Cod Fishing from Brighton

Latin Name: Gadus Morhua

Cod fishing from Brighton follows a well defined annual pattern with Cod showing themselves all year. As a rule of thumb this means fishing on the wrecks from spring through to autumn and inshore ground fishing during the winter.

Cod stocks have recovered well following the various bans and restrictions on commercial fishing in recent years. The Cod caught are typically in the 6lb to 12llb range with fish of 20lb or even 30lb plus becoming more common again. The British record boat caught Cod record is 58lb 6oz caught by Noel Cook in 1992.

Wreck Fishing for Cod

April until October sees the best of the wreck fishing for Cod, when they reside in large numbers on the numerous offshore wrecks in the English Channel. Depending on the tide and how the particular wreck lies (across or with the tide) the Cod will be found close in to the wreck or just downtide of it, using the wreck as shelter when the tide is running. Cod are lazy buggers you see, using the minimal effort to feed! When the tide slackens the Cod will venture further out to feed amongst the debris or scour on the seabed.

In the spring to late summer drifting the wrecks for Cod works best in much the same way as the methods used for pollack fishing. Essentially the fishing will be with artificials but the trick is to get the lure down below the Pollack shoals to the Cod who will be feeding on the bottom. In this respect, if Cod are the target, heavier weighted Sidewinders, Shads and Leadheads will get you down to the bottom quicker.

From late summer, in our experience, cod are best fished for anchored over the wrecks with bait using tackle in the 20-30lb class to handle enough lead. The tactics for bait fishing are the same as for winter codding on the ground, described below.

Winter Ground Fishing for Cod

In winter, from about October, the Cod move inshore onto the ground and in Brighton we fish for them at anchor with bait. This is a good time of year for the bigger fish with specimens of 20lb plus on the cards, and fish in the 30lb class have been caught the last couple of years! In terms of bait the options are - cuttle fish or squid !! A bit of black lug to make a cocktail of bait is worth a try, but by no means essential.

A simple running ledger or fixed paternoster rig is all that is needed with a pennel two hook rig using size 6/0 to 8/0 hooks to suit the bait. When it comes to bait big is good - remember that a 15lb Cod is quite capable of swallowing a 3lb Pouting whole! Our local winter Cod grounds have an average depth of 20m which means uptide and downtide fishing are both effective. A 12-20lb downtide or 4-8oz uptiding rod are more than enough for some sporting action.