The Mosey trio - father Fred plus sons Chris and Mark - enjoyed an action packed session at Gloucester Park landing more than a dozen carp between them.

Choosing swims in the big bay they fished homemade boilies against the island, and were soon enjoying hectic sport.

Chris set the ball rolling with a common of 13lb 6oz falling to his squid and octopus flavoured bait. He went on to add further fish of 6lb, 8lb, 10lb, 10lb 8oz, and 12lb. He also lost three other fish.

Father Fred fished the next swim to top his catch with a common of 12lb. He also landed three others between 6lb and 8lb, as well as losing a further good fish.

Although Mark failed to make contact with any of the double figure specimens he added a number of smaller carp to their tally.

Pole angler Tom Keeble also got amongst the Gloucester Park carp when he fished from the cockle bank. Using maggot baits he landed three fish between 4lb and 8lb.

He also added a number of tench, roach and skimmer bream, to finish with a 25lb plus haul.

Family affair - Chris, (left) and Fred Mosey show two of their Gloucester Park carp Tony's pole provides the spoils

Tony Jenkins took an excellent 71lb 1oz mixed bag to claim fist place in the First of two matches staged at Hockley Angling Club's day ticket water.

Tony used pole method throughout the six-hour match to land mainly carp along with some quality roach.

Sharon Brown, fishing similar tactics, took second spot with 30lb exactly. Lee Severills came third with a 20lb haul, but was left to rue the six large carp he lost on his light pole gear.

Hockley's second, silver fish only match, was held over five hours in appalling weather but all anglers still managed to take fish despite the cold, wet and windy conditions.

Essex Angling Centre's Peter Marshall, who writes the Sea Report for Angling Echo, took the spoils on his first-ever match at the water.

Peter fished bloodworm and joker to land a 10lb 9oz mixed bag of rudd, roach and bream to claim his £130 prize money.

Just an ounce behind with 10lb 8oz was Mark Patterson who took second with a similar bag of fish and became £78 richer. Tony Lennard, also on his first Hockley visit, claimed third with 8lb 6oz. Bream bring Byatt honours in Open

Sunday's dismal weather failed to dampen the spirits of the competitors at the Lake Meadows Open where the top four anglers averaged over 11lb apiece.

Once again the bream anglers and the roach men shared the honours both taking two out of the four top places.

The clear winner was Geoff Byatt who fished a quivertip to weigh in 14lb 7oz of bream. Geoff chose a swim on the houses bank where he tempted his catch with maggot bait.

Second place went to Basildon matchman Dave Hemmings with 11lb 8oz of roach. Dave fished pole tactics from the sluice bank taking his fish on maggot and pinkie baits.

Jim McGarrigle fished a quivertip to take third place with a 10lb 0oz haul of skimmers from the Grass Bank. Fourth place went to pole angler Mark Campion with 9lb 11oz of roach.

The Lake Meadows carp anglers continue to take some excellent fish, but none could match the catch taken by Paul Rogers. He included a brace of 20lb plus specimens in a five fish haul totalling over 80lb.

Paul fished from the Point where he used homemade boilies to tempt commons of 11lb, 12lb, and 18lb 8oz, as well as two superb mirrors weighing 21lb each.

Junior angler Peter Hudd took a fine pair of Lake Meadows carp when he fished a session from the Pont. Using homemade boilies he tempted mirrors of 14lb and 17lb.

The next Lake Meadows Open will take place on Sunday.

Meet in the car park from 7.30am for an 8.00am walk off. Fishing time will be 9am till 3pm. Bloodworm and joker are both barred. Entry will cost £7, (100 percent payout), with the usual day ticket payable on the bank.

The event will be a walk-off and will not affect pleasure anglers at the venue. For more information ring Mick Toomer on 01268 282317. Mirror brightens Bob's day at Doggetts

Rochford's Doggetts fishery has fished well this week with tench and bream being the main quarry.

Leigh angler Bob Gibson managed a fine 13.5lb mirror carp during a night session.

Peter Stanford fished the east bank with boilies and enjoyed some excellent sport with four tench to 4.5lb plus two common carp of 7.5lb and 10lb.

The juniors have also been making their mark at Doggetts with Lee Barker and Lois Clark, both from Rochford, fishing from the long arm to land some fine tench and bream with their boilie tempters.

Hadleigh reservoir has seen it's pike continue to be ever-illusive but Ben Jefford, of Canvey, managed to break the trend to land a big 16.5lb predator - his best pike so far.

Pike anglers are reminded that the current season for these big fish finishes on March 14.

Canvey angler Ben Jefford shows his big Hadleigh pike Paul's pipped by Nicola

Southend Amateur Angling Society staged their winter shore match at Stanford-le-Hope in dry but windy conditions.

To help preserve sport in the surrounding water it was decided that the match should be a measure and return event.

First place went to Nicola Sanders, who took seven flounders measuring 228cm. Paul Sanders was a close second with 220cm from his seven fish.

Lewis Clark landed six fish (199cm) for third spot.

Anyone wanting more information on the SAAS can contact Steve Jackson on 01702 290631 or e-mail stephen.jackson@tesco.net Spring cod on the way

Sea catches have, at last, started to improve with the first of the spring run of cod being caught by those boats getting well offshore.

The cod are mostly in the 4lb to 8lb bracket and hopefully we should see these moving into the river during the next week. Thornbacks are also showing offshore but are patchy.

Catches in the river continue to be dominated by dab and whiting plus undersize codling and bass. However, one or two decent plaice continue to be taken along with the odd sizable codling. Fine first fish

Twelve-year-old Aaron Cross is now well and truly hooked on angling after taking his first-ever carp at Stambridge fisheries.

The Eastwood youngster was enjoying his day out with stepfather, Keith Ross, when the 10lb 1oz fish took a fancy to Aaron's winter boilie bait.

The fish put up a brave fight - testing Aaron's 8lb line and size 8 hook for nearly quarter-of-an-hour - before being brought to bank.

Aaron shows off his catch Conditions round-up

SOUTHEND PIER

The extension has been dominated by small fish with just the occasional sizable codling from the east point.

The stem has been producing some good-sized flounders, but small whiting and bass are still a problem.

SOUTHEND BEACHES

Fishing slow at present with just a few sizable flounders being caught plus other species which are undersize.

CANVEY ISLAND

A few codling are still there to be had at night if you can get through the small fry. Flounders are providing the best chance of a sizable fish during the day.

RIVER CROUCH

Undersize fish are dominating catches with no decent reports received.

ESSEX ANGLING CENTRE SEAROUND-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.