COCKLES & TELLIN
You can treat cockles and tellin clams as being similar baits. ere are four types of in the UK, two including the common variety are shore dwellers, with the others being offshore deepwater cockles, often referred to as queen cockles and being much bigger. e latter sometimes wash up on surf beaches after storms.
Tellin is a common name for different small clam-like shellfish that frequents the lower shore and estuary channels.
Cockles are not usually available from tackle shops, but you can sometimes get them live from fish markets or fish shops. Estuary cockle beds can be accessed on most tides, even the smallest neaps so can be available daily. ey are found on the saltmarsh sand and mudflats and live very close to the surface in just a few inches of water. You can often just walk along and pick them up or rake them using a normal garden rake.
Tellin frequent the lower shore of shallow sandy surf beaches and can found around the average low water line and lower. ey often wash up in numbers after storms.
SEASON
Both cockles and tellin are available all year and are an effective bait for 12 months, though they work best during the spring, summer and autumn as an individual bait, but in the winter as a tippet bait.
SPECIES
e smaller common cockles and tellin will take flounders, plaice, dabs, school bass and whiting. Afloat, black bream go mad for cockles even when feeding over rough ground.
e bigger queen cockles can be used as an individual bait offshore when targeting haddock, cod, plaice, gurnards and rays. It is most effective when targeting cod from the shore during rough weather, especially when you can pick up broken queen cockles from the sand at your feet.
SIMPLE STORAGE
All live cockles and tellin will store for a couple of days if kept cool in the fridge and covered by a cloth dampened in seawater. ey are at their most effective when fresh out of the shell.
PRESENTATION
A cockle can be opened by inserting a knife edge into the obvious notch in the shell and twisting sideways and it again opens like a book. Cut the sinew that holds the flesh to the shell and you end up with the full cockle free of the shell. Access tellin the same way by prising apart the shell. To present one for smaller species, pass the hook point in the fat end and down through the body, then bring the point out through the obvious foot (pictured right). is simple presentation is fine for close range casting, but for longer distance just add a few turns of thin bait elastic to the body to hold it all in place. e presentation method for the larger queen cockles is just the same with the hook exiting through the tough foot. Cockles and tellin are good tippets below a lugworm, but this especially applies to a queen cockle which is a big juicy bait that adds a lot of scent to a worm, but also encourages cod to take the bait at the hook end.