The Monk at Elphicks continues to produce plenty of big carp and the fishery record for the Specimen Lake has been broken three times in as many weeks.

This new fishery at Goudhurst which only opened in March is slowly becoming one of the best carp fisheries in the area for big fish.

It is only lightly stocked with 250 carp to over 30lb of which most are doubles and the smallest fish in the water is 7lb. The biggest fish stocked in the lake was a common carp, but so far this has not been caught and the largest captured so far is a mirror of 31lb 5oz. Apparently it is the same fish which was caught at 27lb, then 28lb, 29lb and is now the record for the water.

It was caught by Neil Stevens of Tunbridge Wells on popped up maze and the same angler caught the same fish previously at 27lb 8oz.

A 13lb sea trout has been caught from the western Rother, the best for many years. Scales of the specimen have been sent to Richard Horsfield, Fisheries Scientist for the Environment Agency, for reading. The fish was thought to be eight or nine years old and Richard is trying to establish how many times it has spawned.

Sea trout fishing has been slow on the Sussex Ouse.

The eastern Rother has been fishing well for chub in the upper reaches where a number of fish have been caught to 4lb by members of the Hastings, Bexhill and District Freshwater Angling Association. Bread flake, luncheon meat and cheese paste have been the most successful baits.

There were also a few dace to 6oz and roach to 10oz taken from the same area of river. Tench and bream to 4lb were also caught from the lower Rother, but much of the river still remains closed because of the continuing foot and mouth crisis.

Saunders Gravel Pits at Rye Harbour have fished well for carp and some have been caught to 22lb on boilies by members of Clive Vale Angling Club.

There a good number of doubles taken along with plenty of tench of 2lb to 3lb class, which is unusual, for the average is generally much higher.

The trout fishing at Powdermill Reservoir has been slow, but some anglers are still managing to catch their limit of six fish. John Noble of Hastings took six rainbows for 14lb from the bank. The bailiff Vic Partridge caught the best fish recently when he fished from the bank with damsel nymph for a trout of 5lb 11oz.

A long spell of bright sunshine hit fishing hard at Bewl Water Trout Fishery. Many fish could be seen but were hard to take as they contented themselves, gorging on the plentiful supply of Daphnia and coarse fish fry with the result that average stock size grew to 2lb 4oz but the catch average dropped to just under two per rod.

The SEFFF final fished on Sunday proved a challenge, even to the seasoned rods such as the first three, Jeff Letter, Mick Dwyer and Jason Watkins.

The Faithdean charity match was won by Gary Lagdon with a bag on 25lb 7oz. A few days before that Lagdon had landed a brown of 6lb 6oz.

The best rainbow of the week was a 7lb 5oz fish by R. Blackman.