SEA FISHING: At last there's a feeling of spring in the air and a few more anglers have been out and about. There's still a lack of sizeable fish, but one or two have started to show.

At last there's a feeling of spring in the air and a few more anglers have been out and about. There's still a lack of sizeable fish, but one or two have started to show.

You'd probably expect the south of the patch to pick up first, though still undersize, round fish and flatfish figure highly in catches. There have been reports of occasional codling to 4lb from the pier at Southwold and reports of small plaice at Southwold, Dunwich and Benacre. Such is the rarity of this species in our waters these days, that most that are caught are usually found to be flounders with particularly vivid spots. There's no reason why they shouldn't be starting to appear. It would be this time of the year that anglers would start to target them.

Further up to Lowestoft and one or two codling have shown, though unfortunately there's still no consistency and they are again tending to be the barely sizeable fish that hang around anyway.

The commercial guys are finding the fish closer to shore than they were and this may well bode well for an upturn in the next couple of weeks. Add to that there seems to be a few more smaller fish and I think we can be optimistic. Less so further up to the east Norfolk beaches. Catch reports tell a similar story.

Those anglers lucky enough to find fish are only finding humble flatties and undersize codling and whiting. I notice, though, that there are one or two more school bass showing. Though not much bigger than your palm they're often a sign that the better ones aren't too far away. Friends fishing the Kent coast have found one or two good fish including a double off the Admiralty, so hopefully they won't be too long making their way northwards. The shingle has been patchy too and there have been plenty of blank returns among those finding the flatties.