THE annual Vranch House Open took place on the Exeter canal, from Lime Kilns towards the motorway.

Twenty anglers competed in far from favourable conditions, with the sky bright and temperatures in the 70s, which had an effect on catches.

Top angler, taking the trophy and £63 prize money, was Paul Marks (Exeter Angling Centre), who drew peg 20, just into the 'dead' stretch, from where he scaled 2k 870g.

He began by feeding balls of groundbait containing pellets and casters at nine metres, hoping to attract the resident tench and bream.

The first hour was spent fishing a feeder cast to the far bank, which produced four rudd and perch on red maggots to an 18 hook.

Switching to the pole and trying a variety of baits, he waited until almost the last hour of the five-hour event for a good bream. It fell for a piece of worm and a caster on a 16 hook.

Runner-up was Craig Morris, from Cullompton, who had a catch totalling 2k 42g to win £44 prize money.

He drew peg 17, opposite the boat mooring, and pole-fished double red maggots on a 16 hook at 13 metres. He caught a rudd and a perch before switching to feeder tackle. He fished two red maggots on a 14 hook, looking to find one of the elusive bream. Liquidised bread in the feeder eventually attracted fish and he was rewarded with a single bream just 30 minutes from the whistle.

Barry Lucas (Jinx EAC) kept up his good canal form with a third-place catch of 2k 190g to win £33 prize money. He was at peg 13, on the big bend, where he used feeder tackle throughout.

He caught a perch after two hours on a red maggot and a worm and waited another one-and-a-half hours for a welcome bream but failed to get any more bites after landing it.

The first section prize of £10 was won by Andy Bulled at peg one, on the end of the wall. He fished a feeder at the start with double red maggots on 18 or 16 hooks, which produced several rudd during the first hour.

He changed to a waggler float with maggots to add more fish, finishing with around 30 rudd, a hybrid, two perch and a 500g eel.

Section two went to Dave Sellick at peg 12, where he put 2k 160g on the scales. He began by feeding cereal, laced with pellets and casters, at 11 metres.

Baiting a 14 hook with three red maggots, he dropped it into the swim and had an instant take, resulting in a tench.

For the remaining time he sat biteless. Money raised from the event will be donated to Vranch House School.

ANOTHER round of the Express & Echo Angling League takes place on the gold pond at Kia-Ora fishery, near Cullompton, this Sunday.

Prospects of good catches are possible following the spell of warm weather. The draw for pegs is at 8.30am with fishing from 10am until 3pm. Call Mark Thorogood on 01626 889931 to book your place.

The same venue will host another round on Sunday, June 21.

FISHING on pond seven at Upham coarse fishery, Exeter angler Mike Miller caught the biggest carp to date from the recently opened water.

The 23lb common was tempted on a meat bait presented on leger tackle. Len Ponsford, of Exeter, had a 17lb common from pond seven.

There have been other fish scaling 18lb, 16lb and 15lb from the same pond and they have been caught on legered boilies or meat baits.

Fishing on pond six, Peter Wilde, from Exeter, float-fished with worm and corn baits to catch several carp ranging from 2lb to 8lb, seven skimmers to 2lb and a single tench.

Pond three was in good form for Exmouth angler George Boyes, who float-fished with meat and prawn baits.

He had a catch made up of seven carp including fish scaling 8lb 8oz, 9lb and 12lb, plus two tench to 4lb. Legered meat accounted for a 15lb carp to an angler fishing on pond four.

Ponds one and three have been producing a number of tench to a variety of popular baits.

NEWTON Abbot Fishing Club held their all-night event at Rackerhayes and some excellent catches were recorded.

The £100 first prize was won by Neal Stone, who scaled 32k 550g from peg two on Island pond. He used both feeder tactics and waggler with maggots or pellet baits to catch 10 tench to 2.5kilos and 15 kilos of eels.

Runner-up Mark Cousins, fishing at peg 96 on Linhay pond, put 20k 300g on the scales to win £70 prize money.

He used a waggler float and baited with corn or pellets to catch eight good tench. Matt Dore was third with 17k 970g on Dores peg 112. He fished feeder tackle and used pellet or maggot hookbaits to tempt five bream plus eels.

Pete Brailey, also on Dores pond, caught two bream and eels for a 16k 700g total to finish fourth. The two bream weighed together took the balance to 9k 550g, or around 10lb each.

