Angling round-up: Morley the merrier after Doggetts blitz...

Part of their catch consisted of nine bream for 38lb, seven tench totalling 28lb plus an unspecified number of roach and skimmers.

Their bag was finished off in fine style with a fully scaled mirror of 11lb taken on a 4lb line.

Leigh angler James Bailey was well rewarded during his Doggetts session when he landed a fine 19lb 12oz mirror.

Not to be outdone, friend Anthony Murray more than matched him with a brace of 15lb 4oz and 12lb 8oz.

All three fish were taken from the north bank on boilie tempters.

William Smee landed an assortment of Doggetts tench and bream with his best fish being a 16lb mirror from the south bank.

Lee Dean opted for the back pool and took a good mixed bag - topping it off with a hard fighting 8lb mirror.

Ten-year-old Michael Morgan fished with his father, Eddy, on the Doggetts short arm during the hot conditions.

Young Michael was delighted with his first ever tench which weighed in at 3.5lb.

His Dad also made the most of the Doggetts sunshine by finishing his day by briniging a fine 7lb common to bank.

Peter Martin, from Chelmsford, missed two runs from the east bank but still managed a hat-trick of mirrors weighing 11lb14lb 8oz and 16lb 4oz using floating dog biscuit.

Smooth operator - Lloyd Cotter shows off a magnificent 24lb 8oz smoothound taken on ragworm

Evening Series matches are still proving perfect for Park ace Peter

Wickford Angling Centre squad member Peter Steward continued his tremendous run of success with a convincing win at the first of the summer's Gloucester Park Evening matches.

Fresh from his Northlands Park Evening Series victory, Peter carried on where he left off by taking a 47lb 2oz haul - more than 6lbs clear of the field.

Peter fished the big bay and for the first part of the match alternated between tip and pole tactics.

After seeing fish topping in his swim he switched to a waggler set up, and within minutes had hooked and lost a good fish. After that his fortune changed dramatically as he hooked and landed six good carp in succession.

Second place went to Gordon Blanks with a 40lb 14oz haul from the cockle bank.

Gordon fished suspended bread flake to tempt four carp. His best two fish scaled an impressive 11lb 2oz and 13lb 3oz.

Norman Kenward fished the little bay where he started out fishing for carp.

After a fish-less hour he turned his attention to the tench, netting a 26lb 1oz haul in the final two hours of the match! Fourth place went to Wayne Candy with a 23lb 5oz pole caught mixed catch from tench point.

Alan Busby was fifth with 22lb 7oz, followed by Terry Edwards with 21lb 13oz.

There will be an evening match at Gloucester Park on Friday. Meet at the western end of the lake from 5pm for a 5.30pm walkoff.

Match entry will cost £5, with the normal evening ticket payable on the bank. Fishing time will be 6pm till 9pm.

For more information telephone Mick Toomer on 01268 282317.

Cunning Fox takes massive mixed bag

Day anglers have taken tremendous catches at Gloucester Park this week with the biggest falling to Mark Fox who took a huge 162lb mixed bag at the eastern end of the island.

Mark started his day fishing a pole at the Basildon water to land a tremendous number of tench on luncheon meat and sweetcorn baits.

After losing a succession of big carp he stepped up to a waggler set up to land numerous fish to a best of 9lb 13oz.

Tench point proved to be the hotspot for Kevin Willis on his first ever visit to Gloucester Park. Fishing a pole and luncheon meat bait he landed a 131lb mixed haul, doubling his previous personal best catch.

Carp anglers have been taking tremendous numbers of fish, with suspended bread crust a winning bait in the recent hot sunny conditions.

Although the most hectic action has been coming from the cockle bank, Marshall Stanton enjoyed a session at the big bay landing seventeen carp.

His catch included five good double figure specimens, with about half of his fish falling to suspended breadcrust, and the other half tempted by activate boilies fished on the bottom.

Chris Johnson fished the cockle bank to also land seventeen carp in a single day session. Chris's fish all fell to suspended bread, with his best specimen scaling 17lb. Sport was also hectic from the next swim where Matt Tilleard took nine carp on suspended breadcrust.

