Angling round-up: Neil bags-up with Park carp...

Neil fished the big bay where his homemade boilies produced a succession of good fish.

18 of his carp where double figure specimens, with many of the others approaching 10lbs apiece. A week earlier Neil had fished the Gloucester Park cockle bank where he landed 44 carp.

Gloucester Park regular Brian Peck landed the biggest fish of the week when he fished the little bay.

Using luncheon meat under a waggler he tempted a fine 20lb 8oz common carp.

The big fish is one of a string of superb carp Brian has taken at the lake in recent weeks while recovering from a heart attack.

Terry Hodges enjoyed a hectic session at the Gloucester Park cockle bank to tempt 14 carp with his Activate boilies.

His four best fish weighed 14lb 8oz, 15lb, 16lb 2oz and 18lb 6oz!

Pole anglers continue to take some excellent catches at Gloucester Park despite the changeable weather.

The best reported haul fell to Tim Brennan who took an 82lb 4oz bag at Tench Point.

Tim fished luncheon meat and soft trout pellet to land carp to a best of 11lb, plus numerous tench and crucians.

Tim's traveling companion, Steve Parker, fished the eastern end of the island where he took a tremendous 68lb 8oz mixed catch. P

Pole angler Steve included tench, crucians, bream, roach, carp, chub and a 3lb 2oz barbel in his net!

Neil Rayner shows one of his 48 Gloucester Park carp.

Wickford squad member takes another win at evening contest

Wickford's Angling Centre squad member Peter Steward is stamping his authority at Tony Cheeseman's Colmic sponsored Northlands Park Evening Series with another win at last week's match.

Peter, who won last years series, has now taken two wins and a second place in three matches!

His latest victory came from a swim in the road lake where he landed 11 bream for 26lb 9oz during the three hour match. He fished a quivertip using maggot, worms, and caster baits.

Second place went to Brentwood Angling Centre's Mark Campion who fished the caf lake to land six better quality bream for 19lb 10oz.

Mark fished the Christmas tree swim taking five of his fish on the feeder whilst the other fell to pole gear presented alongside the Christmas tree.

Simon Hodder took third spot with four bream for 14lb. Richard Martin was fourth with two exceptional bream totaling 9lb 1oz.

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

Meet at the car park at 5pm for a 5.30pm walk off. Fishing time 6pm till 9pm. For more information ring Tony Cheeseman on 01277 840137.

Stevens' swim feeder pays dividends

London computer operator Colin Stevens took the heaviest reported Northlands Park pleasure catch of the week, netting a 90lb plus haul from the caf lake.

Colin fished a swim feeder and worm bait to land 31 bream totaling 76lb 6oz.

He also landed a carp of 14lb 8oz to give him his heaviest-ever bag and heaviest-ever fish during the same session.

Harlow angler Nick Barker also shared in the Northlands Park bream sport when he landed a personal best 22 bream catch totaling 59lb 8oz from the road lake.

Nick fished a quivertip using sweetcorn and worm bait to take the majority of his fish.

However, a switch to luncheon meat at the end of the day produced several better bream, with one specimen scaling 5lb 2oz.

Carp angling newcomer Pete Brown made the most of his first ever visit to Northlands Park netting a personal best mirror carp of 22lb 10oz.

Doggetts' mixed reception

The mixed weather during the last week has seen some varied results at Rochford's Doggetts fishery.

The warm. overcast days have obviously been ideal with some excellent mixed bags being banked.

The bright, hot days, however, produced difficult conditions during whcih only the innovative succeeded.

Careful bait presentation and light tackle still produced fine carp and tench.

Carp anglers had reasonable sport but typically for this time of year the better hauls were to be had at night.

Doggetts regulars Alan Turner and Kevin Horn enjoyed a 36hour session landing six specimens to 18lb, including a nice common of 13lb.

Friend Chris Lyndsay fished the ever-popular back pool and scored a personal best with a mirror of 18lb.

Fishing the east bank for the first time were junior anglers Dan Paine, of Eastwood and Michael Eccles of Westcliff who both landed carp during a short day session.

Dan was pleased with his 14lb mirror while Michael did well to land a hard fighting 19lb specimen from this swim, which offers fish numerous sanctuaries in large reed beds.

Regular tip angler Ray Lovell, of Eastwood, fished his favourite swim on the south bank using a feeder with red worm and caster landing 14 bream to 5.4lb plus tench. The total bag sclaed 55lb.

Prittlewell angler Terry Costello fished the north bank with ledgered bread on a light quiver tip rod.

Luckily for Terry, Westcliff angler Barry Smith was in the next swim with a larger landing net.

Terry's roach net was not man enough for the nine good tench, a 12lb common plus an 18lb mirror.

Barry also enjoyed a varied day starting with ten tench all in the 3lb to 5lb range.

As the sun rose higher the tench disappeared and reasonable sized perch offered some good sport.

However, even these stopped feeding suddenly as a good shoal of bream took over.

