A SUPERB personal best mirror carp of 26lb 8oz was the icing on the cake for Mark Embury when he enjoyed three spectacular evening sessions at his local Lake Meadows fishery.

Embury's trio of short sessions saw him land nine carp, three of them weighing more than 20lbs each.

His first session was just a few days after fellow lake regular Joe Torpey had included two 20lb-plus specimens in a seven-carp catch at the swing park end of the lake.

Looking for a quieter spot Embury opted for a swim at the other end of the dam wall, where his first run of the day produced a mirror of 13lb 8oz lured by a tigernut boilie presented against the post.

The 26lb 8oz mirror fell to a boilie cast to the island, and gave Embury problems when his line picked up a piece of sunken branch during the fight. Fortunately the branch pulled free of the bottom and the angler led the fish safely into the net.

Pleased at having taken a new personal best Embury re-cast, to hook yet another fish soon after.

This one proved to be an upper double, which unfortunately came adrift at the net.

A few evenings later Embury was back at the lake, this time at the boathouse hedge.

Again his first run of the evening produced a relatively small carp, this time a mirror of 15lb.

Better was to come when less than an hour later a cracking 21lb 10oz mirror carp accepted his tigernut boilie.

Feeling he was definitely on a roll Embury returned a couple of days later to find a strong wind blowing into the south western corner.

Not one to miss an opportunity the Billericay fisherman set up with the wind blowing directly at him.

The next couple of hours saw him land five carp and lose a sixth.

His biggest fish, a mirror of 20lb 12oz, was accompanied by others of 15lb 6oz, 14lb 4oz, 12lb 8oz and 11lb 2oz!

First time visitor Kevin Green also got more than his fair share of the Lake Meadows carp, topping a three-fish haul with a new personal best mirror carp of 22lb 4oz.

Green took his trio of fish from the houses bank, tempting them all with popped up cockle bait fished over a bed of loose fed cockles.

Green has his uncle Paul Mann to thank for his success.

Mann works in the seafood industry, and had given his nephew the bag of cockles to try after reading about their use in Angling Echo.

James Shade, once a regular face at Lake Meadows, has dragged his rods out again and is showing that he has not lost his old touch.

Fishing an evening session in the Lake Meadows boathouse shallows he netted a cracking mirror of 22lb, adding others of 16lb and 16lb 8oz for good measure.

Carp fishing newcomer Simon Rose also shared in the Lake Meadows bonanza taking his first ever 20-pounder during an evening session.

The big fish came from the grass bank where Rose presented a Mainline shelf life boilie in the near margins.