THE start of the river fishing season came around last week and the Malvern United Anglers kicked off their fixture list in fine style with their stretch of the Avon at Birlingham showing excellent form.

The weekend saw the first cup contest, the Ashwin Cup being competed for, switched from the Severn to the Avon due to access problems. Members were anticipating a good day with sunshine and a cooling breeze making for good conditions.

Most anglers found plenty of bites, but it was Chris Loveridge who swept all before him to take a fantastic catch of bream. Drawn on peg three Chris tackled his swim with a groundbait feeder approach using worm on the hook. He landed ten proper bream between 3-4lbs and some skimmers to thump the scales to a huge 46-0-0 winning the cup and taking the best weight in a club's river contest for many years.

In second place was club veteran Dave Harris who showed off his pole skills to take a nice bag of skimmers and roach from peg 7 for 8-8-0. Richard Webster drawn on peg 18 fished a groundbait feeder to land 6-14-0 of skimmers which was good enough for third place.

Earlier in the week the Sandford series had opened on the Avon. Following on from his success in winning the Spring league Neil Humpage took this one with a mixed bag of skimmers roach and eels, alternating between pole and feeder, Neil tipped 5-12-0 onto the scales.

Runner up was Buzz Busby who landed a good bream weighing 4-6-0 and some bits for 4-13-0.

Paul Bick came third with a mixed bag of eels skimmers and roach weighing 4-11-0 using pole tactics.

Could members please note that at present cars must not be driven up to the club's stretch of the Severn due to the grass not being cut yet. Any contests due to be held there will be switched to the Avon until this is resolved.