THE return of milder weather brought about a change of fortune for many anglers as river and lake fish started feeding again.

Double figure carp, heavyweight bream and some good roach have been caught during last week, plus some good-sized pike.

The big fish list includes Tony Ward's 2lb 7oz roach from the Avon at Downton, an 8lb 8oz bream from Christchurch AC's stretch of the Avon at Burgate and a 6lb 10oz chub from the Ellingham stretch.

Further downstream the Horseport stretch yielded a roach of 2lb 12oz.

On the lakes, the Somerley complex at Ringwood is on top form with plenty of 20lb-plus carp and one at 29lb.

A 24lb pike came out of Spinaker Lake and there have been good bags of dace and chub from most stretches of the Avon.

Salisbury AC members held a club match at Witherington Farm Fishery on Sunday on the Inner Snake. Paul Barnard won a close match with 43lb 12oz, Greg Victor was second with 40lb 10oz and Lee Goodfellow was third with 39lb 5oz.

The Goodfellow brothers are hoping Lee's in-form style continues with this Saturday's final round of the Winter Pairs competition coming up as Lee and Ian are in strong contention to take the honours.

On the same day another match on the fishery's Cottage Lake saw a winning weight of 56lb, so match results are on the up again as the temperature creeps up.

Tench are back in form at Watergate Farm Fishery at Bul-ford with anglers taking up to six a sitting with individual fish reaching 4lb-plus.

Plenty of carp activity too, with the week's best at 11lb.

Some hefty ghost and mirror carp have been caught at Wal-dens Farm Fishery with Abbots Lake and Monks Lake both fishing well. Josh Carpenter had a 15lb 2oz ghost out of Abbots Lake while Jack Bryant had a mirror/ghost cross from Monks Lake weighing 13lb 5oz.

Halibut pellet is the in-form carp bait at Waldens at the moment.

Best pike from Bishops Lake was 13lb 4oz, while young Andrew Wetherby caught his best to date at 8lb 12oz from Abbots.

Anglers have been catching two to three ghost and mirror carp up to 10b a sitting from Abbots Lake while bream up to 4lb have been caught from Monks Lake, together with several tench as they begin to show again.

Popes Lake continues to fish well for mirror and ghosts between 3lb and 6lb and good mixed bags from Deacons Lake with the odd chub to add extra spice.