AFTER a warm spell at the beginning of last week, it came as a shock when temperatures dropped and a cold easterly wind hit our coastline.

It looks like it put the anglers off more than the fish.

Fewer anglers fished and reports slowed down, but those anglers that did fish reaped the benefits.

The Walton boats are seeing more rays and bigger codling being caught.

The charter boat Misty Lady, skippered by Terry Woodrow, has been among the fish.

He reported that more of those early-spring thornback rays are showing around the Gunfleet Wind Farm and Wallet areas.

One angler from his party managed to catch a coalfish, weighing around 2.5lb.

We do see a few of these species each year but, nonetheless, it is still fairly unusual.

The Brightlingsea boats have had another good week and the charter boat Seawatch, skippered by Lester Baker, had an upturn in rays and larger codling.

Berni Dooling managed to land a cracking whiting, weighing in at 2.2lb.

The whole party caught 70 codling and eight rays between them.

Walton Sea Angling Club headed for the local pier for their midweek evening match.

They fished the top of the pier on a flood tide and in the first hour the fishing was slow.

As the tide picked up, they started to catch a steady stream of small whiting, pouting and dabs.

Rob Tuck found an early spring dogfish and, by the end of the match, a few codling had also been caught.

In first place was Alan Humm, with 4lb 11oz, followed in second by Rob Tuck, with 3lb 12oz.

In third place was Andy Kerr, with 2lb 13oz.

Andy also finished with the heaviest fish – a codling weighing 2lb 7oz.

Once again, both Clacton and Walton piers have been steady this week. The fishing has not been exceptional, but ebb tides are seeing codling, whiting, pouting and now a few dogfish.

The new beaches at Holland are still producing a few codling, but beware some of the beaches can be a bit rough and anglers are reporting tackle losses.

The feedback I’m getting from both anglers and the public is that the beaches are great, but there doesn’t seem to be any rubbish bins on the whole stretch of the new promenade beaches.

This would surely help anglers and dog walkers alike. Time to get off my soap box!

The annual Clacton Pier Charity Shield competition is nearly upon us again.

This year, it will be fished on Sunday, April 26 and tickets are now on sale, priced at £7.50 for adults and £5.50 for juniors (under-16s).

This also includes the pass for Clacton Pier and can be purchased at Dean’s Tackle 01255 425992 and Clacton Angling on 01255 221863.

If you have any fishing reports, you can contact me at popplewell1@btinternet.com The tides for the weekend are 12.22pm on Saturday and 1.06pm on Sunday.