SEA FISHING: Sport has continued in a good vein for north and east Norfolk. There have been lots of bass, the biggest I've seen at 14lb, though there seem to be quite a few school bass up to 3lb and a few in the 4 to 8lb bracket.

Sport has continued in a good vein for north and east Norfolk.

There have been lots of bass, the biggest I've seen at 14lb, though there seem to be quite a few school bass up to 3lb and a few in the 4 to 8lb bracket.

The shingle from Cley round to Weybourne has given a few nice bass, but the real sport seems to be on the flat beaches of east Norfolk. Bass to 8lb have been reported from Trimingham and Mundesley, with several smaller specimens to 5 or 6lb at Bacton and Walcott.

Bacton has also produced some of the first smoothounds of the summer. Over the weekend Mark Hudson managed four of these hard fighting sharks, the biggest a stunning common smoothound of 19lb 2oz. His others weighed from 6lb to 9lb, a super session by any measure.

I fished with Paul Kerry on Sunday evening and managed eight smoothounds on peeler crab, half of which were double figure fish, the biggest a nice common of 12lb. In a frantic three-hour session, Paul had a very similar catch.

The beaches seem alive with school bass at the minute; friends fished Bacton and managed several fish in the 1lb to 3lb bracket, worm being the top bait for these smaller fish. There have been some good fish too to worm though crab probably offers you a better bet of a large bass and best chances of a smoothound, darkness seems to be the key for the latter.

I would urge you to return the larger bass, these are breeding stock, old fish that don't taste anything like as nice as a fresh run 2.5lber. Only take what you can eat too and we may well have some decent sport for a few years yet.

Few reports relatively from Yarmouth area, though I'm told there are plenty of bits and pieces on the beaches and a few bass in the river.

These can provide some great sport on lures and give the angler a choice of method, fishing one rod with bait while working a lure can maximise your chances there.

Further round to Lowestoft and there have been a few sole off the south pier, I think there'd be even more if it wasn't for pouts and doggies hitting the bait before the sole have a chance.

Round to Southwold and there seem to be a few bass about too, I haven't had any firm reports of sole yet from this famous sole venue, but I don't think they can be far away now. Calm, muggy nights with a flat and coloured sea will give you the best chances of a nice tasty flatfish.

Paul Turrell's hard work and patience paid off for him again this year. He followed up two cracking shore caught rays in 2009 with his first of 2010 in the shape of a cracking 8lb 6oz specimen. These fish are quite a rarity from our beaches these days and you need a lot of patience to fish for them.

With some north west wind forecast in the week ahead, I would expect the east Norfolk beaches to continue to produce some nice bass and there'll be a chance of a codling or two among them if the sea picks up like it should. All else being even we could see the first soles from Southwold way too, trick is to get out there and enjoy some sport while it's there!