BENFLEET’S Cook Farm fishery has seen plenty of activity over the past seven days, with a really big catfish being snagged by Ron Thompson and plenty of decent carp coming out.

Thompson, whose 51lb catfish took the 64-year-old ages to land, said the good weather had brought out plenty of anglers who had not fished much thoughout the awful spring.

Epping’s Dave Kennedy used robin red boilies to snag a good 28lb mirror.

And on Saturday night Hadleigh’s Kenny Gill landed a 20lb carp.

Thompson’s big catfish had been hunted specifically by the angler who used luncheon meat.

He said: “It was the biggest fish I’ve had all year and it really did put up a big fight.

“It took me over 35 minutes to get it to the shore and when it was on the bank it was moving about so much it was difficult to get a good picture of it.”

The catfish was not his only catfish of the week – he’d also landed a 21lb catfish earlier.

And Thompson also landed a really decent 7lb tench on plum boilies to round off a really good session with the rod.