A BRACE of excellent bass have been caught by local rods, with eight-year-old Robert Jones from Langley, along the Waterside, heaving a cracker over the gunwales, which tipped the scales down to 8lb 4oz.

Fishing from his dad's small boat, while anchored over a mark just off the Beaulieu River, the youngster baited a size 3/0 hook with a strip of cuttlefish to tempt the specimen. The hefty predator was just 1oz below the existing SAC junior club record, which has stood for more than 20 years. Dad Les also got on the bass trail but with a much smaller fish of 2lb 15oz.

Dave Palmer from Woolston also got a taste of the action when he went afloat in his own boat to a mark off the Nab Tower, where he found a number of red gurnard, black bream and thorneback rays. The session was rounded off by a 9lb 14oz specimen bass, which was weighed and verified by the crew of Rovers Tackle shop in Fareham

Slightly further afield John Moseley apprehended an excellent Ballan wrasse during a Boscombe & Southbourne SFC shore competition held along the Hengistbury head section, which tipped the scales down to 5lb 6oz. It fell to peeler crab. Another wrasse weighing just over 4lb was landed during the same event.

The action was pretty good with a wide variety of species recorded during the seventh round of the Isac Open staged between the Ferry bridge and the oil drums along Chesil beach where 88 competitors sampled the action. They recorded one bass, two black bream, two bull huss, one conger, 85 dogfish, 31 red gurnard, one red mullet, one small-eyed-ray, two smoothhound, four spotted rays, two undulate rays, 23 pollack, 267 poor cod, 133 pouting, one three-bearded rockling, 108 scad and a solitary silver eel.

Three of the league's records were shattered during the event with Paul Titt recording a 4lb 3.75oz spotted ray. Steve Deathe from Southampton set a new undulate ray record with a fish weighing 4lb 7oz, while Ben Stockley set a new best with a three-bearded rockling weighing 12oz

The night's overall winner, pegged in A section, was Joe Arch with 20 fish weighing 20lb 3oz. The runner-up in his section was Steve Harder from Southampton with 11lb 8.75oz. In the B section, Dave Lane came out on top with 6lb 13oz ahead of Ian Golds 6lb 4oz.

Graham Hazell was the top performer in C section with 8lb 8oz followed by Daniel Mogridge from Fareham with 7lb 11oz. The final section was won by Pete Hegg with 6lb 13.25oz.

Joe Arch continues to head the overall leader table with just 12 penalty points from Ina Golds (32).

The next round in the open pegged series will be staged at Cogden on August 7, with fishing from 8pm to 1am. Scad are expected play a major part during the event along with doggies, rays, pout, smoothhound and some sole. The event is strictly pre-book only. Trevor Sutch will have all the details on 023 9220 1696.