Eddystone eel setup

This is a good trick to try on those days when bites are proving difficult to get. One of the biggest factors is getting the size of the lure right on the day. As we mentioned previously, the pollack can become preoccupied by a species that is dominant in numbers at that time. If they are feeding on larger inch plus launce sandeel, then they may well ignore smaller lures. Equally, if they are taking small sprat say 3ins long, then an 8-inch would be left alone.

This is another thing to experiment with on the day. Keep changing the size of your lures until you find the winning formula.

This is a subject in itself. Many, mistakenly, think the pollack grabs its meal and swallows it. Pollack have a big and powerful tail and body. They have a rapid off the line turn of speed that can intercept prey. Their usual attack mode though is to swim up behind a small fish then gulp in a mouth full of water. This sucks the prey straight into the back of the mouth of the pollack. It shuts its mouth, expels the water through its gills, then swallows the prey. You need to keep winding at the same speed.

Do not strike! Keep retrieving and as the pressure increases the rod tip goes hard and the fish will feel the hook and run for the wreck. This is where your drag comes in. Let the fish take line, but have the drags set so that it has to work hard to take line off the reel. Do not try and hold the fish or either the hook length will break or the hook tear out.

The instant the fish stops running, pump it upwards gaining line back on to the reel as you drop the rod for the next upward pump.

If the fish wants to run again, let it. This is the only way to play pollack and land your share. Pollack will also try to run when they see the daylight starting to brighten, roughly at half depth. Be prepared for this! Although the reefs do not produce huge pollack in numbers, the reefs off the Devon and Cornish coast, those off Wales and Scotland, and especially those off the west coast of Ireland can still produce double figure fish in good numbers.

General reef fishing is rarely in more than ft of water. This allows the use of the lighter 12lb to 15lb class rod, a small compact multiplier like the Penn Fathom 15LD, or even a Penn Mag3. These can be loaded with 20 to 30lb braid and again fished with a 20lb fluorocarbon or mono leader. Over the reefs there is another option to consider. Often the tide run allows the use of much lighter tackle.

An 8ft to 9ft spinning rod, a size fixed spool with a good drag, loaded with 20lb braid and a 20lb fluorocarbon leader. On this tackle, and with no tide, you can let a 1oz jighead and shad or sandeel descend to the bottom then work it back. This is not only deadly but highly effective too. Big pollack really fight on this light tackle. Reef pollack are mostly in amongst the boulders choosing to live around the bigger boulders that dominate the general seabed.

They also congregate around any small rising pinnacles that lift up off the bottom. The best way to fish is to drift along with the current and just keep working the lures as normal. Often you can see major seabed structure show on the seas surface as turbulent swirling water or areas of flat water in a rougher sea. Remember though, that these structures will be uptide of the actual surface showing, but it gives you an indication of where to look then you can take a drift over it to see.

Pollack also tend to be in numbers close to any small surface-breaking rocks that drop away into deeper water, but obviously care and safety need to be taken into consideration here when taking boats close in. Another good place to try are the channels between the main shore and a small island.

These tend to channel the tide and the bigger pollack often live here. With the water depth being substantially less than over wrecks, then the light factor comes much more into play. In clear water, then some overall cloud cover will make a massive difference.

On bright sunny days, then the fish may only feed freely as the angle of the sun reduces on the water. This would be early morning to mid-morning, then again from mid-afternoon to evening. The very best times for pollack close to shore are dusk and dawn. The plankton rise in the water as the light fades and the smaller life forms follow them, bringing with them the smaller baitfish, and then the pollack follow these and even in ft of water, the pollack will take lures at dusk right on the surface.

During periods of very rough weather, pollack will move out off the shallower reefs and it will take them a few days to filter back in again.

This is a deadly technique on the inshore reefs. The old method used to be using the Flying Collar Rig, but the Whitby rig is better for this, you just need to extend the length of the hook trace to 8 or 9ft. Keep the lead weight as light as possible. Use just enough weight to keep the line and sandeel down. To hook the sandeel, pass the hook through the head just in front of the eyes where the bone is stronger. This lets the sandeel look more natural in the water.

Let the tackle down slowly to allow the hook trace to extend a little and avoid tangles. When the weight hits the seabed, start to retrieve slowly. Takes can be savage, the pollack just sucking the smaller sized eels straight in, but sometimes they need to be given a little more time.

If you keep having the sandeel taken off with no hookup, extend the length of the hook trace and maybe lighten it to a lower breaking strain. The best way to get clean hookups is to feel the rod tip for the increasing pressure and give the pollack time to fully eat the bait.

This especially applies to man-made structures such as piers, breakwaters and stone jetties. Their numbers swell more come April and build through to late June when overall numbers peak. This lasts until mid-November when numbers reduce again.

