THE Exeter Association's final competition of the decade took place on the Gold pond at Kia Ora where everyone caught some fish.

Prior to the start, an inch of ice had to be broken up before fishing could begin on a very cold day. The noise of the ice breaking did not have a negative effect and fish were soon responding.

The top catch was recorded by Steve Hayman at peg eight, where he put 5k 400g on the scales to take the £46 first prize.

He fished a pole at seven metres and fished over it with soft 4mm pellets on a 16 hook.

He caught skimmers steadily up to the 180g mark and had more than 50 in his net. The last one-and-a-half hours saw his swim slow considerably but he had done just enough.

Runner-up Gary Thornton (ALS VDE) scaled 5k 160g at peg 23, along the dam wall. He fed cereal plus micros and casters and used red maggots on an 18 hook. He began catching well with skimmers feeding steadily. He caught good numbers of them up to the 300g mark along with roach and three crucian carp. A few of his skimmers were caught on casters when he tried them.

Third place went to Paul Marks (Exeter Angling Centre) who scaled 4k 450g at peg 25 and received £18 prize money. He pole-fished at seven metres with small roach coming to red maggots on casters on an 18 hook during the first hour.

Skimmers started to show and he switched to soft pellets, which brought more than 20 of them to 300g, plus a 350g perch and three crucian carp. There were two section prizes of £10 each, with Zac Newton taking a mixed catch of over 3k from peg 20 where he used pole tactics. Ade Croft took the other section with just under 2k of mixed fished from peg 22, where he also used a pole.

The first competition for Exeter club members this year takes place on Sunday, January 17. The venue is the Grand Western Canal at Greenway, which is a sheltered section and will hopefully hold plenty of roach.

The fourth round of the winter pairs competition was due to have taken place on Sunday on the two ponds at Kia Ora. Unfortunately it was cancelled because of the ice covering the surface. The event will have to be fished at a later date.

This Sunday, the first round takes place at Kia Ora where only silver fish count on both ponds. Once again it all depends on the weather conditions. The peg draw is at 8.30am with fishing from 10am to 3pm.

THE draw has been made for the 2010 Van Den Eynde Supercup competition, which has attracted a nationwide entry of 282 teams.

The Exeter team have been drawn with Stafford Moor AC and Cornish Club Kernow MG. The venue will be at Stafford Moor fishery and has to be fished by March 7.

Team Jinx EAC have a home draw and will be fishing against South Devon MG. The venue is likely to be Kia Ora ponds which will offer them a good chance of making it through to the next round.

HOGSBROOK members endured a very cold day for their latest midweek event, fished on the top lake. A winning net of 5lb 10oz was recorded by Mark Whetnall (Jinx EAC) who was at peg 14 on the dam wall.

He fed a couple of balls of cereal containing some casters and pinkies and fished a pole at 10 metres with maggot hookbaits. He had a catch of roach and skimmers, with the best at 2lb.

Runner-up Mike Horne scaled 4lb 8oz at peg 11, along the straight bank, where he used a 12-metre pole. He caught roach and skimmers to 1lb 8oz on single maggots hookbaits and attracted the fish with a little cereal feed.

Third was Dave Whitehall at peg 13 where he scaled a level 4lb. He fed pinkies in cereal feed and used them on the hook to catch small roach and skimmers to 1lb on a pole at eight metres.

The Sunday competition also took place on the top lake but, following several days of frosty weather, the anglers had to break the ice before they could start. Despite this, leading catches were good and Gordon Parkin top-scored with 12lb 6oz.

He was at peg 14 on the dam wall where he fed cereal with worms and pinkies. Pole-fishing at 10 metres and alternating between worms and maggots on the hook, he caught roach and big skimmers to 2lb 8oz.

Runner-up was Mike Horne with figures of 7lb 4oz from peg nine. He used a pole at 10 metres and caught skimmers to 2lb on worm hookbaits along with some roach.

He fed cereal with worms and casters. Dave Whitehall followed in third place with 3lb 6oz of roach and skimmers caught on an eight-metre pole with pinkie hookbaits. He was fishing peg 16, on the dam wall.

