THE summer fishing is warming up nicely and our beaches are certainly seeing some great catches.

The mayweed is still causing problems for beach and boat anglers, but it should only be with us for a short while now.

St Osyth beach has turned out some more of those heavyweight stingrays.

There was one for Matt Clark, caught on a pennel rig with a ragworm bait, and another for Russell Cole, with both fish estimated at over 50lbs.

Matt’s ray was probably nearer 60lbs.

Every summer we see these giant fish move into the shallower beaches on our part of the coast and they stay with us until the end of June, before they move back out into deeper waters.

This year looks like it’s going to be a bumper year for them and ragworm and peeler are the best baits.

Clacton Pier is fishing reasonably well with thornback rays, dogfish and small bass being caught.

The daytime tides have been slow, but by evening into darkness it will improve your chances ten-fold.

Walton Sea Angling Club headed for the Holland beaches for their midweek evening match.

They were met with a strong northerly wind, which made the fishing rather uncomfortable.

They fished either side of high water.

The fish were feeding but, once again, that mayweed was a problem on the anglers’ lines.

Even so, thornback rays, dogfish, dogfish, eels, whiting and bass were caught.

Top rod on the night went to James Doe, with 11lb 4oz, which included two thornback rays.

Second place went to Richard Burt, with 8lb 4oz, and third to Nik Highfield, with 6lb 9oz.

The heaviest fish prize went to James Doe, with a 6lb 5oz thornback ray.

The Holland beaches have improved this week, especially after dark, with more rays showing and soles from nearer the Clacton end of the beaches.

The Frinton shoreline is suffering badly with mayweed, especially on the ebb tides, when it builds up on the anglers’ lines, making reeling in almost impossible.

Having said that, the flood tides are still fishable.

Walton Pier seems to have been the place to be this week and, with overcast skies and a coloured sea, thornback rays have fed voraciously.

Sudbury angler David Backler fished the venue midweek and caught six rays to 11lbs, with most caught on squid baits. Other anglers have reported similar catches.

Because of the rougher seas, the garfish and mackerel shoals have diminished, but all it will take is a couple of calm days and we will see these summer species feeding again.

The boats have struggled to launch during the week, with nagging strong northerly winds, but the weekend brought fair weather with higher temperatures and the boats took to the water.

Clacton Boat Club reported thornback rays to 14lbs and some smooth-hounds, although not so many bass this week. Dave Hollands also reported plenty of the dreaded mayweed causing problems.

The charter boats have reported smooth-hounds up to 16lbs, plus rays and bass all showing well.

Summing up this week, it seems as though we have gone back in time to the good old halcyon days of the 1960s and 70s, with so many thornback rays being caught from the piers and beaches and now those giant stingrays appearing on our local beaches.

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

The high tides for the weekend are 5.10pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday.