Merv Skuse beat last year's champ, Bob 'The Bread' Price to the Bitterwell Lake Monday League title by just one point with a magnificent 72-15-0 winning catch of carp in the final round.

After drawing to fish peg 4, on the dam wall, it was no surprise when he set his stall out for carp.

He fished a straight lead with a 15mm round of punched bread on a size 18 hook at 50 yards and netted 5 carp before anyone else had a bite.

He said: "I put the bait about 6 or 7 metres to the right of the aerator and by altering the length of the trace managed to catch fish at a steady pace from the very first cast.

"I lost count of how many fish I caught but at the "all out" shout I reckoned to be a good 10lb ahead."

The runner-up was Steve Mundy who fished the same method and bait as the winner approximately 3 metres short of the aerator off peg 20 on Road Bank and weighed-in 12 quality carp totalling 58-9-0.

He said: "After the first couple of hours I reckoned to be just a couple of fish shy of the winner. However during the last 30 minutes Merv caught three fish to my one and at the weigh-in I knew he had done me as soon as he pulled his keepnet from the water."

Last year's champ, Bob "The Bread" Price drew peg 2 and with an aerator chuck on offer opted to fish the same method and bait as the winner. However, he caught both fewer and smaller fish than the new champ and finished the day in third place with 48-10-0.

Former champ, Steve Maybery drew peg 10, the Roach Hole, but opted to fish for carp with a straight lead and punched bread. His 60 yard casts towards the aerator tempted 14 carp of varying sizes and he weighed in a 40-6-0 total catch.

The top silverfish catch was taken by waggler expert Gary Etheridge at peg 18 on Road Bank. He fished his favourite method with maggot at around the 25 – 30 metres mark and outclassed the rest of the silverfish field with a superb 21-11-0 catch of skimmers and roach.

The Silverfish title went to Bill Ferris who finished third on the day. The Alcove AC member poled caster and maggot between 5 and 9 metres off peg 8 on the short bank and weighed-in 14-15-0 of skimmers, perch and small roach.

Result: 1, Merv Skuse 72-15-0, peg 4; 2, Steve Mundy 58-9-0, peg 20; 3, Bob "The Bread" Price 48-10-0, peg 2; 4, Steve Maybery 40-6-0, peg 10.

Silverfish: 1, Gary Etheridge (Garbolino BVMG) 21-11-0, peg 18; 2, Steve Dawson 15-4-0, peg 5; 3,Bill Ferris (Alcove AC) 14-15-0, peg 8; 4, Andy Gard 10-3-0, peg 21; 5, Norman Ferris 10-2-0, peg 3.

League: 1, Merv Skuse 18 points; 2, Bob "The Bread" Price 17. Silverfish: 1, Bill Ferris 11 points; 2, Andy Gard 10.