The Bristol Avon at St Anne's Park looked in fair condition despite a heavy, overnight downpour of cold rain.

Unfortunately, fish were few and far between and the capture of a brace of chub was enough to give Johnny Gardiner a comfortable victory.

The Saints AC match record holder put bread and a liquidised filled cage feeder to work on the far side of peg 19 and hooked and lost an estimated 4lb chub on his first cast.

He said: "The bite came while I was pouring my first coffee. The rod tip flew round and within seconds I was playing a fish with one hand, holding a hot cup in the other and clutching the flask between my knees.

"Ten minutes later I lost the fish at the net.

"During the next 20 minutes the rod tip quivered several times and I managed to net a 3-12-0 chub before losing a couple of feeders to a downstream snag.

"To avoid the problem I came in to fish at ¾ across and within 30 minutes had hooked and netted my second and last fish of the day."

Second place was filled by Tom Bailey, who fished a stick float with maggot at two rod lengths off peg six in the trees. Within the first 30 minutes, he netted nine dace and was well on his way to victory.

He said: "I thought it was going to be my day until the fish suddenly disappeared. One minute I was catching a fish with every chuck the next they were gone.

"I gave the swim another half hour, but got no response so I switched to a quiver tip rod and caught three more dace from the far side on double red maggot."

Next came Andy Wilson, who fished the same as the winner at peg 20, and waited until 45 minutes from the end of the match to convert his only bite into a 2-4-0 eel. Downstream end peg one came up with fourth place for Martin Fussell, who fished feeder with maggot and weighed-in two chub at 1-0-0 each.

Result: 1, Johnny Gardiner 6-6-0, peg 19; 2, Tom Bailey 2-14-0, peg 6; 3, Andy Wilson 2-4-0, peg 20; 4, Martin Fussell 2-0-0, peg 1.