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Boat Fishing For Cod by Dave Kyte

Cod have been described as the "dustbins of the sea" owing to their habit of hoovering up in their great mouth anything that looks like food, and often things that don't. I mean who would mistake a plastic cup or a nice stone for a succulent squid or a parcel of lugworm. But nevertheless when it actually comes to putting a big one on the deck they can be surprisingly finicky at times, plucking at the bait for what seems like an eternity before making it's mind up. The smaller fish are not so much of a problem but at the end of the day what most anglers want is a 20 lbs + fish and to find them the first thing is to locate them.

Favourite areas include shelves, banks and drop-offs where they can shelter from the worst of the tide and have their food carried to them, reefs that hold and abundance of small fish, wrecks of any sort, rough ground and headlands where the fish get concentrated as they move with the tide. Although there are always exceptions to the rule; my biggest cod at 29 lbs 12 ozs was taken using a hokeye fished over a wreck, aimed at catching pout to use as conger bait; in general big cod take big baits and I mean "big". One of my favourite cod baits is cuttlefish, not the baby cuttles that you see in the tackle shops but the fully grown 3 pounders that are landed commercially for the foreign markets.

Split lengthways down the middle and mounted on a 12 or 14/0 bronze mustad o'shaunessey it is a brilliant bait for those lunkers, fished with a 15' trace hard on the bottom .Attractors such as Booby Beads, large spoons or red or orange muppets can also be added to the trace for that something extra. I used to use a pennel rig to mount this bait but one-day I found my self attached to a 40 lbs conger in more ways than one. It had taken the bottom hook and as we swung it into the boat it decided this was not the place to be and started thrashing around, resulting in the top hook of the pennel driving itself into my calf. I never used another pennel after that!

The bite when it comes starts with a few tentative pulls as the cod tests the bait then they gradually get stronger and longer and at this stage it sometimes pays to feed out a bit of line to encourage the fish to take a firmer hold of the bait. When you feel the hook is properly in the cods mouth then a firm lift into it will set the hook. I use Dynon braids for most of my fishing and you need to be aware that if you use this type of line that the bites will appear much more aggressive than with mono, so you need to sit on your hands and let the bite develop.

Striking too early is a sure recipe for a lost fish. Also, because braid is so sensitive, you can trot your bait down the tide until you find the edge of a bank or get it right up to the wreck where the fish are lurking. These super sized baits are really only suitable for downtiding and can include large pout flappers or livebait as well as a serving of 10 or 15 calamari. Don't skimp on bait- If you put a pound of bait on your hook then you are on the way to landing that lunker so let me know when you get one. DK