GRIMSBY anglers were to the fore at a series of competitions at Messingham Sands.
The fishery has been very busy and the ponds have been in good form.
Merrys Pool has been in great form throughout the season and did not disappoint over the festive break.
Grimsby angler Gary Hansford won two matches on this pond, with excellent nets of carp from 1lb to 5lbs.
He fished 8mm pellet on the straight lead to win on Boxing Day with 97lbs, finishing with 9lbs to spare over travelling companion Andy Bryant.
Putting the experience gained in this match to good use, he went on to win the Sunday Open with 112lbs by using the same method.
The Pairs event saw something of a walkover for Ken Pacey, who caught small carp on a waggler from peg 26 on the Swan pond for 36lbs and maximum points.
His team-mate Simon Drayton finished second on the Islands Lake with 27lbs of silver fish on pole-fished maggots.
It gave them an impressive total of three points, which was five ahead of nearest rivals Nobby Winters and Craig Williams.
Individually, Scunthorpe angler Jack Turner finished top with 56lbs of carp, fishing small cubes of meat on a method feeder on Islands Lake, peg 4.
Don Hudson landed an excellent 15lb 6ozs ghost carp from the Islands Lake.
Grimsby angler Keith Easton topped the list in the Silverfish Open.
Drawn on peg 52 on the Swan Pond, he swapped between 4mm soft pellet on the long pole and maggots at 6m, to finish with around 20lbs of skimmers and 10lbs of roach.
Saltfleetby Fisheries was full – it seems that many anglers had seen these reports in the paper and decided to go.
I of course got the blame for so many anglers turning up. Then, to make it worse, I drew the flyer.
I went on to fish quite badly and lost several fish due to breaking the hook length or, for some unknown reason, the hook coming off.
Other anglers were starting to catch. Rob Thompson had some decent fish down at the edge, but when there was any traffic along the roadside it seemed to kill his peg.
Nathan Underwood caught a double-figured fish early on and managed to catch silverfish and carp to grab third place with 23.12lb.
Thompson was second with 26lb.
Grimsby angler Lee Popham was fishing at the tip of the island and was getting fish down at the edge but lost them in the last hour.
I just managed to keep in front and landed a few fish in the second half of the match – but on the whole I did not fish well at all. My total weight was 28.3lb.
If you are going tomorrow, make sure that you book in with the fishery.
At Wold View Fishery, Claxby, Norman Hewliss won a match on the bronze lake with 29lb from peg 19, ahead of Simon Piggott and Chris Smith.
On silver lake, Chris Mack was top man with 23lb from peg 35, ahead of Neil Spence and Dave Mountford.
Cleethorpes Country Park is producing decent bags of bream.
Matty Benwell had ten bream on New Year's Day.
There are also some decent pike coming out and even some big carp.
The beck at Cleethorpes is fishing well for roach, either on bread punch or maggot.
