Wellow carp angler Sean English continued his excellent run of carp home and abroad with another string of good catches in recent weeks.

English started his latest good run with a magnificent 36lb 6oz mirror from a difficult Ringwood Valley club water with a rarely caught fish known as the snub nose mirror.

Next it was on the ferry to France for a ten-day trip to the ultra-hard lake Chantecoq in northern France where English had a magnificent brace of 38lb and 44lb. His companions also fared well with Wayne Little netting a 31lb fish and Lee Hankins fish weighing 32lb and 46lb.

English finished off his good run with a nice fish of 25lb 10oz from Broadlands Lake, on which he is a syndicate member.

Tarpon all round for Skipp family

Millbrook tackle dealer Willie Skipp from Reelcare enjoyed some superb action on the Caribbean island of Tobago, fishing on board Echo correspondent Mark Simmonds' Grand Slam and Grand Slam II charter boats out of Pigeon Point.

Skipp and his daughters - 14-year-old Toni and 19-year-old Shelley - all caught tarpon during their holiday fishing inshore on Grand Slam with Skipps' best tarpon going 65lb, while Shelley's best weighed 25lb and Toni's 20lb.

Skipp also enjoyed a day offshore fishing when he took 14 dorado in a day to double figures.

Dave Too Sharpe For Rochester

Dave Sharpe just managed to outpoint Steve Rochester in the first round of the Cormorants Winter Series on Longbridge when the

pair had a peg-to-peg battle on pegs 22 and 23.

Fishing a method feeder and maggot, Sharpe eventually got the verdict by 65lb 14oz to 63lb 7oz with both anglers taking carp to double figures in their nets.

Kaz Podsadowski finished third with an all-carp net of 53lb 3oz from peg 30, also on the feeder, with Cormorants Team Sillybait's Richie Yeo fourth with 49lb 2oz. Rick Kajko finished fifth with the top weight from the canal with 36lb of carp to 6lb on the pole and worm with Mickey Hills sixth with 33lb from the canal.

The Christchurch club match on the Lower Stour at Iford and the

pony fields proved real hard going with a nasty wind and heavy rain. Nick King took 13lb 14oz of roach and dace from between the bridges at Iford to get the better of veteran tackle dealer Ivor Brittain, who took 12lb 11oz of big dace on the stick float and maggot from the bottom end of the pony fields.

Steve Hemmings (Bournemouth Lodge) finished third with 12lb 9oz

of small roach and dace on the waggler with Julian Taylor fourth with 10lb 6oz.

The Marlborough Open on the Kennet and Avon Canal, the venue for this weekend's Winter League second round, saw most anglers struggle. Mick Archer, of Andover, needed just 6lb 6oz of mixed fish on the

long pole and worm to get the verdict from Andrew Chatterley (Todber Manor) in second with 5lb 12oz. Jason Mills (Todber Manor) was third with 5lb 9oz.

Others included: D. Self (Eastleigh) 5lb 6oz, M. Hooper (Andover) 4lb 11oz, B. Gullick (Todber Manor) 4lb 10oz.

Island Record Must Fall

The Isle of Wight carp record looks certain to fall any day from Tim Oatley's and Lee Petitt's Monks Pool syndicate at Binstead when either 'The Boxer' or the 'Big Linear' finally reach the bank.

Since the fishery opened on October 1, some magnificent carp have been taken with all the fish up by at least 2lb with Oatley taking a fish known as 'Amigo' at 33lb 5oz - up from its previous best weight of 30lb 9oz - to record his fourth different 30lb plus island carp.

Fellow syndicate member Taffy Woodhouse also had a massive result on Monks when landing 'Jack' at 32lb 14oz - up from its previous best at 30lb 4oz - along with a brace weighing 28lb 3oz and 28lb 5oz.

If either 'The Boxer' or the 'Big Linear' have made similar weight gains to the two thirties already

landed since October then the

35lb 4oz island record is sure to be shattered by an English born and bred fish that won't be nine years old till next June.