Could Spring be on its way? It certainly looks that way with a warm front from the south seemingly staying stationary over us!
The fishing has picked up massively this week with the thornback ray returning to the beaches and over the next few weeks we will be seeing the boats and piers picking up their share too.
Billy Offord fished the Holland beaches on the evening tide and he landed a personal best thornback ray of 10lb 14oz on his first cast of the night. Clacton angler Joe Dubiard also landed a ray from these beaches during daylight hours. The massive sprat shoals are now thinning out so it really is good news for the anglers.
Billy Offord reaped the benifits on the Holland beaches with this 10lb 14oz thornback ray
Walton Sea Angling Club fished the Clacton beaches for their latest evening match, they fished a flood tide in rough conditions. Unfortunately is was a fairly quiet night with not much to show for the anglers’ efforts.
Only seven fish were caught, top angler was Richard Burt with 25 points. Second place went to Ken Peacock on 10 points and third placed Mick Frost also had 10 points.
Reports from St Oysth beach have also been more favourable with the start of the rays also feeding here along with a few dabs and whiting.
Clacton Pier has been fairly quiet, but the rays will also be caught here very soon, and I am sure the evening tides this weekend will produce a few. Squid or bluey baits will catch you more rays.
Rob Lee in on the act with a spurdog from the Mersea charter boat Enterprise
The Walton and Frinton beaches are seeing a few flounders, whiting and rockling. Once again over the next couple of weeks the fishing here will improve.
Walton Pier has been quiet with just the odd dab and rockling, but also here the fishing will improve in the next week or two with rays and bass.
The boats this week have seen some thornback ray although codling are still very scarce and we are still waiting.
The charter boats that chose to travel to off-shore marks reaped the benefits this week with early season spurdogs being the target. The charter boat Enterprise out of Mersea did just that and they landed some very big spurdogs with Steven Whiting catching the biggest weighing in at an impressive 18lbs! They also had over 35 thornback rays on the same trip.
Steven Whiting with an 18lb spurdog caught from the Mersea charter boat Enterprise
The high tides for the weekend are Saturday 14.27 and Sunday 15.10
