SOARING temperatures have hit 30C and with only a slight breeze, it's felt very tropical on our part of the coast.

Beach anglers have seen a slowdown in thornback rays during these bright daylight hours but the bass don’t seem to mind.

The Jaywick beaches around the rocky breakwaters have seen plenty of bass caught on light tackle and small ragworm baits.

The beaches around St Osyth have also quietened down and, once again, evening tides will see some bass to 3lbs, although there's always a chance of bigger fish and the odd thornback ray.

It looks like the stingray season has been shortlived, with no more rays reported, although throughout the summer there's always a chance of the odd heavyweight ray turning up.

Clacton Pier has been steady this week and a few rays have been caught, plus whiting, bass and dogfish.

Peter Rose fished here and caught two thornback rays to 8lbs.

The Holland beaches have been fairly quiet, with strong sunlight and clear water keeping most fish in deeper water until after dark.

Frinton has seen soles, bass and the odd thornback ray.

Most of the soles are being caught around dusk and into darkness and a 50-yard cast with ragworm bait is enough distance to be within a chance of finding some feeding soles.

Walton Pier is the venue to head for with smooth-hounds, bass and plenty of thornback rays to be caught.

My trip this week was to the local pier.

I fished an ebb tide at the top.

I wasn’t disappointed and in a matter of just a couple of hours eight thornback rays were caught.

Mark Oxley landed the best fish of the day - a nicely-marked starry smooth-hound.

Anglers fishing the stem of the pier have reported school bass, dogfish, garfish and wrasse.

The River Stour at Wrabness has seen some good catches of bass for both beach and boat angler and with very clear water the evening tide here is also the best time to find a fish or two.

The local boats have also taken advantage of the settled weather and seen some big tope on the further out marks, although there is plenty of small tope to inshore boats.

Once again, smooth-hounds to 16lbs and thornback rays have been caught, although the average size of the rays is smaller than previous weeks.

The high tides for the weekend are 12.33am on Saturday and 1.24pm on Sunday.