The club's evening match on Key pond was won by Mike Smith with a level 7k of skimmers. He caught them pole-fishing with paste baits at peg 19. Runner-up Paul Gay fished maggots shallow on the pole at peg 18 and recorded 6k 200g of roach.

Gary Webber fished peg 17 and had 4k 980g of skimmers on caster hookbaits presented shallow.

THE Hogsbrook members' midweek event took place on the top lake in wet and windy conditions.

However, a superb winning weight of 56lb was recorded by Stephen Barrell at peg 14 on the dam wall.

He used a pole at 14.5-metres, baiting with maggots or casters presented shallow to catch skimmers and bream to 4lb.

Peter Collings followed with a catch totalling 11lb 12oz from peg nine on the straight bank. He fished at three metres, baiting with maggots over cereal feed to catch six crucians during the first hour followed by perch, skimmers and roach.

The Saturday event took place on the top lake and carp were recorded at their actual weight. Winner Ken Cox had several fish to 14lb in his 106lb total. He fed 6mm pellets in cereal feed and used a 12-metre pole with banded 8mm pellets on the hook.

Runner-up Stuart Tinkler, at peg 16, caught a feeder towards the trees and baited with 10mm pellets.

Stephen Barrell was third with 73lb at peg 15. His best carp weighed 17lb 6oz which took the biggest fish prize. He pole-fished with casters, maggots and corn.

Sunday's event took place on the bottom lake with carp counting as 1lb and Ken Cox continued his winning form with 24lb 12oz from peg 40.

He fished pellets shallow on an eight-metre pole to catch 12 carp plus skimmers and bream to 2lb 8oz.

Runner-up Les Worthington scaled 17lb 8oz at peg 39, made up of seven bream to 4lb plus a single carp. He pole-fished at eight metres and used soft pellets on his hook. Stuart Tinkler took third spot with a catch of 12 carp for 12lb. He pole-fished 10mm pellets, presenting them down the margins.

Pleasure catches reported by members have included good numbers of crucians, tench and the best carp of the week scaled 22lb 8oz. It fell for a legered boilie on the bottom lake at peg 34.

ATTENDANCE at the latest midweek event on the Exeter canal was affected by the Champions League final and it again proved hard going for those who did compete.

Dave Walton had the top catch from peg four, where he scaled 3k 300g.

He fished a pole at nine metres in windy conditions and baited a 16 hook with three red maggots. He caught a rudd and an eel followed late on by a tench and another good eel.

Runner-up Duncan Hill caught a single perch scaling 50g from peg one. No other anglers weighed in on a poor night.

EXETER Association members fishing at Sampford Peverell ponds have been catching good numbers of small carp.

One angler fished a short pole with paste hookbaits and caught 70 fish, ranging from a few ounces up to 2lb. A 9lb carp was caught on the same pond by an angler float-fishing with treble corn on his hook.

Catch reports from the deep pond have varied and fishing early or late in the day has been best. Several carp to 5lb have shown from lots of swims all around the water. The pole or waggler with corn, meat and pellet baits have been successful.

Pole tackle with pellet or maggot baits have taken several skimmers, with the biggest around 1lb 8oz. In the hot weather, lots of fish have been observed just cruising around on the surface. A 3lb tench was caught on pole-fished pellet at a swim halfway along the straight bank.

EXETER Association water manager Tony Osborne, along with Mark Thomas, Martin Reed, Kevin Smith, Mac Philipson, Kane Osborne and George Smith have carried out improvement work on the Silver pond at Kia Ora, near Cullompton.

On two very hot days they had a digger on site and constructed 15 excellent swims with hard bases.

The pathway on the tree-lined bank has also been repaired and a tree was removed from the dam wall end to improve swims there. The team intend to complete any remaining work at the fishery on the weekend of June 13 and 14.

The pond has produced a couple of good catches. A mainly crucian carp catch of 25lb was recorded by Ken Penberthy, who used a short pole and baited with pellets. Sid Batten had a 17lb net of crucians, skimmers and small tench plus an F1 carp of 2lb. He also used a short pole and baited with pellets.

The Gold pond is now in top form, probably thanks to the spell of very warm weather.

The best catch reported was by Gary Thornton, who had 113lb of carp at peg 21, near a floating island. He pole-fished pellets shallow.

Mark Hayman fished at peg 28 into open water and opted to use a waggler float with pellet hookbaits. He had a total catch of 82lb.

