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Print versionCod on Lures
Talk cod from October on and most angling minds think of uptide techniques and big lug baits. Lures, other than pirks, so often chosen in summer, are out of sight and out of mind. Much good fishing is lost as a consequence.
Take drifting with baited feathers for instance. This method is ideally suited to exploring those areas with rapid tide runs that flow over extremely rough ground. Fishing at anchor is for the most part useless and too costly, even for the dedicated, in lost tackle. This type of terrain though, is ideal for hunting cod.
There are many types of feather lures about nowadays. Still very effective are the plain chicken feather type of multi colours, and mainly aimed at mackerel. Some such strings of feathers come armed with 4/0 and 6/0 hooks, but it's usually only one or two colours that catch the fish. Expect the white feather to be the dominant one, with red, then yellow next in the pecking order. Very few fish fall to the other hooks.
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Obviously, the best strings are those that incorporate only white feathers. These come generally as a string of six, but really need to be cut in half giving three feathers which proves just as effective in terms of numbers of fish caught as the full six does.
Frequently fish can be caught just by working the feathers up and down by lowering and raising the rod tip, but there are other tricks that can dramatically improve your catch.
First thing to try is bait. Lugworm obviously, mussel, king rag, even squid works, but the worm and shellfish have the better edge. Fish baits like mackerel and herring are second rate baits and should only be used as a standby.
The attraction of the feathers and bait scent can be further enhanced by the addition of a small pirk purely as an attractor. These do not need to be the type used in deep water over wrecks. Lengths of 10mm chrome gas tubing cut in to 10in lengths weigh about 6ozs giving plenty of weight for most drift fishing situations.
Alternatively, try scraping the surface of your lead with a knife to reveal the shiny lead underneath. Binding the lead with chrome car tape is another one to remember. Some anglers I know in Yorkshire paint all their feathering leads with white gloss purely for the reflection. It figures that florescent paints may also attract cod.
The modern materials used in fry imitations also rely on reflection and luminescence for attracting fish. Hokkais and the Flat Jack lures are the obvious ones here, but others such as the Daylite lures and Wondershine variants also play in the same league. These catch fish without baits added to the hooks with more consistency than the plain feathered types do.
These modern type lures really score over ground where codling in the 1 to 4lbs class are the principal targets. Again, the addition of a small shiny bar pirk gives them a little something extra. Infact set up as described they frequently out fish standard baited feathers over the same type of ground. Neither are they confined to the shallower inshore areas, for they will take fish unbaited in depths well over 200ft.
PIRKS FOR COD FISHING
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Staying with shallow inshore marks for a while, lets take a look at the potential over shallow reefs say up to 80ft in depth. Codling and cod still reside over these marks at this time. Also, the worst of the storms will have passed and periods of frosty, settled weather can give sea clarity at this depth approaching summer time levels.
If the area in question has little natural tide run, or you can deliberately pick a small neap tide then very light tackle can be used to work small lures right over the top of the reef still on the drift.
Some areas can be fished with a 1 to 2oz spinning rod, small fixed spool loaded with 8lb line, and a 1oz lead headed Mr Twister lure. But there is a knack to fishing this method to deliberately target cod.
Always bear in mind that cod are mostly bottom feeding fish. Any lure worked the same as for pollack, that is worked towards the surface, will miss them. The lead head lures need to be worked deep in the danger zone right over the top of the rocks.
This you do by feeling for the definite bump as the lure touches the seabed, now lift the lure off the bottom until the boats drift tightens the line a little, then release about 30yds of free line, and begin to retrieve. The released line puts the lure further away from the boat and decreases markedly the angle of lift the lure assumes on the retrieve. The lure now drags at seabed level some distance before sweeping upwards.This is how cod are caught.
I learnt this technique in Ireland a few years ago and it can be devastatingly effective when numbers of codling are running across such reefs. Fish in the 6lb class really have to be worked on hard on such light gear.
Don't push such gear to the rear of your mind when the water is much deeper and the holding area is a wreck. The same system works here too, but rarely will 1 or 2ozs get you down whilst retaining a level of feel through the rod. The reel and line can stay the same, maybe the rod too, but up your lead heads to 3ozs, possibly 4. Bass rods and 12lb string may be needed where tides still have some real push even on neaps.
Any doubters amongst you that this gear can take fish in great depth need only ask Dave Taylor who skippers Aldebran out from Aberystwyth. He watched me use this gear in 250ft of water, and hook fish a couple of years back.
Lure colours should be dark only. Black is no 1, blood red is good, green also. The bright colours are unreliable, but can fish well on individual days. Small redgills and other sandeel imitations won't mount satisfactorily on a lead head system and lose out on action.
Muppets are next in line. Useful fished as a team of three and baited with mussel over the inshore shallows, they'll take codling in numbers with white the best colour to start the day with, but backed up by pink as the first colour change option. Black and red work better when the water is relatively clear, the white taking more fish in coloured water.
Over wrecks, it's hard to beat a combination of big pirk on the bottom with a muppet slid over the shank of the treble hook. This can be black, red, yellow, or pink.In this depth it doesn't make too much difference. Sometimes though, the luminous yellow ones really fish beyond the call of duty, mainly when the tide is running with some force.
You can add another muppet as a flyer some 3ft above the pirk fished on a shortish 10in hook length. For some reason a pink muppet is THE killer fished so. Somehow, the other colours can never quite live up to the pink in fish caught.
The size of the muppet makes a heck of a difference to the catch returns. Even for codling the 3in version does not produce fish like the 5in one. On the other hand, the larger 7in and above sizes are best suited to the deep water wrecks and then only after experimentation with the 5in length.
A tip when fishing a muppet, or redgill for that matter as a flyer above a pirk. When fish a really thick over a wreck and taking both pirk and muppet, extend the length between the muppet and the pirk to at least 6ft. This gives you a chance to gaff a big fish on the muppet and swing it inboard with the other fish on the pirk still safely in the sea and not dragged in to mid air where the hook can tear free.
For the inshore feathering all traces should be tied from 50lb mono, and when using shop bought versions test all the appropriate knots first. There's a lot of big fish been lost on unchecked feather rigs straight out of the packet.
Over wrecks it makes sense to go for 100lb mono to tie both cod feathers and muppets sets too, and also to take the strain of the big pirk and flyer muppet for the first six feet.
Big pirks in the 1 to 2lb class are usually manufactured from chrome pipe. Don't worry overly if the chrome effect rusts for fish will still take a discoloured lure. Nevertheless, I feel happier fishing with a lure that reflects any available light, it just adds a little more to your chances of hooking fish.
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