Angling: Can you think of anything worse? As the winter weather begins to bite: COARSE ANGLING.

Byline: By TONY CURNOW

WHEN you're sat shivering, watching the end of a motionless quiver tip rod with tears streaming down your face from the biting cold wind and a dew drop on the end of your nose, you could be forgiven for thinking there is nothing worse.

But last weekend a lot of anglers had to do just that to get a single bite.

Ironically, however, winter fishing for other anglers can be quite brilliant.

If you look at the normally prolific Woodlands complex at Thirsk that played host to 15 anglers last Sunday, T Neesam of Woodlands Tackle needed just 7lb 4oz to win.

Runner-up D Widrik of Skipton caught 4lb 6oz and Gordon Webb of Daiwa Cleveland came third with 3lb 14oz. It must have been soul destroying.

But, yet again, Northallerton DAA's 37 peg match on the River Swale around Scruton and Morton had a lot of anglers in a blind sweat with hungry chub throwing themselves at baited hooks.

Matty Prudoe of the RSPS group set his stall out at Scruton and led the way with a terrific 94lb 1oz of chub accompanied by a few grayling by fishing the stick float with maggot.

Steve Evans of Doncaster fished bread and wasp grub for his 73lb 15oz net of chub further upstream, while S McCardle of Brotherton also enjoyed chub sport with a third placed 67lb during a match that saw 13 double figure weights.

Mike Broadley's dominance of stick float fishing on his beloved River Tees for more than four decades is the stuff that legends are made of.

So it was no surprise to see him top of the list during Yarm AL's 55-peg Fur and Feather match last Sunday.

But this year he had to share the spoils and the prize table with up and coming match angler Mark Arrowsmith of Newman Scott.

Mike drew peg 79 on Stricklands and fished the stick float with maggot and caught four chub for 8lb 14oz while Mark opted for the long rod with maggot from peg 119 on Yarm shallows to catch smaller chub but in greater numbers, for the same weight.

Jimmy Messer of Shotton came third with 8lb.

At The Oaks, last Sunday, 55 anglers turned out and James Dent of Daiwa Cleveland is still showing the old timers how to do it.

Fishing the pole down the middle with maggot he caught a winter warming 21lb 9oz net of carp to just head off the winning ambitions of runner-up Phil Eastwood of Spenborough who fell 6oz short with 21lb 3oz.

L Bramham of Bob-co came third with 19lb 4oz.

At Woodlands last Wednesday 27 anglers fished the midweeker and John Murray, of Woodlands Tackle, used the bomb with corn from Partridge peg five (a tip mentioned here a few weeks ago) and just nicked the match with 20lb 9oz.

In second place Daryl Taylor of Daiwa had tears in his eyes being so close with 20lb 6oz.

D Calvert of Carpus Christie took third place with 20lb 4oz in a very close match.

The best day's pleasure fishing though has been reserved until last because 32-year-old Terry Wheatley from Stillington fished the Tontine Lake for carp and hooked a monster.

Having pre-baited a swim beforehand Terry fished a popped up spicy chicken boilie on the halffrozen lake and was rewarded with one bite.

A perfectly scaled 27lb 12oz common carp. Not a bad three hour session.

The capture of that fish earned Terry 10 points in the Evening Gazette Coarse Angler of the Year competition.

Tip of the week

WITH too much turkey, roast parsnips and Christmas pudding inside of you that gives you that bloated feeling, the only remedy is to get out fishing.

You never know you may even pull a couple of Christmas crackers like Terry Wheatley!

CAPTION(S):

WRAPPED UP WARM: It's cold work on the riverbanks at this time of year