THORNBACK rays seem to have moved in closer again for both shore and pier anglers.

The rays that have been caught are not particularly big but are still great sport.

There are also plenty of small whiting to be caught but very few cod.

Colchester Sea Angling Club headed for the Harwich beaches for their first Rockling Challenge match.

For those of you not familiar with the rockling, they are a small, mottled brown fish with small barbel around its mouth and are indigenous to our coastline.

Once again, it was difficult to get through the hordes of small whiting, even though most anglers were only fishing just a matter of a few yards out.

Finally, a steady stream of rockling came on the feed which also included a 30cm bass for Martin Close (which did not count!).

First place went to Mick Bradley, with 15.5oz, second to Steve Yallop, with 10.5oz, and third to Phil Buy, with 9oz.

Neil Cocks weighed in the heaviest rockling with a 5oz specimen.

Walton Sea Angling Club held their first match of the winter season on the local pier.

They fished the stem of the pier on an ebb tide with a strong north-easterly wind blowing and plenty of whiting were caught.

The top angler on the night was Nik Highfield, with 7lb 4oz.

Second place went to James Everett, with 7lb 2oz, and third to Chris Mills, with 5lb 5oz.

Species caught were whiting, pouting, dabs and a solitary dogfish.

The heaviest fish prize went to Chris Mills, with a 10oz dogfish.

The top of Walton Pier has seen the odd ray and dogfish and in calmer seas the dabs have been feeding.

The beaches have fished slightly better this week with a few thornback rays returning to shallower waters and the Holland beaches have produced a few on the night tides.

Clacton Pier has also seen a few rays this week and Wendy Pullen, from Kent, travelled to the pier for a day’s fishing and landed two rays on herring baits.

St Osyth beach has also reported a few thornbacks this week, along with plenty of whiting.

The boats have had another slow week.

Clacton Boat Club members Dave Hollands and Rocky Rochelle launched from their boat club ramp and fished around the Gunfleet Sands area.

They reported nothing but whiting and the odd dogfish and Dave told me that most of the whiting landed were now feeding on sprats!

Neil Marples fished from his boat Milore off the Walton coast.

He also caught plenty of whiting and said that they had been feeding on sprats.

As we now head into December, it can always be a difficult period in the anglers’ calendar and this year seems to be no exception.

The high tides for the weekend are 1.46pm on Saturday and 2.24pm on Sunday.