Beats A Day At Work

There had been talk at work of a few of us taking a trip out codding this year and today it finally happened! Charter trips for me are very few and far between these days but every now and then its nice to let someone else do all the hard work! We were booked up with Kev Sampson for the day, now owner of Wight Osprey out of Yarmouth.
Reports over the last couple of days told the story that the cod fishing had slowed up a bit but there were plenty of decent whiting about. The slow cod fishing could just be down to these small neap tides we have at the moment, the arrival of sprat shoals or indeed a mixture of the two.
The winds were nice and light and there was a real chill to the air with most of the day well overcast. The boat was spacious and comfortable and the skipper (Kev) generous with the coffee, tea and hot sausage sarnies!!
We rounded the needles and pushed a bit further out to find a bit more tide run today. There were a couple of boats already fishing that were soon joined by lots more as the morning drew on. The anchor went down and the 'away ya go lads' call came from the wheel house. 
Lines went down and no less than 3 minutes in and there was a cod on.....Christ he must have dropped it straight into his mouth! I was still busy getting my gear in the water and missed the opportunity to get a photo of the 11lb fish before it was flung in a box. What a start though - maybe we would clean up today!
Whiting and dogs were on the baits almost instantly but fishing through them, an hour into the trip I manged to get myself a cod around 7lb...

 
Slack tide soon came and with it - bigger whiting. Everyone filled their boots with some really nice fish to 3lb on baited hokais. Even I had a dabble after I told myself to stick to my guns and go all out cod - well I had one already so a little go was OK surely?!!
As the flood just started to trickle I switched back to big baits while the others were still filling their boots with the whiting. It didn't really make any difference it was still just whiting that were stripping the hooks clean. The others soon followed suit and went back to big baits as the flood tide started to push through. Everyone anticipating another cod or two but it just didn't happen and shortly after the 4th coffee went down it was 4pm and time to head back!
Great day though and a top skipper - I would go again.....in fact I am supposed to be going Sunday with another group of friends. I think that I may just let my son Jake take my place while I sit and watch.... love to see him nail a big cod ;-)