The fourth and final round of the Bridgnorth A S winter league took place on a swollen River Severn which surprisingly yielded an excellent 72-13-0 top catch for Keith Russell.

The Bell Otters team man drew peg 81 on the right bank above Gadstone ford where he used a swim feeder with pellets to catch 13 barbel and one chub.

 Gary Somers (Floating Match Box) was second from peg 28 above Linley island  where his 46-12-0 was made up of eight barbel also taken with pellets. 

Organiser Brian Preece (Bridgnorth Maver) grabbed third spot with seven barbel weighing 32-4-0, again tempted with pellets from the very deep peg number 73 in the Chestnut Coppice section.

 John Webb Bridgnorth) 20-15-0 and lady angler Rosa Bailey (who won the last match) 26-15-0 made up the top five.

Top team, Bridgnorth A S scored 22 points out of 24 to beat Floating Match 15 and Postie’s 14.

League points are Postie’s 58 (Richard Burridge, Neville Pitt and Chris Holmes) over Bell Otters 56, Three D’s 55 and Bridgnorth A S 46.

Aldridge based Stuart Bagnall ( S Jones) won the fifth round of the Walsall Arboretum League by a large margin when he whipped out a level 10-0-0.

The match was fished on the boathouse side of the bandstand on Hatherton lake where he cast double red maggots thirty feet out with a long pole to tempt all mixed sized roach two of which weighed 1 lb.

Ron Nicholls (Walsall) was miles behind with a second placed 4-4-0.

He drew ‘unlucky for some’ peg 13 in the same area where he hooked small bream and roach with worms. 

Ron Jackson (Leamore) was third with 4-1-0 over Gary Beasley and Kevin Edwards (both Walsall) with 1-10-0 and 1-0-0.

Current league leaders are Gary Busby 118 points over Stuart Bagnall 117 and Ron Jackson 92

 In form Wolverhampton star Dave McCall (Shakespeare) clinched the Stafford Individual League eighth round by a very narrow margin with 6-14-4.

The match was fished along the Shropshire Union canal at Gnosall  where he drew a peg opposite the boathouse.

Pinning his faith in squatt maggots offered well across the far side he did well to whip out 6-14-0 of small gudgeon.

 Mick Millgate (Isaac Walton Stafford)  was second with 6-11-15 made up with small perch, roach and gudgeon while  Dave Horton (Isaac Walton Stafford)  was third with 5-9-8 over Tony Keeling (Eclipse) 5-1-0, Paul Ross (Shakespeare) 4-13-4 4 and Tony Eagles (Ian’s Tackle) 4-10-11.

Final league placings are Fred Cheetham (Eclipse) 15 points (worth £200), Wolverhampton’s Dave McCall 21 and Dave Richards (Midleisure) and Eric Gardner (Eclipse) both 24.

  Wolverhampton’s Dave Pinches won the last round of the Bilston Angling league which took place along the Shropshire Union canal at Pendeford. Fishing a peg opposite the bare bank he whipped out an 8-8-0 mixed bag of roach, bream, perch and gudgeon all taken with squatt maggots.

Steve Cope (Walsall) was second with 6-9-10 of roach to six ounces which responded to casters as well as maggots. Organiser John Hall was third with 7-7-0 and he was chased by Brian Birch (Bilston) 5-12-5,and Nick Hooton (Bilston) 4-14-0.

  The Birmingham Fazeley canal at Curdworth didn’t fish very well for the Stirrup A C open fixture and winner Graham Morris (Jets A C) won easily with 6-10-9.

Based at Dudley and not too familiar with the canal he did well to catch two large bream, each around the 3 lb mark using casters at peg 78 near the top end. 

Brierley Hill’s Ben Garbett (Black Country Tackle) was second with 3-8-0 from peg 57 where he hooked one skimmer bream for 1-8-0 plus small gudgeon, roach and perch using squatt maggots and worms.

Local lad Pete Hatton (Stirrup Cup) was third with 3-1-13 over Dave Holbrook (Brownhills) 2-13-9 and Craig Lewis (Three M’s) 2-8-8.

Fred ‘the bread’ Che-etham is enjoying a good run of luck and he added  the latest Isaac Walton Stafford  open match on the Trent and Mersey canal at Ingestre to his list with a 7-3-0 winning haul. 

Relying on his favourite punched bread feed and hookbait he whipped out a brace of bream plus lots of small roach and gudgeon  which were lying deep on the bottom.

Organising club member Dave Williams was second with 5-3-8, skimmer bream plus one big roach, while Richard Guest (Fox Match Tipton) was third with 2-4-2 made up with just one bream. Tony Eagles (Ian’s Tackle) 2-0-0 and Tony Keeling  (Stafford) 1-14-8 made up the frame. 

       A fifteen year old school girl, Samantha Perkins won the Angling Times League semi final which was fished on the HanKat stretch of the Walsall canal at Ocker Hill.

Drawn at peg 71 by the footbridge she whipped out 200 small roach plus two 1 lb 8 oz bream, all taken with bloodworm feed and bait. Pete Close (Browning Quartet) was second with 7-3-4, small bream and roach from peg four at the back of the sanatorium while Dave Brookes Jnr was next with 7-0-4.