Pacific Cod - ECVI

[kildonan]

Crazy, I've never seen them before. What do you do with yours..toss em back? Eat them? Crab bait?

I told my buddy they were what Mcdonalds makes the filet o fish out of and he kept them and made his own fish sandwiches! He said they were good.

I throw them back as they were all pretty small. If I see them this summer maybe I will eat one and see what they're like. If the growing trend I've seen continues, they should be a good eating size this year.

My wife and kids prefer white fish to salmon anyway.

[baddogg]

We caught two off Nanaimo yesterday, twins about 2 lbs each. If I knew I was going to catch more than one I would keep them. I'm sure they are good to eat like most cod are.

[Seafever]

They've always been around.....just not in such big numbers. Why the sudden flourish in the last couple of years?

Who knows......water temp, availibilty of their food,etc etc. Seals will eat them. Chinook will eat the smaller ones.

If you have your eyes glued to the rod tip the entire trip, you can often detect a very slight "ping" when the small ones hit. But if you didn't see it you'll miss it.

They are not bad eating........but I would gut/clean them right away......many I've caught had woyms in 'em.

Jigged the mouth of the Little Q last year.....they were there by the hundreds.

You don't get as much meat off them as you think you will......mainly because it seems their heads/gills take up half of their body.

I've never tried using one dead or alive as Ling Cod bait....but there could be potential.

[adanac]

They've always been around.....just not in such big numbers. Why the sudden flourish in the last couple of years?

Who knows......water temp, availibilty of their food,etc etc. Seals will eat them. Chinook will eat the smaller ones.

If you have your eyes glued to the rod tip the entire trip, you can often detect a very slight "ping" when the small ones hit. But if you didn't see it you'll miss it.

They are not bad eating........but I would gut/clean them right away......many I've caught had woyms in 'em.

Jigged the mouth of the Little Q last year.....they were there by the hundreds.

You don't get as much meat off them as you think you will......mainly because it seems their heads/gills take up half of their body.

I've never tried using one dead or alive as Ling Cod bait....but there could be potential.

Dead on on the ling bait. Whenever we are planning on stopping for ling at the end of the day every p cod under 15 inches we catch goes in the live well for ling bait. Seem to work a bit better than any of the other big baits, less spiny i guess.

[Seafever]

The old timers used to say that if you are catching P-Cod while fishing for Chinook then come up shallower because the P-Cod are supposedly always underneath the Chinook.

But I'm not sure I put any faith in that.....

[Sitkaspruce]

Tons up here in McNeill. Some places they are thick, your rod tip vibrates to the hits while the nibble on your bait. Picked up one yesterday, snagged through the belly (as most do when you are jigging). They are all around 12-15". I heard they go to mush when you cook them.

If they are around in good numbers, will the hali eat them?? Or even be in the same area??

Cheers

SS

[Seafever]

Well.....a Hali is a bad-ass one-track-mind ambush predator....so I can't see why not......

Funny you should ask that.....last year there were a couple of 50lb Hali caught right at the mouth of the Little Q. Were they after the numerous P-Cod there amongst other things?

Some of the huge Hali that lurk around the river mouths up in Alaska have in the past been caught, cut open , and found to have all sorts of weird things in their stomachs.

[Seafever]

Facts about P-Cod....from "Pacific Fishes of the Northwest"....a bang-on reference book for every fish that swims in these waters.


"Cod move into deep water in autumn and return to shallower water in spring"
"Eggs hatch in 8 or 9 days at 11C and 17days at 5C, but will take about 4 weeks at 2C in northern waters"
"Egg survival is high at 5C"
"length to 3ft 3inches"
"In the Strait Of Georgia growth is rapid and continuous throughout the year"
'Tagging in the Strait Of Georgia shows congregations for spawning and dispersal for feeding"
"Feeding includes a wide variety of invertebrates and fishes including:- worms,crabs,molluscs, and shrimps, herring, sandlance,walleye pollack and flatfishes"

"Mostly benthic but occasionally taken in quite shallow water"

"Distribution :- from Santa Monica, Cal., through Alaska, Bering sea, to Japan , Korea."

"informed current opinion is that the codfish of the Pacific Northwest basin belong to a single species of several more or less separate stocks"

"The Pacific Cod is now the most important of the trawl-caught species of british Columbia"

"The catch is used for filleting and subsequent production of fish-sticks and fillet-blocks for export"

[kelly]

I am going to load up on these next time I'm out for hali bait. The size and fact that they are quite oily would make them ideal.

[trendsetter]

I am going to load up on these next time I'm out for hali bait. The size and fact that they are quite oily would make them ideal.

Nice. The limit for these buggers is 8/16 so would be worthwhile if you are catching lots. I think I will start retaining them too. My buddy that kept his said they tasted good battered and fried.