Variety for Lobster

The Lobster Smack's monthly outing saw a good variety of fish brought to deck in the warm and sunny conditions.

Ken Pritlove, fishing aboard the David M, won the men's section with a weight of 7.88kg. Ken's catch consisted of one smoothound, one skate and a dogfish.

Second spot went to Denis Ringe with 5.3kg. Third for the men was Andy Veal with 5.14 kg.

Top lady honour went to Angie Anderson, fishing on the Coral Mist, with a catch of two dogfish and a smoothound.

There were also some impressive catch sin the junior section with eight-year-old Miles Joseph taking a weight of 7.3kg for first place.

Myles also took the biggest fish of the day, a skate of 3.8kg, to set a new junior record catch.

Dion's so close

The All England Sting Ray Championship, staged at St Osyth, saw Canvey matchman Dion Macfayden relegated into runner-up spot in the final minutes of the match by an incredible catch.

Dion had 8lb of fish to his name, including a bass of 4lb, but was out-shined by Clacton man Mark Buy who landed an amazing 49lb sting ray to take the £500 top prize.

Sportingly, Dion had nothing but praise for the winner saying: "In a field of 70 anglers second place is no disgrace, especially when the winning catch is such an impressive fish."

Amazingly, although the event is called the All England Stingray Championships, this was the first sting ray taken in ten years!

Dion went home with £250 for his day's work. Southend's Bob Grady came a respectable fourth after taking 4lb 4oz of eels.

Sea shorts

Fifteen people fished the Bait and Tackle Centre evening match at Chalkwell beach on Monday night.

Gary Lloyd was the clear winner with 2lb 4oz, made up of two flounders and one eel. He also won the pools with an evenings work of £112.50.

In second place was Mick Capp with one eel and two flounders for 1lb 13oz.

John Fallon claimed third with a weight of 1lb 7 1/2oz.

The SAAS club match at Thorpe Bay, also on Monday night, produced few fish - maybe the fish were watching football!

The winner was Nicola Saunders with 15oz, beating Paul Fuller into second place with 12oz and Steve Brierly into third with 11oz.

A final reminder that on Sunday, June 18, the Leigh and Westcliff will holding an open pier match.

Fishing times will from 11am to 5pm. Entry is £5 for adults plus optional pools and is free for juniors.

There will be a pre-draw at the TEAC club on Thursday, June 15. For more details phone Barry Tilson on 01702 218303.

Conditions round-up

Tope turn up for Kingfisher

Most boats are now finding good numbers of summer fish, with the first tope now moving in with parties on John Rawle's Kingfisher landing fish to 48lb.

The gutways on the Maplins are filling up with smoothounds, and generally most marks are now producing fish.

Southend boats

Colin Bond's Skerry Belle found plenty of fish at the weekend., including smoothounds, roker, bass, dogfish and even a surprise 3lb 8oz ling.

Baz Grey fished aboard the private boat Puffin Stuff for an excellent day's fishing.

He landed two bass of 5lb 12oz and 6lb 8oz plus three roker to 9lb 4oz, with the best smoothound on the boat at 12lb 8oz. Most fish were caught on crab baits.

Southend Pier

Still lots of baby bass from almost anywhere, especially at night. Garfish from most of the further down numbers, some flounders and a few plaice.

Southend beaches

A few Flounders and a few more Eels later in the dark.

River Crouch

Fishing from further out marks has produced some roker, smoothounds, bass, dogfish mainly on crab and squid baits.

River Blackwater

Very good fishing with the tope well moved in. The Kingfisher landed fish over 40lb alsmost every day - the best landed by Paul Bennet, a fish of 48lb and Bob Mathews with 45lb.

Martin Fuller landed an even better specimen, a roker of 19lb. A few bass also and lots of dogfish.

Mark Weland landed a ray of 22lb from the flats.

West Mersea

Dave Weaving's parties on his boat the Jenna D have found some good fishing over the weekend.

On Saturday over 30 smoothounds, two tope, two cod, two bass and also 12 roker to 15lb in half an hour's hectic fishing.

On Sunday they had 15 roker to 12lb, smoothounds, bass and dogfish, again best baits are squid and crab.

Stanford

Pretty much the same with flounders, eels, small bass and smelt from that stretch, with more eels from the rocky points.

Canvey, Tilbury, Gravesend

No reports in this week but there should be numbers of eels and small bass to be found from the usual marks.

North Kent Coast

Prospects are looking good for this weekend's match with lots of pouting plus some eels and one report of seven soles to one fisherman.

Best baits will be crab, rag and maddies.

Thamesmead, Erith

The noticeable lack of Eels is being felt here with fishing not up to par.

Walton, Frinton

The highlight of the week was a 49lb stingray taken by Phil Bye to win the open match at St Osyth (see story above).

Paul Taylor had a 40lb stingray from the pier at Walton on ragworm, where there is also garfish, eels and soles to be caught.

Sea round-up

Contact Bait and Tackle's Ray Power on 01702 617764

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