The Milford Shingle bank and the Hurst Castle section have provided some explosive action during the past few days with both match and freelance anglers from Southampton sampling the action.

During a sortie to the deep water section at Hurst Castle Rick Prince and Steven Grier, who both come from Southampton, had a cracking evening which started off with a string of doggies and pouting but then a 9lb bass snapped up a squid/ragworm cocktail presented on a 3/0 hook cast just 80 yards out by Prince.

Not to be outdone, Steven then went of to tempt a huge cod from the shore which thumped the scales down to exactly 18lb.

Since their trip to Hurst, the duo have paid a visit to Park Shore where they apprehended a 10lb thorneback ray.

The annual Shingle Bank open hosted by the Lymington club also proved hectic with 65 of the 103 competitors returning nearly 400lb of fish to the scales - the catch included doggies, pout, whiting, sole, rays, bass, pollack, silver eels, bass and codling.

Chris Clark, the Echo's Sea Angling correspondent collected the £200 top prize after bagging 14 doggies, five whiting and a solitary pouting together totalling 20lb 10oz.

The runner-up, with 28 pout and a trio of doggies weighing 16lb 15oz, was Adrian Smith from Norley Wood, closely followed by Rod Thomas from Lymington who had 19 fish for 16lb 12oz. Mike Teague from Southampton came fourth with 12lb 8oz ahead of Richard Vine 11lb 12oz, Colin Pankhurst 11lb, Dave Baker 10lb 3oz and Darren Phillips 9lb 0.75oz.

There was also an impressive performance put in by a number of youngsters with 14-year-old Craig Hopkins winning the junior section with 7lb 14.50oz which included a nice codling, followed by Fay Powell 5lb 13.50oz, Chris Butler 3lb 6.75oz, Tom Shoat 3ln 2.50oz, Oliver Hopkins 1lb 12.50oz and Craig Moore 1lb 10oz.

The pool for the heaviest round fish was won by Steve Moore, a 42-year-old builder from Sway who used sandeel to apprehend a 3lb 14.50oz small-eyed-ray while Deborah Smith from Milford-on-Sea won the flatfish section after a 14oz sole had snapped up her ragworm bait presented on a size two hook fished at close range. The winning team was Tony Ward and Chris Clark with a combined total of 25lb 12.50oz, ahead of Nigel Shoat and Rod Thomas with 22lb 6.50oz.

Local anglers continue to figure prominently in the overall leader of the Isac pegged open league after the penultimate match held at Hayling which was won by former England International Mike Delaney from Fareham with 8lb 0.75oz. The runner-up was Tony Hatchard with 7lb 3.50oz ahead of Micky Webb 4lb 7.50oz and Ian Dancy 4lb 7oz.

The fixture attracted 79 competitors with 64 returning 171 whiting, 67 pouting, 26 dogfish, six dabs, five sole, four flounders, four tub gurnard and a solitary silver eel together totalling 143lb 7.50oz.

Looking at the overall leader table, Steve Harder from Totton remains in pole position with 37 penalty points followed by Josh Simmonds (Weymouth) 39, Ian Dancey (Waterlooville) 41 and then three members all on 46 points: Steve Deathe (Southampton), Ina Golds (Portsmouth) and Tony McDonald (Worthing).

The final match in this pegged open series will be held along the western end of Chesil beach at Cogden on December 7, with fishing from 5pm to 10pm when codling, whiting, doggies and pout are expected to supply most of the action. Tickets for the event, which is strictly pre book only, have been set at £16 which includes all pools. Full details from Trevor Sutch Tel 02392-201696.

Doggies supplied most of the action during the third round of the open Chesil league held at West Bexington along with the odd pout, poor cod, whiting and codling.

Colin Richard was the top performer, landing 29 doggies and a solitary pouting together totalling 45lb 2.50oz to get the better of Mark Carman 28lb Rob Marshall 27lb 5.50oz and John Lintern 25lb 8oz.

The next match in this open pegged series will also be held at West Bexington on December 21 with fishing from 6pm to 11pm - full details from Eddie Painter, tel 01308-425925.

Paul Fincham collected the £200 top prize during the RNLI charity open after landing five bass and a flounder together weighing 14lb. Graham Cuff was the runner-up with 7lb 8.75oz to collect £100, followed by Phil Howard 6lb 13.25oz. The best specimen was a 1lb 15.50oz flounder bagged by John Cavnor while Ann Hopkins won the ladies section with 4lb 11.75oz. The top junior was Gary Pritchet with 4lb 11.75oz ahead of Max O'Brien with 1lb 12.50oz. The event attracted 123 competitors.

The Lymington club stage their Christmas Fayre open shore competition in three zones around the Lymington & Pennington sea wall on December 8 with fishing from 10am to 3pm - flounders are expected to supply most of the action. Booking-in will get under way at the Lymington club house from 8am. Tickets have been set at £6 plus a £1 pool and a two-man team event. There will be a separate junior match with tickets costing just £3. For full details contact Robin Lane, tel 01590-613858

The Poole Bay Small boat specimen open fixture produced some quality fish with the senior round fish section being won by Cliff Selby with a 2lb 15.50oz flounder while the runner-up was Peter Hall with a 2lb 12oz flattie. In the round fish category Peter Russell came out on top with a 10lb 8oz bull huss. He also collected the runner-up prize with a 37lb conger.

Juniors also got among some fish with Craig Rogers winning the flatfish section with a 2lb 9oz flounder followed by Ashley Rogers with a 2lb 3oz flounder. The round fish section was won by Sam Dibden with a 14lb 8oz cod ahead of Oliver Marshall with a 2lb 2oz doggie.

The fifth round of the Wessex senior flounder league held at Baiter saw 63 members in action with 29 returning 42 fish to the scales, most of which were returned alive. Results: 1 Tony Wright 2lb 12oz, 2 Steve Lawrence 2lb 8.50oz, 3 Kevin Poole 2lb 3.25oz, 4 Alan Jones 2lb 3oz.