A HEAVY overnight frost was compensated by the depth of the water in the latest Stoppos Open.
Carp did not put in an appearance, which was not unexpected, and it was roach and bream that came to the fore and made up all of the weights.
All-in-all, things were not as bad as was expected — especially for Pete Johnson, who took the honours for the second week running.
Last time it was the carp that helped him to the top and this week it was the bream.
Again, using the feeder, this time with worms on the hook, he did well to finish ahead with 15lbs 2ozs.
Runner-up John Harper netted three roach for 4lbs on his waggler and maggot tactics over 12 feet of water. The rest of his weight was smaller roach and bream that gave him a total of 9lbs 12ozs.
Match organiser John Stevens took yet another third place with 6lbs 12ozs.
As he has done all season, he fished chopped worm along with a feeder, taking bream and the odd perch to boost his weight.
The depth of this huge irrigation pool was no doubt the saviour of this match.
The depth helps to even out any temperature drops and is typified by the fact that it does not produce any reasonable weights until much later than most other waters.
A FISHERY in a valley and surrounded by trees sounds like the ideal place to be at this time of the year.
But try telling that to the anglers who fished in the latest Over 60’s Winter League match and they will have you hanging by your wellies from the Trent Bridge! It was cold - very cold - in that wind and the result was that almost half of the accomplished anglers failed to bother the man with the scales.
The Robin Wood Fishery at Ingleby can normally be relied upon to produce some reasonable weights. Well, it did for the winner, Dave Rudge as he put 15lbs 8ozs on the scales, but the rest struggled.
Rudge netted four carp and one ide, all caught on sweet corn.
After that, it was ide all the way with Pete Gourlay taking five on the feeder in his 4lbs 3ozs second placed net.
Roy Bumstead maintained his form this season with a third placed 2lbs 13ozs - again ide - this time caught on the maggot on feeder tactics.
Fishing the pole and maggots put Dennis Hagues into third place taking a small carp and an ide for 2lbs 10ozs leaving Mick Lakin fourth, with a net of ide that weighed 2lbs 1oz.
