I have my computer to thank for handing me a new slant on cod fishing from the shore after it reunited me with an old fishing pall.
I am not afraid of computers, but because of the increased amount of work I do on a computer I had always shied away from using it for social networking other than getting my Daiwa seat box online. But, like many, I finally gave in to signing up for a facebook account, and that is how I managed to once again hook up with my old pall J, who I had not seen for about 10 years. Both J and I are from Cambridge, and probably started our fishing lives in the same way, fishing local rivers.
The last time I saw J he was working as a chef in Cambridge so I was totally surprised to find out he now lived in Cromer – just a few miles up the road from me in Great Yarmouth. He sea fishes all the time and, like me, also works in the sea fishing industry running one of the greatest uk fishing tackle shops - Angling Direct fishing tackle wholesale superstore.
As soon as we had reacquainted ourselves, we were both talking about fishing and organised a trip to meet up somewhere around Norfolk to target the early run of winter cod. The cod start to show in late September and the volume of fish increases over each following set of spring tides. The cod, or rather codling, are in the 1lb to 3lb class with the odd better -sized fish here and there – the bigger cod usually arrive after Christmas. It was this early run of codling we wanted to target and for cod fishing marks in the channel, it’s really hard to beat the area around Norfolk's Beaches.
When you are fishing with other anglers, and doing features like this, you have a duty to protect some information, such as location or type of discount fishing tackle in particular the precise mark otherwise you will rapidly lose friends. But J was happy to reveal the exact location of where we fished, so that everyone can enjoy this mark. Most anglers flock to Cromer beach because it fishes well, but J prefers somewhere slightly different – an area nearby known to local anglers as the rocks.
Instead of following the crowd towards the town centre car park, park your car in the town centre on the main road and then walk down towards the water, past the uk fishing tackle shop. There you will find some of the best codling fishing in Norfolk. As for specific marks, the whole of the Cromer coast fishes well.
J prefers to pick the points that jut out from the bends in the beach because he knows that the ground beneath the water in these areas is somewhat different to the ground either side. Whereas much of the beach is shingle and sand, these points feature a lot of broken, rocky ground and this is where the cod are going to be looking for food, and one particular type at the top of their list – crab which you can also get in a little discount fishing tackle shop on the coast of Cromer. This is where we stopped to stock up our tackle Daiwa seat box and get bait for out fishing session. It's a handy little fishing tackle wholesale store with a good selection of products.
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Sea fishing tackle review, Part 3
With J working in a fishing tackle sale shop imagine my surprise when he failed to pull out masses of squid, black lug and peeler crab from his bait box. The method in his madness made perfectly good sense. J uses large crab and squid baits when he is fishing marks specifically for big cod, but when he is targeting smaller codling he reckons you just don't need them. I was sceptical but he said he would prove it because he knows his fishing tackel well. He then proceeded to thread three common lug up his hook and tipped it off with just half a peeler crab, bound on tight with bait elastic- now that is a low cost cod bait compared to the ones I have used over the years.
With an hour before sunset and the tide ebbing nicely, J got under way. His first cod was baited with the three lug and half a crab fishing tackle cocktail, as he had showed me, and on his second rod, he baited with three lug and a small piece of squid – just to prove a point. Both rods were cast onto the broken ground around the point and we sat back and waited and waited … and waited. Just as we were losing the light, J would in two washed-out but untouched baits and replaced them with fresh ones. It was at this point I started to worry that we might be on the road to drawing a blank, but he assured me that would not happen.
Just as the sum was dipping beneath the horizon, J first rod, the one baited with lug and half a peeler crab, registered a small bite and he started to look for his daiwa rubba keepnets. Lifting the rod from the rest, he struck, smiled and announced it was definitely a codling as he walked towards the water's edge while retrieving, not letting the line fall slack at any time. He was right, the first codling of our fishing session has fallen to the lug and half peeler bait. J quickly baited up again and cast the rod back to the same position, just on the edge of the broken ground.
