More Cod - 15th January 2012

I am a week late posting up this report from last weekend but was very busy all week. Last Sunday I headed back to Youghal for some more cod fishing. There was a strong cold southeasterly wind blowing which limited the locations that could be fished in comfort. I made my way to a mark that was relatively sheltered and set up just before dusk. I set up two rods with 4/0 pennel pulleys both baited with fresh peeler crab.

It wasn't until after dark that I had the first bite, a small codling that I released. Shortly after that I caught a slightly larger one, another I would have thrown back had it not been so deeply hooked. This was followed by a very small flounder which managed to get its mouth around a 4/0 hook!!!

As I was placing the rod back on the stand after recasting I spotted a small twitch on the other rod, this was another small codling.

The bites eased off for a while after that. The current was increasing at this stage and bringing a lot of weed with it. I could see one of the rods gradually bending over under the weight of the accumulated debris so tried to pull it in. There must have been about 20 lb of weed on the end, eventually I got it close enough to grab the shockleader and hauled it in the remainder of the way by hand. There was indeed a huge amount on seaweed which had built on around the clip at the end of the leader and extended down to the bait and weight. It took about 15 minutes to clean it all off and it was only towards the end that I discovered a small codling had been hooked. It wasn't big enough to keep but unfortunately it was fairly lifeless at this stage!

A little later I had a bigger codling of about 2 lbs, followed a few minutes later by another slight larger fish. Then I had a very strong bite, I almost had it in but close to the shore I could feel the cod digging itself into the steep side of the channel, as I tried to pull it free the fish came off. I lost a couple more after that. I then decided to use smaller bait, half a crab instead of a full crab so as to insure more of the hook was exposed. A few minutes later there was a strong tug on the rod, this time the fish was well hooked and after a few minutes I landed a 4 lb cod, the best fish of the night.

A little later I had another codling of about 2 lbs.

I stayed on a little longer, had one more small codling which I released. So not a bad session, 10 cod upto 4 lbs and 1 flounder.

A some stage of the night I stepped on the edge of a loose rock, it flipped over and whacked the top of my foot. I didn't think much of it at the time, it was only the next day that it became sore and got progressively more painful that night. I had to visit the doctor who sorted it out with some anti-inflamatory painkillers but unfortunately that put me out of action for the rest of the week. I had intended to have a few beach sessions although my foot seems fine now so I should get in some fishing over the coming week.