by RockHunter » Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:21 pm
Tuesday 11th December 2012
I headed to an estuarine mark near Youghal which has been fish very well for the previous few weeks and had produced some nice cod up to 6 lbs. The tide was building towards a New Moon tide, with a 4.1 m high tide scheduled for 3.50 am. Normally I would fish this location on slacker tides but I had just obtained a dozen juice peeler crabs earlier in the evening so I was eager to give it a go. The weather had been relatively calm for the previous couple of days so weed would not be a problem although I knew the strength of the tidal current would make fishing difficult once the tidal race began.
I arrived at about 11 pm about an hour after low tide. Fortunately the shore was deserted so I could set up on my favourite mark. It was a dark night and a southeasterly wind which had picked up earlier in the day has now strengthened and producing choppy swells across the estuary. The tide was just beginning to rise. I set up two rods both with 4/0 pennel pulleys baited with crab. I cast the rod on my left out straight front of me and cast the second rod diagonally across the channel but the tidal current would soon pull them up stream to my left.
It was quite for a couple of hours which was to be expected. I know from past experience that the fish move upstream with the rising tide and can suddenly show up and then be gone an hour or two later. However, unlike bass the timing of their passage up the channel has been rather random. At about 1 am, there was a strong tug on the rod on the left. I struck and felt a decent size fish on the end. As I retrieved the downward double tugs told me it had to be a cod. It fought very strongly and I had to be careful not to let it get its nose into the side of the channel, I had lost enough fish over the years at this mark which had come off as I tried to bully them out of the weed and rocks on the channel margins. Finally I could see the leader knot appearing out of the murky water, I was nearly there, a few more turns of the reels and I could see the fish splashing about in the shallow water beneath my feet. With one more hoist of the rod I eased the fish onto the shore. It was a fine plump cod of 56 cm and a weight of 5.5 lbs.
I was just unhooking the fish when I saw the tip on the other rod bouncing. I dropped the fish, grabbed the rod and struck. I was into another cod, if felt another good fish but not as strong as the first. Still it pulled strongly as I hauled it up from the depths of the channel and it was a relief to see the shockleader emerge from the water. Soon I had the fish ashore – another plump cod of 51 cm with a weight of about 3.5 lbs.
The bites died off after that as the tidal current increased in strength. My 6 oz. gripper weights were swiftly dragged up stream requiring a retrieve and recast every 10-15 minutes. At about 2.15 am I had another bite. This was not such a big fish, although retrieving against the current gave the impression it was larger until I dragged it on to the shore. It was a 44 cm cod, with a weight of a little over 2 lbs.
I was hopeful that this was the indication of a second shoal of fish. From previous and subsequent sessions at this mark there appears to be at least two shoals moving in the channel, the first shoal tends to appear early in the rising tide whereas the second shoal can appear anytime for mid-tide to close to high tide.
About half an hour later there was a sharp tug on the rod on my left. The current had dragged the bait way up to the left so the line was running almost parallel to the shore. As I struck I could feel a very strong fish pulling on the end. I realized it was going to be difficult to safely land the fish with the amount of obstacles and snags that lay along this section of the shore. I kept the rod high, and kept the fish moving, if it got half a chance the fish would dive into the channel flank and it would be impossible to get it out. I could feel strong downward tugs as the fish fought furiously. After what felt like a long struggle I had it in close, but as the shockleader emerged I could see the knot was draped with weed, there was no way it would pass through the tip eye of the rod, so keeping the line taunt I tilted the rod back towards me grabbed the line and manually hauled the violently splashing fish out of the water. It was a fine cod, 60 cm but very stocky and weighed 6.5 lbs – a new personal best!!!
With arms aching from the struggle I decided it was now time to pack up, I had work in the morning. I made my way home content with a good session, not a big number of fish but a couple of quality cod more than compensates for the low numbers.
- Attachments
-
- 5.5 lb & 3.5 lb cod - 11th December 2012.jpg (112.91 KiB) Viewed 3665 times
-
- Cod No. 3 - 11th December 2012.jpg (79.54 KiB) Viewed 3665 times
-
- 6.5 lb cod - 11th December 2012.jpg (113.92 KiB) Viewed 3665 times
-
- Cod - 11th December 2012.jpg (145.49 KiB) Viewed 3665 times
Cod season Winter 2013/14: 117 cod (best fish: 6.5 lbs)
Cod season Winter 2014/15: 193 cod (best fish: 4.25 lbs)
Bass Totals:
2007: 1
2008: 37
2009: 120
2010: 44
2011: 151
2012: 79
2013: 20
2014: 19
2015: 11
2016: 3
http://rockhunter-southcoastbass.blogspot.com