[619294]

I'm going on an offshore wreck trip this weekend out of Point Lookout. The targeted specied is cod.

I'm planning on baitfishing primarily, but would love to try jigging.

Has anyone had any luck jigging on wrecks 60-80 miles offshore, or is jigging best saved for the trips to New England?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations as to what types of flies, rubber squids, or jelly worms work well with bait, or is a plain ol' hook the best bet?

Thanks for your input.

 

[619115]

Here ya go

I believe through experience that the norweigan (sp) jigs are the best. They're the chrome triangular jigs of varying weights. Youlll be fishing fairly deep and current may be a factor.
I suggest a couple 17oz and perhaps a 21oz. use a good ballbearing swivel.
You want to add a teaser about 6-8 inches above the jig. For teasers, I skip the shrimp tail thingies and use 6" grubs with those curly tails. I've found white to be the most productive, but suggest trying a few colors.
Now as for jigging. Let your jig down and touch bottom with your rod tip down, then give your reel a couple cranks. This will help you keep off bottom. There's no need to lift you rod up to a 12 oclock position so hard and fast that your only going to come up with fish lips. Most often a smooth slower motion with a quick pause on the rise does best. Also try using your jig as a weight jig the teaser more so than the jig itself. You'll probably see people pulling hard and fast while jigging and they'll snag some but you'll do better buy slowing it up a bit. Cod aren't noted for lightening speed. When you feel that tug give it a
pop and KEEP reeling up at a steady pace. Lots of fish are lost cuz folks take a break on the wayup.

Good luck
let em know how you do

Glen

 

[619115]

More!

One other jig I wanted to mentin is the "Crippled Herring" Its basically a flat jig that works better than others when dealing with stronger currents. They normaly come with a single hook but I replace that with a trebble hook.
Very effective also!

Glen

 

[619294]

I'll let you know how things went.

Thank you for the advise.

 

[Gamakatsu]

I'd stick to bait fishing while fishing off LI, unless there are pollack around. In which case I prefer a 10 oz diamond jig with a traditional surgical tube teaser over the Norwegian jigs or other codfish favorites. Jigging cod is generally more effective when they are on open bottom, chasing bait schools. Chummed's advice is excellent for fishing further north, but I'd be suprised if you had much success this far south. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear how you do. Good luck.

Gamakatsu

 

[619294]

Not a single cod caught on the entire trip. Three or four pollack were caught.

Lots of ling and seabass. The latter of which were, of course, thrown back.

I wish I were old enough to have fished for cod in New York waters!

 

[Gamakatsu]

I thought that they changed the regs for seabass and they are open year round due to the increased size limit. Or is that for NJ only?

Gamakatsu

 

[TRADEnFISH]

I heard they kept all the sea bass and the DEC was waiting for them at the dock.

 

[togmaster]

cod fishing sucks here

Well If you want to catch some cod you better go up North to Mass. the cod fishing on the island and Jersey hasn't been for 5 to 10 years. I remeber just having to go to the 20Mi. wrecks and catching as many as you wanted. Then move to the virginia and get bigger and better. Then move off in the Texastower area and get better. now I go to the fulton fish market if I want fish.
Believe me i fished from Maine to L.i and The days are over as they once were.
look below and see the old days of a catch. that's a 500 exta cooler.
http://home.earthlink.net/~steven0010/

 

[619619]

Bad cod fishing

I agree that the cod fishing is miserable. It came back in the early 80's after the Russians left but then came the Americans and that was it.
If you find a good wreck of your own, you can still catch all you want. Believe me , its true.
I have this wreck I go to and I catch all I want (cod ) using just jigs. Its amazing but true. I caught 500 pounds and quit with the fish biting. Every time the jig was lowered I had a fish. Right off Long Island in mid summer!

But its sad that you can't go out to the area wrecks and grounds and can't get a single cod.
The same applies to whiting and ling. It wouldn't be so bad If we could catch nice sized whiting and ling. In the late 80's and early 90's we had a nice run off Ambrose Light and its been non-existant since. Thanks to the boys out of Montauk and Jersey we got no whiting and ling. It was so nice catching triple header whiting. Much better than mackeral.

 

[togmaster]

Sunnyday

I have not seen number of cods on any of the southshore wrecks in 3 to 5 years.
I have fished the south shore for close to 30 yrs and have a vast knowledge and sets of numbers to many so called secrect wrecks. But Sunnyday you claim to have caught 500lbs of cod on the south shore. Maybe out east but not off F.I or jones unless you went east.
The last good trip I made was east of the Virginia and had maybe 400lbs with cod up to 50Lbs. that was 5 years ago.
I have tried every year and am lucky to get 25 cods a trip. Unless you happen to get the wreck when it is stacked which can ocassionally happens. I remeber days 4,000 Lbs on overnight trips. The picture of the cooler above was in the late 80's when i pin hooked.
A average days cacth was 3 to 4 thousand pounds. Funny they tried to release young Frye on the cod but it didn't work. also cod is the fastest reproducing fish. The presure is just to great on them. Out of 40 million eggs only 1 cod will survie? We need a ban and better Regs to bring it back. But i hope its not to late?