Septic holes in cod in youghal

Hi all I've been getting a few cod recently but maybe every 3 out of 10 have these septic looking holes in their side it looks nasty anyone else get any or know what causes it

Hi all I've been getting a few cod recently but maybe every 3 out of 10 have these septic looking holes in their side it looks nasty anyone else get any or know what causes it

might be there lads Lamprey eel https://www.google.ie/#q=lamprey+eel

I think u might be right donal i had a few with small holes in them and now that u say it there the perfect size for lampray still tasted grand

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Exact same over on the east coast of Scotland. Last year the fisheries ran tests as so many were caught.

And were lampreys the cause of it

I have been getting a lot with holes as well, much more than last year. Some are circular and I reckoned they were due to lampreys alright, but a lot are more irregular and look like deep gashes. I think the cod may be getting hit by diving sea birds such as gannets.

Is this the type of hole your talking about . I caught this in youghal a couple of weeks ago

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I have been getting a lot with holes as well, much more than last year. Some are circular and I reckoned they were due to lampreys alright, but a lot are more irregular and look like deep gashes. I think the cod may be getting hit by diving sea birds such as gannets.

Not too many gannets around at this time of the year but there are plenty of cormorants in the estuary and up the river.

http://www.shoreangler.co.uk/forum/show ... ight=sores

The above link is from the Scottish East coast forum. No results given from tests yet. Most think it's from cormorants.

another few images from codling taken on the east side of youghal???
i put them back...looked a bit dodge
hopefully these "holes" are bites from attackers and these pics help someone I.D the bite...
the larger "bite" tore away a spine or two from the dorsal fin..still hanging there...defo looks like a bite
to me...

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Yes similar holes and gashes alright the last ones I got the holes were all yellow and looked like the flesh all around it was rotting and the fish itself was a lot skinnier than ones without the holes I put them back too the last thing I need is to come out in yellow holes I'm bad enough but the gashes in the fish I'm thinking are otters I've seen them swimming around there

another few images from codling taken on the east side of youghal???
i put them back...looked a bit dodge
hopefully these "holes" are bites from attackers and these pics help someone I.D the bite...
the larger "bite" tore away a spine or two from the dorsal fin..still hanging there...defo looks like a bite
to me...

I was fishing youghal a few weeks ago and mb3 caught one with the same damage as your bottom picture..very strange

same as in the comp on sat think they have a bit of a dose

Bite marks from seals, the seal population is out of control.

A mate of mine had a whiting with a lamprey hanging off it last night up the river.

ye i seen otters in youghal aswell

Plenty with the same holes came out off monkstown wall , I thought birds as well but the marks all looked fresh and wondered where they were getting pecked at with the depth of water . Didn't look like lamprey marks and not seals either . The otter bites I have witnessed on coarse fish look different too so I'm thinking comerants but not 100% on that

Could well be seals also, alot of seals around our coast at the moment. Dunmore East was full of seals recently.

Witnessed seals off mangans cove back few months back.

Last edited by TheHero on Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

But then thinking they look very similar to otter marks on river fish such as brown trout or often sea trout when they move up river.

could be sea vampires