Angling round-up: Nine's fine for Alan...

Alan fished the swim next to the wooden jetty where he presented maggot and worm baits on quivertip tackle.

The next match in the Northlands Park evening series takes place tomorrow.

For more information ring Tony on 01277 840137.

Mark in the mood

Gloucester Park regular Mark Mosey had an amazing start to a session - taking three double figure carp in the first hour and a half.

Mark chose a swim in the middle of the Gloucester Park cockle bank where he float fished bread flake after spotting a big fish moving on the surface.

Mark Mosey shows one of his Gloucester Park carp.

Church service pays-off

Divine inspiration could have come into play when Basildon and District Angling Society held two of their popular annual competitions at their Moat lake.

For the day turned out to be a Church family affair when Jeff and son Paul scooped the senior and junior honours.

Thirty anglers competed in the morning's junior match and did exceptionally well with several 20lb plus bags being landed.

Joint winners, both with 29lb 6oz were Church jnr, who fished the pole all day in peg 50, and P Limbert in peg five who fished rod and line to land a fine number of carp.

Third place went to L. Hurley with another fine bag of carp weighing 26lb 6oz.

It was the turn of the seniors in the afternoon and, again, some fine bags of carp were caught.

Church snr, in peg 28, smashed the existing match record to take 77lb 4oz of carp on the pole.

Runner-up was Pete Watts who also fished the pole for 55lb 8oz.

In third spot was Tony Patterson in peg 11 who landed a fine bag which included roach, crucians and some decent carp for a weight of 48lb 8oz.

'Catch of the day' went to Pete Lovett, who had to jump in the water to rescue a junior angler who slipped in while playing a fish. Unfortunately, Pete was not allowed to weigh this tiddler in!

Luckiest angler was Les Lavotha, who somehow managed to hook and land a 13lb carp on a three metre whip.

Within minutes he found himself playing a cracking carp of 14lb. Shortly after landing the big fish than he was back in action again, this time with a superb common of 18lb 2oz, followed by another good carp of 12lb 8oz.

Mark then took a further nine pounder on float gear before switching over to ledgered boilies to tempt several more carp and a barbel.

Pole angler Steve Cohen included a cracking 3lb 2oz barbel in a 92lb 8oz Gloucester Park mixed catch.

Steve fished the eastern end of the island using sweetcorn and luncheon meat to land a procession of tench, crucians and carp, as well as several chub and the big barbel.

Simon Merrick fished the Gloucester Park tench point to take a personal best 89lb pole haul. Simon used soft trout pellet bait to include a carp of 11lb in his mixed catch of tench, crucians and carp.

Quivertip angler Richard Ellis included eight different species in an 84lb 12oz haul taken from the cockle bank.

Richard fished a feeder tight to the island to take tench, carp, crucians, bream, eels, and roach.

Soccer and sunshine take toll at Doggetts

Sunshine and soccer have both had an effect on catches at Rochford's Doggetts fishery.

The brilliant weather has made daytime sport quite slow but the early risers have been rewarded with good bags of tench and bream.

Carp anglers have also enjoyed good stalking - predominantly when the wind disappeared during the evening.

Russ Alden, from Thundersley, returned for an evening session on the north bank and impressed a few people with an immaculate 19lb common.

Rayleigh angler Peter James landed mirrors of 7lb and 12lb on floating dog biscuits from the back pool.

David Mill opted for the Doggetts' north bank to bag a brace of mirrors weighing 9lb and 15lb on floaters.

Bream have been showing well on the south bank on both float and feeder.

Father and son team Ted and Dan Houlton made and early start to fish the south bank.

Between the two of them, they landed 18 tench plus 11 good bream. Maggot and corn were the successful hook baits but, sadly, as the sun rose the action was all over by 9.30am.

Juniors Lee Davis and Peter Clark fished an evening session with float fished bread and enjoyed great sport with light float gear to take eight tench to 4.6lb.

Hadleigh reservoir opened for business again this week with the best haul going to Nicholas Hindes.

Nick enjoyed his first night session having just become a full member.

The young angler landed mirrors of 11lb, 13lb plus an immaculate 19lb common.

Sun brings out big carp

The three latest matches at Hockley Angling Club all produced good weights for those taking part.

Newbury Park Angling team held a six-hour carp only match on the top lake. Richard Mansfield took 1st place with 62lb 8oz.

Peter Roue was second with 57lb 12oz with Geoff Long's 46lb 3oz earning him third spot.

Thursday's maggot-only match, held over three hours, saw Dave Lord take the spoils with a good mixed bag weighing 25lb exactly. George Webster came second with a similar catch of 20lb 4oz. Steve Warner took third with 17lb 7oz.

Marcantonio Foods Limited held their annual fishing match on Sunday and, despite the blistering heat, they still managed good weights between them.

Robert Jackson was the day's winner with a 32lb 13oz haul.

Robert's catch included two mirror carp of 12lb 2oz and 10lb 6oz.

Second was Fred Pilgrim with 23lb 2oz with Terry Cannon third with 16lb of roach.

Priory provides the carp

After sticking with a 'close season' policy, Southend's Priory Park has had an auspicious start to the season with 11 carp taken during the first two days.

