A LARGE porbeagle shark along with quality bass and undulate rays have been caught by boat anglers fishing off the Purbecks.

Dave Gimson, a roofing surveyor from Poole, hauled in the porbeagle while fishing from the boat Seajay skippered by Matt Rowe.

The shark, which was thought to be 8ft long and estimated to weigh around 350lb, was caught 10 miles to the south-west of Poole and was released alive at the side of the boat.

A separate trip on the same boat produced an 11-0 bass for John Barnard from Southampton. To tempt the specimen he used a whole mackerel as bait that was presented on a 4/0 pennel rig.

Not to be outdone, Christchurch-based chef James Vincent heaved a nice undulate ray over the gunnels while fishing from Onamission skippered by Malcolm Collins. The nicely marked female fish, which tipped the scales to 12.8, took a mackerel bait.

QUALITY FISH

A NUMBER of quality bass have been recorded by shore anglers with Mark Stevens from Lymington beaching a 10-3 specimen at Milford during a late night session.

The 32-year-old ground-worker used a whole pouting fished at close range to tempt the predator, which set a new personal best.

A number of smaller bass have been taken from Southbourne and Bournemouth beaches to lures with one of the better fish, weighing 7-10, falling to Simon Hall during an evening fishing session. Hall, from Southbourne, also took a number of smaller bass and several mackerel as the predators where chasing fry almost up to the water's edge.

Another bass, which tipped the scales to 7-5, was caught by Stuart Thomas from Mudeford Quay.

The 15-year-old from Purewell used squid to tempt the fish during a late night session.

HALL'S REGATTA WIN

COMPETITORS sampled some good sport during the Swanage and District AC Regatta Open catch-and-release competition held from the pier where a wide variety of species were recorded including black bream, pout, corkwing wrasse, ballan wrasse, pollack and poor cod.

Lee Hall, who is a member of the Swanage club, won the event with 676cm followed by Keith Woods (655) and Mark Williams (114). The junior section winner was Lee Singleton with 20cm.

On the boats, Peter Carle came out on top with a catch of pouting worth 45 points followed by Doug Hamlen (26) and Rose Hamlen (6).

The junior boat section winner was won by E Harris with 37 points followed by F Lander (27) and B Harris (26).

JAY TAKES AWARD

ELEVEN-year-old Jay Cotton has won the latest Wessex Division of the National Federation of Sea Anglers' junior fish of the month award with a 13-4 smooth hound.

Runner-up was 15-year-old Stewart Humm from the Lymington club with a 4-3 boat-caught spotted ray and a 2-3 black bream.

LOADS OF MONEY

A £500 top prize has been put up for grabs during the Swanage and District SAC pegged open shore competition on September 27.

Fishing will be from Town Beach from 6.30pm to 11pm.

The pegged event will be split into three zones with the winner of each zone collecting £100.

One of the zones will have easy access for anglers with disabilities and the event will be fished to a catch and release system with each fish scoring one point per centimetre.

There will also be a special junior competition with the top youngster collecting £50 followed by £25 for the runner-up.

Pre-book tickets have been set at £10 plus a £1 pool for the longest flat and round fish. Tickets purchased on the day will cost £12.

Application forms are available from a number of tackle shops or call Rex Brewer at Swanage Angling Centre on 01929 424989 for full details.

ENGLAND'S SILVER

THE Home International Boat Championship, was held at Milford Haven in Wales where the England team, managed by Ray Ashby from Christchurch, collected the silver medal.