The Underrated Estuary Cod

By Sean Bekkers

There is a huge variety of cod species that inhabit nearly every watery environment, including blackspot cod, goldspot cod and wire netting cod, with many varieties often referred to simply as 'estuary' cod by anglers. My earliest memory of a cod of any variety was when I lived Gladstone. Back then when we went crabbing, using plastic pots that the cod would happily grab in their mouths and suck the crabs out of! The following day we would be pulling the pot and find ourselves holding a cod slimed pancake.

Fast forward a few years now and the humble cod is a familiar catch, nearly always referred to as a by-catch by fisherman targeting other species, like snapper, jewfish or mangrove jack. I'll be honest, I've never set out to catch cod but I am always stoked when I land a reasonable fish. So it begs the question, why aren't they on the top of a fishos target list?

I am sure there are a few keen bait anglers out there that get out and target sizeable cod in the local deep hole, but when it comes to targeting them on plastics I don't think they receive the fame that a lot of other species do. If you've ever had the pleasure of a decent size cod climbing aboard your well-presented flathead plastic, I'm sure it would have given you one hell of a fight.

When you get up close and personal with one of these beasts you soon realize that landing one on light spin gear and light leader is actually a notable achievement. A cod is the perfect ambush predator and they are well equipped with needle sharp teeth, gills like barb wire, razor sharp gill rakers and a mouth that is built to inhale! Their huge paddle tail gives them a plenty of power to weight, pulling power that requires a fine tuned balancing act between too much drag and not enough for fisherman that are hooked up.

Estuary fish are regularly caught up to 65cm, with some bigger fish holding in hard fought structure. Structure that you would need a game rod to pull them out of... not very sporting though! If you're keen to chase them on bait look at fish, squid, prawn and crabs, with live bait being better then dead. I have found a simple hook with a running ball sinker to match the current works well.

So to chase cod on plastics? As you can see from the photos I chase the majority of my fish on soft plastics that represent bait fish. You can really look at any of the ZMan range though, with crustacean and bait fish patterns working a treat. Once again the size and jighead weight will depend on the depth of water and the conditions being fished. Try to keep your plastic in the strike zone for as long as possible. TT Lures SnakelockZ jigheads will help when fishing tight structure, although I have found a TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead will give you a better hook up rate, as long as you're prepared to lose some gear.

Locations

Targeting cod in an estuary system, you can expect to get smoked by some reasonable models in any sort of structure. Mangroves, pylons, rock bars, deep holes in the corner of the creek and weed banks are all awesome spots to start and it doesn't take much to hold a sizeable fish.

Heading out offshore and the same rules apply; structure, artificial reefs, rocks ledges and even just some gravel showing on your sounder can hold large fish. As with all species, find the bait, throw your well-presented plastic or bait into the zone and hang on!

Eating Quality

Well this is going to be a personal choice and I'm sure that people that eat coral trout as a table fish will give me a hard time for saying they are good eating. I think they are one of the best eating estuary fish going around. I generally won't eat a fish over 70cm, but that's a personal choice. Filleting them can be interesting as well as cod are covered in slime, so running a fillet off can be like juggling handful of knives with oil soaked hands.

With cod commonly inhabiting the same ground as where you may target jewfish, mangrove jack and other highly sort after sportfish, they naturally fall into the by-catch bucket. If you are finding yourself with donuts for your target species and have landed the King of Knives franchise with fins though, you should be feeling pretty stoked. Cod are a player in the sports category and not bad on the chew either.

Sean's Gear List

Here's a gear list for taking on decent cod and the other species that will be located around the same types of structure.

ZMan plastics - 3" MinnowZ and 4" DieZel MinnowZ are my favourite.

TT Lures jigheads - 1/4 - 3/4oz SnakelockZ (weedless) or HealockZ HD.

Combo - 4-6kg rod and 4000 size spinning reel.

Line & Leader - Platypus 15-20lb braided line with 15-20lb leader, beef it up if you are in tough structure.

Cheers, Sean