AS we head into mid-summer, it's always been a time for those bigger bass to move closer to the shoreline and this year has been no exception.

Evening into dark has always the best time to find them feeding.

Mark Gray did just that and landed the heaviest bass caught from our part of the coast this year, weighing in at 11lbs 2oz. It beat his personal best by 2lbs.

Mark caught the giant bass on a ragworm bait on a nighttime tide fished closed to shore.

The St Osyth beaches have been fairly quiet, but there have been a few thornback rays showing this week.

Once again, evening tides are best.

School bass are showing well here. There's no need to cast too far as most are feeding 50 yards out from the beach.

Clacton Pier is also seeing a few more thornback rays, along with small bass and eels.

You'll get plenty of bites if you keep the hooks and bait small. Ragworm and squid are the top baits.

Fishing a lure in between the pier piles can account for bigger marauding bass. Daniel Rotchell fished here and landed soles to over a pound and a thornback ray weighing in at 5lbs.

The Holland beaches have improved with bass, soles and eels feeding.

There's a lack of anglers fishing but the fish are there to be caught.

My trip this week was down to the Frinton beaches and I fished all night until the sun appeared.

I didn’t catch anything very big but there were plenty of bass to 1lb at close range which kept me busy. Freshly dug lugworm was the bait.

Walton Pier has to be the top venue this week.

Thornback rays have appeared again and rays to 8lbs have been landed.

One angler landed five thornbacks in a daytime session.

Joshua Buist is no stranger to catching rays from the pier and this week he landed thornbacks to 6lbs, plus a 95cm smooth-hound.

Joe Scammel had a great day on the top of the pier.

He caught bass, wrasse and an assortment of small fish, plus two thornback rays to 5lbs.

Bass are still being caught on lures from around the lifeboat area and along the side of the pier, although most are under a pound in weight.

The club hut area and below will produce bass and soles to ragworm baits, once again on evening tides.

The boats have had a reasonable week.

The Brightlingsea charter boat Seawatch Charters reported smooth-hounds to 17lbs and some good-sized thornback rays.

Alan Tipple and Sandie Davis fished from their own boat off the Holland coastline and reported bass to 4lbs, smooth-hounds to 10lbs and even a couple of small tope.

The high tides for the weekend are 11.27am on Saturday and 12.22pm on Sunday.

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