Angling: Wet and wild for Basildon

17 anglers took the club coach to the river and found the weather to be wet and miserable for most of the day.

However, the Basildon anglers were not to be deterred and hopes were high of catching some good chub and bream.

Winner on the day was Dave Peck who weighed-in with four decent bream totalling 18lb. The win was made even more remarkable due to the fact that Dave took his first fish just 45 minutes from the end of the match . . . and he also lost two large bream just before time was called! Dave fished a groundbait feeder using red maggot as bait.

To make it a family affair, Dave's son, Robert, claimed the runner-up spot with some small chub, roach and skimmers totalling 1lb 11oz.

Clive Horton took this fine 23lb 6oz mirror carp at Billericay's Lake Meadows

Junior joy at Rochford

Rochford's Doggetts fishery has been producing excellent sport this week, with the usual bream and tench giving anglers most of the action.

Bread maggot and worm tempters are the best hook bait with well mixed groundbait being essential.

Junior members Alan Slade and Louis Clark fished the long arm during quite stormy conditions. Alan landed a 14lb common plus a 12lb mirror while Louis couldn't find the carp but landed four good tench along with a bream to 5lb.

Southend angler Danny Ball fished the south bank using a method feeder plus boilie hookbait to the reeds.

Danny landed five good tench to 5lb - a personal best - but missed what would have been his largest Doggetts carp when he left his rod in the care of a friend who lost the fish at the net.

Bob Nooks found float-fished double maggot from the south bank provided plenty of action with some hard fighting tench and bream to 4lb while brothers Dave and Martin Timms both fished a maggot feeder with worm hook bait on the east bank.

The pair landed nine tench to 4.6lb five bream to 5lb and one common carp of 6lb which gave Dave a terrific scrap on his light float gear.

The carp fishing has been as unsettled as the weather although Lee Davis, from Thurrock, found the back pool quite productive, giving excellent sport with superb 16lb fully scaled mirror plus an 8lb common.

Lee returned the following day to fish the east bank as the wind had changed direction.

Lee's luck continued when he landed two tench to 4lb plus a 12lb mirror.

Lilley blooms in evening match

Basildon angler Ray Lilley snatched victory at the penultimate match in Tony Cheeseman's Colmic sponsored Northlands Park Evening series, taking a 15lb 14oz haul from the caf lake.

Ray fished a peg between the concrete slipway and the caf to land five bream, a skimmer and a roach, on ledgered sweetcorn. He also lost three good bream.

Laindon man Peter Jerrum was close behind to take second place with 15lb 10oz. Peter used quiver-tipped sweetcorn to tempt six bream and a roach from the road lake.

Series leader Peter Steward maintained his overall winning position taking third place with 12lb 9oz. Peter fished the caf lake taking his bream catch on quiver-tipped red maggot.

Fourth place went to Terry Busby with a 9lb 2oz haul. Terry took his mixed catch from the caf lake using pole tactics.

Dave Hemmings took the heaviest bag of the week at Gloucester Park netting a 165lb haul from the eastern end of the island. Pole fished luncheon meat, sweetcorn and trout pellets rewarded him with tench, carp, and quality roach.

The Gloucester Park big bay is a favourite quivertip venue, producing a 121lb bag for Basildon angler Tony Ridley. Tony included three tench in his otherwise all carp catch.

Sea shorts

The third Bait and Tackle match was fished on June 26 with a very poor turnout of 24 anglers. The winner was Russell Clark with a weight of 2lb 14oz who beat M Grossman to second place with a weight of 2lb 10.5oz.

L Hooper came third with 2lb 10oz. Heaviest flatfish was shared between M Grossman and J Fallen with a flounder of 11.5oz. Heaviest round fish was 1lb 14oz bass which fell to R Clark.

On the 27th the SAAS club had a pier match and the winner was P Saunders with 2lb 3.5oz. Second was D Fuller with 2lb 2.25oz and third was A Barker 1lb 15.5oz. Top junior was L Clark with 1lb 6.75oz and heaviest fish was an eel of 1lb 3oz which fell to P Saunders.

