Eleda 20th July

[oldessox]

I wanted to fish yesterday afternoon and came home from work early only for the heavens to open and wash away my plans , so I decided to fish today instead .
Set off about 7.00 am and headed for a wreck east of the island which produced some good sport last year but so far this year has been devoid of fish....... same old story today , completely barren.
My "special place" was next stop , only to find it's not very special anymore , I was pirking and had a bumped off fish but the place seemed dead , I have stopped using bait because I don't like to take ling but I thought I'd give it a go here , I'd half filled a bucket with mackerel on the way down and put a strip on each hook of a two hook rig ....... straight into the ling.
I caught three , 2 8lbers and a tiddler in quick succession , next drop I thought I was into a real biggy but it turned out to be a 6lb ling on the top hook and a 5lb cod on the bottom one.
I headed further out and found a wreck that looked promising and dropped a pirk down and was rewarded instantly with a nice 5lb cod , this wreck produced fish after fish all in the 5-8lb range ...... as long as I dropped in the exact spot on the wreck , too far to the east and I got snagged on netting , too far to the west and the pirk went through the drift untouched .
After catching what seemed like a million cod (probably about 30 lol) the wind picked up a bit and made the drift noticeably faster ....... just right for a shad I thought , down went a shad on the next drift and up came another 8lb cod , and another , and another ....... as long as I hit the right track on the drift.
The weather was pants to say the least , and my shiny newly washed boat now looks like the inside of a fishmongers dustbin again ....... but I'm not complaining
Still can't find a double though , maybe a change of direction or distance is called for , judging by other reports the further south the bigger the fish ?
Sorry no pics , it was too wet and horrible to take them , next time I'll catch a bigun and take a pic
Ray

[Graham B]

Well done Ray, I haven't been back at work a week and the lack of fishing is killing me already! Hopefuly I will get a bit of fishing done when we anchor at Darwin!

Graham

[wildcard]

Sounds like a good day out though Ray.
The drifts have been very changeable lately which dosent help.

To weed out the smaller cod we have been using the 5" shads with great effect. The white and electric chicken coloured calcutta ones are good Calcutta UK - Lures - Flashfoil Swim Shads

The daiwa silver and red ones are the current big cod killers though (MSSL-12RT)

I reckon the new storm ones are useless for wreck fishing. I think at 43g they dont swim as well as the 28g Daiwas and tangle round the line too much. They are ok if you lower them slowly though, so may work on rough ground or with a 12 inch boom and slightly heavier flurocarbon.


Alan

[oldessox]

Any cod or ling in the sea at Darwin Graham Jammy sod

Alan ,Yes , it was a mint day , I was using a big shad that I can only describe as looking like Fred Flitstones vest like a mustard colour with black blotches on it , I've got some BIG bulldawg lures for pike fishing , I might give them a swim one day It's generally accepted in pike fishing that the bigger the lure the better chance of taking a bigger fish , though obviously lots of big pike are taken on small lures and visa versa. I'm beginning to think cod might be the same.
One of the 8lb fish had a partly digested fish in it's stomach that must have weighed 1lb when it ate it and one of the ling coughed up a whole squid about a foot long which covered me and my boat in black ink.
I'm still very novice at this boat angling , cod fishing lark , but thanks mostly to the likes of yourself and Norman I'm definitely improving.

Ray

[The Great Wallsendo]

Nice one Ray...gave the shads a "fair crack" last trip and now have them ticked off as an extra string to the bow after they managed to eke out the first Cod of the session - a nice scrapping 6lb'er

..couple of other "new tricks" on the horizon too...watch this space

[wildcard]

I'm still very novice at this boat angling , cod fishing lark , but thanks mostly to the likes of yourself and Norman I'm definitely improving.

Ray

I started boat fishing over 40 years ago as a novice, and I will die a novice. There is simply too much to learn in one life time. I could write a book on what I dont know

Don't know if this has been posted before, but it makes interesting viewing. This is why we are not afraid to use big shads;
YouTube - Fish eat fish

I would think the cod in the vid is less than 15lb, and the coalie around 2lb.

Alan

[The Jester]

Good catch ray , some really nice fish getting caught at the moment. Did you have the lucky hat on......Reckon you must have....

[oldessox]

Sea boat angling certainly isn't the easiest form of the sport to master , when I started fishing as a kid I'd go to the local pond 12 hours a day , day after day after day in the school holidays , when I started fly fishing later in life I'd be on the river or lake every night of the week working out what the fish were doing , what the insect life were doing and how the conditions affected them ........ can't do that with boat fishing , it can be weeks in between sessions due to the weather , there are a thousand different combinations of tide , wind and sea state , there are vast areas of sea for the fish to move around in , the permutations are endless. I can see why a lifetime isn't long enough to work it all out ........ but it won't stop me trying and if I can steal a march by picking the brains of the more experienced on here I'm quite happy to do it
I know I'll never master the art of any kind of fishing , that's one of the reasons I love it so much , I love the challenge. Coarse fishing and trout fishing has become a sterile affair with far too much interference from man , man made lakes , stocked fish , pegged out lakes , footpaths for access , manicured river banks ...... it's not the same as it was when we used to battle our way through brambles and bushes to get to the edge of a lake or river and fish for wild fish that had never seen an angler before.
I never really fancied sea angling , there didn't seem to be any skill or challenge in it looking from the outside , now I see it as the last untamed frontier , the last wilderness where man has had very little impact on the environment , apart from possible over fishing commercially ?
I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge of learning the art of catching cod


The lucky hat was on the boat , the boat was home for a spit and polish and an engine service last week , everything was removed from the boat , life jackets , flares , tools , tackle , tanks , fenders the lot ...... all except the lucky hat , it's staying on the boat no matter what ........ unless I change my boat , then it will have to be cerimoniously transferred from one to the other I guess

Ray

[Norman]

haha novice ... nee way lol ... long live the hat

cheers ray

norm

[Iva-Cod-on]

Pleased to hear you had a goodun Ray love your enthusiasm I/we all feel the same that's what makes it so special when you look upon your experience and get it right well done mate