Top catch fell to Rob Schidzhe who landed a fully scaled mirror known as 'the pig' at 21lb 8oz.

Steve Scouse fished both days at the weekend to take a six fish bag which included another fully scaled specimen, this one scaling 17lb, plus others of 16lb, 12lb, 14lb, 10lb and 8lb.

Chris Lewis was also into the fish with a high double common of 17lb and a smaller fish of 8lb.

Ian Simmonds, of Carp Tech, had an 11lb 8oz common on his first visit to the lake for many years.

Lake bailiff Steve Oz struggled to catch tench but still managed nine fish to 5lb plus a hard fishing common of 12lb

Generally, tench sport has died off as the fish have turned to spawning.

The hot weather has also seen carp fishing dry up with the big fish prefering to bask rather than eat.

However, roach and rudd are again present in large numbers, with most fish lying just below the surface.

Dawn breaker bags-up

Jetty Anglers' Rob Wilks party, fished the Maplin Sands to take a terrific 13lb 4oz bass. Rob, fishing on the Dawn Breaker, took the big fish on double squid bait to compliment a highly productive trip.

The outing also provided several large smoothound with specimens of 7lb, 14lb 7oz and 21lb 8oz being caught and released.

The biggest of the hounds, landed with squid tempter, put-up a real battle - jumping clear of the water three times before being netted.

The biggest of three large smoothounds taken on board the Dawnbreaker

New date for evening match

The next Bait and Tackle evening match has been re-scheduled for June 27 at Thorpe Bay.

Fishing times will be from 8pm to 11.30 pm. For more details please the shop on 01702 617764.

Locals pipped at pier match

The excellent weather at the weekend persuaded Eastbourne angler Trevor Rooney to come to Southend.

He then preceded to win the Leigh and Westcliff Pier Open match on Sunday with three garfish for .90kg to win £173.

Trevor beat Richards Edwards into second place with .89kg. Russell Baxter came third with .77kg

Top junior was L Clark who also had the heaviest weight of the day with .92kg along with A Calvert, but Lewis won due to more fish.

Miss S Aldeburgh came third with .72kg. The pairs was won by Phil Baxter and Russell Baxter.

Most encouraging statistic from the match was the high attendance.

75 anglers fished the match including 27 juniors.

Seeking flounders in Creek

The second of this year's five match Flounder Series gets underway this Sunday at Smallgains Creek, Canvey.

Book-in is at Kings piano bar from 1.30pm to 2.30pm with fishing times from 3.30pm until 8pm.

Entry to the match is £5 or for a fee of £20, anglers can enter for the remaining four fixtures.

The best four results from the five matches will count towards the final prizes, with a top award of £250 being on offer. Individual match days will offer a top prize of around £150.

The Flounder Series is fished on a catch and return basis. For more information contact Dion on 01268 462539.

Conditions round-up

Boats are taking scorching catches

The tremendous weather over the last few days has made it perfect for boats and crew, with some very good fishing for smoothounds to 13lb 8oz.

Tope seem to be a bit smaller and there is also the added bonus of roker and a few bass. Generally most marks are fishing well, lets hope for some more prolonged settled weather!

Southend boats

As previously mentioned the fishing is continuing on a good vain with plenty of fish being reported.

Southend Pier

With the hotter weather the fishing appears to have taken a downturn for both flounders and garfish.

However, early morning there still are heaps of small bass to be had.

Southend Beaches

Most fishing is taking place in the evening and night now, with slowish results. A few flounders and eels and lots of very small bass.

River Crouch

In the river there are several small bass to be caught, towards the mouth of the river there are some roker to 10lb.

Outside is where the best fishing is with smoothounds, more tope and a few bass.

River Blackwater

Some excellent fishing aboard the Vicky Emma and Kingfisher with both boats finding smoothounds to 13lb 8oz.

Smaller tope, roker and the odd bass to 9lb 8oz from most marks. This is good news that the fish seem well spread, the best bait is squid with crab second best, but closer inshore ragworm will find the bass and sting rays.

It is also well worth a try for some rays from the Power Station beach with ragworm, low or high water the best with rag baits.

West Mersea

Good fishing from the further out marks with smoothounds, tope and some roker on squid and crab baits.

Stanford

Flounders, eels and some small bass from the normal marks on crab, rag and maddie baits.

Canvey, Tilbury, Gravesend

The night tides are fishing the best with flounders, eels, small bass and the odd Sole. Worth trying for some garfish from the rocks on float.

North Kent Coast

Plenty of pouting from most river marks with several good eels to 2lb 8oz and flounders. Crab and rag are best baits.

Thamesmead, Erith

A few eels and flounders but not too many people fishing.

River Orwell

Some interesting news from here. The flood from a couple of weeks ago saw some carp swim into the sea side and one or two are being caught on bread in Ipswich docks along with eels to 2lb and flounders on rag.

There has also been one or two sea trout caught from Fox's Marina.

Otherwise plenty of bass from the Stour and Orwell marks and garfish on float tackle.

Sea round-up

Contact Bait and Tackle's Ray Power on 01702 617764

By Stuart Hillis

Reporter's e-mail: stuart.hillis@notes.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.