PROUD father Lee Emery took his three-year-old son Haydn with him when he fished at Northlands Park, and was able to show the youngster a cracking 24lb 6oz common carp.

Emery fished the cafe lake at the Basildon water, where he presented Scopex squid pop-up boilie over a bed of pellet and free offerings at a range of just 15 yards.

His first few runs came from big tench and decent bream, but having seen signs of bigger fish in his swim Emery persevered.

His tenacity was rewarded in the early morning when a strong run signalled the arrival of the 24lb 6oz common.

The fish fought well for half-an-hour, at one stage boiling up in front of an angler more than 50 yards away.

Eventually Emery had the carp under control and had to wade out with the net as the fish was too big to swim over the slowly shelving shallow margin.

The big carp, Emery's best fish so far this year, followed six different 20-pounders he landed at Northlands Park in 2007.

When it came to the photographs young Haydn, who has accompanied his father fishing since he was a baby, proudly insisted on helping his dad hold the fish for the camera.

Just hours after Emery had taken his big fish, first time visitor Brian Bell was landing his own Northlands Park monster.

Fishing the north western corner of the cafe lake, Bell found himself battling with a new personal best common carp of 23lb.

Although the fish was eventually safely landed, the task was not made any easier by Bell's light gear. He was using a quivertip rod and just 4lb line.

No sooner had Bell returned his big fish to the water than his wife Lesley, fishing the big swim, hooked and landed a mirror carp of 12lb 8oz.