When fishing the Cromer beach you can pick up a lot of small codling, so J usually only keeps those that are deep hooked – which this one was or those over 3lb. As this one was destined for the table, J decided to gut it there and then, just to check what it had been feeding on. Now, I certainly do not advise cutting fish open for the sake of it, but if you are going to cook it, be it cod, bass or pollack, it makes sense and good water craft to gut one during your session to see what fishing tackle they are feeding on. That way, as fly fisherman would say, you can match the hatch, that is to try to bait up with what the fish are feeding on, or at least pick the nearest bait you have available.
Our first codling of the night was staffed to the gills with small crabs and a few small prawns. It certainly made a lot of sense to fish J's half peeled baits and proved he certainly known what he is talking about.
During the next hour J hauled out another five codling, all on small lug and half peeler crab baits and not one fell to the lug and squid. So our daiwa rubba keepnets were pretty full. Rochelle had noticed that J was catching and soon came over to discover what the successful bait was.
After switching to the same combination she latched onto the action by landing four prime channel cod. Nine codling in just over two hours is superb sport by any standards and shows Cromer is well above par when it comes to searching for a top winter cod mark.
With an hour before sunset and the tide ebbing nicely, J got under way. His first cod was baited with the three lug and half a crab fishing tackle cocktail, as he had showed me, and on his second rod, he baited with three lug and a small piece of squid – just to prove a point. Both rods were cast onto the broken ground around the point and we sat back and waited and waited … and waited. Just as we were losing the light, J would in two washed-out but untouched baits and replaced them with fresh ones. It was at this point I started to worry that we might be on the road to drawing a blank, but he assured me that would not happen.
Just as the sum was dipping beneath the horizon, J first rod, the one baited with lug and half a peeler crab, registered a small bite and he started to look for his daiwa rubba keepnets. Lifting the rod from the rest, he struck, smiled and announced it was definitely a codling as he walked towards the water's edge while retrieving, not letting the line fall slack at any time. He was right, the first codling of our fishing session has fallen to the lug and half peeler bait. J quickly baited up again and cast the rod back to the same position, just on the edge of the broken ground.
When fishing the Cromer beach you can pick up a lot of small codling, so J usually only keeps those that are deep hooked – which this one was or those over 3lb. As this one was destined for the table, J decided to gut it there and then, just to check what it had been feeding on. Now, I certainly do not advise cutting fish open for the sake of it, but if you are going to cook it, be it cod, bass or pollack, it makes sense and good water craft to gut one during your session to see what fishing tackle they are feeding on. That way, as fly fisherman would say, you can match the hatch, that is to try to bait up with what the fish are feeding on, or at least pick the nearest bait you have available.
Our first codling of the night was staffed to the gills with small crabs and a few small prawns. It certainly made a lot of sense to fish J's half peeled baits and proved he certainly known what he is talking about.
During the next hour J hauled out another five codling, all on small lug and half peeler crab baits and not one fell to the lug and squid. So our daiwa rubba keepnets were pretty full. Rochelle had noticed that J was catching and soon came over to discover what the successful bait was.
After switching to the same combination she latched onto the action by landing four prime channel cod. Nine codling in just over two hours is superb sport by any standards and shows Cromer is well above par when it comes to searching for a top winter cod mark.
Sea fishing tackle review, Part 2
Another feature of these points of Cromer coast is that they disturb the tide. If you stop for a couple of seconds and watch the water from the beach path, you will clearly notice the tides change in movement around these points and when looking for fish, even the slightest change in tidal movement is always a good place to start, this is also where you will need a good bite alarm, such as fox bite alarm. The simplest way to describe this is to imagine a beach is like a motorway flat and featureless, and then you come across a service station. Basically the slightest feature like these points, with their differing sea bed and tidal movements, are like service stations for cod travelling up the channel. The only difference is, service stations do not serve crab.
