Beach Casting, Hythe

Spring Codling

 

Princess Parade, Hythe, Kent. UK

Home Is The Darkest Blue Bit

Having being given the heads up about numerous Codling showing at various locations all over the SE of England, and having only ever caught one Cod before and then failed to catch one since despite numerous attempts, Nothing was going to stop me getting the rods out at the first opportunity this poor weather would allow, and yes, its been raining constantly since before Xmas, and now officially the wettest winter since records began, with the SE getting the most rainfall. But having the weekend off work, and a full day of no rain forecast with the winds dropping below gust level for the first time for a long time, I couldn't wait to get to the shore and just get out fishing. Having had to cancelled a 3 day fishing trip for catfish due to the bad weather, John had decided to join me in this consolation session, and his first shore sea fishing trip, We set off at the modest time of 9am, and stocked up some fresh lug worm and a box of squid from Mick's Tackle in Hythe.

The Codling Father

We fished 1 rod each, rigs were three hook flappers with size 2 hooks, these were baited with half a lug worm and tipped with squid, With the Sun shining, and the wind, which was twice as strong than it was forecast, blowing straight in our faces with a chill, we both cast out into the flooding tide, whilst John was fishing closer in, I fished further out, which helped us locate the fish, immediately my rod tip rattled away, my first 3 casts had resulted in 6 fish, 4 large and very fat Rocklings, a small dogfish, and a new fish for the species list a small Pouting, which was nice to see one, because as a kid they was all I ever remember catching, but now days they seem quite sparse with the rising sea temperature being the most likely culprit. Just as I was going to ill advise John to recast further out, his rod tip rattled away, and to my excitement  he landed His first shore caught fish, a tiny plump Codling!

PPPPPPouting

He didn't stop there, he had found his area to cast to, where they seemed to be, and proceeded to show me how to do it, and landed another 5, and I'm sure he missed and lost a lot more, I could tell by the Codling bites being very distinctive compared to the Whiting and Rockling bites that I was getting on my rod. As hard as I tried I couldn't match him, but I did at least managed to land a couple of Codling myself. We were both plagued by the onslaught of the fattest Rockling I had ever seen, I had to laugh at how quickly John was complaining about how difficult they are to unhook due them being slippery, with tiny mouths, and the Rock in Rockling must refer to their head, They're my least favourite fish to catch just for this reason, and even useless as bait or food. All in all it was a very enjoyable and productive 4 hour session, although no keepers and the fish being very small, we had 40+ fish and 6 species caught between us. And although I had to give John the title of Cod Father, I was happy to think that the numbers of these tiny Codling being caught at the moment will bode well for the future, providing they can avoid the commercial nets, I wish them all the best, and hope to see them again in a few years.

Big Smile For Something So Tiny