I was a little surprised to see quite a few really nice sole in the catch reports this week.

Despite the wind putting a little bit on the sea, these lovely flatties should up in decent numbers below Lowestoft and there were some very nice fish amongst them. In fact there were several noticeable mixed bags over the last week with sole, bass, whiting and codling figuring in catches. It's a great time of the year to fish as the summer species prepare to head off and the first of the autumn and winter fish arrive. The deep water venues of the far south produced some early season codling, nothing much above 2lb but very promising signs for the coming winter.

I recall a couple of years back scientists stating that cod spawning temperatures were near perfect and that they were expecting a bumper spawning season. If that happened, and those fish have stood the ravages of a couple of winters, then they should be in that 1-2lb bracket about now. Optimistic, maybe, the boat guys have had some decent fish the last couple of winters albeit from tightly shoaled areas.

I believe though that it's only a matter of time before we see runs like we did a few years back.

The wind forecast for the week ahead covers all points of the compass, so there's something for most of us.