THE high winds of last weekend have curtailed any boat fishing.

With strong winds buffeting the coast, the boats that managed to get afloat at the beginning of the week reaped the benefits as the codling and thornbacks were feeding well.

The Walton charter boat Misty Lady, based at Titchmarsh’s Marina, took a party of eight anglers out towards the Gunfleet Sands on a calmer day earlier in the week.

They had a great day catching more than 100 codling between them, and also reported that other boats around them were catching similar amounts, plus a few thornback rays.

Kayak angler Andrew Polson fished a mile off Holland seafront and reported that codling were still there in force, but the rays seemed to be few and far between.

The beaches have slowed down this week – yes, codling have been caught but not so many as other weeks.

The Holland beaches have only produced a few.

The Frinton beaches are similar with most fish being caught at distance, with one or two school bass showing to worm baits.

Walton Sea Angling Club fished their latest evening match here on a flood tide before the gales arrived and the fishing was patchy and suited the long casters.

Result: 1 Craig Buy 8lbs, 2 Rob Tuck 2lb 3oz, 3 Richard Burt 1lb 12oz.

The club’s next match is on April 6 on Walton Pier.

Chelmsford’s Chris Kemp and his wife Kerry travelled down to the Frinton beaches to fish a night tide and had a good evening catching codling and whiting.

Kerry caught the biggest codling of the night, weighing 2lbs. Well done Kerry.

Walton Pier has to be my hotspot again this week, with thornback rays and codling feeding on most tides.

The rays arrived at the beginning of the week and local angler Danny Allen caught his first of the year weighing in at 8.5lbs, caught on a lugworm and squid bait.

My trip this week was to fish the river venue at Wrabness for the thornback rays.

Unfortunately none turned up, but I did catch some good-sized codling!

However, I managed to get cut off by the very high tide – good job I had my waders on!

And finally this week Gary Edwards, coxswain of the Walton Lifeboat has retired.

He has been 14 years at the helm of our local lifeboat and 35 years as crew; in that time the Walton Lifeboat has saved many lives and has been out on many shouts in gale force winds when all of us are tucked up in our warm beds.

Our thanks go out to the RNLI all over the British Isles for the great work that they do.

I am sure the new coxswain Trevor Halls, a fifth generation crew member who was previously second coxswain, will do a great job!

The tides for the weekend are Saturday 12.22pm and Sunday 1.22pm.