Basildon angler Barry Archer landed a tremendous personal best 24lb mirror carp when he fished the Northlands Park road lake.

The big fish was the icing on the cake to a session which had already produced three other double figure carp, and more than 30 tench and bream.

Archer, who spent two days at the venue, was fishing the swim in the south eastern corner of the Basildon lake.

His session started with quality tench and bream queuing up to take the baits presented on his float rod. His carp gear also played its part tempting commons of 12lb, 15lb and 19lb.

The best was yet to come when he spotted a very big carp feeding in the margins alongside his swim.

Using his float rod he cast a piece of crust to the fish, which accepted the offering and set off on a strong run.

Using just 4lb line Archer had to play the fish with care, but 45 minutes later he was able to coax the big mirror carp over his landing net.

The fish scaled exactly 24lb, three pounds bigger than his previous personal best.

There was a tight result at the second leg of Tony Cheeseman's Colmic sponsored Northlands Park Evening Series, with just four ounces separating the top three anglers.

At the scales it was Wickford Angling Centre man Terry Edwards who nudged ahead weighing in a match winning 13lb 14oz.

Edwards fished the cafe lake where he used pole tactics to tempt four bream.

Second place went to Graham Hyde with three bream and two tench for 13lb 11oz.

Hyde, who won the first match in the series, fished the caf lake using feeder tactics.

Third place went to Richard Martin with 13lb 10oz, followed by Gordon Blanks with a 9lb 4oz all roach pole haul.

Published Wednesday, June 11, 2003

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