Myself, Ben & Matty arranged to have an evening’s fishing at one our favourite Cod marks, wind forecast to be 10mph south easterly which isn’t ideal but not to bad. We arrived to find the sea to be a little choppy but we could easily fish in those conditions so loaded up the kayaks and made the 25min paddle out to the cod grounds.

Fishing was a bit slow at first but one or two Codling had made an appearance, Matty bagged the first few fish with Codling to 3.5lb then Ben followed with a 4lber. The usual tactics were employed, two homemade hokkis on a 18lb mono trace to a 4oz jighead. I finally managed a land a few fish to 3lb plus a few smaller fish which were returned.

It wasn’t until late on in the session when I hooked into something that felt a bit bigger, it put up a good fight as most Cod do. After fighting the fish up the 60ft+ of water it surfaced so quickly netted to avoid loosing the fish to a slipped hook (it happens!). Once landed I couldn’t believe how fat it’s belly was! It’s stomach must of been full but still couldn’t say no to my jig

The fat Cod plus a few Codling.

Shortly after landing the fat Cod I got snagged up, I quickly pulled on the rod in an attempt to pull out of the snag but all I heard was a loud snapping noise and the butt section of my rod hit me in the face! I somehow managed to snap my rod in two places! So that was that, time to head in but at least I landed a few decent fish so it wasn’t all bad. On returning home I weighed the largest fish and it went to 7lb 12oz so probably 8lb+ when landed earlier, not bad really.

The next day when it came to filleting my catch I was very interested to find out what the fat Cod’s stomach contained, sad I know but it had to be done. Well when I cut open the stomach I couldn’t believe what was in there, I was expecting several fish, crabs, etc but instead it was a full 1ft+ long Octopus!! That is one greedy Cod!!

Mmmmmmm, finger licking good!

We had some nice weather forecast for the bank holiday, nice sunny days but more importantly nice calm seas. You have to go for whatever opportunities come along when kayak fishing as you never know when the next calm sea will be, 2008 was a terrible year as there seemed to be 3-4 week periods where you just couldn’t get out due to to poor conditions. The sea on both Sunday and Monday morning was like a mill pond, no wind at all so perfect for paddling which is a good job as we were fishing 2 miles out!

After meeting Matty and Mack at the car park we setup, launched and paddled out to the Cod grounds which are 1.5-2miles out in 65-95ft of water. By the time we reached the cod grounds a small breeze was following the tide so I setup the drogue to slow my drift down, if you drift to fast you will end up snagging up on the rough ground and loose a lot of gear. The terminal tackle of choice is a 4oz jighead with a 6″ curltail and two homemade hokkis above on a 2.5ft 20lb mono trace. The main line is Dynafil Braid I use braid so I can feel exactly what ground I’m fishing over, whether it be rock, sand, etc. The mono link acts a bit like a weaklink, when you snag up you will loose the jig/hokkis but not any mainline so all you have to do is clip on a new rig and away you go.

Making the 2 mile paddle out

The first drift produced a Cod for Matty of about 3-4lb but that was it, we decided to paddle back up tide for another drift but in slightly deeper water. It soon became apparent this was the right choice as we were all into fish, we were all landing Cod up to 4lb. Ok 4lb isn’t a huge fish but they provide excellent sport on the relative light gear plus you can get some decent fillets off a 4lb+ Cod. We made a few more drifts, Mack and myself landed 5 Cod each where as Matty landed 7. Overall we had a very enjoyable morning’s fishing, I headed back early to watch Formula One happy with my catch.

Looking back to shore

Monday morning was yet another fine day, clear blue sky with a nice flat calm sea. Today I was fishing with Ben and Kev, Ben is quite new to this kayak fishing marlarky so was looking forward at the chance of catching is second ever Cod. We met up at the car park at 7am and was on the water by 7.30am ready for the same 2 mile paddle out. I found the ground I thought would produce some fish where as Kev and Ben paddled a further 500yds to the 100ft+ of water and a bit more tide flow. The first drift didn’t produce anything so I headed 100yds further out and setup for a better drift. First drift aloing and I landed a 3-4lb Cod so I was happy with that, paddled back up to see if I can drift over the shoal again and prmoptly landed another cod of the same size. Paddled back again to try and repeat my luck but the shoal had moved off so no such luck this time.

A dinky Whiting taken on a homemade hokki

The next drift produced quite a few more sensitive knocks which turned out to be Whiting hitting the hokkis, I landed one but he was only a wee fella so slipped him back straight away. The remainder of the session was patchy at best, a few more Cod were had but they were well spaced out. Since we all had a few Cod we decided to call it a day and head back in, unfortunately we made that decision 30 mins to late as a strong off shore wind came out of no where. Offshore winds make the paddle back very hard going but we made it back eventually.

We now have plenty of Cod fillets in the freezer so it looks like it’s fish n chips for dinner for the next two weeks!!