His two best fish, both commons, scaled 14lb and 18lb! Gloucester Park regular Dennis Ives fished his favourite swim by the incoming sluice to land fifteen barbel and a carp of 17lb 8oz. His fish all fell to freelined bread.

Julian Wagg fished an evening session in the Gloucester Park little bay to land several carp on luncheon meat. His best fish, a common, scaled 17lb 12oz.

Junior anglers have been doing particularly well with the Gloucester Park carp. Ryan Rodie tried carp fishing for the first time to land commons of 5lb 2oz and 11lb 2oz, the two biggest fish he has ever caught! His companion Michael Brotherwood added carp to a best of 10lb 7oz.

Fourteen-year-old Luke Caulfield ledgered peperami in the canal stretch to land a superb common carp of 15lb. The fish came during an after school evening session.

Common grounded

Lake Meadows has also been producing good carp in the fine weather, with fish to over 20lb taken.

The biggest catch of the week fell to Colin Cross who fished a swim on the houses bank to land a superb common of 21lb 12oz. The fish fell to a homemade boilie presented on a semi-fixed rig in open water.

Lady angler Clare Vanson made sure of her share of the big Billericay fish - tempting a mirror carp of 18lb from the grass bank.

The following day she added a common of 17lb and a smaller fish of 12lb! Companion Stuart Ball took 15lb and 12lb.

Robert Barbor took a brace of fish from the Lake Meadows point. Using homemade boilies he tempted a common of 15lb 2oz and a mirror of 15lb.

Hockley's hot stuff

Hockley Angling Club staged a five hour match in Sunday's extremely hot weather with some terrific catches being brought to bank.

All of the field landed fish with the day's top honours going to Billy Walker with 71lb 5oz of mostly carp.

Billy took most of his fish in the high water with trout pellet. Steve Cohen claimed second place with a 44lb 12oz carp haul.

Third spot went to Bob Davis after he took 39lb 11oz to the scales. As well as the usual carp, Bob's catch also included some quality roach and bream.

Fourth place went to Paul Baker with 35lb 1oz.

Society strike in Surrey

Basildon and District Angling Society travelled to Wylands Farm, near Hastings, Surrey, on Sunday with high hopes of bagging up at the prolific carp water.

Due to the hot weather the big fish could be seen cruising the surface but did not want to feed. Although all of Basildon's 30 anglers took fish the larger match weights failed to materialise.

Winner on the day was Jeff Church who managed a respectable 33lb 10oz of small carp. Jeff fished the pole with luncheon meat for his winning bag.

Second spot went to Rob Best with 30lb 8oz. Also opting for the pole, Rob went for a pick n mix selection for bait - choosing between maggot, corn and bread.

In third place was Sid Hibbert with 29lb 6oz of small carp and a few skimmers, he also fished the pole and tempted his fish with corn and bread.

Park to improve

Priory Park is very weedy at the moment but the council staff are expected to be dragging it during the week, so things should show a marked improvement in time for the school holidays.

Jim Bidz, who had 15 tench and a brace of carp last week, did it again though this time with 17 tench and no carp.

Jim repeated his sweetcorn on a size 10 with 4lb line tactic for his success.

Local resident Ron Hobbs was also into the tench with seven fish to sweetcorn in a short evening session.

Later in the week the tench fishing slowed down a little though there were still plenty of silver fish failling to maggot.

Pike are showing all over the lake as Steve Oz proved when he landed a 15lb specimen to sweetcorn that was meant for tench.

Big for Ben

Ben Pattern has been into the carp once again at Shoebury Park, taking a 15lb 5oz common during a short session yesterday and a 10lb 5oz common over the weekend.

Another brace went to new club member Robert Ellis who took fish of 12lb and 5lb.

Committee member Carl Vacher ttok a 7lb fish plus a couple of tench.

The only other fish reported at Shoebury was an 8lb carp which fell to baliff Terry Richards.

However, float anglers have been doing really well. Steve Oz visted the lake on Saturday and fished the railway bank taking almost 100 assorted small roach and perch to around 6 ounces.

Most fell to caster on a size 18 to 2lb line fished 18 inches deep.

Dodge braces himself for action

Despite the recent heat Pipps Hill Carp Fishery has been providing its visitors with some good catches.

