GALES and floods put pay to most of the river fixtures at the weekend and the only matches that went ahead were on the Yorkshire Ouse and despite several feet of extra water competitors managed to catch a few fish.

Saturday’s Winter Series at Widdington, Hunters Lodge and Thorpe Underwood went to Dave Armitage (Cleckheaton) who recorded 9.9.0. Fishing the famous bungalows peg 222 at Hunters Lodge pole feeder and worm tactics paid off tempting 10 nice roach however it was a bonus big bream that sealed the verdict.

Stan Haigh (Anglers World Holidays) just missed out recording 9.2.0 from Arthur Benstead (Pontefract) 4.10.0.

Come Sunday on the Ouse the opening leg of the Leeds Winter League attracted an outstanding 56 anglers considering the conditions.

A bream once again decided the outcome from nearby peg 220 on the bungalows. Ian Bowman (Barnsley) incredibly caught the specimen of 6.4.0 on his last cast of the day on the deadly pole feeder approach along with 4 roach for 7.0.0.

Next, Dean Grace (Pontefract) drew peg 224 and opted for groundbait feeder and worm collecting 16 redfins for 6.0.0.

Elsewhere, the Bradford No1 AA Open scheduled for the river Nidd at Cowthorpe proved unfishable and officials decided to move the match to their nearby Raskelf Lake near Easingwold.

Fred Prudham (Medlock Bridge) was certainly delighted finishing a runaway winner bagging a thumping 84.0.0. Drawing peg 8 Fred opted to fish the pole and maggot presented at 7m and latched into a steady succession of carp up to 6.0.0.

Steve Hodson (RSPS) on the opposite side of the lake peg 41 decided on groundbait feeder and maggot approach to combat the strong winds and picked up mainly ide for 25.1.0. Others: S Foster (Bradford) 12.15.0; G Cox (Bradford) 10.12.0.

Mosella Quaker picked a perfect weekend for their opening round of the Silver fish Series on Woodland Lakes and not surprisingly 54 turned up in search of sport.

Mosella Quaker anglers dominated the proceedings and Chris Gowling led the way returning 21.0.0. On Partridge Lake peg 4, pole and maggot accounted for lots of roach and rudd and a 2 pound tench.

Jonnie Madison nicked 2nd spot with a mixture of roach, rudd and skimmers for 18.12.0 from A Nelson 18.6.0 and P Noble (Darlington Angling Centre) 18.1.0.

FIXTURES - tomorrow: *Yarm AL Prince Charles Trophy Tees – Yarm, *DBT Grayling Cup Tees and Swale, *Ripon Piscatorials Open Ure – Hutton Beck to Hewick.

Witton Castle Lakes

Weekend opening has proved popular with those anglers wishing to continue their fishing over the winter months. Witton Castle Lakes has continued to fish well over the last few weeks and has regularly returned very healthy rod averages of between 5 and 6.

Many anglers have also landed bags well into double figures as the conditions have given them some great sporting action on all of the lakes.

All anglers report that black and olive buzzers have been fishing extremely well along with black zonkers, and blobs when fished static under the indicator.

We will continue to be open Friday to Sunday throughout the winter and ticket prices will be sporting tickets at £10 for 1 fish, £12 for 2 fish and £16 for 3 fish.

The club has also kept the stock levels up to give all you anglers a welcome diversion, especially over the busy holiday period.