WE’VE had a more settled spell of weather and boats and kayaks have taken to the water.

The fishing members of Clacton Sailing Club have been taking advantage of the new beaches at Holland Haven and their launching vehicle is coping well with the new soft sand.

Two members, John Sherry and Paul Peck, fished from their own boat, Pilchard, and caught 26 codling to 4lb.

All the fish fell to lugworm and squid baits.

Andrew Polson took his kayak a few hundred yards off the Clacton coast on an extremely calm day and reported a similar haul of codling, with all the fish caught on lugworm baits.

Brightlingsea-based charter boat Sea Watch took a party of anglers out to the Gunfleet sands.

They had upwards of 45 fish, mostly codling, but with the odd thornback ray also being caught.

The beaches and piers have also taken a turn for the better, with codling and dabs being caught.

Clacton Pier has seen more codling this week, with the biggest weighing in at 4.5lb, falling to Matt Stewart.

Colchester angler Paul Packman fished the whole night on the pier.

Once again, he also found the codling feeding and had fish to 3lb.

The Holland beaches seem to be a bit hit and miss still.

Some days the codling are feeding and other days they are not.

On a good tide, there is a good chance of some better-sized fish here.

Walton Sea Angling Club fished the local pier for their latest evening match.

It was only a very small tide, without much run on it, and the fish were not in a feeding mood.

First place went to Bill Paquette, fishing his first-ever match with the club.

He caught two whiting and a dab for 13oz.

In second place was Rob Tuck, with a dab and a whiting for 5oz.

Dave Collett was third, with a 4oz whiting.

The heaviest fish also went to Bill, with the dab he caught.

An unusual catch this week was a grey gurnard, caught by Walton angler Doug Sadler, fishing the Coastguards beach.

Grey gurnard are extremely rare on our coast.

Occasionally a red gurnard is caught, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a grey being caught.

It finally looks like the sprat shoals are moving into deeper waters and temperatures are rising slightly, which bodes well for the run of spring codling and rays.

If you have any fishing reports you can contact me at popplewell1@btinternet.com The tides for the weekend are 6.22am on Saturday and 7.52am on Sunday.