Local matchman and Bait and Tackle Team member Barry Cowell is on a roll at the moment. The other week he won the Whitstable open and now he has also won the Felixstowe Open on June 26 with 5lb 13.5oz including two eels and a bass of 3lb 11.25oz.

Both these matches were Penn qualifiers so Barry is now heading up towards the top after fishing only two matches.

The NFSA shore league match was held in conjunction with Bait and Tackle match at the weekend. The winners were the Rayleigh Codfathers with a weight of 4lb 1/2 oz (13.5 points).

Mathew brings in big Crouch bass

11-year-old Mathew Huntley landed a 12lb bass while fishing out of the river Crouch. Mathew, a pupil at Riverside Junior School, Hullbridge, had a terrific day aboard the Hellbound - a boat co-owned by Mathew's dad,Roger and Steve Stone. The party took a 38 fish total including tope to 8lb, smoothound to 11lb and roker up to 10lb

Kingfisher finds tope in the fairer weather

Yet again an excellent week for fishing ended with a terrible Sunday that saw most boats giving up early.

Fishing last week from Bradwell was excellent, with tope of 54lb and 53lb falling to Terry Turner and Dave Pauldin of John Ralwe's boat the Kingfisher.

The best specimen of the week fell to Lloyd Cotter, also on John's boat, with a superb 24.5lb smoothound.

Dave Bullimore had a 48lb tope and a 10.8oz bass - either fish being enough to make most anglers happy.

Last weekend a Kinfisher crew member was bringing up a small tope of about 15lb when half-way up his rod buckled over under the pressure of something big.

When he let go, he then carried on reeling in to land the tope only to find it had two big teeth impressions on the body from what was obviously a hungry shark, possibly a porbeagle.

This is not the first time this has happened. A few years ago a boat from Mersey fishing the estuary had two big porbeagles round his boat and John himself - while landing a small tope - had a 60lb shark follow up just as he was about to lift it into the boat, naturally scaring him witless.

Basildon angling guru Mick Toomer was called on by trawlerman Paul Gilson a few years ago to take a picture of a young thresher shark he netted in the Thames. It makes you wonder how many other strange fish live out there which people do not normally fish for.

Conditions round-up

Southend boats

The general fishing has still been a bit patchy, with some boats finding good numbers of smoothounds, roker and a few bass and tope.

A report was received of a 60lb stingray taken last weekend.

River Crouch

Lots of mullet are now appearing in the marinas. These are best tried for with floating bread or maddies.

A few bass up to 4lb have been taken from the shore along with a few eels.

Paul Sammonds had three bass to 4.5lb over low water on live sand eels.

When the weather was good there was good catches of tope, smoothhounds, dogfish and a few bass reported from Alan boat the Tartar. A surprise catch of a tadpole fish of around 12oz from the sea wall was weighed in a local tackle shop.

Southend beaches

Several flounders are being caught on crab, but the eels still seem to be absent at the moment.

Pat Black fished Benfleet Creek when his boat trip was cancelled and had eight flounders, one eel and a 5lb bass.

Gravesend, Tilbury and Stanford

More eels down this end of the river with flounders and even more eels at Stanford.

Chris Antoniou and his friend fished Tilbury at the weekend and had five soles to 1lb 1/4 oz.

Reports have come in from an angler that from a "secret" mark they have been getting good catches of bass, eels, soles and even whiting.

River Blackwater

The inshore fishing has improved with more small bass being caught.

Terry Batt, on his own boat, took 22 fish on Monday after being forced to stay close to shore due to the weather. When fishing outside reports have been excellent: twenty plus tope to 54lb, up to 50 smoothound to 24.5lb with not so many roker as the boats have been concentrating on the round fish.

The prospects are there for even better smoothound fishing in the next month or two.

From the shore the stingray have started to appear. Local skipper Bob Cox was rumoured to have caught four to 45lb at the weekend.

Sea round-up

Contact Bait and Tackle's Ray Power on 01702 617764

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