Angling round-up: Derek's dynamic at Moat Lake

The weather was hot and sunny for the 47 anglers taking part and some good bags of carp were caught.

Winner on the day was Derek Truslove who set a new match record at the Moat with a tremendous 70lb 6oz haul.

Derek drew peg 13 and caught 14 carp on his pole using trout pellets and homemade paste as his bait.

Kevin Rogers, in peg 23, took second place with 15 carp for a weight of 54lb 13oz.

Kevin fished both waggler and pole to take his fish with luncheon meat and pellet.

Third spot went to Neil Payne who took 46lb 10oz of carp. His bag included a fine mirror of 18lb 4oz.

Tony turns up Hockley heat

The recent warm conditions inspired a record breaking day at Hockley Angling Cub's day ticket water when a seven-hour match resulted in a massive 189lb 8oz haul for Tony Jenkins.

Tony's net-busting bag consisted of mainly carp in the 2lb range, all of which were caught on the pole with trout pellet tempter.

Unbelievably, Tony's first hour of the match was very quiet! Only a few fish were taken during the first 90 minutes of the contest - a statistic Tony was left to regret as there were still plenty of fish to be had in his swim towards the end of the match!

When the mammoth mixed bag was weighed in it soon became apparent that with a little more action at the start of the day, Tony would have broken Hockley's ever-elusive 200lb barrier.

Sharon Brown continued to more than hold her own against her male counterparts when she claimed second place with a highly impressive 135lb 1oz catch.

Sharon's catch was of similar content to Tony's, with her fish taken towards the rushes from peg eight.

The incident-packed match was made even more exciting when the next four places were all just over the 60lb mark.

Peter Ainsley's 62lb 10oz catch was enough to take third spot. His catch consisted of some quality roach along with some bream and tench.

John Jenkins was fourth with a similar bag weighing 60lb 6oz. He was closely followed by Peter Rue who was hot on John's heels throughout the day to take fifth place with 60lb 2oz.

Geoff Long wrapped up the day's affairs with a catch of exactly 60lb for sixth place.

Even with these large bags coming out of the lake pleasure anglers also caught well, commenting they has never seen so many anglers catch so many fish at Hockley before.

The following day saw a three-hour, maggot only match being staged at Hockley with Dave Lord getting straight into the action to take 70lb 8oz of fish for first place.

His haul included some quality carp up to 8lb.

Peter Marshall, of Essex Angling Centre, took second place with a 42lb 2oz catch, with most his catch coming in the last hour of the match.

Keith Killock weighed in 29lb 4oz for third.

The next visitors to Hockley were Enfield Arras Angling Club who staged a six hour match during Sunday's stiflingly hot conditions.

Dave Smith took the spoils with a 52lb 1oz haul consisting of fish taken mainly on bread flake.

Bill Kingston was second with 39lb 12oz.

Third spot went to Mario Cilla with 27lb 215oz.

Doggetts brings bonanza

The majority of anglers at Doggetts, Rochford, left the lake having enjoyed both sunshine and excellent sport.

In fact, the action has been so frantic that at times choice of bait seemed immaterial, although sweetcorn was by far the best during Wednesday's cloudy conditions.

Walter Turnbill enjoyed a very pleasant day's fishing on the Doggetts north bank.

He opted to ledger sweetcorn to the reeds landing nine tench to 5lb, three bream to 6lb plus one of the much sought Doggetts crucian.

Mike Toms also found sweetcorn to be productive on his float gear when he netted 11 tench to 4.5lb

Mike's haul would have been doubled had he landed all the fish he hooked.

Mike Watts and his wife, Jacky, enjoyed new found freedom from their children when the couple fished a session from the north bank towards the reeds.

Mike's afternoon was made especially pleasant when he landed an assortment of fish which included a perfect 14lb common carp.

Meanwhile Jacky, who claimed to be an angling novice, had no problem landing a good bag of skimmers but found the tench would not stay on the hook!

Del Smee fished trout pellet and paste and despite the brilliant sunshine still managed to land five tench to 3.5lb, two bream at 5lb each plus a reasonable number of skimmers and crucian.

Rochford's John Faukes fished a short session on the south bank to land two mirrors of 8lb and 14lb.

David Murray landed three excellent carp, including a 15lb common and a terrific 19lb mirror.

Basildon water brings ton-up time for Dave

Pleasure anglers have taken some tremendous catches at Gloucester Park, with a number of ton-up hauls weighed in.

The biggest bag fell to lake regular Dave Hemmings who fished at the eastern end of the island to take a tremendous 126lb net.

Dave fished pole tactics to include roach, chub and barbel amongst his mainly tench and carp haul.

Paul Lammin Senior, and son Paul Lammin Junior, both landed hundred pound plus hauls when they fished adjoining swims at Gloucester Park.

At the scales Paul Junior had the edge weighing in 112lb against his fathers 106lb.

Eleven-year-old Mark Hurry fished suspended breadcrust from the Gloucester Park Cockle Bank to land four carp to a best of 12lb 2oz.

His sixteen-year-old companion Ian Gale landed five carp to a best of 11lb.

