Bristol Channel - Cod Delight

Old Smoothound · #1 11-15-2004, 09:52 AM

Hi All,

Just thought I would post on how I got on yesterday boat fishing the Bristol Channel.

High Tide was at 8.10am 13.5 metres! So we launched from Beachley (Aust) at 8.00am. Easy launch no hitches then motored down to our Cod mark (Can’t tell you where it is cos if I did, I would have to terminate you!) The morning was absolutely brilliant, hard frost, sunshine, hardly any wind, calm almost flat sea…. Glorious! Not a soul in sight!

One of my tasks as crew is to get the rods ready as we motor down to the mark, get bait into bait boxes, defrost squid, sharpen hooks check leads and gripper’s. Then when we come up onto the mark, get the anchor ready and ensure enough rope is available from the stowage locker. Talking of rope, we use 3 times depth as a guide to how much anchor rope to use. Length of rope is critical in the Channel if accidents are to be avoided especially on big tides. So beware!

So with the tide now at 13.5 metres, anchor set, we settled down to fish.

So with all 8 yes 8 rods fishing, I started to cook breakfast… 2eggs, bacon and fried bread luvvly jubbly!!

First cast first fish to my pal Shaun… COD…. 4lbs. One love as they say. 20 minutes later…. COD…..My up tide rod…. Good ‘ole rag and squid another 4lb COD. Even stevens now.
These bites were difficult to detect with the tide now on the ebb at a roaring pace, when I say roaring I mean it…. It roars passed the outboard at a tremendous pace, you have to witness it to believe it. We estimated the full height of the ebb tide to be running at 6 knots!!

My up tide tactics are now starting to pay off….. cast up towards the anchor chain…. 8 oz grip lead, running ledger rig, size 4/0 Varivas large mouth hooks pennell style, let off enough line when it has hit bottom, so that the line is almost level with the back of the boat, say 30-40 yards! Leads hold well when used like this, no other method works as well.

By 11am we have caught and released 16 COD/ Codling…. No need to be greedy we have only kept 2 each. Now it was time for a move to our other mark no more than 2 minutes away. (Just before we up anchor a tree whizzed past us on the tide, oh boy were we lucky it missed us by inches!! )

This beauty produces COD, is deep at high tide, but fishable only at low water up for 2-3 hours. So chocks away… 8 rods are again fishing. Fresh Peeler goes on one of my uptiders. After 30 minutes, my downtide rod gives the tell tale “Noddy Cod” another slightly small COD comes to the boat and is returned to come back next year in the 5-6lbs year class. My uptide rod produces a nice fish of 3 ½ lbs. Well I won’t bore you with all the details, but just to say we had a glorious day uptiding in the Channel and I will post some pictures for you to have a look at later.

We ended the day with 40 Cod/Codling most were returned to come back next year if they survive the pair trawlers, and we kept 5 each for the freezer. We won’t be going out again for some time so had to stock up!

Next time out it will be for flounder on the Taw with the Devon Mob!

wellyfish · #2 11-15-2004, 10:05 AM

nice one smoothie,glad you had a good day mate ,and cod for tea yum yum

tommy a · #3 11-15-2004, 10:08 AM

Fair flypin play Shaun thats wicked mate. Next time you will have to give me a bell and let me know - if you can reveal the marks to another boating patner - and we will follow you out mate.

Well done sounds like a very successful day and it appears to me that with the reports we are getting that cod seem to be around a whole lot more than last year.

Cheers mate.