It's great to hear of youngsters taking up fishing and having some success to fuel their enthusiasm for the future.

With that in mind I was delighted to learn about 10-year-old Paul Sharp's exploits.

Paul and two friends from Banstead fished part of the River Mole below Dorking and Paul's lack of experience proved to be no drawback.

He was quickly in action, banking a superb chub that was ten times bigger than anything he had hooked before.

The recent warm weather has brought a string of top catches from local still waters.

Floating bread crust is not a method normally associated with the middle of February but it did the trick this week for 38-year-old railway worker Denis Green.

Dorking angler Denis fished Furze farm and put the floating crust to good use, taking four good carp at 9½lb, 10½lb, 13lb and a personal best of 16½lb.

Simon Spencer from Kingston is keeping the recipe for his home-made paste a secret after using it to land a new personal best.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.