SUNDAY sees the opening round of the popular York Winter League being fished on the Ouse below York.

Despite recent falling attendances for matches in the area, the league is still thriving with numbers only slightly reduced from 121 anglers to 108.

This drop to 18 teams of six should be to the benefit of competitors with pegging at a premium below the City.

The river, I suspect, will be carrying extra colour come the weekend and with unseasonally mild conditions towards the back end of the week bream should feature strongly in the result.

The draw will be held at Tang Hall WMC on Layerthorpe at 9am.

The only other matches booked for York waters are Redhouse Lagoon tomorrow where Pudsey visit and Tadcaster on Sunday which will see YAA in attendance.

Now that the water temperatures have dropped, feed patterns are the key to a successful days fishing.

Forget the lashings of bait that you pile in during the summer. Remember that the metabolic rate of all coarse fish slows down during the winter period and they do not require as much food to keep them going.

Little and often is the order of the day. In doing this you are not going to overfeed. Also you may induce fish to feed by the steady appearance of tasty morsels in your swim.

Rudd and, surprisingly enough, crucian carp are showing to waggler fished on the drop off both islands and towards the centre of the Pond One at Paradise Fishery, Melbourne.

Jack Wade from Cawood enjoyed a fine day's sport on Wednesday with fish coming steadily throughout the day.

Bruce Smith struck again on Sunday at Pond Two on the same venue with a fine ghost carp of 6lb 1oz, legered luncheon meat proving it's downfall.

Paradise regular John Horsley took fine catches on both Saturday and Sunday. He fished pole at 7 metres with double maggot over loose fed pinkies to account for mixed catches of skimmer, rudd, carp and roach

The Front Pond at Carpvale continues to provide brisk action following the introduction of a huge consignment of roach a few weeks ago.

The silver fish seem to have stirred the resident carp into action with good mixed bags falling to pole and maggot. The fact that all species can be encountered makes for an interesting day's sport.

The Amalgamation lake at Rawcliffe is also worth a visit with the hardy angler who can brave fishing into the wind rewarded admirably.

Now that winter has arrived so have hoards of Canada and Greylag Geese which in turn leads to vast amounts of bread entering the lake as the conservation-minded locals feed the wildfowl through the colder months. Anglers can capitalise on this benevolence by choosing their station close to the main feeding areas, which tend to be close to the access points.

ole or bomb, remember no groundbait feeders, with a piece of bread flake should guarantee success. Recent days have seen small chub to a pound, but with odd fish to 3lbs and roach in the 8 to 12 oz bracket providing the mainstay of some superb bags well into double figures.

Updated: 12:54 Friday, November 30, 2001