Greg Alexander took advantage as marks off The Needles came on form.

Local anglers sampled some cracking sport, with Alexander heaving an 18lb 8oz spurdog over the gunnels of the Lymington-based boat Topkat, skippered by John Skeggs.

Alexander used a double squid bait presented on an 8/0 pennel rig to tempt the specimen along with a smaller spurdog weighing 15lb.

Not to be outdone, his brother, Stuart Alexander, bagged a 16lb cod during the same session while fishing over a mark six miles south of the Island.

The Wessex Springs series along Bournemouth beaches was dominated by Hampshire anglers who filled the top three places after a nail-biting final fixture.

England internationals Ian Golds from Portsmouth and Chris Clark from Sway headed the overall leader table going into the final match and both won their sections while Tony O'Grady from Fareham, recently selected for the England pre-squad, also put in an excellent performance.

Golds and O'Grady finished joint first in A section on the night, both recording flounders measuring 38cm.

The only other fish taken in the section was 22cm flounder bagged by John Gordon.

Clark had a clear win in B section with a 35cm flounder, ahead of Malcolm Parsons with a 28cm flattie. Dave Moseley and Phil Bowering both had flounders of 22cm.

Golds topped the overall leader table to collect the £150 first prize with 74.5 points out of a possible 75 while Clark was £100 better off after finishing with 74 points. Tony O'Grady came third with 67.5 points.

Others: Malcolm Parsons 66, Ron Dartnall 64, Dave Johnson 57, Robbie Hayes 56.5, Jeffery Fisk 56, Pete Christopher 55.

John Williams from Southampton stamped his authority on the Sammy's midweek pegged league at Stokes Bay. He had a clear win with 19 points.

Paul Goodhew from Southampton was runner-up with five, followed by Dave Edwards and J Thompson both with four. Fish were conspicuous by their absence with a few plaice, pout, dabs and smoothhound recorded.

Next match in the series will be at Gunners Point on May 6 (fishing 8pm to midnight - pre-book only from John Williams (tel 023 8039 8639).

Kevin Sampson was certainly all smiles after collecting the £175 top prize during the Vectis Boat & Fishing Club open shore competition after beaching ten silver eels weighing 10lb 10oz from Bembridge Harbour.

Karl Wager picked up a Slosh 20 reel and also collected £100 for the best specimen fish after coming second with a cracking small-eyed-ray weighing 9lb 1oz. George Bernowicz was third with 7lb 7oz followed by Chris Cade.

The event attracted 77 competitors, 24 returning 90lb of fish to the scales.

On the freelance front, plenty of rays have been recorded from the shoreline with Nigel Thorner from Southampton beaching two small-eyed-rays of 7lb 3oz and 8lb 4oz at Hordle during an evening session. The 37-year-old technician used sand eels fished around the 60-yard mark.

Chris Amos of the Christchurch club used sand eels cast around the 90-yard mark to tempt a brace of spotted rays weighing 3lb 2oz and 4lb 4oz - along with a 5lb 5oz small-eyed-ray during an evening sortie to Worabbow ray. The larger spotted ray set a club record for Amos who has already taken six rays from the shore this season.