The three I caught here on the West were all caught on a sandy bottom. Im not sure of the tide or anything. They are bottom fish and I never looked at the tides when fishing them on in the east. I dont know if it really matters.
From what Im used to, in new england, all you needed was some clam and you would catch if they were there. Not a diffiicult fish to catch. It wasnt the tide, or your lure, on the time of day etc. They are a dumb fish that like to eat.
I think here if you really want to target them, you would end up with a lot of by-catch. I cant imagine there been 'great cod spots', do you know what I mean? I think you'd end up pulling up dogfish, a few types of flounders, some rockfish etc. and if you were lucky, you would catch a cod.
From what Ive seen at least, there arent enough around to specifically catch cod in an outing.