Simon Wheeler - one of East Anglia's top professional match anglers - lifted the £1,000 top prize at the Crossdrove two-day final at the weekend. The Dynamite Baits-sponsored rodman blew his opposition out of this south west Norfolk water with a first-day winning haul of 55lb 3oz of quality carp, and he followed that with 35lb 4oz on day two to score a runaway aggregate of 90lb 7oz, more than 17lb ahead of runner-up Steve Tyler of Popletts with 73lb 1oz with T Watling of Foxmatch third with 64lb 11oz.

Simon Wheeler - one of East Anglia's top professional match anglers - lifted the £1,000 top prize at the Crossdrove two-day final at the weekend.

The Dynamite Baits-sponsored rodman blew his opposition out of this south west Norfolk water with a first-day winning haul of 55lb 3oz of quality carp, and he followed that with 35lb 4oz on day two to score a runaway aggregate of 90lb 7oz, more than 17lb ahead of runner-up Steve Tyler of Popletts with 73lb 1oz with T Watling of Foxmatch third with 64lb 11oz.

The 43-year-old champion, who is a fishing tackle representative from Brantham, said: "A grand in the hand is a pretty fair reward for what I consider was an excellent series of qualifying matches at Crossdrove. How will I spend it? Probably on my other outdoor recreation shooting which starts next month."

Fishery boss and match organiser Rob Morter said the series had been most popular, but he was disappointed with the catches in the final. "It's been a long hard season, water temperatures dropped at the weekend and a number of anglers struggled to find fish. Most certainly this competition will run again and the first qualifier is this weekend," he said.

In the Great Yarmouth Individual League on the River Yare, Sportsmens Brian Weavers duly validated the pundits forecast that he would record a huge bream catch that would take him top of the table with just two more rounds to come.

Weavers duly obliged by hauling out a winning total of 43lb 10oz last Saturday consisting of five 5lb slabs and skimmers to boost his aggregate to 186lb 3oz. That was nearly 4lb ahead of his nearest challenger Tony Anderson of SAD with 182lb 5oz.

Club anglers enjoyed some of their best sport of the month and the top bag of the weekend was 163lb 12oz taken from Colton by Freedman winner Kay Nicholls. At Holly Farm, South Walsham, J Broomfield won the Zenith with 162lb 13oz and the best of the rest were Nat Kopti, Oddfellows winner at Barford with 132lb 10oz, and Luke Dashwood, who headed the UG card at Colton with 120lb 8oz.

The Sam Hook League kicked off at Pakefield where Lowestoft's Keith Morley won with a decent codling catch of 6lb 13oz. At Kelling the Holt club open was headed by their chairman Tony Chidwick with a mixed bag of 4lb 5oz.

This Saturday brings the most important river event of the year - the Broads Championship.

This is staged on the River Bure at St Benets Abbey and the River Thurne at Coldharbour, Ludham where so far more than 80 locals and visiting hopefuls have booked in. Late entries from Tony Gibbons (01603 400973).

Spectacular catches of autumn carp have been winched in from local commercial lakes with the Kingfisher syndicate water at Lyng producing many of them ranging to more than 40lb.

New member Mike Hicks of Scratby was "absolutely ecstatic" to weigh in his first ever Kingfisher carp that recorded 41lb - easily his personal best.

Norwich regular Martin Quick possibly caught the same fish at exactly the same weight among his 14 monsters that included a common carp of 35lb 12oz and five mirrors between 30lb 4oz and 35lb 4oz.

Jonathan Trett of Weston Longville caught the same common as Quick two days later plus a trio of hefty mirrors to 31lb.

The top carp at Taswood Lakes was a 33lb 10oz common for Andrew Leeks of Tharston but Mick Plane of Sprowston came close with a 33lb mirror while Roger Wendt of Norwich bagged a 31lb 8oz common.

At Swangey Lakes Melanie Rushmer of Halesworth beat the men by hauling out her pb mirror carp of 30lb 12oz, the top fish of the week. Glen Hales of Attleborough bagged a common of 30lb 8oz while James Goffin of Yarmouth recorded his pb mirror of 28lb 4oz with another 10 fish over 20lb recorded by other anglers.

Cobbleacre fishery was in form for Mick Batson of Taverham whose five quality carp included mirrors of 30lb 12oz and 29lb 12oz.

As reported on these pages last month a new animal welfare act will be targeting fishery bosses who run their enterprises with lack of due care and attention.

Fines of up to £20,000 or even imprisonment may be the punishment handed down to any fishery owner found guilty of inhuman treatment of fish stocks.