Tips On Cod Fishing

[tack4]

planning a session or two next week to see if any coddling about around the yellow isle portpatrick

 

what are the prefered rigs ie pulley, pennel or single hook size of hook etc

 

planning digging lug at weekend and combining with squid in an attempt to tease some nice fish

any help would be much appreciated as to date i only caught one coddling of 2lb and that was on a boat recently

[tugmistress]

well i don't know if it is right or not but all i do is stick on a 5/0, make the bait big and lob it out and wait..... works for me

[rockerchris]

Not far away its a personal thing paula, I would go for a 2/0 pennel fixed paternoster clipped preferably although im not sure where the fish are on that particular venue. Fish about four worms on the hook head hooked and tie them together in a sausage type shape. If possible try and get some frozen mussel I think Eric McClean has some although im not sure. Combine this with the lug and you'll have a combo worthy of any cod! Mind use heavy enough snoods roughly 30lb because cod can shred a lighter snoods quickly.

 

REMEMBER Dont make the same mistake as others when you get the first bite dont strike immediatly pick the rod up and wait for the big lunge from the cod it cant be missed, then keep waiting and you should feel nods thats when you know its hooked so you strike!

 

Oh and enjoy...

[Barry Scholes]

Hi Tack4,

The Yellow Isle can produce good codling along with haddock and lots of whiting at this time of year. I would not fish any bigger than 2/0 pennels here as most of the codling will be smaller, with an occassional better fish showing. Clipped down to help casting distance.

 

Lug cocktails with mussell, squid, razor, and crab will all score. Eric in the Sport Shop has some good frozen black lug, this can sometimes give you an edge.

 

I have fished this mark several times in the winter, best fish I saw was about 6lbs, but I have heard of fish into double figures. The middle section is favoured, but the right hand slope is easier to fish from.

If the isle is busy (as it can be) try further south (cheese rock or Tandu point) they regularly catch cod from those marks.

 

If its flat calm, then be prepared to catch lots of whiting.

 

All the best Andy, let us know how you get on.

 

Barry

[tack4]

cheers guys

 

thanks for the tips barry will give them ago

day or night mate what would you recomend

Edited December 7, 2005 by tack4

[maidstonemike]

I would like to disagree with two points here, firstly, a 2/0 hook is very small for even a modest sized Cod. quite how you would get 4 good size lug on there i don't know. A minimum 4/0 I would say, with 5 or 6/0 being about right. A big Cod has a mouth the diameter of a tea plate. My 4/0 hook looked very inadequate in the mouth of my 19 pounder I can tell you. I was lucky to hook it. it looked the size of a pin.

The other point is the tackle. I would never use a fixed paternoster for Cod. The reason being, if they feel resistance, they will drop the bait. A single hook ledger with a 3ft trace is better.

Don't think all Cod give a big bite. Not so, same for Bass.

The one i caught the other night gave a bite like a dab or small whiting.

I did catch a two pound whiting that nearly pulled the rod over! Big Cod sometimes take a bait very gently, and sit there waiting.

Mussel will definately give you an advantage. It gives off a chemical scent very similar to peeler crab, the Cod's favourite meal.

Fresh live ones from a supermarket are brilliant.

Best of luck, hope you catch a big'n.

[rockerchris]

As i made the initial point ive got to disagree with what you just said Mike. Yes in comparison to a large cod a 2/0 hook is rather small but this is all i use for my winter cod fishing and im out every weekend from the rocks and enjoy a fiar bit of success. I find using a big hook will result in the large majority of your fish on days when the fish are finicky being lip hooked this leads to more fish being lost. Using a 2/0 pennel and a fixed paternoster allows the cod a nice mouthful normally hooked well down the throat. As for 4 lug not being able to fit on a 2/0 pennel frankly thats pish!! Four lug head hooked and cottoned on bringing the bottom hook into the middle of them will present a bait that if a cod bites your very unlucky to miss!! The reason a fixed paternoster is used on the rocks is due to the distance you sometimes have to cast and the average size of the fish caught.

[maidstonemike]

As i made the initial point ive got to disagree with what you just said Mike. Yes in comparison to a large cod a 2/0 hook is rather small but this is all i use for my winter cod fishing and im out every weekend from the rocks and enjoy a fiar bit of success. I find using a big hook will result in the large majority of your fish on days when the fish are finicky being lip hooked this leads to more fish being lost. Using a 2/0 pennel and a fixed paternoster allows the cod a nice mouthful normally hooked well down the throat. As for 4 lug not being able to fit on a 2/0 pennel frankly thats pish!! Four lug head hooked and cottoned on bringing the bottom hook into the middle of them will present a bait that if a cod bites your very unlucky to miss!! The reason a fixed paternoster is used on the rocks is due to the distance you sometimes have to cast and the average size of the fish caught.

Ah, from the rocks, I missed that, sorry. I suppose it depends on the size of the lug. We used to dig stonking great lug years ago, but when I buy them now, not very often, they are very small, so 4 would go on.

I'm still using big hooks though!

[rockerchris]

I still manage to get four lug a mussel and half a crab on a 2/0 and have more than enough hook point left showing maybe you need to try a wider gape hook like a varivas? Extras are my current favourite!!

[Barry Scholes]

Hi Andy,

Night time is most often prefered. but sometimes more important is the state of tide. There are marks which fish best at certain stages, over low water, after high water, rising tide, etc.

I prefer to fish the yellow Isle from 2 down and 2 up (over the low water) but it does fish most of the tide.

If you are fishing two rods it could be worth fishing 4/0 - 6/0 size hook with a massive bait, Mikes point about the size of mouth is correct, Cod can fit whole 8oz dabs in there!!!

I have had my biggest Cod from the Solway (29lb 6oz) on size 2/0, when it was gutted it had several whole dabs as large as my hand, two rockling, and bits of crab and sprat type fish in the stomach.

 

Give me a shout I will see if I can join you for a few hours.

 

Barry