MALVERN United Angling Association members fished for the Club Cup on their stretch of the River Avon at Birlingham last Sunday.

In soaring temperatures and with the river low and clear, bites were hard to come by for most.

Mike Spragg went one better than his second place in the Ashwin Cup by taking this competition by some margin.

Drawn on peg 21 in an area that had recently produced some bream, Mike decided to set his stall out for them by fishing a groundbait feeder with red maggot.

After a blank first hour his first bream arrived, a nice fish of around 4-0-0, four more bream followed at intervals and along with some small skimmers gave him a winning weight of 18-5-0.

Drawn next door to Mike on peg 22 was Chris Loveridge, known for catching large nets of bream Chris too fished a groundbait feeder but could only tempt one on this occasion. But it was a lovely fish weighing 5-10-0 and along with some bits gave him 6-4-0 which was enough for second on the day.

Neil Humpage took third spot from peg 29, Neil fished the pole over groundbait and took a mixed net of roach and skimmers which tipped the scales at 4-6-0.

The Wednesday evening Sandford series kicked-off on the Avon at Birlingham with the river in an unforgiving mood and most anglers struggled.

Ian Goddard however took a nice bag of skimmers on the feeder from peg 27 which went 6-0-0 on the scales.

After this the weights tumbled and Neil Humpage, drawn on end peg 40, needed only 2-0-0 consisting of a number of tiny skimmers caught on feeder tactics, to give him second place.

Perennial winner of this series Paul Bick, started this season's campaign with a lowly 1-13-0, but it was good enough for third place.

Paul caught eels and perch close in on pole tactics from peg 29.

The second round was fished on the club's stretch of the Severn at Holdfast, Paul Bick came good this time by netting six bream from peg 10, on a groundbait feeder, for a winning weight of 29-12-0.

Second place went to series organiser Neil Humpage, who fished peg five and caught two bream for a weight of 10-6-0.

The next contest is the third of the Wednesday Sandford series (July 12), on the River Avon at Birlingham. Draw at 6.15pm.