Lake a week last Wednesday and Shaun Strachan, who usually fishes for small fish, changed tactics and took top spot with 144lb of carp and roach. All of his fish were caught at two metres using corn as hook bait.

Second place went to Tim Green, with 67lb, and Ray Tyler was third with 62lb.

The open matches, held on High Flyers last week, saw some good winning weights and Dave Pearce jnr won two out of three. A week last Tuesday he won the he won with 343lb and then on Saturday he took top spot with 260lb.

But on Sunday it was lake manager Fenny Gammon who came out on top with a mere 82lb.

Over at Button Hole Lake last Tuesday Jimmy Brooks won with 54-10, Danny Simper was second with 43-8 and Lester Pratt was third with 42lb.

Over at Head Fen Lakes, last Sunday's open match was won by Neil Jackson with 58lb 4oz and second place went to Steve Jackson with 50lb 12oz.

Next Wednesday the March club will be holding a meeting at the Station Hotel for club members wishing to fish team events this year, which includes the Third Division National, which is being fished on the Staffs and Worcester Canal on August 16and the HAJACS Winter League meeting starts at 8pm.

Finally, don't forget the Thursday evening matches have started at Fileds End Water, Doddington. Draw time for these matches is 5.45pm. For a ticket ring Viccy on 01354 740373.