THIS glorious hot weather continues, along with some pretty good tope fishing for boat anglers.

Never have we seen so many tope being caught.

Darren Hutchinson fished with friends from his own boat, Black Marlin, out of Bradwell Marina.

They caught six tope, with the biggest weighing in at 47lbs.

Dave Holland and Rocky Rotchell launched from Gunfleet Boating Club at Holland-on-Sea and travelled out to the black deeps in search of tope.

Rocky hooked a very big one and got it to the side of the boat but a powerful lunge from the giant fish saw the line snap and it was gone.

They also landed some good-sized smooth-hounds and thornback rays.

Neil Marples fished from his own boat, Milore, out of Walton.

He reported plenty of bass up to 3lbs and the odd smooth-hound to 5lbs.

There are still plenty of bass to be caught from the boats, averaging 5lbs, along with the odd double-figure fish.

For the beach and pier angler, Walton Pier must be the venue of the week. Walton Sea Angling Club held their latest evening match here and some heavyweight fish were landed.

They fished the top of the pier on an ebb tide and the rays were feeding.

Richard Burt landed the heaviest thornback ray reported from the pier this year, weighing in at 14lbs.

Even with a fish that size he was still only in second place.

First place went to Rob Tuck with four fish for 719 points, which included two thornback rays, one weighing in at 11lb 5oz.

In second spot was Richard Burt, with six fish for 676 points, and third went to Doug Sadler, with 107 points.

Rob also hooked a big stingray, estimated at around the 40lb mark.

Alas, it was too big to fit in the landing net, his hook trace snapped and the fish was lost.

Other fish caught were dogfish, smooth-hounds, eels, pouting and whiting.

The pier in general has fished very well this week, especially on the evening tides, with thornback rays and dogfish being the main catch.

St Osyth has been quiet this week with just the odd ray being caught.

There are plenty of school bass to be caught on light fishing gear at 50 yards out, though, with ragworm the best bait.

Clacton Pier has seen a few thornback rays and bass, plus a few bigger whiting have also been caught this week.

The Holland beaches are producing fish after dark, with the odd ray and plenty of school bass.

I fished the Frinton beaches on a bright sunny day and fished peeler crab on one rod at distance for the bigger fish.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a bite all day, although another rod fished at 50 yards on ragworm baits caught me school bass on every cast!

Colchester Sea Angling Club headed for the Suffolk beaches to fish Shingle Street for their monthly league match.

Fourteen anglers made the journey, but the fishing was patchy.

The winner on the night was young Olly Yallop with one fish, a thornback ray weighing 6lb 12oz, which also gave him the heaviest round fish prize.

Second place went to Chris Mills, with 5lb 3oz of whiting and eels, and third to Nik Highfield, with 5lb 3oz of small bass caught very close in.

Dave Clark won the heaviest flatfish prize with a 1lb sole.

Their next match is on Walton Pier on July 15, with fishing from 11am to 6pm.

The high tides for the weekend are 1.58pm on Saturday and 2.31pm on Sunday.