NORTHLANS Park regular Kevin Wall had a battle on his hands when he hooked a 16lb 8oz mirror carp. He was fishing for beam and tench with just 4lb line!

Wall had already taken a succession of bream and tench from his road lake swim when a more positive bite signalled the arrival of the big carp at the Basildon water.

It immediately set off on a long run, testing Wall’s light gear to the limit.

Fortunately both his line and his knots passed the test, and eventually the big fish was juggled into a match-sized landing net.

After returning the big carp Wall took more than 30lb of bream and tench, with individual specimens to 5lb. All of his fish fell to tutti fruitti-flavoured soft pellets.

Bricklayer Clive Chapel christened his new 16m pole in style by taking a 53lb haul of bream and tench from the Northlands Park road lake.

Chapel fished the road bank where he used pellet baits to take quality fish throughout his four-hour evening session.

He also hooked a big carp which drifted lazily to the surface before it realised what was going on.

Things changed rapidly when its back broke the surface, leaving a bemused Chapel studying his broken rig as over 20lbs of angry carp bow waved across the lake.

Sean O’Brien also lost a big carp at Northlands Park when it treated his light 2lb hooklength with disdain. After re-tackling O’Brien re-cast his quivertip gear, only to have the same thing happen again minutes later!

But the rest of O’Brien’s session was less dramatic and, using worm and pellet baits, he carried on to net a 46lb haul of tench and bream.

Many of his fish were big specimens, with the best tench scaling 5lb 10oz, and his best bream 4lb 14oz.