The Bury St Edmunds Angling Association Veteran's winter league for the Malcolm Pryke Shield is now underway with two of the 20 matches fished so far.

Chris Boughton

Angling in West Suffolk

By Chris Boughton

The Bury St Edmunds Angling Association Veteran's winter league for the Malcolm Pryke Shield is now underway with two of the 20 matches fished so far. In the first match at Middle Reservoir Chris Boughton came out on top after catching just one fish, a 17lb 10oz common carp from peg 30. Second was Veteran's summer league winner Jack Wetherill with 12lb 6oz of bream from peg 4, followed by Mike Stavely who weighed in 4lb 10oz on peg 28. The water level at Middle Reservoir is way down and it did not fish well.

The second match was at Water Lane Reservoir and the anglers were greeted on arrival by a ground frost which kissed goodbye to any hope of the carp feeding in any numbers. As it turned out just two carp were caught and the two anglers who caught them shared first place with 6lb 12oz a piece. Micky Pearce had a carp of about 4lb plus several small silver fish and Chris Bougthon had a mirror carp of 6lb 7oz plus one roach. Just 4ozs separated the top four anglers with match organiser Ron Hubbard third with 6lb 10oz and Bury AA match secretary Keith Smith fourth with 6lb 8oz. Both had mixed nets of mostly small silver fish taken on the pole at about 8 metres, just over the weed bed that runs around the lake. Mickey also caught his silver fish on the same pole line and snared his carp on feeder fished tight to the far island. Chris's carp was caught very close in to the near bank on peg 2 using 7 metres of pole with double red maggot. The next match is at Barrow Lake.

Cross Drove Fishery is still producing big match weights despite some of the recent colder nights and Saturday's Open match was won with just under 100lb of fish. Local angler Vince Cross (Ixworth) has framed at Cross Drove regularly in matches this year and finally took top spot in style last week with 93lb of F1's, carp and skimmers from peg 67 using 14.5m pole and sweet corn. He pushed one of the visiting stars, ex-England international Mark Pollard, into second place with 78lb from peg 11. Mark caught skimmers and carp on pole at 13m using pellet and meat and also took fourth place in the Wednesday Open.

Results: Cross Drove Wednesday Open - 1. Kevin Kingston Myles (Barford Tackle) 73lb 5oz; 2. Tony Watling (Fox Match) 65lb 15oz; 3. Derek Johns (Thetford AC) 58lb 11oz; 4. Mark Pollard (Fox Dynamite) 58lb 6oz

Cross Drove Saturday Open - 1. Vince Cross (Ixworth) 93lb 5oz; 2. Mark Pollard (Fox Dynamite) 78lb 8oz; 3. Tony Watling (Fox Match) 71lb 9oz; 4. Tony Brookes (Thetford AC) 63lb 4oz.

Bury AA Veterans. Middle Reservoir - 1. Chris Boughton 17lb 10oz; 2. Jack Wetherill 12lb 6oz; 3. Mike Stavely 4lb 10oz

Bury AA Veterans. Water Lane Reservoir - 1. Mickey Pearce 6lb 12oz; 2. Chris Boughton 6lb 12oz; 3. Ron Hubbard 6lb 10oz; 4. Keith Smith 6lb 8oz.

All our rivers are struggling after the driest September in over 30 years. The River Stour, the River Blackbourn, the River Lark and the River Little Ouse are all running low and clear with most sections of these rivers also choked with weed. It is no wonder that local river fishing reports are few and far between.

If you would like your local angling stories, photos or match results included in this article, then please email them to westsuffolkangling@live.co.uk or call 07880 602483