In the Lap of the Cods…12/11/12

I could smell them coming, from the east, carried on the winds. Few in recent times have seen these cods, many disbelieve but where there is faith there is hope. And where there is hope there is cod. Mind you, I’d have to get through the whiting first but that’s no bother, I enjoy the constant rattles and the taste that results. It was a calm sea, a mild day and only the lightest of breezes and with a couple of hours before low water I figured on three hours of fishing the optimum end of the ebb. So there I was, on the beach at Hopton looking out at a dinghy anchored on my intended spot, one I’d scanned but only fished once; no matter, I chose another spot, further north in line with my usual mark and further offshore. I dropped anchor and settled down. Bites from the off, good bites too that resulted in hook-ups. I was landing fish at a steady rate. I could hear the radio chatter on 8 and the charter to my south was also on the whiting but had seen no cod as yet, another about to join him and drop anchor. My first fish went back down as a livebait, liphooked on a 6/0. The second went back, the third fooled me into thinking cod…it was a good fish but no, still a whiting. But then the tide started to ease and the whiting disappeared. It was time, perhaps, to make the best baits up and leave them to tempt their larger kin. Tempt their kin it did. A 4/0 pennel with black lug and a whole unwashed squid side-hooked did the business as the rod thumped towards the ending of a telephone conversation. Poor Si, stuck inland, at work, as I strike into a codling, my first of the season. Heavier than its weight I thought I had a three-pounder but no, it was probably half that but a good few centimetres in-size. Times are hard! Home it came. There wasn’t a great deal more going on over the next half-hour but then, a tremble that I kept ignoring finally yielded a skinny dab of maybe 6 inches, darker and spottier than normal, on a 4/0 pennel and a huge bait. It didn’t look at all dab-like, more like a baby halibut I decided but sadly the rough skin and curved lateral line denied me that as a species. On slack I up-anchored and headed ashore, landing a few minutes behind the dinghy. The pair of them had managed only whiting. As for the charters? The first had gone in an hour before slack with only whiting and the one dropping anchor had only had the one. I reckon I did alright.