BIG fish came to the rescue in the Federation Winter League match on Nottingham Canal.

Credit goes to the 11 hardy souls who braved the snow and ice. Although five blanked, the rest hooked into big bream and impressive nets of small silvers.

East Leake's Alan Peerless, pegged on the Law Courts stretch, was the top rod with 6-9 on punch.

He included a 2lb-plus bream and a 1lb-plus roach.

Gary Smith (Midland), on the Capital One stretch, weighed 5-5 of roach to 1lb on caster.

Third spot went to Ian Foulds, who caught small roach and dace on pinkie, plus a 1lb bream and a 1lb chub, for 3-9.

Andy Simpson, on the Law Courts, only had two fish, a 2lb-plus bream and a roach, but Trevor Blair caught 25 small roach on punch.

The weather was awful but catches were impressive in the sixth round of the Bait-tech Winter League on the carp pond at Rycroft.

Only 11 fished, but they all weighed in as the snow came down.

Shimano's Rob Wootton won with 13-14 on caster at peg 8 after he managed to scrounge some bloodworm at the last minute.

Leicester rod Peter Marlow was second with 9-11, from Dean Guest with 6-5.

Match organiser Andy Taft, from Derby, had a match he will want to forget in a hurry.

He was lucky enough to get his hands on some joker. But he forgot to take it out of the fridge and tried desperately to thaw it out on his car engine. He finished with 1-11.

It was all in sharp contrast to the Erewash Valley Winter League practice match. With ice breaking again the order of the day, the result was the worst in recent years, with only six fish caught.

Added to this, no bloodworm was available due to the arctic conditions in Eastern Europe.

And, with no prospects of any next weekend, the league fixture has been put back to the following Saturday.

Julian Garner had a 13oz perch in the first few minutes from end peg 120 and by half way through the competition, it looked as if he was going to scoop the pool.

However, five others managed to snare perch later in the day. Tony Barker and Paul Ashley had fish of 1lb 6oz and 1lb to take first and second, relegating Garner to third spot.

The lack of bloodworm and joker from Poland and Russia, plus frozen canals, also caused the cancellation of the massive 100-peg Thorne Pairs and the third round of the Garbolino/Sensas League.

The Sensas Pairs, on the Loughborough Canal, was also scrapped so 11 decided to have a knock-up on the River Soar instead. Leicester's Aaron Wells won with 13-12 of quality roach on hemp.

Joe Griffin won a chilly open at Rycroft, which was covered by one-a-half-inches of ice and snow. He weighed 20-4 on Moat 4, to edge out Chris Bonsall, who caught 19-14 at peg 22.