Silver but no Gold....

With the bad weather of late I had been looking forward to this mornings trip all week. It seems that there are a few cod on the ground now with some nice fish in the high teens and low twenties showing. When there has been the odd weather window I have been unable to get out and with November already upon us, I have yet to get my first cod this year!

Launching at first light the conditions were far from ideal with a brisk northerly wind blowing we opted to stay inshore in relative shelter. 
We were fishing for the start of the ebb tide and to begin with bites came thick and fast. Mainly chunky pout hitting the squid baits until my uptide rod registered a better fish. It didn't have the weight of a cod and had far to much life about the fight to be one. Ever hopeful I played the fish tentatively to the boat until some silver came in to view. Not the golden spotted cod I was hoping for but a close second none the less. A nice fit and healthy fish around 5lb.

A good start we thought but apart from a few more pout it was really slow for the next hour or two. Mike was out with Gilly fishing 100 yards away from us when we saw the net come out of the holder and a phone call 5 minutes later confirmed a cod of 15lb had joined them. Any thoughts of a move at this stage had now been banished so we opted to stay put hoping the fishing might pick up as the tide eased off.
Shortly after Mike's fish I had a lovely nodding bite on my uptide rod. Winding down, I could feel the fish bouncing around at the other end until I caught up with the weight, the rod hooped over and started to buck around. Legs tuning to jelly, heart in my mouth and bum cheeks clenched I was convinced I had a big cod on the other end. Coaxing her up with the occasional nod and small run the line started to come up further and further behind the boat.......not the usual 'stay deep approach' of a cod. Sure enough and much to my annoyance a bloody conger showed it's self at the surface. A few choice words and it was T-bared off at the side.

The next fish to do it's best at a cod impression came on the down tide bait. Fairly lively, taking line and definatley not an eel it had to be a cod or a bass. Wrong again!....a Smoothound this time...FFS!!

After this the fishing really did die a death.....we fished the ebb tide right to the end but there was nothing more doing. Dave did manage to lasso a young herring gull who had to come into the boat to say hello before flying off none the worse for wear...it provided us with some amusement if nothing else!

Heading back in without finding a cod always hurts.......got to make up for it on the next trip when it comes!