Basildon angler Michael Peck crowned seven years of carp fishing with the elusive 20lb plus specimen he has been searching for.

Michael's big fish, a mirror of 20lb 7oz, came during an evening session at Basildon's Northlands Park lake from a swim on the western bank of the road lake.

Hair rig sweetcorn on a semi fixed rig tempted the fish, which was more than 2lbs heavier than Michael's previous best, a common of 18lb from the Caf Lake.

Billericay's Lake Meadows has been producing a string of big carp, with Matt Bacon taking more than his fair share over a two day period.

Fishing from the point Matt landed mirrors of 15lb 4oz, 16lb 9oz and 20lb 10oz. He then put the icing on the cake with a superb 21lb 14oz common.

Nick Lickfold came close to the magic 20lb mark when he landed a scaly Lake Meadows mirror of 19lb 2oz from the sluice bank. The fish fell to a homemade mainline boilie, as did the 15lb common he landed shortly after the big mirror.

Companion Pete Avis also joined in the sport - landing mirrors of 14lb 12oz and 15lb 12oz.

Brian Hill fished the Lake Meadows houses bank to land a common of 17lb 9oz on a rose hip flavoured boilie while Nicky Scaddan tempted a Lake Meadows mirror of 17lb 14oz.

Bream anglers are taking good bags from both the Lake Meadows houses and grass banks. Quivertip has been the favourite method with Simon Wales netting a 23lb haul from a peg just past the point. He fished a bomb and sweetcorn to take fish to 3lb 4oz.

The next Lake Meadows Open will take place at the Billericay water on Sunday.

For more information ring Mick Toomer on 01268 282317.

Michael Peck displays his superb 20lb 7oz Northlands Park carp

(Right) Nick Lickfold, (left), and Pete Avis show two of their big Lake Meadows mirrors

Hectic at Hadleigh

Hadleigh reservoir has seen a lot of good sport with lots of small carp. along with the odd bigger specimen, being brought to bank.

Justin and Michael Eccles fished from the deep bank to take four mirrors to 10lb plus two commons of 11lb and 14lb between them.

Canvey Island angler Mark Lewis fished just beyond the drip to take the biggest fish from Hadleigh this week in the shape of a super mirror of 20lb 2oz. Gloucester great for carp

Gloucester Park has been producing excellent carp, with Hadleigh angler Antony Joiner taking a personal best 17lb 8oz common from tench point.

The fish fell to a ready made strawberry boilie, and beat his previous personal best by 3lb 8oz. During the same session his pal Ryan O'Neill took carp to 9lb.

Gloucester Park regular Michael Blackburn had the carp queuing up for his homemade boilies when he fished a peg in the big bay. Over the Bank Holiday period he landed 36 carp, including numerous specimens into double figures.

Junior angler Michael Brotherwood took three carp when he fished an evening session from the Gloucester Park cockle bank. Using homemade boilies he tempted carp of 7lb 8oz, 8lb 8oz and 12lb 4oz. His father John added a fish of 6lb 4oz. Full house for Hockley Open

Hockley Angling Club had a full 40 peg contingent for their Open Double match held over five hours.

The three lakes all fished very well with top honours going to Mavericks pairing Andy Haines and Dave Aldworth who collected £230 in prize money for their combined 86lb 10oz haul.

Second spot, and £165 prize money, went to Ben Bray and Peter Darling of the JB Tackle angling team, with a total of 85lb 2oz.

In third place, also from the Essex Angling Centre sponsored Mavericks team, was Martin Andrews and Mark Rogers weighing in with a combined weight of 57lb 70z.

All competitors took fish with the total weight for the match reaching 740lb 7oz.

Other matches at Hockley have also seen some good weights being brought to bank.

Tom Barrett, fishing for London Road Services angling team, had a winning weight of 64lb 14oz in the fancied peg. Dave Williams claimed second with 24lb 5oz. Third place went to Barry Hampton who was close behind with 14lb 12oz. Open pier competition

Southend Amateur Angling Society are holding an Open Pier Competition on Sunday, April 18.

Entry is expected to be high, with a £400 first prize going to the overall winner.

Adults can book their place for £7 with juniors paying £1. Fishing time is from midday to 6pm.

There is an early draw at the TEAC on Thursday, April 15 from 8pm until 10pm or you can book-in on the day at Southend pier from 10.30am.

For more information contact either Rollo Rollings on 01702 335374 or Paul Sanders on 01245 322641. Rochford pair bag-up at Doggetts

Allan Slade and friend John Hieron, both from Rochford, enjoyed some hectic sport when they fished a session at their local Doggetts fishery.

Allan landed five good tench plus a mirror of 9lb 8oz with John taking a further three tench and topping the day with a mirror of 12lb.

Southend angler Barry Smith fished the water's north bank to land a super 15lb mirror from a cast close to the reeds.

Clayton Barbour, from Rochford, opted to fish the lake's long arm and was rewarded with six tench and a trio of carp - the heaviest weighing-in at 13lb 4oz.

Bill Hiron, older brother of John, was not to be outdone when he fished at Doggetts' north bank. He chose to cast towards the reeds to take a fine mirror of 17lb.

It was a tale of two anglers when Southend friends, Lee Jackson and Bob Gibson, settled into a session at the Rochford water.

For while Lee got stuck in to a brace of tench and two carp to 12lb, friend Bob allegedly just slept through and left with a predictable blank!

The north bank bared fruit for regular Steve Beresford who used feeder and maggott to end his session with a good bag of mixed tench, roach and bream.

Tench were also the target for Southend angler David Cahill and he was not disappointed when his sweetcorn and maggot tempter brought in five good specimens from the long arm.

Another Southend angler, Mike Martin, had his sights set on bigger fish and an early session at Doggetts' north bank provided him with a 17lb mirror.

Adam Sayer fished in the north bank and ended his day with four trench and a single mirror of 9lb.

Mike Martin displays his 17lb Doggetts mirror

Conditions round-up

Southend Boats

Southend boats did see some good catches of thornbacks and codling taken early last week but things have deteriorated over the past few days with only a few fish being taken.

It is no exaggeration to say that catches are around a tenth of what they were a week ago.

Hopefully the reduction in sport is nothing more than tides or, more likely, the change in air pressure.

With another low pressure forecast, things should start to pick-up over the next few days. Southend Pier

As with the boats things got worse towards the end of the week.

Before the fish disappeared there were plenty of flounders taken, but even these have proved illusive. Canvey

Much the same as everywhere else although a few decent flounders have been taken along with one or two school bass Essex Angling Centre Sea Round-up

Contact Peter Marshall on 01702 711231

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