Check out Nick Honachefsky’s tips on rod & reel combo and rigging for bringing home a cooler full of cod in this week’s TackleDirect blog post.

Springtime cod fishing usually revolves around a bait bite, as cod are coming out of the deep freeze and are more apt to suck down a fresh bait than chase a jig. Start off by setting up right. High speed 6:1 ratio reels like a Shimano Torium 20 or Avet MXL are key to muscle fish off the wreck, spooled with 50-pound Power Pro braid, and a 10 foot top shot of 50-pound Trik Fish leader. Rods should be any 7 to 7-1/2 foot medium to heavy rod with moderate to fast action, such as a Seeker Black Steel G 6470-7 or a Lamiglas 7040CT. A three-hook dropper rig works best. Start with a 150-pound barrel swivel, 48-inch piece of 40 to 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, tying a dropper loop every 16 inches with an overhand loop knot on the tag end to loop on a bank sinker anywhere from 6 to 16 ounces to hold bottom. On the dropper loops, pop on size 6/0 Baitholder hooks or 8/0 Octopus Gamakatsu or Owner hooks as both manufacturers have sticky sharp barb points that can easily pierce a cod’s maw. Before you bait up, lance on some red or green beads above the hook shank, or thread on 3 to 5-inch Curly Grub tails in red, white, purple or green, or slip on some surgical tubing above the hook shank in the same colorings.

Freshly shucked clams are paramount to attracting hookups, but two schools of thought permeate the clam bait attack plan. When there is no current running, a gob of clam can work just fine, but if the current from a full or new moon is running hard, a well-manicured clam tongue, cut like a streamlined strip bait will not spin in the current and garner more strikes. Shucked clam shells can be dropped below for purposes of chumming cod to get a scent wafting below to incite their hunger strike. Other baits that can work well for cod include mackerel, herring or bergall strips. Work the wreck structure edges and bounce around on little sections of wreck and if you aren’t getting hits within 20 minutes, make a shift or move completely. Cod are curious creatures, if they spy commotion in the water column, they will come to inspect what’s happening. When bergalls are nipping at baits, control your instinct to swing and let it sit, as in a few seconds a cod will cruise by and push the little fish out to inhale the bait.