Big-hearted anglers raised more than £1,000 for Wessex Heatbeat during the Lymington charity open shore competition.

They also landed some very good fish into the bargain during the competition, staged between Hordle and Hurst Castle.

The event attracted 117 competitors with more than half weighing in fish which included smoothhound, red mullet, shore rockling, bass, turbot, spotted rays, sole, small-eyed-rays, black bream, dogfish and pouting.

Seven-year-old Brad Smith, who is a member of the Lymington club and attends Pennington Infant School, won the junior section with a 2lb red mullet, which sets a new junior record for the club, along with a 1lb 15oz dogfish which was the top specimen in the junior section.

Runner-up in the junior section was Craig Moore from Sway with 1lb 15.75oz.

The event produced some cracking fish with Alan Mc Guinness beaching a 4lb 2.75oz spotted ray and Brain Fisk a 2lb 2oz black bream.

But the heaviest fish of the day, a 9lb 1oz small-eyed-ray, fell to John Van Crudten from Weymouth who went on to win the event with two rays, a brace of smoothhound and a solitary doggie together weighing 20lb 7oz.

The runner-up, who also came from Weymouth, was Dave Lane, with 12lb 13oz, nudging out Tony Ward, who is a member of the host club, with 10lb 15oz. England International Darren Phillips from Fareham was fourth with 10lb 9oz, ahead of Malcolm Stote from Lymington (9lb 14oz), Ben Stockley from Weymouth (9lb 5.50oz) and Pete Woodford (7lb 6.75oz).

The best specimen landed during the event was a 1lb 3.5oz garfish, bagged by Dave Nelling, while the second best specimen was the 2lb 2oz black bream bagged by Brian Fisk from Bournemouth.

The pairs section was won by John Van Crugten and Ben Stockley with a combined weight of 29lb 12.5oz, followed by Dave Lane & Ant Buik (19lb 8.75oz), Tony O'Grady & Darren Phillips (17lb 5oz) and Malcolm Stote & Mike Perfect (15lb 8.5oz).

A superb early season mullet weighing 5lb 4oz has been taken from the shores of Southampton by John Gilmore, a 41-year-old postman from Andover.

During a brief trip to the area, Gilmore used a cheapie rod and reel, bought from his local, which cost just £4.99 and was intended for his daughter.

He freelined bread flake presented on a size ten hook to tempt the specimen, which gave a really good account of itself, diving between the boats.

Smoothhound, pouting and ballan wrasse provided most action during the Rover Tackle midweek catch-and-release open staged along the Clarence section at Southsea where England youth team member Daniel Mogridge from Fareham put in a classy performance to win the event with 204 points.

Runner-up in the total point section was Mick Goodyer, with 150 points, ahead of Dave Edwards, also from Fareham, with 97.

The prize for the longest fish was collected by Mick Goodyer, with a 79cm smoothhound, ahead of Daniel Mogridge with a 42cm smoothhound and then Andy Smithson with a 35cm silver eel.

Rover's Tackle's next mini pegged open will not be held until August 26 - full details at a later date.

A 10lb small-eyed-ray, bagged by Danny Woodcock, was the highlight during the latest round of the Gale Force League, staged at West Bexington. Woodcock went on to win the B section with 17lb 7.5oz, ahead of Josh Simmonds and Reg Clough from East Woodyates, with 12lb 9oz and 9lb 11oz respectively.

Ben Stockley came out on top in A section with 12 doggies and a couple of smaller species together totalling 18lb 10.50oz to narrowly win A section ahead of Malcolm Stote from Lymington, who finished with 18lb 5.5oz, and Dave Lane, who had 15lb 13.50oz. The next round of the evening pegged league will be at Abbotsbury on June 25, with fishing from 8pm to midnight. The event is strictly pre-book only. Pete Hegg has details on 01305 822833.

The Gale Force League will also stage a full open shore competition along the Weymouth section of Chesil Beach on June 25 with fishing from 6pm to midnight, when smoothhound, dogfish, pouting and bream are expected to supply most action.

To further conservation, competitors will be limited to 12 of each species with all dogfish counting as 1lb 8oz while the graft system will be used for the smoothhound so they can all be released alive.

Tickets have been set at £12 with booking in at 4pm from the main Chesil Beach car park. The venue will run from the cove to the further end of the bird sanctuary. Pre-booking is not necessary.