IT has been a bit of an up and down week for anglers.

The calm weather continues, which is great for boat fisherman.

However, it has also slowed the fishing down, with some boats reporting good catches of cod and thornback rays and others struggling.

What we really need is a good blow for a few days to stir the sea up and get those fish interested in feeding again.

Hopefully then, we’ll see some double-figure cod appearing before mid-November.

The boats that did take to the water have had mixed results.

Walton charter boat Misty Lady, skippered by Terry Woodrow, told me the rays were still with us and he is now seeing more cod in the 6lb range.

Shani Howard fished on board his boat and landed a cracking bass, weighing in at 11lb 5oz.

Neil Marples fished on his own boat, Milore, out from Walton Marina, and reported thornbacks to 10lbs, plus lots of dogfish, as well as still ravenous whiting feeding.

The Sophie Lee charter boat, from Brightlingsea, reports still good numbers of rays, plus cod.

Weed has been a problem, although it is now diminishing.

The top bait seems to be lugworm, tipped with squid.

Ray Hempstead, skipper of the Mersea-based Sorcerer, told me cod and rays are on the menu, with Karl Wykes catching a cod of 8.5lbs and Lee Brooker finding one of 7.5lbs.

The kayaks have also been taking advantage of the calm seas and Alan Tipple and Sandie Davis fished off Clacton seafront and came back with cod to 6lbs, as well as a few rays.

The beaches and piers are certainly fishing better after dark, with rays and codling.

Anglers on Clacton Pier are still catching rays, cod to 6lbs and dogfish.

The Holland beaches have been slow during daylight hours, but after dark there are cod and rays to be caught.

However, similar to the boats, not everyone is catching them.

Clacton Sea Angling Club fished their latest match on the Holland beaches below the Kingscliff Hotel.

Eight anglers fished and landed 71 fish between them – mostly whiting and just two codling.

First place went to Rob Tuck, with 459 points, followed by Chris Snow (267) and Nik Highfield (130). The heaviest fish went to Rob, with a codling of 55cm.

My trip this week was to Walton Pier. With reports of some better-sized codling and rays to be caught, I was always going to be in with a good chance.

I arrived on a late-afternoon tide, but the winds were light, with calm seas, and sadly all I could catch were small whiting and dogfish.

It seemed to be the same for other anglers fishing the pier, which just goes to prove that the windier the better to get those bigger fish feeding.

Colchester Sea Angling Club headed for the coastguard beaches at Walton for the fourth leg of their Transdec Match.

Ten anglers fished a night tide and plenty of fish were caught, once again mainly whiting and pouting with only one small codling.

Phil Buy won with 7lb 12oz. Paul Marron came second, with 6lb 14oz, and third place fell to Malcolm Wright, with 5lb 4oz.

The heaviest fish was a tie between Marron and Neil Cocks, with a dogfish of 1lb 15oz.

The tides for the weekend are 2.01pm on Saturday and 2.47pm on Sunday.