SOUGHT-after Grimsby match angler Mark Rodger has showcased his unique style of catching carp to top fishing magazine Angling Times.

For some time Rodger has been well supported by top bait supplier Bag'em Baits, and he has recently secured another sponsor with major tackle firm Middy.

To promote his new venture, Rodger has been doing a lot of work with the angling press. He was in this month's copy of Pole Fishing Magazine showing how to fish worm in the Ancholme – to very good effect.

And last week he braved the snow, ice and cold weather to take Angling Times to the beck at Cleethorpes.

This is a very small stretch of water, which is very narrow, but amazingly holds some excellent fish.

Rodger had been practising on a certain area of the beck. Not only did he catch the roach that are usually caught at this time of year, but he was also catching carp.

The 34-year-old had a unique style of catching the carp by 'dobbing' a chunk of bread above the carp and fishing close to the reeds. They seemed to be annoyed by this, and attacked the bread with great aggression.

On the day of the meeting with Angling Times, Rodger had 15lb of roach – and these were quality fish – and 15lb of carp. The depth he was fishing was no more than 2ft.

Instead of letting the float run down the river, interestingly Rodger was keeping it tight across.

When the other anglers and I fish the beck – especially for roach – we tend to use punched bread and let it run down because you also need a bit of run. This usually improves the fishing.

The quality of the roach is fantastic. I have heard of carp being caught, especially in the summer months, but not in the winter.

It will be very interesting to see the article in this week's Angling Times.

Meanwhile, most of the matches were called off last weekend. At one point the temperature was down to -14.

Paul and the team at Saltfleetby tried everything to get their match on, but they could not beat the ice.

They were clearing it and it was freezing over straight away.

With warmer weather forecast this weekend, Saltfleetby will be on.

On Wold, they managed to clear some of the Gold Lake but around six anglers fished and never had a bite.

It was not surprising as it had been -12 in the night, and this would have put the fish off from coming out of their holes.

This weekend it looks like being back to normal, and the pairs competition is tomorrow.

One match that did get away was Frog Hall and the golden peg money nearly went.

Market Rasen's top angler Mark Critcher drew the golden peg and was so nearly the winner, and £500 richer. He was doing well all the way through the match, catching small silver fish.

But just as he thought that it was going to be his lucky day, Alec Lovesay managed to find a carp that strayed and took the bait. This gave Lovesay the honours on the day with a total catch of 3.14lb. Critcher was second with 2.12lb and third was Andrew Hutson's 1.9lb.