THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

COD Gadus morhua
Bucket List status – result
Despite the cod’s potential for quite a wide range of base colour variation depending on location,
feeding, and habitat, upper body mottled patterning will always be present. Fish living over shallow,
reefy, kelpy ground for example are often a brilliant reddish colour, while deeper water fish can be
anything from green or brown through to sandy yellow.
This mottling however can vary in tone from dirty cream to brown, along with a scattering of small
brown flecks. The lower sides and belly which are un-patterned should be white, but in shallow water
fish, can often be some shade of dirty grey. The lateral line is very obvious and is white.
Cod have three dorsal fins and two anal fins, each of which is noticeably rounded at its peak. The chin
carries a very prominent barbel. A fish with a very wide ranging and opportunistic appetite willing to
eat everything from worms, shellfish and crabs, through to sea mice, squids, and some quite large fishes
such as sizeable whiting.
Fish feeding actually plays a major role at certain times of the year, with the larger cod concentrating
on sandeels, sprats or herrings, along with pretty much any other suitably sized fish they can catch.
Bass may well be the iconic anglers fish, but its the cod that is the true anglers fish. More time, effort,
and money goes into fishing for cod than bass have ever enjoyed, and if I'm honest, as much as I love
bass and believe they should be given exclusive recreational status, when the chips are down, if I had
to choose between cod or bass to go with my plate full, based on reality as opposed to fantasy, the cod
wins out on all levels for me.
It has the numbers, the growth potential, and the distribution both offshore and from the shore, plus it's
what the vast majority of us not only aspire to catch, but unlike bass, regularly succeed in catching,
which is vitally important if waning angler interest levels are to have any realistic chance of being held
in check.
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