Winter Cod Fishing Scarborough

Through the winter here in the UK the opportunitys for getting afloat offshore are few and far between. But with a gap in the weather and the sea conditions looking good I took advantage and planned to fish from Scarborough in North Yorkshire.

My alarm clock went off at 0500 and I set about making a flask of tea and getting some food together, the car was packed the night before, so just the Cuda to load up and I was away. The drive is just over an hour and it was still dark when I arrived but gave me plenty of time to set everything up and do all my safety checks. The wind strength was low but cold, the temperature without wind chill was 3 degrees Celsius , glad I put a few extra layers on now.

Everything sorted and a paddle over to some rough ground, about 1.6 mile from the launch site. I came across a nice gully so positioned myself to fish into it, where the cod should be I thought to myself.

I cast my two rods out both on crab baits and sat back in my chair to relax, but it did not take long and my first rod tip was bouncing down signalling a fish had taken my bait, a short but spirited fight followed resulting in a small codling but a keeper. Just as I unhooked the fish my second rod hooped over and another fish was on, this time a smaller fish which I returned

I put fresh bait onto both rods and cast them back out and once again not a long wait and my first rods hooped right over, I lifted into the fish and it was fighting hard, powering down trying to make its way back to the rocky bottom, but this one I won getting the cod straight into the kayak. A nice fish for a freezing cold day

I managed to catch a few more fish but the bites started to slow up so a move was in order, a short paddle later and I was onto some more good ground, anchoring up to give me a good position to fish the ground and first cast I was into another Cod, nothing massive but another keeper. From this area I had a few more smaller fish, all returned to grow bigger for another day.

After being on the water for four hours I was getting really cold but I was happy with how the day had gone so I called it a day and headed back to the launch site.

That was my first fishing trip of the new year, I am looking constantly for another gap in the weather to get out again soon, the Cuda 14 handled well, there was a bit of swell and a good cross wind which caused me no issues at all.

Thank you for reading, tight lines, Mike