After a week of frosts, easterly winds and an overnight temperature of minus 4 degrees, expectations for Saturday’s Drennan Silverfish League were lower than normal. The fish obviously hadn’t read the script, however, as they fed really well all around the Lake!

The winner was Messingham Sands fishery manager Kevin Johnson who found a good mixture of quality skimmers, ide, roach and perch totalling 89lb from peg 12 on Swan. Alternating between 6mm expanders over groundbait on two long lines, and casters at 4 metres, fish came steadily throughout the match.

Second place went to Dennis Pattinson with an excellent 67lb of roach, skimmers and ide caught shallow on maggots from peg 6.

There was an added bonus on the day for those with an eye for wildlife, as a pair of ospreys flew around the fishery for a while as they made their way North!

The cold weather resulted in fewer carp being caught than normal, but this was not the case on Tripp Lake on the following day’s match when Steve Ellis fished 11mm hard pellet and paste to win comfortably with 118lb from peg 26. Gary Hansford claimed second place with 77lb of carp caught shallow on pellet.

Drennan Silverfish League, Swan Pond, Saturday
1 Kevin Johnson, Messingham 89-02
2 Dennis Pattinson, Grimsby 67-05
3 Mick Wills, Crowle 59-03
4 Steve Richardson, Scunthorpe 57-05

Tripp Winter League, Sunday
1 Steve Ellis, Scunthorpe 118-09
2 Gary Hansford, Grimsby 77-05
3 Carl Swetnam, Rotherham 69-15
4 Nick Houghton, Hull 65-13

Saturday Open, Merrys Pool
1 Tommy Grice, Doncaster 110-00
2 Don Hudson, Scunthorpe 82-10
3 Mark Lidgard, Brigg 48-04
4 Gary Shepherd, Hull 29-15

Sunday Open, Hollywood Lake
1 Sean Sanders, Barnsley 77-04
2 Jack Turner, Scunthorpe 52-09
3 Paul Seed, Grimsby 40-04
4 Lol Jones, Grimsby 30-09

Tuesday Open, Tripp Lake
1 Stewart Buckley, Scunthorpe 70-10
2 Jamie Green, Grimsby 67-08
3 John Dudley, Doncaster 67-01
4 Paul Seed, Grimsby 61-00

Wednesday Open, Islands Lake
1 John Belton, Scunthorpe 51-11
2 Paul Seed, Grimsby 41-11
3 Mark Lidgard, Brigg 35-10
4 Tony Woods, Grimsby 33-05

Thursday Open, Swan Pond
1 Colin Batchelor, Scunthorpe 46-14
2 Mark Tupper, Grimsby 42-02
3 Kevin Johnson, Messingham 41-11
4 Alan Bell, Grimsby 40-06

Friday Open, Islands Lake
1 John Holt, Goole 54-12
2 Mark Lidgard, Brigg 50-08
3 Don Hudson, Scunthorpe 49-11
4 Ady Brown, Scunthorpe 44-13