Winter shore fishing for cod This article was written with the intention of helping sea anglers catch bigger cod. Winter cod are caught when onshore storms hit the coast with fishing under the cover of darkness often the best time to target them. Great baits are lugworms, ragworms and shellfish cocktails, with bigger fish baits generally taking larger cod from deep water marks. The most important thing about winter fishing for cod is hitting the shore at the correct time and place, sounds obvious but sea anglers who are new to the sport often get this wrong. Here’s ten tips to find those cod. 1/ Go fishing a day or two after an onshore storm has subsided, a nice lazy swell that you can fish into comfortably from the beach is ideal. This is what sea anglers refer to as a dying sea. Food has been dislodged and the fish have come in close to mop up the free offerings. I find a swell of 3ft to 6ft ideal for most venues. Check out surf conditions for your local beach at magicseaweed/ 2/ Fish during darkness, cod like the security that darkness gives them when entering shallow water, especially on beaches. Darkness brings fish in closer. 3/ Deep water always gives the best chance of bigger fish, ends of piers, deep water rock marks or steep beaches are normally best. A beach that is shallow at low tide can often be deep enough for cod at high tide so try then. 4/ Use rigs that are strong and don’t tangle, thin mono tangles easier than thicker mono. I recommend using swivels that are 8olb breaking strain minimum and mono of 60lb to 80lb throughout your cod rigs. A tangled rig wont catch fish and a weak rig will lose fish, remember this! Big fish need strong terminal tackle. Below a pic of a 45lb’er caught on a pulley rig by my pal Nicky Robson, 100lb breaking strain swivels, 80lb mono throughout and no crimps. Crimps!, I hate them. 5/ Check your local paper or sea angling website for catch reports, find out where the fish were caught and when, remember this info for the next time tides and sea conditions are similar. Do not go chasing fish that have already been caught, use your head and wait. 6/ Always have a bait supply at the ready, buy yourself a bait fridge and keep it in the shed or out house, keep your own fresh bait and look after it until conditions for cod fishing look ideal and use it then. Back up frozen baits of bluey, mackerel, black lug and squid are a good alternative to worm or crab when the weather or tides are poor for bait collecting. 7/ Fish places that are fishable…sounds obvious but too many sea anglers go out in massive storms and fish into huge breakers or swells that are just too big for their chosen venue. This endangers lives and youre unlikely to catch anyway….. it only takes one big wave and your gone. Just remember, remember no fish is worth a life. If it looks dangerous go elsewhere, you’ll probably catch more in a sheltered spot anyway. Look for areas on beaches or between rock gullies that have calmer water to fish into, this will be safer for you and it’s normally where the fish will be found, remember cod don’t like to be thrown about in huge breakers that are smashing up the shoreline. 8/ Pulley rigs are best for big cod, theyre strong and easily made. Avoid rigs that are made using crimps at all cost! Crimps equal weak points, don’t use them unless your after small fish. Cod have big mouths, use big hooks, even small codling can swallow a 6/0 hook with ease. 9/ Low water marks often fish best on the first hour of the flooding tide, beaches are generally best on the flood tide to high water. On beaches look out for darker calmer water between the breakers that give away the presence of deeper holes, this is where youll likely find fish. 10/ Support your local tackle shop and buy what you need for each session from them. This actually saves you money in the long run because your not holding onto thousands of hooks and miles of line that will ultimately rust away or degrade before use. Tackle For the beach use lighter tackle and lines for further casting distance. Always use a shockleader tied to your mainline, when using a 4 ounce weight, use a 40lb shockleader, 5 ounce a 50lb shockleader, 6 ounce a 60lb shockleader, etc…as a rule of thumb up your shockleaders strength by 10lb per ounce of weight! Rods n reels I use a penn 525 and century tip tornado designed for beach work, but any beachcasting reel capable of holding up to 300 yds of 15lb mono Yellow mainline is an excellent choice when fishing during darkness simply because you can see it easily and keep your line tight. Everyone has their own choice of in hi viz yellow is a great line for the beach. For tackle hungry rock marks where there’s no need to cast far I use a penn 535 reel loaded with 40lb mono, there’s no real need for a heavy shock leader when casting short distances. Rods need to be powerful, look for purpose built rock rods made by century, daiwa or zziplex. I use a reelsport blue thunder which is a custom built century rod that’s made by a local tackle shop. rock fishing. Load your reel up with this and you’ll have very few problems. Rigs I only use pulley rigs when after winter cod simply because of their strength. I’m not really interested in catching loads of small fish, it’s the big fish that I’m after and once hooked on a well built pulley rig I rarely lose them. I’ve had shore caught cod to 49lb to prove this fact. Inferior rigs will lose you fish if you don’t know how well your rig was built, then build your own and have confidence in it! Take a look at this video by Alan Yates who describes how and why pulley rigs Items you need to make a simple pulley rig. Three 80lb two way swivels Two beads 60 to 80lb monofilament line A link to your lead Silicon hook tubing for your upper hook. Two Sakuma manta extra hooks, one 2/0 the other 3/0. Hook choice and size is yours really but this would be my minimum size and I’d even use a 4/0, 8/0 combination when using big fish baits for large cod. I make my pulley rigs out of two slightly different lengths of mono, the first at 80cm to my weight and a shorter length to my hook at 70cm. Notice there’s no clip to streamline my pulley rig on this set up, the reason being that I use the new outcast pulley rig clip when casting at range. Short lobs are fine without any kind of streamlining at all. The outcast bait clip below. If youd like any outcast bait clips just let me know and I’ll put you in touch with my pal Gary who makes them for a living. Once youve tried the outcast clip youll be hooked to. A great idea that allows you to cast a pulley rig off the ground without the hook coming off the clip but which releases the hook on impact with the water. When fishing into heavy kelp from the rocks where short lobs are required you can use the set up below just above your weight, simply tie a weak length of mono to your weight from the lead link and hang your weight on the gemini genie rig link at the bottom. The lead will release on impact with the water and if snagged allow you to retrieve rig and fish. It must be stressed however that this tip should only be used when short casts are required and other anglers arent close by. Well that’s it for winter cod fishing, be sure to read my tips for summer cod fishing to. Tight Lines and catch a beasty!
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:16:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015