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Print versionInshore Cod Fishing
From mid October on, and especially in the post Christmas period it's often the case that an over eager throttle hand puts the boat way out beyond the cod and codling. Just because the beach anglers lose sight of the fish doesn't mean that the cod have pushed out to deep water. On the contrary, the smaller fish to 6lbs or so stay within a couple of miles of shore and can still be caught in good numbers right through May, and the further north you go, throughout the summer, too!
This feature looks at the two distinct types of ground likely to hold cod and then how best to fish them.
CLEAN GROUND FISHING
It's no good hiding it, it's a fact that you're up against it trying to find cod over dead clean ground. Cod are hungry fish and need food in quantity to satisfy their appetites and clean ground holds little in the way of food. But there are ways!
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The gems to look for are extended sewer outlets that run half a mile or more out to sea. Such offshore structures have been a popular means of hiding the evidence during the past decade in many areas. These will be marked by a buoy for easy location. During construction the pipe at the seaward end is usually supported and shored up by piling huge boulders around it. These quickly attract weed growth, then permanent food like small fish, crabs etc, in turn followed by the cod. Such areas absolutely heave with cod at times and excellent catches can be made.
The other thing to consider is that either side of the pipe will get banked up by sand deposited by the tides and these inclines of sand can also hold scattered codling. This banking effect is greatest on the flood tide side and the ebb side should be slightly deeper.
The fish will be concentrated always on the downtide side of the boulders and pipe when the tide is running strong. During slack water periods they'll be working tight to the boulders and will even lift in the water a few feet of the seabed.
Are there any wrecks inside the 3 mile band? By wrecks, it's not likely to be 400' oil tankers but small trawlers and pleasure craft that have gone down, or even war losses like landing craft which occur in some areas. Even a small object like this is a larder to fish and will hold cod on a fairly permanent basis whilst they're inshore.
If you have no obvious feature to work too, then you've no choice but to drift and to locate any groups of fish by literally bumping in to them. Not a professional approach granted, but it can be effective and educational if you get into the habit of taking a basic position, either through your electrics or back to basic line ups of shore line horizon features.
ROUGH GROUND FISHING
This covers relatively flat ground such as patches of boulders surrounded by mainly clean sand, shallow reefs and rocky ground with a varied depth down to 70ft.
Although the numbers of fish over rough ground are going to be far greater, there are problems in that the fish are scattered as individuals across it with just small groups of fish clustered together around particular prominent features which act as focal points at certain stages of the tide.
These group holding hotspots are rising rocks and shelf's that veer up off the seabed to form a break in the tidal run. What happens is that the fish use the feature to break the tide for them during the main flood and ebb periods. Expect to find the fish tightly bunched at seabed level on the downtide side of the obstruction at this time.
The vertical shelf's are different, though! These cause the tide flow when facing them to flow upwards without hitting the wall leaving an area of settled, easy to swim in water around the base of the shelf and upwards to it's top. Water borne food including small fish gets washed into this and is held there which attracts the cod.
Slack water periods will see bites from the rocky peaks fall away. There's a simple explanation for this. The fish aren't there any more. They've gone mobile and are using this easy swimming period to cover ground that would otherwise sap too much of their energy when they must fight the tide. Fish aren't as stupid as some anglers would have us believe.
The other feature to work to are kelp beds. The kelp weed does not get so dense that fish cannot swim between the root stalks. This allows opportunists like cod to move through these weed forests and pick off food items.
TECHNIQUE
Because the fish are either well spread out, or tightly packed in small groups around lifting rock, it's obvious that this inshore fishing requires that you drift to cover as much ground and fish as possible. You can do this in two ways. Either repeated drifts down a particular line whilst the tide lets you that passes over specific features that you know will hold cod, or more general drifts letting the tide take you where it will and being patient with spasmodic bursts of action as the fish are contacted.
During the peak tide runs you should try to use a specific drift that puts you over those focal points where the bulk of fish are sheltering. This maximizes your returns. During slack water, let the boat go where it will and deliberately take different drifts to cover the more open ground when the fish are off and foraging as individuals.
Occasionally, anchoring and using static ledgering methods works and you'll get fish, but this is not anywhere near as productive as drifting.
WEATHER
The weather has only limited effect on the cod in water over 30' deep. Shallower water, then rough seas bring the cod back inshore and as these settle and you can get to sea, for a few tides you'll do well, the fish staying inshore as long as the sea remains coloured. The fish move further out to deeper water as it begins to clear.
During spells of very settled weather, look to find the deeper areas amongst the rocks, though the sewer pipe will still fish okay.
 Feather's work a treat |
Over rough ground, small wrecks, reefs and the sewer pipe, go for Hokkai lures or standard white cod feathers on 4/0 to 6/0 hooks. Though the Hokkai's will catch some fish unbaited, and to a lesser degree so will the cod feathers, both are far more effective baited. Choose lug, rag or mussel for these. If pushed, razorfish, cockles and queen cockles also work.
Instead of using a normal lead weight make up some light pirks from 10mm gas tubing as these pick up the odd fish and also increase the attraction of the whole rig as the rod is jigged up and down. It's also worth adding a rattle bead to the rig as cod home in on noise very well being a curious fish.
In the Northeast of England and off East Scotland boat anglers prefer a two or three hook rig using smaller 4" muppets, usually red, orange, pink and black are good, but again baited with lug, rag and mussel.
For drifting over clean ground also try the following rig. Take 30" of 50lb line. Tie a Mustad Oval split ring to the base and either crimp or knot a swivel in just above this to take the hook length. Use a swivel or a couple of split links at the top as preferred to attach the main line to the rig.
The hook length should be 6-8' long and from 35lb line ending in a single 6/0 Mustad Aberdeen 3262BLN or a two hook pennel rig using two Mustad Viking 79515 4/0's. Put a rattle bead about 12" up from the bait. This needs baiting only with lug or rag. It drag along the clean seabed as the boat drifts and looks natural with the rattle bead combining with the dragging lead to create the necessary noise.
TACKLE
Romantic notions of light tackle thrills are hard to apply for this style of fishing, but there is no need to fish over heavy. More depends on the strength of the tide run over the ground.
For light tide areas, the sewer pipe, shallower reef ground and clean ground drifting a standard 20lb class rod does the job well. It should be married to a reel holding 300yds of 20lb line. An ABU 7000 or similar being the best choice. Some clean ground drifting with bait or feathers can be done with an uptider if preferred and these do increase the fun while playing fish, and add more movement to the feathers for the same arm effort being a good 2' longer than the average boat rod.
In deep water and for faster tides, you'll need a 30lb class rod and reel, but the line need be no more than 25lbs.
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