IT seems a similar story every week at the moment, with a lack of cod reports.

However, once again, lots of small whiting and dabs have been caught, in addition to thornback rays from the boats.

I'm a great believer that when there is a void of a certain fish - like cod - it will be filled with another species and it seems to be the whiting.

Shoals of very small whiting are devouring every anglers’ bait along the East coast.

Hopefully now the sea temperatures have dropped to a more seasonal five degrees we might see the odd codling showing, but don’t hold your breath.

Seawatch Charter skipper Lester Baker has diversified and been targeting the thornback rays.

He has enjoyed great success, catching 12 good-size rays on one trip and 18 on another.

John Greening, from Milton Keynes, was among his party and landed some great-looking rays.

Eight-year-old Oliver Brown, from Tiptree, is getting to be an old hat at catching thornbacks.

He is on his fourth trip with Seawatch Charters and really enjoying catching these heavyweight rays.

Kayak anglers Sandie Davies and Alan Tipple can often be seen fishing off the Clacton seafront, but with freezing temperatures they opted for the more comfortable option of launching their boat.

They reported that the rays were definitely feeding, plus some bigger whiting.

On the whole, the boats have seen a slight increase in ray catches, plus plenty of small whiting and dabs.

Clacton Pier has been quiet this week, with just whiting and dabs and no reports of any rays being caught.

It seems to be the same with all the Holland beaches with only small fish and very few anglers.

I had a trip to the Walton beaches to fish an ebb tide and, to be honest, it was a fish or two every cast.

They were all small, but with light rods and tackle it can make for some interesting sport.

Walton Pier has also seen dabs and whiting and not much else.

Let’s hope that now we are at the end of January, the fishing will begin to pick up and I am reporting on better catches.

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

The high tides for the weekend are 12.11pm on Saturday and 12.45pm on Sunday.