Eastleigh's Wayne Perrett continues to head the overall leader table in the Isac Open pegged series after the latest round held at Cogden which left many of the 115-strong field struggling for a bite.

The HGV driver, who has recently been celebrating his call-up to the England shore squad, came third in his section on this occasion with 3lb 12oz.

Ian Golds from Portsmouth lies in second position with 14 penalty points ahead of Tony Hatchard and Mike Kempster with 16 and 18 points respectively.

On the night, 73 competitors returned fish to the scales which included six dabs, 110 dogfish - which were all returned alive at the point of capture - one flounder, eight plaice, five smoothhound, 36 pout and a brace of whiting.

There were joint winners with Tony O'Grady from Fareham and Joe Arch, who had travelled down from Cardiff, who both had 7lb 8oz ahead of Rob Marshall with 5lb 8.25oz. In fourth position was Dave Blackwell from Bath with 5lb followed by John Williams from Southampton who landed a trio of doggies weighing 3lb 12oz.

The fifth round of the Isac Open pegged series will be held at Lee-on-Solent on May 3 with fishing from 8pm to 1am when pouting are expected to dominate along with a smattering of plaice, eels, flounders, dogfish and a few decent rays.

Tickets for the event, which are strictly pre-book only, are £15 inclusive of pools. The event will also double up as a Penn Point fixture. Trevor Sutch has details on 023 9220 1696.

Members of the Red Deer AC based at Totton sampled some cracking action when they went afloat from the Lymington-based boat Sundance II skippered by Roger Bayzand.

Included in their catch while fishing over some deep water wrecks were pout, red gurnard and lots of pollack with nine fish topping 12lb while the heaviest specimen weighing 15lb was bagged by Pete Stotsbury using jelly worms and twintales.

Stotsbury was also the top performer on the day with 11 fish worth 262 points to get the better of Ralph Jones 195, Gary Lister 170, Malcolm York 93, Phil Reed 86, Chris Lovell 84 and John Sherwood with half-a-dozen fish worth 68 points.

On the freelance front, Nickie Gregory from Southampton found the fish in a feeding mood when he tackled the deep water section at Lepe where he apprehended a fine plaice which tipped the scales down to 4lb 1.50oz.

Gregory, a 34-year-old groundsman, used ragworm to tempt the hefty redspot. He also took two other small flatties during the same session along with a 2lb 10oz bass. The hefty plaice was a new personal best.

The zoned open shore competition held around the shores of the Isle of Wight, which was sponsored by Contract Distribution Services and organised by members of Western Wight AC, provided some reasonable results with a good variety of species returned to the scales.

The four zone winners were Kevin Basham with a 7lb 15.50oz bag of wrasses, Rod Whitewood with a 16lb 12oz bag of rays and pouting, George Bernowicz with a 13lb 13oz catch of bass and pout and finally, Lee Wyatt with a mixed catch weighing 7lb 11.50oz. The four zones winners all collected £100. John Hardman collected £87 in pools for the best specimen with a 2lb 3.50oz dogfish while Rod Whitewood collected a further £43 for beaching the day's heaviest fish in the shape of an 8lb 10.25oz small-eyed-ray.

The first round of the four-a-side Neptune League held along the Hengistbury Head section produced far better action than expected with shore rockling, flounders, pouting, sole and dogfish all figuring in the catch.

The heaviest fish was a 1lb 11oz flounder bagged by John Moseley while Neil Saxby landed a 15.50oz shore rockling which is an excellent fish.

Top team on the night were Boscombe & Southbourne A with 8lb 13.25oz. The side was made up by Reg Clough, John Moseley, Alan Jones and their captain Tony Ward.

Others: 2 Bournemouth & District A 4lb 14.50oz, 3 Wessex Anglers 3lb 10oz, 4 Christchurch & District 1lb 15oz, 5 Boscombe & Southbourne C 1lb 14oz, 6 Pro Angling A 14.50oz, 7 Advance Angling 7oz, joint 8 Pro Angling B and Wessex Wanglers 7oz, 10 Boscombe & Southbourne S 3.50oz, 11 Castaways 1.75oz.

The annual all-night Chesil Open will be held at Cogden on June 21/22 with fishing from 8pm to 7am.

The match will also double up as a Penn point fixture. Tickets, which are pre-book only, are available from Eddie Painter on 01308 425925.

For the armchair anglers there is a new fishing series starting on Friday evenings on the Discovery Home and Leisure Channel at 11pm.

The first programme is on bass. It will be presented by Kevin Green and features Paul Kerry beaching fish off the Norfolk coast and also the popular charter skipper from Lymington, Roger Bayzand, who will be boat fishing around Alderney.