Angling: Pipps Hill provides the action

With much of the excess weed and rubbish now removed from the Cranes Farm Road water, both fish and angler are benefitting from the cleaner water.

Youngster Ryan Moles enjoyed a particularly frantic session, taking carp of 15lb, 12lb, 11lb, along with a fine 6lb tench.

John Richardson, a regular to the lake, continues to add to his carp tally with a 16lb common and a 16lb 8oz mirror.

Mark Smith, an angling legend at the lake formally known as Aquatels, took a 14lb fully-scaled mirror off the beach during an evening session.

Paul Cater decided to buck the trend for carp by going for tench. He ended his spell with ten good fish, the largest being 8lb 10oz, as well as four bream to 6lb.

All of Paul's fish were taken on bread flake in the margin.

Steve Snell has been in solid form taking regular catches from Pipps Hill's back points, with plenty of fish around the mid-double mark.

Steve Banks was shown up by his 14-year-old son Gary when they went for a day's sport. Gary took a 19lb 8oz common before adding to his dad's blushes by landing a superb 17lb 8oz mirror off the surface on floating crust.

Fishery manager Dave Levy and his partner Mark spent a day fishing one of the bays on the lake and caught six carp to 16lb 8oz and four tench to 7lb.

Roger Hicks won a spirited fight to land a 19lb 8oz ghost carp off the beach.

Anyone wishing for further information on a now limited membership or day tickets can phone Dave on 01268 440217 or Mark on 0410 696612.

Roger Hicks displays his magnificent 19lb 8oz ghost carp taken at Pipps Hill Carp Fishery Cheeseman challenge tomorrow

Tony Cheeseman's Colmic sponsored Northlands Park Evening Series gets underway tomorrow.

Meet at the lake at 5pm for a 5.30pm walkoff. Fishing time will be 6pm till 9pm.

The series will consist of six individual matches with their own pools payouts. There will also be trophies for the overall series winners with prizes for the heaviest fish of the series and the heaviest one match bag.

The winner of the overall series will be decided by each angler's best five results.

Entry will cost £10 for each match fished with the usual £2 evening fishing ticket payable on the bank.

For more information ring Tony Cheeseman on 01277 840137. Big carp can't hide from Colin

Carp angler Colin Flack fished the Northlands Park road lake to land a superb brace of fish weighing over 38lbs between them.

Colin's session started in spectacular style when a 17lb 12oz common picked up his homemade boilie less than five minutes into his first cast.

A few hours later Colin was back in action with an even bigger fish. Once in the net this second fish proved to be the well known mirror nicknamed "Two Tone", which scaled 20lb 8oz.

Fellow carp angler Chris Brown fished the swim next to Colin to share in the action. Just an hour or so after Colin had taken his first fish Chris was battling with a common of 16lb.

The biggest carp from Northlands this week fell to Rob Mayes. Rob fished a swim near the caf to tempt a superb 21lb 6oz mirror carp on a homemade boilie.

Thanks to a piece missing from the fish's tail Rob was able to recognise it as the specimen known as "Flipper", an old friend he has caught several times before.

Chris Strutt and his twelve-year-old son Matthew enjoyed a particularly hectic session when they fished the Gloucester Park small bay. Their biggest fish fell to Matthew who topped his haul with a common of 16lb 12oz.

He also landed specimens of 12lb 4oz, 10lb 8oz, and 7lb 6oz. Chris took full advantage of the hectic sport landing a total of 32 carp.

Seven of these where double figure specimens weighing 15lb 2oz, 15lb, 14lb 8oz, 12lb 8oz, 12lb 1oz, 12lb, and 11lb 6oz. All of their fish fell to ledgered cheese.

Darren Heatley left the best to last when he fished the point at Billericay's Lake Meadows. Early in his session Darren netted a 16 pounder, but had nothing else to his credit when the time came to pack up.

Leaving his rods till last he had the rest of his equipment put away when the clicking of his bait runner alerted him to another take. This fish proved to be an even bigger specimen and a delighted Darren eventually slid the net under a cracking mirror of 23lb 12oz.

The Lake Meadows point swim also proved successful for Paul Aston and his pal Michael Hampshire who can claim joint credit for a common carp of 18lb 14oz.

