SQUARING UP TO SQUID
I was recently in the Orkney   Islands and during a couple of days boat fishing I re learnt just  how effective squid is as a cod bait all year round. We were struggling for  mackerel, and though we were catching pollack and coalies on luminous Hokkai’s  and lures I knew from past experience there were good codling to be caught  here. Problem was time restraints meant I couldn’t get an hour’s worm digging  in, so I opted to buy a few 1lb boxes of squid and started catching cod.

First off was to use just squid strip on  the feathers. This works if you cut the strips long and thin to give movement,  but you’ll catch just as many pollack and coalies still limiting your success  with the codling.

Getting the skipper to anchor up, my lad  and I changed to standard ledger gear baited with squid and fishing over a  rough ground bottom started to boat a steady stream of nice codling to 4lbs.  Nothing fancy size wise, but that simple change of tactics got us the target fish  we wanted.

You normally associate squid being fished  in twosomes or threesomes, depending on their size, for catching the big New  Year 20lb plus cod in the English Channel. The  fact is though, that squid is a top cod and codling bait all year round, we  just don’t use it enough, yet it’s one of the cheapest baits we can buy.

It doesn’t just apply to boat fishing  either. Come autumn time, fish a whole small squid on a pennel rig and blast it  out in to the surf and you’ll just as likely pick up your first cod of the  winter on the squid as you will on a bunch of lugworm.

  Big cod take the whole squid, but the  codling are sweet on half a squid, but prefer the head end. I mount the cut  section by the hook point with the tentacles up the shank off the hook and the  whole lot bound securely in place with bait elastic for streamlined casting.

This is a timely reminder as chatting to  one or two bait diggers and suppliers lately they expect more than the odd  shortage of lug this coming winter. Now I don’t want to start a stampede for  squid that results in a shortage of these too, but it is worth getting a few  packs in the freezer, just in case there comes a time when you want lug and  can’t get ‘em.

Also remember that squid is a top notch  autumn bait for big bass in the surf and for rock dwelling conger off the rock  ledges.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Carrying grip leads has always been a  problem. The wire ends tend to poke through ice cream container lids and other  plastic boxes inevitably finding your fingers to conveniently stab when you’re  groping through your tackle box in the dead night.

Some years back, a post Christmas clear out  saw me almost chucking out a couple salted peanut jars with screw on lids.  These are hard clear plastic with a wide mouth. It dawned on me these were the  perfect storage pots for wired leads, especially if you work out of rucksack  fishing the rocks as much as I do.

All my leads in my shore boxes and ruckie  are all now carried in these peanut jars and they’ve proved tough, unbreakable  in normal use, and with ease of access to the grip leads, plus are very lightweight.  If you buy or scrounge old peanut jars with different coloured lids you can  also coordinate and specifically identify the size and type of leads in each  different jar.

AUTUMN SPINNING FOR BASS TACTICS
Most spin fisherman have already put their  gear to bed for the winter, but the very best of bass fishing is right now from  mid September through mid October when the bass are feeding heavily packing on  fat and doing so by mainly hitting any small baitfish they come across.

Good marks are rough ground beaches, the  mouths of smaller estuaries, around rock promontories and even inside harbours  fishing from breakwaters and jetties where the tidal flow is condensed in to a  bottleneck that will carry small baitfish helplessly through with the tide  flow.

The bass tend to show best on the bigger  tides with dusk and dawn, as always, key taking times, though daylight will  produce too, if the water is only slightly coloured. Overcast days are good,  especially if the ground you are covering is under 8-feet deep.

Choose your ground and fish it methodically  covering a cone shape in front of you until all the ground has been covered,  then move on. It pays to carry minimal tackle, just a few lures and links in  your pocket and try to work as much ground as possible in order to locate the  fish. Chest waders are a must, as these give you access to more ground feature  by wading.

Fish the lures at a steady even pace. There  is no need to induce extra movement to the above lures. Retrieved steadily they  catch just as many fish, the key is to cover all the ground to find the ambush  points where the bass work looking to scare up small fish.

If you’re fishing from a breakwater casting  across a tidal current, let the spinner come round in an arc as you retrieve  across current and expect takes in the middle section of the shape of the arc.  Never retrieve a spinner against a current as bass will ignore a lure acting in  such an unnatural manner.

Top spinners are the ever consistent Dexter  Wedge and ABU Tobies in chrome/silver, with Land Herri’s and the old but  trusted Seabar lure excellent alternatives. Go for lures no more than 40grm as  these represent the average size of most of the smaller bait fish bass expect  to intercept. The 28grm is the best overall size for consistent takes, but  replace the treble hook with one a size smaller to get more positive hook ups.

Rods need to be 9 to 10-feet and  lightweight, matched to a fixed spool carrying 250-yards of 12lb line. Over  rough ground go with the 12lb, but drop to 10lb over sand and in estuaries.