The Lechlade Marina Winter League was hard work for the 13 competitors who fished a coloured river that rose over a foot during the match, but it neverthessless produced a specimen perch, writes ANDY WEBBER.

Graham Perkins fished bread punch for the first hour, catching a few roach, before changing to the chop to put together a fine net of mainly perch, weighing in 20.0.0.

He fished against a moored boat and his bag included a very big perch of 3.8.0.

Second was Paul Hayes, who also fished chopped worm to weight in 9.2.0 after fishing at ten metres.

Colin Manning fished punch at first and then went on to the chop for a mixed bag of 7.6.0.

The Cherwell was back to its normal level last weekend, with the rain creating a steady flow just right for the Oxford Bus AC match.

Pete Clarke triumphed with a good bag of roach, perch and a medium-sized skimmer bream, plus dace and rudd for a winning 10.13.0.

He used the pole, fishing just off the bottom with maggots and casters.

Dace and rudd are quite rare in this stretch, so their appearance was a bit of a surprise.

Second place went to Anthony Tompkins with a good bag of roach and perch worth 8.13.0 on pole and worm, followed by Terry Yates with perch and a daddy ruff worth 2.6.0.

There was a good turn-out of 11 for the latest Jolly Anglers match fished on their Oxford Reach of the Thames, although the weather was miserable.

Frank Butler came out top with a net of roach weighing 9.6.0. He started off on the feeder with flake and then switched to the pole and punch.

Lee Edmunds was runner-up with 8.3.0 of roach after alternating between the stick float and maggot, and groundbait feeder.

Also getting among the roach, Phil Ansell was third with 7.2.0 on maggot feeder and also cage-feeder with liquidised bread.

The Acorn Angling Open was fished by 17 on the Thames at Carmel College, which had dropped a couple of inches and lost its colour, but everyone caught.

Tony Gee (Acorn Angling) was top man with 8.14.0 of roach, on a 5BB stick, size 14 hook and fluro maggots.

Matt Micallef (Acorn Angling) fished the pole and maggot for a second-placed 7.10.0, catching roach, dace and chublets.

Also fishing the pole and maggot, Jan Stankowski was third with 6.14.0 of roach and bits.

The Thame at Drayton Bridge was the venue for Cuddesdon Mill VAA Open fished by 18 matchmen and although it coloured up during the match, it didn’t deter Tony Sexton.

He put two chub on the scales using waggler and maggot for a winning 8.3.0.

Brian Pallet had a chub, plus bits, on the stick and maggot for 5.2.0 and Geoff Ring landed a chub and bits on legered flake for a third-placed 3.13.0.

Benson fished their third Rosebowl on the local stretch of the Thames, where the four anglers found the river looking spot-on, but as the match went on, it became more pacy.

Mick Marriott and Ian Fisher tied for top spot with 5.0.0. Both caught roach, Mick on either a blockend or groundbait feeder with maggot, while Ian fished liquidised bread in a cage-feeder with flake.

Ray Dandridge did enough with 3.1.0 for third place, using a feeder with red maggot to catch roach.