Where are the Cod? The Sprats are in, has this affected the fishing?

I may know why the Cod have become difficult to catch! It seems that the Sprats have moved in to the area. I have been talking with a few commercial Bass fisherman and some charter skippers, and they tell me that the Bass have been coughing up loads of Sprats. I have known in the past that when the Sprats show up, the lure fishing for Bass becomes fantastic, but the Cod fishing dies off. It seems as though the Cod come off the bottom to chase and gorge themselves on the Sprats.

So far I have never used Sprats as bait except for Pike fishing, so I can’t claim that they are a wonder bait. There seems to be quite a bit of debate as to whether they are any good as a Cod bait or not, and how to rig then, so I guess that might be one of my articles in the next couple of weeks.

Talking of Bass from the boats, Paul Whittall took Offshore Rebel out in a recent break in the weather and had almost the whole sea to himself. It was a bit lumpy, but the Bass didn’t seem to mind, as he landed a string of fish on consecutive drifts. Plenty of them were in the 7lb range.

I am pretty excited this morning, as I am guiding today on lures for the first time in weeks. The water has cleared enough to give us a good chance at targeting some late Bass and the ever present Pollock.

I would like to say thanks to everyone that gave me feedback on the first fishing forecast video I posted. You raised some good points and I will aim to implement them in the next video. I am not sure if I have the time to get one out this week as I am away at the weekend fishing for Pike around Cambridge.

I mentioned the other day that I had  some interesting projects lined up. Not only will I try to do a once a week video forecast, I am going to start using the latest in social media to bring you a regular interactive live broadcast. Don’t get too excited, as I have not got myself my own broadcast studio. Instead I am going to take advantage of some of the features that Google + Hangouts has to offer.  It will allow me to put out a live video stream podcast, and have guests that will be able to answer questions live on their own webcams from an invited list of viewers. As a viewer you can type in questions and hopefully have them answered. I hope to start the first one later next week. All you need to do to view or take part in the live streaming events is create a Google account if you don’t already have one. Once you have done that go to your Google+ page type in my name, Sean McSeveney and add me to one of your circles. I will then reciprocate and add you into one of mine. You will then be sent a message with an invite to any live sessions that I do. Hopefully Adrian will make it simpler for you, by creating a button on here that will link directly to my account. If you miss the live streaming event, you will be able to catch up later with the recording on Youtube.

As I am running out of time, I will quickly mention the next change, and that is tackle reviews. I have noticed that although there are some good tackle reviews out there, they mainly concentrate on well known names. What I want to do is not only bring you reviews from the big companies, but also some of the lesser known but potentially better manufacturers. I will give you more details tomorrow, of how the reviews will take place. What I need is a number of anglers that are willing to help with the reviews. If you are interested in testing tackle, then please contact me for more information. You will need to be able to write a report about the product, but the perks are quite good.

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