There have been some good reports from Youghal and Cork Harbour recently where the winter codling fishing is well underway. Fish can be present in good numbers, depending on the days that’s in, but sizes are a little down on those of previous years. That said there have still been quite a few good keepers to 6lb reported.
Our old friend Rockhunter, who keeps a regular blog of his angling adventures at rockhunter-southcoastbass.blogspot.ie, has enjoyed a few particularly good nights, landing as many as 30 fish in a session. Crab, of course, is probably the best bait at the moment and certainly the most popular with the anglers. His advice to those looking to match his catch, “For all sessions I was using 4/0 pennel pulley rigs (with upper 3/0 hooks) baited with whole fresh crab. I usually used two rods unless the weed was bad. When the fishing was hectic I would have one rod ready baited on the stand, haul in the fish on the other rod and then cast out the second. So I had one bait in the water at all times apart from the few seconds between changing over rods.”
Over the weekend there were more cod reports from Youghal with some good fish to 5lb taken on crab during the dark tides.
Meanwhile in Cork Harbour Jim Clohessey has been out and about on the “rubber duck” as weather allows. His last foray on 04 December produced some good fishing on soft plastics and Jim reports plenty of codling of the caliber in the photo below to be had, with some to 6lb also out there. Jim tells us that earlier in the week the fishing in the harbour was steady but the codling were scarce enough. Nonetheless, there were a good scattering of smallish pollack and the odd cod 4 or 5 lbs about to keep the rod ticking over. For shore anglers there are are also a few cod to be had off “The Wall” and other regular venues inside the Harbour, but these tend to be a bit smaller than those had in more open water.
