FOR this week’s column I thought I’d take a look back at 2014 and how it’s compared with previous years.

All in all, we seem to have fared well, although the fish caught were definitely of a smaller size.

Early spring saw those sprat shoals thinning out, but the cod were still feeding on anglers’ bait.

Other years had seen the cod rise up to mid-water chasing the shoals and our fishing diminished for a month or so.

The first of the thornback rays arrived earlier than usual and the beginning of March saw some good catches of rays from the Gunfleet sands.

By early April, they had reached Clacton Pier with a vengeance and anglers were catching thornbacks on every tide.

The codling were very patchy, with a few from the boats.

None were very big, but we had a run of very windy conditions, causing problems for most boats to take to the water.

Clacton Boat Club had acquired a new launching vehicle and the members had a training weekend, preparing for the coming year.

Early summer was the time for the bass.

We saw lots of school bass, but not much else. The boats did catch a few bigger ones, but not many.

The Jaywick beaches began to produce bass and one or two were in the 8llb range, but on the whole they were mostly smaller ones.

The famous St Osyth beach that normally produces those massive stingrays was well below par, with only a couple caught, and it wasn’t for the want of trying.

It was a great year for smoothhounds from the boats.

The back of the Gunfleet and the Wallet was the place to be, with many double-figure fish being caught.

Once again, the beach angler saw none of these, apart from the odd small one. The mackerel hit our coast in August and for the boat angler it was probably one of the best years we have seen for a long while.

The autumn fish arrived early and the last big tides in August saw us all catching codling and whiting.

Even as I write, we are still catching them.

The codling are not a bad size with some reaching the 3lb mark.

Hopefully they will still be there in the New Year.

This year has been a great year for me as well with Sky Sports keeping me busy.

I made two hour-long programme appearances in the studio, did three on-location film shoots and will be back in the studio in the new year.

The new national Sea Fishing Magazine that I write for is also going from strength to strength.

This year has seen a lot more fish caught, but the average size of fish landed is certainly smaller than previous years.

However, with a great codling season it looks like next year we could be catching some real rod-benders!

Now, back up to date, Clacton Sea Angling Club fished their latest match on the Holland beaches.

Nine anglers fished and codling and whiting were caught.

Result: 1 Rob Tuck 341 points, 2 Vic Pearce 241, 3 Terry Quartermain 168. Heaviest fish: Terry Quartermain (a codling of 44cms).

An interesting stat for 2014 is that in all their matches they have caught 1,715 whiting, 548 codling, 226 pouting, 64 bass, 59 eels, 30 flounders, 28 rockling, 14 dabs, 14, wrasse, 13 soles, 12 pollack, 12 dogfish, five skate, one scorpion fish and one coalfish, making a sum total of 2,742 fish.

Finally this week, Clacton angler Matt Stewart headed for the Holland beaches for an evening session.

He found the codling and whiting feeding and most of his fish were caught on lugworm and squid baits.

The tides for the weekend are 3.34pm on Saturday and 4.28pm on Sunday.