Another mammoth catch highlighted a busy round of matches for Hockley Angling Club.

Peter Rue triumphed in the top lake contest with a catch of 117lb 6oz. Lee Ceurvels's haul was 98lb 10oz, with Sharon Brown third on 72lb.

Fourth place went to Jeff Long (52lb 6oz).Alun Williams (42lb 4oz) won Basildon firm Yoplatt Dairy Crest's Geoff Bishop Memorial match.

Ray Lilley was second (29lb 1oz), John Blerkom third (27lb 9oz) and John Clark fourth (24lb 10oz).

Lucky 13 - a common carp of 10lb 8oz was caught by 13-year-old Ashley Russell at Gloucester Park Lake

Church's charity win

Basildon and District Angling Society were full of praise for Jeff Church when he won the second and final leg of their Neil Peck Memorial Charity fishing matches.

He caught many carp with his pole and luncheon meat as a tempter for 62lbs 8oz after drawing peg one.

Junior member Paul Osbourne - Jeff's son - was runner-up in peg two. He landed five pole-caught carp for a weight of 22lbs 14oz, using luncheon meat.

Third place went to match organiser Terry Piccollo with a fine mirror carp weighing exactly 19lbs which he caught on rod and line using worms as bait.

Forty anglers were at Basildon's Moat Lake for the event, held in memory of angler Neil Peck, who died in 1993 aged 11.

Terry came top with 35 points out of 40 for the two matches. He won a Team England rod holdall donated by four-time world champ Bob Nudd.

Nearly £500 was raised, taking this year's total to more than £1,000. The money will buy equipment for Puffins children's ward at Basildon Hospital.

Ton specialist Dave lands Goliath haul

In-form Basildon matchman Dave Hemmings enjoyed a tremendous week at his local Gloucester Park Lake, with two ton-up hauls on consecutive trips.

He's now landed 21 100lb-plus catches from the venue this year - including two above 200lbs - while another 11 bags were more than 90lb.

His latest tons - 110 then 125lb - came from the eastern end of the island and fell to pole tactics.

Both catches contained at least five different species.

Meanwhile, fellow local angler Mark Acton caught steadily from the next swim, with his 98lb haul just 80z below his personal best.

Like Dave, he fished pole tactics, using luncheon meat, pellet and sweetcorn to keep the fish interested throughout the day.

On Sunday, Dave Hemmings netted more than 70lb when sharing a swim at the western end with lake regular Tom Keeble, whose 50lb-plus pole catch included carp of 10lb 14oz and 12lb 7oz

The park's junior anglers have also been in form, exploiting the profitable lake.

Ashley Russell, 13, fished at Tench Point to land a common of 10lb 8oz as he used trout pellet, presented against the reeds.

An evening session produced plenty of action for 11-year-old Tony James, of Eastbrooks Place, Pitsea, and his day Andy on the canal stretch. Tony soon hooked a double-figure carp, only to lose it at the net after a long battle.

However, within minutes, his luncheon meat waggler lured a 10lb 80z mirror carp on just 3lb line, beating his personal best by 1lb.

Young Lee Sperring landed a 13lb common carp, then a superb mirror of 15lb - even though his relatively-short session was only his second visit to the water!

Northlands Park continues to produce some excellent carp, with a mirror of 18lb for Mark Skinner, tempted from the caf lake with a homemade boilie.

Roy Turner fished an evening session at Northlands Park Road lake to net a huge bream, then a 15lb mirror carp on his very next cast - again using two mini-peach squid boilies

Other carp taken at the park during the week included a common by Rob Mayes, and a mirror of 15lb for Trevor Smith, both also weighing 15lb.

Billericay's Lake Meadows is another venue producing good-sized carp, such as Grant Noble's mirror (18lb 60z), a mirror by Terry Marsden (18lb) and commons of 15lb and 16lb by Mark Lindsay.

Warrior's a winner for Norris

A haul of 13 eels took John Norris to victory in the Lobster Smack's latest contest.

Norris's 5.76kg capture, aboard Ocean Warrior, left him comfortably ahead of Ken Pritlove in the sea angling club's monthly competition.

Pritlove was fishing on David M when he caught eight eels, totalling 3.48kg.

Mick Yeu, aboard Dawn Sharon, was just squeezed into third place, with two eels and a bass weighing 3.38kg.

Yeu landed the day's biggest fish, a 2.62kg bass.

Junior angler Paul Wood, who was on Gay Dolphin, caught a mixed bag weighing 0.98kg.

The ten-hour event featured eight boats.

The Lobster Smack Sea Angling Club will be holding its annual open boat competition on November 28. Contact John Anderson on 01375 643376 for more information.

Illegal fishing sparks alert

The controversy on gill nets, featured in last week's angling round-up, has prompted commercial fishermen in south Essex to raise a crucial issue - illegal catching by rod and line anglers.

Anyone keeping bass under 36cm could be fined up to £5,000, or as much as £50,000 if a commercial boat is involved.

Selling bass of any size is illegal - unless you have a licence or the bass has been caught from shoe and is bigger than 36cm.

The authorities in south Essex are set to take action over the problem of illegal fishing in this area, which is a major region for spawning.

A big campaign is underway to ban the commercial fishing of bass between January and April.

Anyone feeling strongly about the issue might want to write to Elliott Morley MP, House of Commons, London SW14 0AA.

To clarify last week's report, there are only around five or six legally-licensed gill-net anglers in this area.

For the protection of the commercial fisherman, drifting or fixed gill nets must have a 90mm mesh and the dam buoys need to have a registered name or number on them.

Conditions round-up

It has been a quiet week at south Essex venues.

Further away, though, on Deal Pier, plenty of codling were caught at the weekend, and several more were landed from Walton Pier.

Southend boats

Bad weather curbed the action, with only a few whiting and codling being reported.

Southend pier

The one catch of note was a bass, weighing in at Southend Angling Centre at 8lbs 7oz over the weekend.

River Crouch

Little to report again.

River Blackwater

Badly hit by the unhelpful tides, poor weather, and the fact that Bradwell does not always catch fish. Terry Batt's Vicky Emma had a very disappointing Sunday. His party's half-day of fishing yielded only seven whiting, six pouting, two eels (the biggest was 2lbs 7oz) and a bass.

West Mersea

Nothing to report

Canvey

Nothing to report

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.