Crossword
Test your skills
ACROSS
1 White grease used to make line buoyant (7)
5 See 14dn.
8 –– Canal joins Grand Union at Braunston (6)
9 Spinner with artificial male deer hair (*a bit luck) (8) 10 Number of barbules on barbel (4)
11 Isle of Man’s largest reservoir - good for trout (5) 12 ___ Bones, feeder-fishing superstar (4)
13 e.g. angling platforms, where actors perform? (6) 15 Kenny ___ invented the deadly KD rig (7)
18 Wood shavings used to store maggots (7) 21 Casually scan web pages (6) 23 Highest male singing voice ... in Carshalton (4)
25 See 7dn.
27 See 24dn.
28 Portsmouth’s resort (*at houses) (8)
29 That of a lamprey has rasping points (6)
30 ___ Flack, bitterling, bleak and stickleback record-holder (6)
31 Cheap lodgings (*less hot) (7)
DOWN
1 First to catch a 40+lb carp at Savay (*toxic mast) (3,6) 2 Set-up for carp over mud, weed or debris (4,3) 3 Outdoor public swimming pools (5)
4 Took a tentative bite (7) 5 Bumptious, over-confident (5) 6 Fertilizer possibly *in ‘tater’? (7)
7/25 ac. Main colour of pike (5-5)
14/5 ac. 6 x World Champ gold medallist and coach (*so country) (3,6)
16/19 Maver Match This champ 2017 (*to own robot!) (3,7)
17 Sensory organs all over catfish body (5,4)
19 See 16dn.
20 Eastern bay fed by Welland and Nene (3,4) 22 Crime – e.g. fishing without a licence! (7) 24/27 Catapult or hand-thrown bait sample (5,4)
25 e.g. fumes trapped in frozen pond water (5) 26 County location (abbrev.) of Cromwell Lake (5)