After the slog along the beach, it was starting to get cold. Mind you, if you wear good sea fishing clothing such as diem clothing it is not too bad. J finally picked his mark for the evening session and his fishing partner Rochelle started to set up her sea fishing equipment about 100 yards to the right of J. I find the best time to pick an angler's brains is while they are rigging up, so a J set up his sea fishing equipment I quizzed him, and there is what I found out regarding guru fishing tackle and fishing techniques. There isn’t any specific tide when the water in Cromer fishes best, basically it fishes on any tide as long as the tides are not huge springs which make it difficult to hold bottom due to powerful currents. J prefers the out-going tide although he admits he has had great days fishing this area on the flood and incoming tide too. As J set up his guru fishing tackle I couldn't help notice he was also using match rods from Daiwa. Usually I associate the Cromer beach with heavier, rough-ground rods, but when I asked J why he was using them it all made perfect good sense.
The Daiwa sea fishing rods happily cast from 150 to 200 gram of lead, which is what I use, but the main reason is that their softer tips bend and lean into the tide better. If you use stiffer-tipped rough-ground rods, on this type of broken ground, said J, the tide pull is going to keep bumping the lead out. For a bite alarm he prefers to use a fox bite alarms. His chosen reel to pair with the Daiwa sea rod is a Daiwa Saltist 20H, loaded with 15ib clear Berkley Big Game and a 60lb shockleader because the reel has cranking power and the line is second to none for rough-ground fishing.
On the business end of his fishing tackle, J was wearing diem clothing for sea fishing and using a rig that I have not used before – a pulley dropper rig. His theory is that in the strong tides of the channel, the rig that offers the best bait presentation by far would be a simple running leger. But, as we all know, you cannot cast a running leger long distance because it is not aerodynamic and, due to this, most of the bait flies off mid-air. So the pulley dropper basically gives him a running leger that can be blasted to the orizon with no worries of damage to his baits. For the snood he uses 30lb clear Amnesia and two 2/0 or 3/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hooks, Pennel rigged.
After the slog along the beach, it was starting to get cold. Mind you, if you wear good sea fishing clothing such as diem clothing it is not too bad. J finally picked his mark for the evening session and his fishing partner Rochelle started to set up her sea fishing equipment about 100 yards to the right of J. I find the best time to pick an angler's brains is while they are rigging up, so a J set up his sea fishing equipment I quizzed him, and there is what I found out regarding guru fishing tackle and fishing techniques. There isn’t any specific tide when the water in Cromer fishes best, basically it fishes on any tide as long as the tides are not huge springs which make it difficult to hold bottom due to powerful currents. J prefers the out-going tide although he admits he has had great days fishing this area on the flood and incoming tide too. As J set up his guru fishing tackle I couldn't help notice he was also using match rods from Daiwa. Usually I associate the Cromer beach with heavier, rough-ground rods, but when I asked J why he was using them it all made perfect good sense.
The Daiwa sea fishing rods happily cast from 150 to 200 gram of lead, which is what I use, but the main reason is that their softer tips bend and lean into the tide better. If you use stiffer-tipped rough-ground rods, on this type of broken ground, said J, the tide pull is going to keep bumping the lead out. For a bite alarm he prefers to use a fox bite alarms. His chosen reel to pair with the Daiwa sea rod is a Daiwa Saltist 20H, loaded with 15ib clear Berkley Big Game and a 60lb shockleader because the reel has cranking power and the line is second to none for rough-ground fishing.
On the business end of his fishing tackle, J was wearing diem clothing for sea fishing and using a rig that I have not used before – a pulley dropper rig. His theory is that in the strong tides of the channel, the rig that offers the best bait presentation by far would be a simple running leger. But, as we all know, you cannot cast a running leger long distance because it is not aerodynamic and, due to this, most of the bait flies off mid-air. So the pulley dropper basically gives him a running leger that can be blasted to the orizon with no worries of damage to his baits. For the snood he uses 30lb clear Amnesia and two 2/0 or 3/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hooks, Pennel rigged.
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