Michael had cast out a homemade boilie, and then fallen soundly asleep. Soon after the big fish picked up his bait and sped off. Neither the scream of his bite alarm or Paul's shaking aroused Michael, leaving Paul to land the fish!

Colin Flack shows one of his Northlands Park carp Police in top nick

Rayleigh Police and Social Club held their annual fishing competition at Hockley Angling Club's day ticket water in near perfect conditions on Sunday.

All those taking part caught fish even though the majority of carp were busy spawning.

Cyril Stringer took the day's honours with a quality catch of mostly roach for 37lb 10oz.

Tony Short, also with a similar bag, took second place with a total weight of 24lb 2oz.

Third spot went to Ian Lawrence with 12lb 2oz. Robert's reward

Fourteen-year-old Robert Hewitt and his friend Daniel Gibbard, also 13, finished a long session at Northlands Park in style with their only bite of the day.

The boys, both pupils at Basildon's Chalvedon School, had sat for nearly nine hours without a catch between them when a huge 23lb mirror carp took Robert's bait.

The fish was very reluctant to come in and took approximately 90 minutes to land. Robert is reported to have ached for days after the big catch! Sea shorts

Canvey Island Sea Angling Club took the spoils when the Essex NFSA staged the second leg of their boat league competition at Hayling Island.

The best round fish of the day went to Andy Veal, of the Lobster Smack, with a smoothound of 18lb. Andy also claimed the day's best specimen for the same fish.

Canvey's Bob Mason claimed the biggest bag with a 91lb 7oz haul.

The Lobster Smack Sea Angling Club took second spot with Rayleigh Codfathers sharing third with SAAS.

Bait and Tackle had their first evening match with the lack of crab affected the entries with only 19 fishing.

Winner was M.Capp, fishing on the first peg, with three eels and two flounders for a weight of 2lb 15oz.

Second was R.Clark with 2lb 12 1/2oz and third was G.Lloyd.

Twelve boats with 42 competitors fished the Maplin Marine Angling Club Open Boat Competition in windy conditions to bring eight different species to deck.

Results:

Heaviest bass: 4lb 1oz by Mike Sharp

Heaviest smoothound: 4lb 3oz by Alf Shove

Heaviest plaice: 14oz by Eddie Fulford

Heaviest flounder: 14oz by David Byrne ,

Heaviest ray and Best Specimen:

The shore fishing contingent may find the lack of crab available a problem, but for Southend boats squid is by far the best bait.

It is almost not worth taking crab out, but do not forget to take a few packets of ragworm for the stingray and bass.

Also, to add some fun fishing to the outing, fish mackerel strip for the garfish, shad and mackerel up the pier.

A report from Dave on the Predator from his weekend efforts state that the winds curtailed the majority of sport. Conditions round-up

Southend Beaches

For some good flounder fishing at the moment go to Benfleet Creek where Arthur Fletcher caught seven flounders for 6lb to 8lb with the best at 1lb 8oz.

Otherwise flounders, eels and small bass are the main quarry, with the best results at night on the scare crab baits.

Southend Pier

Several flounders are still being taken from the inshore marks.

Towards the end good reports have been received of mixed catches of garfish, shad and a few mackerel.

At the head of the pier sport consists mainly of small bass being caught and not too much to speak of after dark.

River Crouch

The Tartar braved the weather at the weekend and ventured further out with good results.

Saturday's angling saw 12 roker to 12lb taken, along with three bass to 5lb and small smoothounds and tope to 4lb.

On Sunday after a poor start they moved inside to find large numbers of tope to 20lb with as many as five rods having tope on the end.

Again, almost all the fish were caught using squid tempters.

Gravesend, Tilbury and Stanford

Plenty of flounder action is still to be had at Stanford, with eels making up the mainstay of sport at the other rocky marks.

River Blackwater

Most boats were not able to get right out due to the weather, but fishing was still reasonable.

The best fish from the area was taken aboard Terry Batt's Vicky Emma with a 37lb stingray which fell to ragworm.

He also has had good numbers of smoothound to 10lb and roker to 13lb 12oz.

His best day was a trip with nine rod hirers. They had 15 tope to 35lb, 20 smoothound to 10lb and three bass to 7lb.

Sea round-up

Contact Bait and Tackle's Ray Power on 01702 617764

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