Thread: Best Cod bait?

Anyone, been a while since I fished these so year have no clue.
Will be Stewart island. Also any recipe would be nice

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Anyone, been a while since I fished these so year have no clue.
Will be Stewart island. Also any recipe would be nice

Last time I went out they were pretty much chasing my shadow around the boat. Hungry/greedy little buggers would probably chase an empty hook.

Barracouta squid a firm bait is best they tear anything soft off the hook.

Dangle your toe in the water down there and you'll catch one.

Seriously they'll eat most things. Squid, paua, limpets, other fish, steak, sausages, fruit bursts, tinfoil, a flap of denim - I've caught them on all of these.

If you're going down for a few days, any old soft bait will work a treat, no smell, lasts a while etc.

A few years ago, I did a cruise on Doubtful Sound. At the end of the first day, the fishing gear came out. When the crew put salami on the hooks for bait, I thought this has got to be a piss take to entertain the tourists. We landed one huge blue cod after another!

Mate went out and his wife's job was to bring the bait.... Get out into good water, mate turns to wife, where's the bait.... You brought it didn't Pu.... Ended up using a slice of white bread, that worked

Orange peel and peas work too

Squid, is cheap and works well. I like to use flasher rigs, 6/0 or so as I think chances of landing trumpeter and terakihi are increased and they still work fine for cod. As far as a scrap goes a double hook up of 35cm plus trumpeter beats a cod double hands down and although not as good as cod they taste good too. Soft plastics and are a good option if you don't have bait to get started, but the cod are pretty good at shredding them.