Kayaking Angler: Cod O’Clock…26/11/2013

Cod O’Clock…26/11/2013 So James is wondering if anyone’s going out on the morrow. Well I am, maybe one or two more, so I let him know along where and when. Looks like three days of good forecasts though this is the worst as there’s still residual swell. And what? Swell’s fun. The only downside is the time of low water…I’m going to need to get up early. I don’t want to. Two nights off, this is the first and I’m going to have to cut it short. Oh well. I’m hungry. So, up at half six, out of the house an hour later as it starts getting light and I’m on track for a 7:30 meet up despite the roadworks at the end of my road that have been ongoing for weeks now. Well avoided…not that it does any good whatsoever as the bridge is stuck in the up position and I have to divert through the only other crossing. Which is jammed up from Kirkley. Which is gridlocked from trains crossing. Which is just about typical. I call James. He’s just arrived. So I’m half an hour late, it’s taken me forty minutes to travel three and a half miles. I should have paddled. We wander down to the beach and get set to launch. Nice dumping waves…I give James a quick lesson on when to go and then we get his Prowler in as the set goes through and the smaller stuff comes in; he hops on and I give him a shove and then a rogue comes through…oops! No matter, up and over and with the way clear I go.

Out we go. North and east and out a bit, no gps, no sounder, looks okay over there…

anchors down …tide still running, swells between 2 and 4 foot, cod nosing about…well James, shall we dance?

Two rods, two pennels…two worms and a ring of squid and down we go…and I sit. And I wait. And I wonder why the whiting aren’t about. My first bite takes a whole half hour to come; the tide has slowed a bit and I strike; what? There’s a good weight here, but it’s a thrasher, big whiting? freak bass? Of course not.

Number one, 47cm.

James is fine, swells not bothering him, then he gets a good whiting.

I settle down again. Another half hour passes biteless. Then the second bite.

This is going alright. 49cm. I know Brian’s out but no answer on the vhf – he’s a way away – so I call up on the mobile to let him know there are a few cod about up here in case nothing shows south and out. He asks where I am, I turn my head and my phone cuts out. As my rod starts to jump again. Bite three, fish three. 50cm this time. In it comes and I cut the right-side gill rakers and let it bleed out in the footwells to whiten and sweeten the flesh.

I make a new friend.

I chuck him some squid. I string the cod next, using my rod leash through the gills and out through the mouth, a good wash to free the clots and then back into the footwells. Then slack comes and I start gutting, string them again and wash them out; no blood, no worm, no mess at home bar head and frame. My gull mate is happy.

We spin around as the flood begins, then James starts making a racket, he’s got past the whiting and dab and the codling have finally started to show where he is; he’s in and like all three of mine his fish is really fighting, all the way up. This is his first kayak cod.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6xqV300lDQ[/video] Then he gets another, up it comes, right on the surface and the rig comes apart on him; gone. Then a missed bite. Me? I’m sitting silent..then follow him with two missed bites. So there appear to be a few fish around. I was rather hoping they’d be a bit bigger so I could use the word spragg, a term I like but never use because nobody else does but seeing as how Brian did I figured somebody would know what I was banging on about. I’ll make use of it in a few weeks instead with luck. Yes, a few fish around…and we’re fishing right by a longline too. Blue Eagle 2 came up behind us to work the line previously laid. No idea how many they had caught but they were about most of the time we were, not that they gave us any problems, passing nice and slow.

The tide, once it picked up, put a stop to anymore bites so we reeled in, span around and hauled anchor.

Nice swells running through still, but no bother at all and we headed in.

Hmm. Beach anglers everywhere and some rather large lumps of water hitting the beach. I had to wait for a while to get he right moment, I’m not getting wet to an audience thanks! easy landing, call James in and he’s ashore safe and sound too and then it’s back up to the cars and home.