One young angler had his rod dragged in by a big fish whilst fishing at the eastern end of the island at Gloucester Park on Sunday morning.

The rod and reel, which was still attached to a carp of around 15lb, has been recovered by fishery manager Mick Toomer.

If the owner rings Mick on 01268 282317, giving details of the rod and reel, he will arrange for its return.

Peter's perfect in evening matches

Wickford Angling Centre squad member Peter Steward continued his recent run of success taking yet another win at the latest Gloucester Park evening match.

Peter fished a peg in the big bay where he weighed in four carp for 31lb 4oz - all falling to waggler tactics.

Peter, who recently dominated the Northlands Park Evening Series, also won the last Gloucester Park evening match, weighing in a tremendous 47lb haul.

Second place in the match went to Sensas man Richard Martin with a 22lb mixed haul. Richard fished the eastern end of the big bay to include tench, carp, and roach in his pole caught mixed bag. Richard also lost a big carp which threatened to run through the next anglers swim.

Wayne Candy fished to the right of tench point to weigh in 15lb 1oz and take third place. Wayne fished pole tactics to land numerous tench and several small carp.

Fourth place went to Gordon Blanks who fished bread crust from the cockle bank to take three small carp totalling 14lb 5oz.

The best specimen of the match fell to Mick Watling who landed a near 6lb bream from the little bay.

There will be another evening match at Gloucester Park tomorrow.

For more information telephone Mick Toomer on 01268 282317.

Tench respond to nice Manners

The Southchurch Park tench are on the feed as witnessed by a Mr Manners who pulled out a fish of 7lb 2oz on worm.

Club member Rob Elliot had a new personal best specimen with a fish of 6lb.

Bailiff Terry Richards took three 4.5lb fish on his carp gear along with a common carp of 10.5lb.

Terry also had a 20lb pike reported to him from a young lad who caught it on a trout pellet, but did not leave his name.

Silver fish are still showing in numbers even on the warmer days. Slow sinking on floating caster or maggot should give good bags of small fish.

Dean in at the double!

Top catch at Priory Park this week must go to 15-year-old Dean Watkins with a much sought after double figure tench of 10lb 3oz.

Dean who also had a 12lb mirror in the same Tuesday evening session. He fished Starmers GLM plum boilies on a size 6 hook to 12lb line.

Tim Thomas hooked and landed an 11lb 3oz pike that snatched a roach he was reeling in!

Tim was using 2lb line and size 18 hooks and was rather pleased with his new personal best fish.

Jim Bick was into the tench as usual, catching 14 fish along with an 11lb mirror on Van Den Eynde strawberry pellets, size 10 hook and 4lb line.

John Crawford had a carp of 14lb 2oz and 12lb 5oz, both taken on his own home made boilies. John also lost several other carp in the weed.

Bailiff Steve Oz was also into the carp taking a fully scaled specimen of 15lb 8oz. He also had a 12.5lb mirror.

Conditions round-up

Small specimens are spreading out

The most encouraging news to emerge for sea anglers is the increasing numbers of small fish being reported.

From the Blackwater, and now spreading out in very large numbers, are lots of 5 to 8 inch bass.

There are so many that in the Blackwater anglers catching one fish are then finding another 20.

On the outside a large number of small tope from 12 inches to 2-3lb are being seen, again the best for a number of years.

Southend Boats

Dave from the Predator reports that fishing is reasonable with good numbers of smoothounds, eels and more bass than of late. More of these are now sizeable with more in the 4-5lb.

The best reported bass were 10.5 and 7.75lb.

Lee Shaw and his friend also went in the flat calm weather on Sunday and found some very good fishing with six smoothounds with the best of 22lb. They found some very productive bass fishing with 30 bass to 6lb. These fish fell to crab, ragworm and hermit crab.

Southend Pier

Thepier is seeing some of the best mullet fishing for several years, these fish can be caught on sand rag at the end of the pier.

Early morning tide fishing is best for mackerel with up to 20 being caught but during the day they seem to be spread out amongst all the anglers. There are also large shoals of 6 to 8 inch bass.

Inshore there are a few flounders to be caught.

Southend Beaches

Still just a few flounders and a few eels at night, but with the increasing numbers of small bass these should move inshore and become a nuisance.

Worm baits and crab will be the best bait.

River Crouch

More bass are being caught from the shore although most are still small. From the boats Alan from the Tartar reports that fishing has been a bit patchy.

Bass to 5lb with a few smoothounds seem to be in order with large shoals of mackerel being seen in the barrows.

Private boats fishing the river are catching up to 20 bass but only four or five have been sizeable.

River Blackwater

The best fish of the week was a 9lb bass for Steve Connell caught on John Rook's boat the Misty Blue.

Otherwise most boats are finding numbers of smoothounds, bass and small tope.

Reports of a 35lb stingray from the river have also been received.

West Mersea

Dave Weaving from the Jenna D tried some inshore wrecks at the weekend but failed to find any numbers of bass, as did several other boats.

Sea round-up

Contact Bait and Tackle's Ray Power on 01702 617764.

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