What's your preferred bait for winter cod??

[chuckaroo]

as the title suggests, i would be interested to hear peoples' opinions on their preferred baits for cod
so, what it your preferred bait? do you in fact have a preferred bait or do you find all are equally as good..?
what about tide/cast distance/water depth etc.. ?
also, and equally importantly, what size of hooks do you use and how much bait do you put onto a hook??

thanks in advance for any replies

[seanie35]

I like putting out a really big crab bait on a 4/0 or 5/0 , loads of scent for them to home in on, always found either hi or low water lateish say 10pm onwards good fishing a couple of hours up to either hi or down to lo.

[lowie69]

theres a bait they use in england called carb they use eatable crab shredded back lug and squid and put it all in a pva or sauasage tube the frezze it meant to be a smashing cod baiit

[jacko1]

you can get that carb shipped from uk fairly ressonable have tried it without much joy but the same can be said about any bait on any night

[seanbah]

I think i can help. if you can come down to cork it has the best cod fishing in the country, youghal is showing a few so are some of the beaches like garyvoe, monkstown has not been to good yet but i am going down there today and im going to give it a shot, personally i use 1 up 1 down clipped with size 2-1/0 hooks with a full or half peeler crab usually that dose the trick and as well for casting i usually smack it out 150 odd yards but some of the biggest cod i have ever seen caught have been caught 50 yards out and i find in cork anyway usually low water helps.

[roger de dodger]

they love razor

[saving private brian]

a gud big juicy mussel bait on a pully pennel,,,,,its just so tempting for cod

[ste c]

a gud big juicy mussel bait on a pully pennel,,,,,its just so tempting for cod

defo mussel and lug has always been a killer bait for cod

[ShaneH]

lug and squid on a size 1 or 1/0 loop rig of the beach.
rough ground or if i need to use big baits i would use a 4/0 pully.
Distance were ever the fish are feeding on that day and tide

[thelegend]

i like to stuff a large squid hood with crab and lug , easy to bait up pennel style and last a bit longer in the water, low water for me

[lucky13]

a couple of years back myself and a few buddies had one of the best cod seasons ever on the wall and the deep sea pier in cobh using just calamarie alone,picking up nice bites when the crab was just not doing the trick,for us and other anglers at the time..trying the same bait tactics the next season proved a mistake,crab being top bait,the other way around like..ever since id usually throw out a squid bait just to see if theres interest but they just wont take it now...
peeler crab is king of baits...

[chuckaroo]

some really interesting responses there folks, cool

the reason why i ask is that i recall watching a fishing program years ago where alan yates headed down to the english channel to teach a guy how to catch "the big winter cod" - as the guy had been failing miserably on many occasions..
well the trick to it was to get the cast far enough out into the main channel but Yates also insisted in using HUGE baits
i cant remember what the actual bait was but i could guess it was a massive bunch of lug, maybe tipped it off with something like peeler or mussel
but the size of the bait really was the key too it too. it was a clump of stuff
it was deadly. he proceeded to land big cod, your man was gob-smacked

i was particularly wondering whether people on here would insist on using big baits

cheers

[mickser]

Hi chuckaroo. I remember that programming with Alan Yates I think it was part of the sea angler series
and I also met him in a competition on Kilcoole beach and spoke to him about it he gave some more tips on fishing for Cod. The first tip was to use baits that are local to the area you
Fishing in ie big baits for big fish like what he was after in that particular program.
He then went on to tell me about what he was using on the beach we were fishing.
He was using large lug and mussel cocktail.Why those baits I asked him he told that while he was
Walking to our peg he noticed that there was a huge amount of mussel shells all
Along the beach indicating that there were mussel beds close bye
And the lug was for the the scent.He finished up in the prises and left me
With some great ideas of how to fish in the future
Mickser

[chuckaroo]

cheers mickser

[beachbuddy]

That "carb" stuff,is it the same as what they use in north east england called "cart",sounds very similar apart from using fish roe in the mix.Never used it before but[but sounds yummy] big baits either using squid bombs or big crab baits seem to be the only thing working down this way for big and small codling this year.

[eric]

to be honest cod are big hoovers they will eat just about anything, obviously when fishing in an estuary or place with a strong tide a bigger juicier bait like crab will fish better because it wave have a longer soak time. i dont think theres any particular science to finding the perfect cod bait, the trick is finding the perfect cod venue.