Still time for cod
Catch yourself some cod from the famous Mersey estuary
Superb sport from the Mersey estuary.
O ver the last 20 years the Mersey has changed from a very polluted river to one of the cleanest in the UK, with the fishing getting better each year. From October to March the Mersey has a great run of cod, when it is not uncommon to see more than 30 boats, both charter and pleasure, fishing the river at weekends.
Most fish are codling of 2-4lb, while a good fish is regarded as being in double figures, and every year there are one or two around the 20lb mark caught. Anglers don’t get monster cod here, but make up for it in numbers, with my best day on the Mersey being 76 keepers, while the average day is 30 to 40 keepers.
We also catch lots of thornback rays from October to the end of November, with my boat’s best day being 56 fish to 13lb 5oz. These, along with plenty of whiting and dabs, can give anglers a very busy day.
The great thing about fishing the Mersey is you are fishing within 10 minutes of leaving Liverpool Marina, in view of one of the most recognisable river frontages in the world.
At one time Liverpool was the biggest port in the world, with a dark past when the slave trade was at a peak. Now, with its massive container ships, it is still the sixth largest port in the UK.
That is all about to change, though, because Peel Ports has just spent £400 million on a state-of-the-art container terminal to keep up with the demands of today’s world.
TACKLE, RIGS AND BAIT
The Mersey has a very strong tide, meaning neap tides tend to be the best for sport. Depending where you fish, the seabed can be sand and mud, or sandstone and mussels beds.
You can either fish uptide (casting) or downtide (drop your rig over the side). Uptiding requires a rod capable of hurling 8-12oz of lead weight and bait combined, along with a reel with a good drag system and 30-50lb braid line.
A downtiding rod must handle up to 1lb of lead weight, so go for 20/30lb-class, with a matching reel loaded with 30lb to 50lb braid.
Best lead weights are 8-12oz fixed-wire for uptiding, and 8oz-1lb for downtiding depending on the size of the tide you are fishing.
Keep your rigs simple. I recommend a running leger Pennell rig made from 60lb mono and a size 5/0 circle hook and a 6/0 wide gape Aberdeen hook. Make sure the hooklength is no longer than 3ft because a shorter trace fishes better in a strong tide.
I use a circle hook as my top hook on the Pennell rig, and the Aberdeen as the bottom hook, because over the last few seasons I’ve found the circle hook increases the catch rate; 70 per cent of the cod and rays are taken on the circle hook, and this hook type is perfect for catch and release because 90 per cent are lip-hooked whereas most coding get guthooked on J-hooks.
From October to December the best baits are black lug, squid and peeler crabs. However, from December to March, go for black lug and squid. Use either fresh or frozen bait.
The key to catching big numbers of cod is changing your bait every 15 to 20 minutes. The bait gets washed out in the tide and loses its scent. Even if the bait looks okay after 15 minutes on the seabed, change it and your catch rate will improve. I’ve lost count of the number of anglers who assume that skippers are trying to sell them more bait; the Mersey is a silt estuary, which means the water is very coloured, so the bait’s scent trail is crucial to catching. No scent means no fish!
Other baits that can be good from time to time are razorfish, mussels and extra large cockles. I have seen some anglers use cart, but it isn’t very successful here.