HOCKLEY angler Jamie Dalzell was delighted to become one of the few anglers in the country to land a 30lb plus carp from his from his local water during a session at Doggetts lake at Rochford.

And what made his catch even more remarkable was it was as a result of his very first cast from the east bank after time away from the sport to recover from a broken leg.

But with the cast now removed, he started the new season in style by landing ‘split tail’ at the magic weight of 31lb 12oz.

Rochford’s Ian Simmons landed a very scrappy 17lb fully-scaled mirror known as the kidney.

The fish put up a phenomenal scrap and made the short-day session very worthwhile.

John Hanks fished a couple of nights on the short-arm, but surprisingly struggled to find the carp.

Hanks fished his pole and red maggot in the back pool at dawn and dusk and enjoyed good sport with four perch, all around the one pound mark, plus 16 tench to 7lb.

Hanks returned to fish the North Bank on the weekend, and his pride was restored when he landed a fine 23lb mirror.

The water temperature at the lake is slowly rising with the biggest surprise being the number of tench being landed.