With J working in a Fishing tackle sale shop imagine my surprise when he failed to pull out masses of squid, black lug and peeler crab from his bait box. The method in his madness made perfectly good sense. J uses large crab and squid baits when he is fishing marks specifically for big cod, but when he is targeting smaller codling he reckons you just don't need them. I was sceptical but he said he would prove it because he knows his fishing tackel well. He then proceeded to thread three common lug up his hook and tipped it off with just half a peeler crab, bound on tight with bait elastic- now that is a low cost cod bait compared to the ones I have used over the years.

With an hour before sunset and the tide ebbing nicely, J got under way. His first cod was baited with the three lug and half a crab fishing tackle cocktail, as he had showed me, and on his second rod, he baited with three lug and a small piece of squid – just to prove a point. Both rods were cast onto the broken ground around the point and we sat back and waited and waited … and waited. Just as we were losing the light, J would in two washed-out but untouched baits and replaced them with fresh ones. It was at this point I started to worry that we might be on the road to drawing a blank, but he assured me that would not happen.

Just as the sum was dipping beneath the horizon, J first rod, the one baited with lug and half a peeler crab, registered a small bite and he started to look for his daiwa rubba keepnets. Lifting the rod from the rest, he struck, smiled and announced it was definitely a codling as he walked towards the water's edge while retrieving, not letting the line fall slack at any time. He was right, the first codling of our fishing session has fallen to the lug and half peeler bait. J quickly baited up again and cast the rod back to the same position, just on the edge of the broken ground.

When fishing the Cromer beach you can pick up a lot of small codling, so J usually only keeps those that are deep hooked – which this one was or those over 3lb. As this one was destined for the table, J decided to gut it there and then, just to check what it had been feeding on. Now, I certainly do not advise cutting fish open for the sake of it, but if you are going to cook it, be it cod, bass or pollack, it makes sense and good water craft to gut one during your session to see what fishing tackle they are feeding on. That way, as fly fisherman would say, you can match the hatch, that is to try to bait up with what the fish are feeding on, or at least pick the nearest bait you have available.

Our first codling of the night was staffed to the gills with small crabs and a few small prawns. It certainly made a lot of sense to fish J's half peeled baits and proved he certainly known what he is talking about.

During the next hour J hauled out another five codling, all on small lug and half peeler crab baits and not one fell to the lug and squid. So our daiwa rubba keepnets were pretty full. Rochelle had noticed that J was catching and soon came over to discover what the successful bait was.
After switching to the same combination she latched onto the action by landing four prime channel cod. Nine codling in just over two hours is superb sport by any standards and shows Cromer is well above par when it comes to searching for a top winter cod mark.