OVER the last fortnight the weather has really improved and this has allowed us to get offshore where we have had some super sport with the smoothhounds.

The best reported last weekend was over 24lb, which is a huge fish, this fell to a hermit crab bait fished hard on the bottom.

There are stacks of small to medium hounds all over the Estuary and a good showing of 8-12lb fish as well, most of these fish will take either hermit crab or peeler crab with ragworm also a good bait.

There are a few less common fish starting to show up, most boats have reported seeing more gurnards with some up to 4lb, these beautiful little fish are either red or tub gurnard and seem to take any bait presented to them.

There are a few brill, sole and plaice reported although mainly small, these little flatfish will usually take a worm bait when fishing for bass.

The stingrays seem to be making a comeback with two in one day last week on my boat inshore, there have also been reports from other skippers having landed these powerful rays.

Be careful of the poisonous barb below the tail, although a lot of them have had the tail and barb cut off there are plenty that haven’t!

There are still some thornbacks around inshore with a few smoothounds and odd bass, most of these fish are falling for crab and worm baits as anglers are targeting bass.

Offshore has been excellent with some cracking tope turning up, best reported at 52lb, there are not many mackerel yet but the tope will take any dead baits put out for them and fresh mackerel is still best if available. Prospects are excellent with a real variety of fish showing up.