FINALLY a week of calmer weather for both boat and beach anglers.

And with rising temperatures, it has led to an upsurge of people out and about fishing.

Walton Sea Angling Club held their latest evening beach match at Holland-on-Sea.

Conditions were good, with light winds and calm seas, and lots of fish were caught, but all on the small side.

Whiting, pouting and the odd bass were the mainstay of the match.

Top angler on the night was Rob Tuck, with 4lb 1oz.

Second spot went to Nik Highfield (3lb 10oz) and third to Richard Burt (2lb 2oz).

The heaviest fish prize went to Rob Tuck, with a 1lb 1oz bass.

Walton Pier continues to produce a few rays and the dogfish are showing well after dark.

The local beaches here have seen some bigger whiting, a few flounders and small bass.

Colchester Sea Angling Club held their annual prize-giving at The Grapes pub, in Colchester.

Chris Mills was Boat Champion and Dave Clark Beach Champion.

The Chairman’s Cup went to Mark Peters, the Transdec League Cup to Phil Buy and the Juniors’ Champion’s Cup to Olly Yallop.

Top triple angler for the year was Mark Sessions, who won the Pier Championships, the River Championships and the Beach League Championships. The club are always open to new members and you can contact them through their Colchester Sea Anglers Facebook page.

Clacton Pier has seen the first run of those spring-run rays and also a few dogfish on the night tides.

Top place once again this week is St Osyth beach, with anglers catching plenty of the early rays from in between the rocky groynes and also the open beach towards the nature reserve.

The Brightlingsea-based charter boat Gloria B2 has been among the fish this week. Mark Hunter was in a party that headed for the Gunfleet sands area and he told me that the rays were feeding profusely, in addition to some big whiting and dogfish, too.

The charter boat Sophie Lea reported a marked improvement this month, with plenty of thornback rays, mostly medium-sized fish, but 20 rays per trip is not unusual.

The cod are not there in any numbers this spring, with only two or three showing on each trip.

Some very large whiting are showing, with fish to almost 2lbs.

Those massive shoals of herring and sprats are now moving out of the Thames Estuary.

This will help the cod catches as they will start to feed back on the bottom again.

Don’t forget the clocks change at the weekend to British summertime, so Sunday’s high tide has jumped an extra hour.

High tides for the weekend are 1.24pm on Saturday and 2.54pm on Sunday.

If you have any fishing reports you can contact me at popplewell1@btinternet.com