THE last fortnight has seen some really cold conditions but luckily the fishing has been excellent.

There are still plenty of Thornbacks inshore with the best at over 14lb reported.

These fish will move offshore soon but will return in September.

There have been some good Smoothounds up to 13lb taken on hermit crab, although these fish will also take ragworm and shore crabs.

There are a lot more bass around with the best at 10lb reported and several around 4lb to 6lb.

All bass must be returned alive until July 1 then only one fish per angler.

The beach anglers have been seeing some good stingrays.

These solitary fish are very powerful and give good sport, but beware of the barb under the tail as it can be deadly, so keep well clear of the tail when handling these fish.

The piers have been fishing well for a mix of fish with bass, smoothounds, thornbacks, dabs, whiting and odd gurnards, best of the pier fishing is top half of the flood to mid ebb.

The offshore fishing has picked up with some good mackerel showing up now the water is clearer.

This in turn has brought some tope in with reports of anglers losing tackle.

We hooked a good fish last week but lost it when it bit through the trace so they are about if you fish for them.

Best baits are fresh mackerel with wire traces.

There are some good smoothounds with fish up to 16lb reported, these are a sport fish and should be returned alive, best baits are crab and ragworm.

There are more bass showing with best reported at 12lb.

Best baits for the bigger fish are fresh mackerel with worm baits for the smaller fish.

Prospects are superb, so let’s hope the weather behaves.