Anthony Flint reports back from a very successful start to the Avon Valley Winter League.

I fished the first round for Drennan Bordon at Broadlands Lakes in Romsey, Southampton. It was important for us to get off to a good start, but our team draw gave us a mixed bag, some good and a few unfavourable draws!

I drew a good section for bream and attacked with a feeder around 60 yards out, just shy of a gravel bar. I used a large Drennan Cage Feeder with a Kamasan B983 eyed hook and 6lb Feeder & Method Mono line. I started with 10 feeders full of Green Swim Stim, containing dead maggots, worm, casters, and corn.

The start was very slow for the first 40 minutes and then, bingo, I caught a skimmer. I then kept casting and the bigger bream arrived on hair-rigged corn. I kept plugging away on the same line all match for a cracking weight of 80lb 9oz.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was enough to win the match. More importantly, our Drennan Bordon team had also won on the day with 59 points. So, an awesome day for me and my team. Go on Drennan Bordon!