Northlands Park Lake continues to produce some tremendous carp, with two anglers landing personal best 20lb-plus specimens over the bank holiday.

The biggest fish fell to 15-year-old Michael Merchant, who landed a superb 21lb 9oz mirror carp from the road lake. The fish fell to bread flake.

At the scales, Michael found it was bigger than his previous personal best, a 17-pounder landed from the same swim.

Fellow 15-year-old Neil Farrell had a double delight when he fished the swim to the right of the wooden jetty at the road lake. His success started with a new personal best 17lb 5oz common carp picked up his homemade boilie.

A couple of hours later he caught a bigger fish. When he got the fish to the net he found that it was a well known mirror carp nicknamed "Two Tone". This fish scaled 20lb 8oz, giving him a new personal best for the second time in the space of four hours!

The cafe Lake also proved successful for David George. Using breadflake he tempted a common of 18lb 6oz.

Jason Busby targeted the Northlands Park bream, fishing the swim to the right of the concrete slipway. Using sweetcorn baits and a groundbait feeder he landed more than 20 bream for an estimated 50lb haul.

Mark Johnson found the park's bream in feeding mood when he fished a quivertip in the cafe lake. Fishing a peg between the slipway and the cafe Mark tempted 11 bream totalling 31lb 8oz. Quivertipped sweetcorn produced his fish.

Billericay's Lake Meadows has been producing carp well into double figures, although the 20lb-plus specimens have kept a low profile over the last week.

Amongst the anglers netting good fish have been Lee Hudson with a common of 18lb 4oz, Steve Lee with a mirror of 18lb 2oz, and Nick Morris who netted specimens of 15lb 6oz and 17lb 14oz.

Despite the changeable weather conditions that have unsettled the fish, Gloucester Park Lake has produced a number of ton-up catches.

The biggest of these fell to Dave Hemmings who fished the eastern end of the island to weigh in a 137lb 3oz haul.

Dave fished a pole, taking nothing for the first hour. He then took fish slowly until early afternoon when his catch rate increased dramatically.

His fish consisted mainly of tench and carp, although he also took the odd bream, crucian, roach, chub and barbel.

Rochford angler Dave Martison fished the Gloucester Park cockle bank to take a 100lb-plus catch of tench, carp, two barbel and a few chub using a quivertip.

The competitors at the first match in Tony Cheeseman's Colmic-sponsored Northlands Park Evening Series found bream hard to tempt, despite the large numbers of fish showing on the surface.

At the scales Vince Davies snatched victory by the narrowest of margins, weighing in three bream for 8lb 7oz 8dr. Vince, who lost a very big bream at the net, fished the road lake taking his fish on waggler and maggot.

Second place went to Terry Busby of the Basildon Angling Centre Squad. He fished the cafe lake to take an 8lb 7oz pole catch. This consisted of a bream, a tench and numerous roach.

Third place went to Peter Steward with three bream for 8lb 3oz 8dr, followed by Ron Smith with 5lb 13oz of roach.

The second match in the series takes place tomorrow. Meet at the lake at 5pm for a 5.30pm walkoff. Fishing time will be 6pm till 9pm.

Entry will cost £10 for each match fished with the usual £2 evening fishing ticket payable on the bank. Ring Tony Cheeseman on 01277 840137 for more information.

Jason Busby shows part of his Northlands Park bream haul

(Right) Michael Merchant took this 21lb 9oz carp at Northlands Park Davis takes the spoils

Hockley Angling Club's five-hour 38-peg open on Monday got off to a slow start but improved later in the day with some good winning weights.

Bob Davis took the spoils with 49lb 6oz mainly consisting of carp and roach.

Second place was taken by Peter Darling with a 38lb 2oz bag of carp, bream, roach, tench and perch.

Bob Burton came third with a mixed bag of 35lb.

The section winners were: Andy Stebbings (33lb 10oz), Ben Bray (10lb 4oz), Paul Baker (21lb 9oz), Dave Aldworth (23lb 11oz) and Peter Ainsley (17lb 12oz).

The HRH Angling Team visited Hockley's day ticket water for a day which saw some good weights despite the fish spawning.

Lee Ceurvels took first place with a 52lb 12oz bag mainly containing carp fished tight to the bank.

Peter Ainsley used similar tactics to get second with 47lb 13oz.

Third place went to Richard Manshield with 31lb 10oz, while Mark Aaron was fourth with 29lb 15oz.

An angler known only as Michelle came up trumps when she visited Pipps Hill Carp Fishery and landed a personal best mirror of 14lb 2oz, along with two 8lb commons and a 12lb mirror.

Other good catches at the Basildon lake include Darren Fox's 16lb 8oz and 15lb 4oz commons and a 15lb mirror, all caught with glm starmer boilies.

Neil Rayner took 16lb 4oz and 16ln 8oz commons, a 14lb ghost and two tench of 6lb, while Paul Gates landed a carp of 12lb 3.5oz.

The carp and other species at the fishery have spawned well this year. For more information and day tickets contact Mark on 0410 696612.

Bob Davis with part of his winning catch at Hockley's 38-peg open competition

(Right) Michelle with her 14lb 2oz mirror carp

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