The last fortnight has seen a real mix of weather but with less wind we have managed to get out a few times and given our anglers some great sport.

The cod are still thin on the ground but the ones that are there are good fish around 4-5lb with the odd better one.

There are less whiting and dogfish around so that means you can put big baits on with the chance of a double figure cod quite high.

The best baits are lug and squid.

There are good numbers of thornback rays inshore with the best reported at over 19lb, these bigger female fish are spawning already and should be returned alive; best baits are squid, herring, mackerel and all other fish baits.

The estuaries are quiet with a few whiting and odd codling but after a few weeks there should be more codling and thornbacks starting to show again.

Offshore has been out of the question with all the strong winds but on the odd calm day there has been some better cod to 10lb and good thornbacks.

There have been a few early Spurdog showing up with a huge fish of 24lb caught on the Sophie Lea from Brightlingsea last week. This fish was a record breaker but was returned alive as they are protected and illegal to land.

These hard fighting fish offer fantastic sport and can be targeted from now through to April using squid and mackerel baits.

Prospects are excellent, there are reports of cod along the Suffolk beaches and these fish will soon be with us as they make their way down the North Sea, plenty of Thornbacks and the chance of big Spurdog and Cod offshore.