It has been a great season for the Cod again this year with skippers reporting captures as far back as September. We have had some fantastic pictures sent to us from some of the local charter skippers.
This first one is a picture of local angler Tony Wells with a 12lb Cod caught on squid using a standard pennel rig. The fish was caught recently from the back of the Needles on the Isle Of Wight.
This has been about the average size fish from this area this year. Tony’s skipper for the day was Arthur Savage the well known skipper of Private Venture from Lymington.
If you fancy a trip out with Arthur you can see his details by clicking this link.
This next photo comes from another local skipper Geoff Semple, Geoff runs Lazy Daze from Beaulieu River and has had a very productive year. I myself went out with Geoff this summer and caught Black Bream and Smoothound and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
This picture is of Eddie Trueman with an 18lb Cod from the Solent earlier this week.
The fish was caught on the usual combo of squid and cuttlefish.
To see more fish like these check out our customer gallery on the link below.
I tied up this rig to show you the sort of thing these people have been using. (Incidentally, If you click on any the images on this blog they will enlarge so that you can see them more clearly.) The first picture shows you some of the components used to make the Cod rig.
You will see the Sonar attractor spoon and the specialist Sakuma 8/0 hooks. Note that the hook supplied with the Sonar spoon is not appropriate for this rig as it is way too small.
This next image shows how I tie my pennel as a fixed rig and not sliding. I have caught lots of fish on the retainer hook and I believe that simply wrapping your line around your retainer hook will not give it the stability to hook fish as well as the fixed hook system.
The final image shows the finished article complete with measurements so there are no grey areas. As you can see I have set the hooks to 7 inches, perfect for a couple of squid. Remember if you are like my brother and use a whole cuttlefish then you can extend the hook length to 8-9 inches and sometimes even 10!
You will see the Sonar attractor spoon and the specialist Sakuma 8/0 hooks. Note that the hook supplied with the Sonar spoon is not appropriate for this rig as it is way too small.
This next image shows how I tie my pennel as a fixed rig and not sliding. I have caught lots of fish on the retainer hook and I believe that simply wrapping your line around your retainer hook will not give it the stability to hook fish as well as the fixed hook system.
The final image shows the finished article complete with measurements so there are no grey areas. As you can see I have set the hooks to 7 inches, perfect for a couple of squid. Remember if you are like my brother and use a whole cuttlefish then you can extend the hook length to 8-9 inches and sometimes even 10!
As you may know I am getting interested in Kayak fishing recently and I was hoping to have an influx of Kayak caught Cod (there’s a mouthful!) but so far we have not had one picture of a Kayak caught Cod. Let’s hope one of our budding anglers reads this and gets paddling!