CONSIDERING the weather conditions, the two sweepstakes fished at Goodiford Mill produced some very good catches of silver fish.

Prior to fishing, a boat was used to help break up the surface ice for the 15 anglers at the first event.

The top catch went to Martin Heard, of Tiverton, who had 22lb 8oz at peg 22 to win £70 prize money. He used pole tackle with caster or maggot hookbaits over loose offerings to catch mainly roach.

Runner-up Kevin Diment, at peg 21, 22lb on the scales. He fished poles at four and eight metres to catch roach including good samples to 1lb. He used caster hookbaits fished over loose offerings to attract the fish.

Duncan Hill, fishing peg 15, was close behind in third place with a catch of roach and skimmers to 2lb 8oz. He used double red maggot hookbaits with a pole at six metres.

The second event saw 14 anglers compete in similar conditions but the resident fish responded.

Top catcher was Zac Newton who had a 21lb 2oz net at peg 24 to win £70 prize money. He fished a pole at eight metres and caught lots of roach plus a few skimmers, mainly on casters but some came to maggots.

Kevin Diment was runner-up again with a 19lb 2oz catch of roach plus some skimmers at peg 22. He pole-fished casters at eight metres to take the catch.

Third place went to Roly Palmer (Jinx EAC) who had 16lb 15oz at peg 12 where he used poles at three and seven metres. He fished red maggot hookbaits over cereal and pellet feed and caught roach plus some perch.

Anglers thinking of visiting the venue can obtain day tickets on site.

SPIRES fishery, at North Tawton, is solid with one-and-a-half inches of ice on the surface. During the holiday period, fishing was possible and anglers who made the journey caught some fish.

The higher lake saw the odd carp caught on legered Pepperami or maggot hookbaits. The best fish scaled around the 8lb to 10lb mark. There was a nice orfe caught on popped up corn, which scaled 4lb 11oz.

On the lower lake, one angler used float tactics with meat baits to catch seven carp up to 9lb. Also in the catch were several roach. Perch to 2lb have also been showing up to meat baits.

Pole tactics with maggot and caster hookbaits have been accounting for fair numbers of roach and skimmers to around the 8oz to 12oz mark. The water is clear on the lower lake as expected in the cold conditions.

EXETER Association waters have been badly affected by the cold weather, with ice covering the surfaces and members have been unable to fish them.

Abbrook pond at Kingsteignton did produce a couple of small carp for one angler who fished there just before the ice took over. The fish fell to legered boilie hookbaits.

Fortunately the river has not frozen and the one area that offers vehicles access is Bonhay Road, where some big bream are resident in the length that is relatively shallow down the middle.

One local angler caught two good bream during a session just before Christmas.

Another visit produced a big bream weighted at 10lb 4oz. All of the fish have been caught on feeder tackle with multiple maggots and worms on the hook.

Unfortunately there have been no dace, roach or perch caught there but a single grayling showed up.

There are still two-and-a-half months of the river season remaining, offering anglers plenty of opportunity to fish through the city reaches of the river.

The quay and Shilhay lengths could produce bream but parking restrictions make access to them difficult there.

TRADITIONALLY at this time of the year Taunton Fishing Club waters like the River Tone and the canal are quite popular with anglers from the Exeter area.

The latest news from the canal is that the colour that ran into the waterway a week ago has now run out and the Nerrolls and Bathpool sections have produced fish, mainly roach. Bread punch is the number one hookbait.

The "fast" stretch of the River Tone in Taunton is now in good condition and should be worth a visit.

The local club held their latest competition on Sunday where a catch of chub, roach, grayling and odd dace scaling 10 kilos won it.

There were other catches of seven kilos, five kilos and 4.5 kilos, recorded. Maggots were the successful bait.

Anyone considering fishing the above waters might call Enterprise Angling on 01823 282 for up-to-the-minute information.

WITH the recent and continuing severe weather the fishing has been challenging for those hardy anglers who have turned up at South View Farm.

Willow pool gave Harry Workman six carp to include a 23lb 2oz common carp on legered baits.

Jay Frayne had a 22lb 14oz. common carp to legered luncheon meat.

Kingfisher pool gave Nik Slater two carp and silver fish to pole-fished maggot.