His brother, Steve, tried peg one in the narrow channel, where he pole-fished pellets close to the margins and scaled 50lb.

Popular peg three, a shallow waters swim, gave Andy Bulled a 35lb catch mainly on the waggler. Kevin Diment, fishing peg four, had 21b on waggler and pole while Mike Horne fished peg 24 on the floating island and he caught 27lb.

THIS week saw the annual inter-club fishing competition between Exmouth Sea Angling Association and Honiton Sea Angling Club at Budleigh Salterton.

The friendly and light-hearted event has become an eagerly anticipated meeting for both clubs, who battle it out for the Inter-club Shield each year.

Despite Honiton fielding more anglers and recording a greater quantity of fish, this year's glory belonged to Exmouth, who produced a higher percentage catch.

Each team submits their 10 best specimens to vie for the trophy and Exmouth's catch this year pipped Honiton by around 100 per cent, with the final scores being Exmouth SAA 848 per cent and Honiton SAC 747 per cent.

Honiton's Ken Sparks and Exmouth's Brian Reed both claimed best specimen fish for their respective clubs.

CREDITON'S Mike Izzard has had an amazing week and had three sessions at Creedy as the fishing was so prolific. So far this season Mike has banked a total of 15 20-pounders, which is well on track to better last year's record. In his first seasion last week, Mike banked a total of 14 fish, four of them 20-pounders. In total, his bag weighed 221lb.

His second session saw him net the largest and heaviest bag of the week of 19 fish, all commons. His catches were topped by a 22lb 8oz and a 20lb 8oz, along with 14 doubles and three singles, giving a combined bag weight of just over 281lb. Mike's third session brought a total catch of 11 fish, all commons, with the heaviest pair scaling 21lb 5oz and 20lb 10oz in a 147lb total bag.

The hot temperatures have seen many of the prolific stock just basking on the surface and for those anglers who are prepared for surface fishing — and also have the patience — floating dog biscuits and boillies have proved tempting to the fish.

Copplestone's Phil Jefferies has had two cracking sessions at Creedy this past week, banking three commons scaling 25lb 9oz, 24lb 8oz and a 17lb 13oz on his first visit and then fish of 25lb, a 24lb 13oz, a 19lb 13oz and one of 18lb 15oz.

Cheriton Fitzpaine teacher Chris Charlwood banked three fish and also tempted the heaviest mirror carp for the week when he landed his 24lb 5oz specimen. His other two fish were commons of 15lb 3oz and a single-figure carp.

Exeter's Debbie Stevens had a good session, banking five good-sized carp up to 24lb, which matched her existing personal best catch, along with a tench.

Axminster angler Tristan Wakeley found the left-hand bank productive. Using a zig rig, he tempted a 24lb 2oz common along with one of 15lb 5oz and bottom baits attracted commons of 10lb 8oz and a 3lb fish on his other rod. Seaton's Keith Osborne fished at the top of the right-hand bank and hooked himself a new personal best catch when he banked a 24b common.

Keith also tempted commons of 17lb, a pair of 12lb fish and a pair of 10lb.

Exeter's Lee Hardy fished the shelf swim off the far bank and landed four good-sized doubles up to 20lb 10oz. Lympstone angler Andy Lambert tempted a nice 22lb common. Bradninch angler Patrick Sanders had a cracking evening session, banking four commons up to 21lb 4oz.

In the top lake, there has been some consistent action. the right-hand bank was productive for Wellington angler Dave Hodges, who banked a total of seven fish, six carp up to 15lb together with a lovely 4lb green tench.

NEWTON Abbot's Andrew Gooding has been selected to represent England in the European Championships.

Gooding claimed the Snowbee Perpetual Trophy at the South West heat for the national finals, which was fished on the River Teign, at Fingle Bridge.

Gooding amassed more than 1,000 points for the 27 trout he caught.

Twenty-two anglers from as far away as West Yorkshire and Derbyshire had entered the event.

The competitors were not disappointed with the quality of fishing, with 183 measurable fish being caught.

Each fish is measured and then returned carefully to the water. The details of the size are then recorded by an independent controller, points being awarded for each fish and the overall length of the fish.

These points are then totalled up at the end of the competition.

This huge score was achieved in only three-and-a-half hours' fishing. Snowbee UK Ltd again provided sponsorship for the competition with prizes and the perpetual trophy.