West finishes the clear winner

Angling

STEVE WEST led the way in this year’s Canterbury & District Angling Association Saunders Cup at Jade Lake in Minster on Sunday, writes PAUL MERCER.

The 19 competitors were in search of silver fish only during the sixhour match and although all caught, West was the clear winner with a commendable 20lb 7oz of small skimmer bream using a pole with red maggots and small pellet baits.

Mick Wilson chose to fish with a waggler float and netted 17lb 4oz of skimmer bream and roach for second place.

Glenn Brett’s 12lb 14oz of small roach and skimmers earned him third with his pole and maggots, with Blean Angling’s Mark Coker hooking 10lb 13oz with his pole for fourth and Matthew Dryden winning the junior match.

Earlier in the week, Dick Callaway hooked roach from Plucks Gutter. With fish to 1lb to his name, Callaway used hemp and tares to record catches of 40lb, 42lb and 52lb.

David George caught roach and skimmers for a total of 37lb with maggot baits and a stick float, while Ray Fuller landed five more pike, including fish of 16lb and 19lb, using paternostered dead baits.

While Plucks Gutter was fishing well, Grove Ferry has also been worth a try for pike. Keith Heckley also used paternostered dead baits near to the Inn to catch a lively predator of 18lb.

Stonar Lake has been a good bet for anglers over the past week.

Martin Hendy fished over two days and on the first caught 24 roach and during the second session he landed 90 more for 37lb.

Lots of good carp were landed with several anglers tussling with weighty bream among them. Alan Plant’s 8lb common carp was taken alongside a bream of 4lb 3oz while Darren Offen’s commons of 5lb, 6lb and 7lb were landed during the same session as his four bream to 7lb. Many more bream to 7lb have been seen. The heaviest carp of the week from Stonar was a good mirror of 15lb 2oz which fell to Jamie White along with a common carp of 8lb.