Praise Cod!...18/10/2013

Praise Cod!...18/10/2013 Freezer is completely choked. Apart from buying 20kg of meat, having a winter stash of summer fish and a load of beans chopped and frozen down I had the remnants of 2200 frozen black lug to look after for the time being. And 13kg of unwashed squid defrosting ready for rebagging in smaller amounts. Now, I should have had 300 worm less by rights, having intended to take them over to Ian on Friday when I was going to Norwich with an old friend for the day. This was why they were delivered Thursday and why I’d taken Thursday night off as holiday for they were getting back from holiday on Thursday night and heading back home on Saturday morning. That was how it was supposed to work. Except we were both a day out…and when I awoke after my shift I had to rush around and then shoot out with the worms not yet delivered. The relevance of all this was I didn’t launch in the morning which was surprisingly fishable despite the forecast. Also, I struggled to convince myself I wanted to go again to Norwich and on to Lenwade for a minnow and Fakenham for a trout. I was still trying to decide things when Ian sent a text to say he could make it on Saturday to collect after shooting and what a relief that was as I was about to put my shoes on and start driving. This meant that Si could be contacted about going codding as I’d cancelled on him the day before and this was our window. It also meant I could make lunch for my wife on her day off and generally suck up to her. Therefore, after lunch I was free to go with the last of my old worm, some of my new and some brand new loligo squid. Traffic delayed me of course and I rushed getting stuff together while Si was trolleying down to the beach. This was to be my last session in the Scupper for a while as I was going to be field testing a Jackson kayaks Cuda 14 for the rest of the year. Oh, and it was launch 100 for the year too. Better make it worthwhile then! It was good to be going out with Si again, been a while, and good to hit the century doing my standard style of fishing – anchored and with baits down at Corton. The sea looked most pleasant, flat and coloured with far less wind than predicted. It should have been blowing hard for a few hours now but no, it wasn’t. A couple of boats were out but none where we wanted to be – slightly north and further out than usual, not massively so but back on the cod grounds rather than the smoothie and ray mark I favour. Of course I didn’t bother with sounder or GPS as I knew roughly where I wanted to be by sight. Things, of course, would be a challenge as I had lost my lucky hat and could only rely on remnants seeped into my skin. Out we went with stuff going wrong from the start. My just-serviced reels were 50:50. One was working, one was not. I stopped level with Si with less warp than needed and it started to skip; I paid out more and managed to wrap my hooklength and bait around the anchor reel – cut off and start again, having cut it off the other reel and retied already as I discovered it after baiting up. I was taking plenty of water through the scuppers, I knew I shouldn’t have eaten so many carbs lately but I just had to have a cheese and marmite toastie or three and had been and bought a new machine. As an aside, why can’t somebody bring out a sandwich maker that fits sliced bread properly and has a drip tray around the toastie part that would avoid all the cheese oozing out the back and into the bit that is so difficult to clean? And deeper wells. And a better seal. And a higher temperature so they crisp up better? There’s no reason for junk food to suck. I then snapped off a RAM ball, one that was already playing up and needing replacement – so, one rod and one holder. No matter, I cast out and sat back to wait. We’d launched an hour before we normally would have, on a big tide, so there was a lot of water running through on the ebb. I wasn’t convinced I was holding bottom. Bait was stale lug – some I’d left in the sun to stink it up for flatties and not used – and unwashed loligo squid cut into 2cm rings, freshly bought from Coles in a 13kg block for £37.50. I felt cheated as there were a couple of smelt in there. Si was behind me and we sat back and waited. We could shout to each other but it would have been more pleasant to chat. He was getting bites and whiting and I was not. It seemed he was just uptide from a hole or ridge or some other attractor. It took maybe forty minutes before my first bite, after replacing my hook length with a longer one, 3ft instead of 2 and with that much water it felt like a good one, that and the bite indicated a cod…could it be? No. It was a dogfish, good, another for the WSF October species hunt. Si was still pulling whiting; I had my first at last twenty minutes or so later. After I’d stuck my second rod out having sorted the reel – I’d overtightened the cast control so the cam was out of alignment, my own fault. Worked beautifully after that. But where was Mr Cod? We’d had 23 between 3 of us a few days before on Lead Us hereabouts, right through the tide and now I wanted some from the yak…bang bang. Missed. Definitely a cod. Bang bang. Again, they were there. Again, missed. Bang bang. On! YES! That was a cod, for sure. Head banging, pulling hard, mouth open against the flow, rod bent over and up came 45cm of North Sea dinner! My dinner you understand, not his dinner which consisted of the usual crab and shrimp. I gutted and gilled it straight away and let it bleed out, hanging it over the side on a line so the sea could flush it. Better flavour, whiter flesh. Si was still hauling whiting; I was on number two when he had his ninth. It was a good one though, went a pound and a quarter the following day when I remembered to weigh it, lovely plump fish. I was still missing bites though and the wind was picking up along with the sea and the sky was looking greyer. Number two came, 44cm. I missed a walloping bite too. And a load more – I must have missed a good ten cod hits, they were playing me for an idiot. Back to 2/0’s next time, they seem to penetrate better than the 4/0’s and streamline the bait more The tide eased right down but the wind was still holding us in position. Low tide was long past and slack was around the corner but we hadn’t much more than forty minutes of light left so decided to call it a day. One last fish on each rod then. Left rod was a dog, so that was two of them and four whiting, could I get cod number three on the last bait in the water – I was on fresh lug now… Yes I could! 43cm this time and visually there was little comparison, it looked smaller in the body. Smaller head too. Strange that. Time to haul anchor into the swell and wind. We paddled in, a nice, bumpy ride. Lovely! Past the two beach anglers and in, landing smoothly on the shore at the bottom of Tramp’s Alley. As I was about to see the back of my Scupper I figured one last photo of it was in order… Postscript. Smaller cod went home with Si along with some of his whiting and his dab. Larger two were filleted on Saturday and eaten for Sunday lunch by myself, wife and friend with the last fillet being served up for Ian when he arrived to pick up his worms. Lovely, firm white flakes, great flavour; it pays to gut, bleed and wash straight away.