The best of the fish fell to carp specialist Dodge Hicks who landed a cracking brace of commons scaling 18lb 12oz and 13lb 8oz. Dodge used Kevin Nash whiskey boilies to tempt his two fish.

Danny Peters was rigged up for tench at Pipps Hill's bottom bay when he was surprised to find 24lb 60z mirror has taken his sweetcorn bait.

Danny's 6lb line and size 10 hook meant a fair battle ensued before Danny brought the big specimen to bank.

Pipps Hill manager, Dave Levy, ventured further afield in search of some really big carp.

Dave visited a private lake near Walthamstow to bank an enormous 33lb 12oz mirror.

The fish was taken using Kevin Nash boilies presented on a size four hook and a 10lb line.

Sea Shorts

Of interest to all anglers - be it fresh water or sea - is that the Bait and Tackle Centre are now offering a reel service and repair for all types of reels.

This service is second to none, is by Kev the areas leading reel man.

Anglers are reminded that the NFSA Essex Guernsey qualifier goes ahead on the pier this Saturday.

Book in times will be from 11.30am and the match is from 1pm to 7pm. Entry is £1 plus pools on the day.

The winner of last weeks Bait and Tackle Centre evening match held at Thorpe Bay was Dion Macfayden with 5 flounders for a weight of 2lb 14.5oz. Second place went to Rick Hodson with a weight of 1lb 15.5oz who beat dave Fuller into third place with 1lb 9.5oz.

Keith Summers had the heaviest flounder and Dave Tanner had the heaviest round fish.

The SAAS club had two matches at the weekend. The first was at East Beach last Friday, the winner was S. Brierly with 4lb 3.5oz who beat L.Brierly into second place with a weight of 1lb 12.5oz

Third place went to K.Summers with 1lb 11oz. Their second match was on the pier on Sunday and the winner was Rollo Rollings with 3lb 1.5oz beating Alan Barker into second place, he had 2lb 9.5oz.

Bait and Tackles match team continue to do well with two members travelling to Southwould at the weekend.

Craig proceeded to win against stiff opposition on their home territory for soles. He caught 2 for 1lb 14.5oz including the heaviest fish, a sole of 1lb 2oz. Second place was 11oz.

The NFSA shore league was fished on Saturday night at Wescliff. The winners were the Rayliegh Codfathers with a total of 13.5points. Second place was the SAAS B team with 10points and third place the SSAS A team with 8 points.

Conditions round-up

When the weather allows the fishing has remained productive with all areas reporting good catches of smoothounds, tope roker, and bass.

Now that summer is now well upon us crab and ragworm baits are starting to outperform the squid baits.

Further up the coast there have been reports of very large shoals of mackerel which hopefully will move down the coast.

Also, in the River Blackwater, there are now reports of large shoals of very small bass which again hopefully will survive for the next few years to enhance our fishing.

Southend Boats

Dave from the Predator reports boats catching up to 20 smoothounds a day plus roker and small bass falling to crab and ragworm baits. Also private boats are finding the larger bass with sandeels.

Southend Pier

A few mackerel are being caught from the end of the pier but not so many from the stem.

Plenty of mullet being caught with Gary Lloyd having 12 up to about 2lb. The best bait being sand rag for these elusive fish.

Plenty of small bass have been seen but not so many being caught with large amounts of livebait about.

The has been the odd eel from inshore with a few flounders to crab baits.

Southend Beaches

Only a few flounders to report, very few eels, with the main problem for anglers being the very small bass which continue to get in the way.

River Crouch

A few bass from Bamburgers jetty, the odd few eels from the sea wall with mullet from the marinas.

River Blackwater

The best fish of the week was Dave Cater with a 21 1/4lb smoothound at the weekend on the Kingfisher.

Terry Batt had 32 bass from 2lb to 5lb, also a monster bass of over 15lb was lost by an angler on his boat, they also had smoothounds to 15lb. Generally fishing has been curtailed by the strong north east winds last week.

West Mersea

Dave Weavin, from the Jenna D, went right out to the Gallopers last week and found several cod, bass, pollack, mackerel and horse mackerel in some very rough weather last Friday.

Generally the rest of the fishing reads much the same as the Blackwater.

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.