New Forest angler Paul Greenacre has landed a superb 31lb cock salmon.

Greenacre, from Tipton, landed the impressive fish from the ‘Railway Pool’ on the Royalty Fishery along the banks of the River Avon at Christchurch, writes CHRIS CLARK.

Greenacre used a dotted Mepps 5 with a silver blade along with barbless hooks while up streaming on the curve to tempt the King of the river. The fish, the heaviest to be taken at the fishery in a decade, took less than 30 seconds for John Dennis to weigh. It then swam away strongly.

Greenacre also caught five brownies up to 7lb and three pike during the half day session. Shore anglers continue to find some great fish with David Armstrong (Eastleigh) beaching a 15lb 1oz smoothhound from the Hill Head section during a night sortie. Armstrong used peeler crab presented on a 2/0 pennel rig to tempt the specimen over the high water period. The specimen, a new personal best, was weighed and released alive. Many of the 59 competitors struggled during the sixth round of the ISAC Solent League at Browndown due to lots of floating weed.

But they still returned five bass, 21 dogfish, one flounder, 18 pouting, two silver eels and four smoothhound to the scales. Six undersized fish were recorded which were all awarded one ounce and returned to the sea at the point of capture. Results: A zone, 1st Mark Vinter 6lb, 2nd Colin Sivers 3lb 12.25oz, 3rd Peter Farrell 2lb 13.75oz, 4th Jeffery Fisk 2lb 4.75oz. B zone, 1st Steve Deathe 5lb 5.25oz, 2nd Mike Brown 3lb 12oz, 3rd Matt Brook 3lb 9oz, 4th Nigel Thorns 2lb 14oz. C zones, 1st Russell Preston 5lb 10.5oz, 2nd Pete Roberts 2lb, 3rd Malcolm Stote 1lb 6oz, 4th Andrew Dawkins 15.75oz. At the midway stage in the series, Russell Preston heads the overall leader table with 26 penalty points, followed by Nick May 33pts, Darren James 36pts, Mike Brown 37pts, Dave Edwards 41pts and Mark Vinter 42pts.

There will now be a break in the pegged open series, as the next match is not until August 31 at Hill Head.

Full angling review in today's Daily Echo