SHIVER me timbers! Whatever the weather you can't keep a keen fisherman from his sport and anglers turned out in force for this year's Forest of Dean favourite, the annual Tom and Sheila Carter Christmas contest fished at Cannop Ponds.

It's a competition in which fishermen can't lose – everyone who enters is guaranteed a prize!

"It was a bitterly cold day and though everyone caught a fish or two it was pretty hard going," said Yorkley Angling Club chairman Terry McKenzie.

But there was, he said, a bonus: " You have to look on the bright side. On some of the Christmas competitions in the past we have had to break the ice. At least it wasn't that bad."

The winning weight, 5lbs 1oz, was achieved by Nick Stephens with John Annis second on 3lbs 9ozs and Terry McKensie, third, with 2lbs 9ozs.

Bream figured largely in the catch but Terry said they were a species reluctant to feed when the temperature dropped suddenly.

Cannop, he said, continued to be a popular fishery with many club members now turning their attention to pike.

Monsters are known to lurk there with the largest authenticated being a huge fish which turned the scale at over 30lbs.

"There have been reports of a bigger one, a pike weighing 32lbs but unfortunately there are no photographs to authenticate the catch," said Terry.