They say endings are just new beginnings but this winter cod season has been hard. It started off really well in October and November but trailed off from there. Catching the dreaded Corona Virus in the middle of the best part of the season didn't help and from there I couldn't seem to buy a bite! I thought I'd have a last couple of sessions but storm Darcy ha other ideas.
Looking forward to some better weather and the end of lockdown restriction hopefully this year will be better than last!
I ventured up to a cliff top venue that can normally be relied upon to deliver a cod or 2. The cliff tops can be very reliable and have the advantage of having no climb down to the waters edge, a nice grassy fishing position and no issues with moving with the tide line. They do however have some noticeable drawbacks, its a long way to winch a reasonable coddling up, if anything goes wrong it's a long way to fall and sadly any fish you don't want to keep wouldn't survive the drop back into the water.
The picture shows my set up. A 15ft Any Fish Anywhere 6 an Bait, Penn Battle 2 8000 with 80lb braid. On the tripod you can see a baited trace waiting to be swapped over baited with cart and squid.
I seem to have been doing a lot of sea fishing recently so I decided to do something a bit different and headed for a quick session on the River Swale near Thirsk looking for Pike and Perch. Unfortunately nothing seemed interested in my lured but it was nice to be out and doing something different.
I was back on the rough ground to catch the last of the swell, fishing cart and squid baits on a pennel pulley rig.
When fishing with cart (a bait made from the insides or female edible crabs) I've found that once the cart thaws and washes out I've been left with very little hookbait for the fish to find. I've found that by using a whole small squid on the hook along with a block of frozen cart there is still plenty of bait left when the cart thaws and melts away. The down side of using a whole small squid is that the bait to be cast out is pretty large which as extra casting weight to the rod and the size of the bait creates a lot of resistance during flight.
I put the plan in to operation during a recent trip to the North Yorkshire coast an it paid off quite well.
There is always a particular smell or feel in the air when autumn arrives and autumn means cod, well it does to me anyway. I kicked off at Kettleness which is hard work getting own to and back up but always worth it. The sea was picking up and the surf was about 3 to 4 foot, first day of a new swell.
My aim this season is to try not to blank but its unavoidable at times. This session saw 4 coddling and a coalfish with the biggest about 2lb, not massive but it was nice to feel the thump of a good bite again. I fished a pulley rig over the rough ground baited with cart wings, squid and fresh mussel.
I had a trip out to the beach over the summer hoping for some Bass and flounders using up the last frozen peeler crab from my winter cod fishing. The sea was pretty flat when I arrived and wading out for my first cast I realised how clear the water was, what I didn't spot until later was just how much weed was in the water.
I had changed my rigs from a general pulley rig to a fixed paternoster with a size 2/0 hook and baited it with peeler crab. First cast and I was in to a school Bass of around 1 1/2 to 2lb and I was picturing a good session. Then it started to rain.... and that was the only bite of the whole night!