On the deep water rock ledges, the best of the fishing is from May with numbers building through to late June, then holding steady until late November or December. Much depends on the overall weather pattern as prolonged rough seas will push them out to deeper water, as will prolonged periods of very cold settled weather.

The biggest shore caught fish almost always come from the deep water rock ledges. Fish up to 5lbs are fairly common, but in September and October, even November there is a very good chance of much bigger fish over 6lbs if you put the time in.

Fishing from man-made structures is best when there is a moving sea. Some swell and some surface ripple is ideal, especially on days when there is good cloud cover. In this shallower water a heavy sea will push the fish out, especially during the bigger spring tides.

It is less critical when fishing the open coast rock ledges. Safety decrees that the sea needs to be pretty settled with no real swell. Even then, only choose rock ledges where you have a quick exit route to higher ground should the sea swell suddenly increase.

The best fishing though, is when the sea has been settled and predictable for some time. Try not to fish directly after a big storm has passed through and a big sea is still subsiding. It will take a few tides for the fish to filter back into the shoreline in these conditions. Given the water will be much deeper, the fish are less affected by the light levels, but even so the cloudier days again fish better.

Often the worst time to be fishing is either side of midday when the sun is high in the sky and the light levels go straight down into the water column.

The pollack are up in the water and feeding, so this is the very best time to be fishing. To be able to access the rocks you need relatively calm conditions, but do bear in mind the wind direction. Pollack take best when the wind is blowing either from the south or west. If you take note, catches will be less good if the wind has north or east in it. The longer a wind blows from the north or east, the worse the fishing becomes.

Pollack are very obliging fish and are not overly conscious of the size of the tide. On shallower venues such as man-made structures, the fish will move in and out with the spring tides as they drop towards low water but creep back in again as a new flood tide deepens.

On the smaller neap tides when the depth is more constant, then the pollack may not move out at all and stay well within range the whole time. In short, though, they can be caught for most of the incoming and outgoing tide, though the better catches will occur on the flood tide. The smaller neap tides are mostly the best when fishing the rock ledges. The smaller neap tides tend to have less swell and will allow shore access to generally deeper water where the numbers of fish are more constant.

Either side of high and low water slack can be ok, but pollack like some tide run, so the best of the fishing will be in the second and fourth hour of the tide when the current flows steadily. If the flow of the tide is very strong, it will usually be worse in the middle hours of the flood and this will push the fish deep and they are less easy to tempt. Pollack love structure. They use it to deflect the tidal flow, use it as a hidey-hole from which to ambush prey fish, and also as a defence against attacks from bigger predators.

On man-made structure you need to be fishing as tight to the pier legs and supports as possible. On breakwaters, the fish will be right in the edge where the base of the boulders or tetrapods from the breakwater, and in the holes created by these structural components. The rock ledges need a lot more thought and observation.

This is best done on calm days when there is a good tide running. You will see surface disturbance such as swirls and flat calm patches on the water with rougher water around them. This tells you there is major seabed structure evident, but this will be uptide some distance as the tide flows over this structure, then bubbles up towards the surface some distance down tide. You need to locate this structure by fishing it until you find a concentration of pollack which will be evident here.

Use identification marks on the cliffs to pinpoint the mark for the future. Also from height, look carefully at the shoreline and how it is formed. Specific feature to note is where a rocky finger juts out to sea where the tide flows round the end and into deeper water. Pollack will sit in the deeper water just on the edge of this tide run and ambush small fish that get swept past them.

If you stand on the tide line rocks and look at the overall cliff structure around you, pretty much what you see will carry on underwater.

Anywhere where a steep cliff drops into the sea is a good spot as rocks and boulders will, over time, have fallen into the sea here and created a rough seabed with plenty of features.

The channels between the shoreline and an island are great spots as the tide quickens here and baitfish get swept into such places for the pollack to prey on. Also, note areas where when casting you come through kelp weed.

Pollack love weed beds as they reduce the light entering the water, attract small prey fish, and the pollack can use them as ambush points. Another good spot to fish near are lobster pots. The bait in the lobster pots attracts a lot of smaller fish and the pollack will hunt around the pots picking these off. Remember, that the pot buoys will be downtide of the actual pot when the tide is flowing.

Sometimes you see shallower ground holding kelp weed that breaks surface at low water on the bigger tides. If this ground has deeper gullies and gutters running into it, then these, especially in the autumn period, can hold some bigger than average pollack that take up station in these gullies.

Look out for these as they are more common than you think, especially on the open west-facing coasts. The smaller harbour, pier and breakwater pollack can be targeted with a light oz spinning rod no more than 9ft in length, small sized fixed spool reel loaded with 15lb braid plus a short 15lb fluorocarbon leader, and float tackle.

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