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The first seven hours of the nine-day Borough of Torbay Sea Angling Festival were fished in the calmest of conditions before a fierce east south east wind - at times close to gale force - virtually ruined the first day.

However Steve Underwood, a man with a mission and a tremendous track record of big fish, took a superb bull huss in the hour before the blow started that weighed 15lb 9oz 14dr scoring 156.172 per cent. His young son Carl, who was also aboard the family boat, had a huss of 13lb 14oz 1dr, rating 138.79.

The fish were heading the best overall specimen category and the junior list at the end of day two. With the wind relenting, the mainline charter boats were able to run to channel wrecks and many sizeable pollack came to the scales for the second day's weigh-in.

The heaviest, weighing 18lb 5oz 3dr, was caught by Allyson Thomas fishing from Dave Harrison's Gemini 2 out of Brixham. Another good fish to come over the gunwale was a 3lb 11oz pouting taken by David Trevarthen, who was the winner of last year's Festival.

And another fine fish in the day two category was a bass of 11lb 6oz 12dr by Alistair Willcocks. Underwood returned to his favourite huss mark for another specimen of 14lb 0oz 15dr. All these fish scored above 140 per cent.

Thornback ray were numerous at the Paignton weigh station, the best of these a fish of 11lb 11oz 13dr caught by festival secretary Mike Concannon. The best shore caught fish so far is a three-bearded rockling of 2lb 3oz 8dr worth (147.917 per) cent by Chris Walker, who fished a mark in the Dart Estuary.

The festival, that ends next Sunday evening, can be entered on a day-by-day basis at tackle shops throughout the greater Torbay area. The prize-list is worth a huge £12,500 which includes a £650 cash prize for the best overall percentage fish.

Chew Valley Lake on the outskirts of Bristol hosted the culmination of the biggest individual fly fishing competition ever held in Britain, the prestigious Lexus Championship, for which the first prize was a brand new 4 x 4 valued at over £30,000.

One hundred anglers from all over the UK and mainland Europe, among them t38 full internationals experienced in fishing at waters in the UK, but there were several for whom this was their first major final.

Many of the anglers were at Chew Valley for a few days prior to the competition examining the best methods, flies most likely to be successful and specific areas.

To accommodate 100 anglers in the final, 18 boats were transported from nearby Blagdon Lake, making a total of 50 for the contest.

Fishing on the day was not easy due to the weather conditions but more than 220 trout reached the scales. Competitors from Northern Ireland and Belgium did particularly well but it was local angler Steve Winston of South Wales who took the Championship and the prize vehicle with a ten-fish aggregate of 26lb 13oz.

His victory was a narrow one, by a mere 11oz over Weston Super Mare's Mark Withyman, a Chew Valley regular.

Following the presentation supper, organiser John Horsey presented the prizes to the top ten competitors. Bristol Water Fisheries were praised by all who fished on the quality of the sport they had enjoyed and the expertise of the staff involved.