What a load of Pollacks

Hi all
Is it just here (Kerry), or have the pollack and coalfish numbers collapsed? Sure you can still catch big fish from the really gnarly shore and boat marks, but the days of using huge lures (to avoid smaller fish), and catching enough in an hour to feed me and the dog for a month, are over? I've been told that there's no quota for pollack and we've seen boats trolling the reefs and taking hundreds of juvenile pollack/coalfish. As for coalfish, I caught my first this year last week. They used to be everywhere, all year, making beach fishing and feathering up some mackerel a pain at times. Then there's the mackerel. The governments tell us, that with the Atlantic warming, they now range to the extreme North therefore making the stock more spread out and reducing stock in any given area. By my thinking, if they are migrating further North in increased temperatures, we should catch them earlier in the year. We now struggle to catch any numbers before August?

Yea id agree with you there. I fish the beara for a week every summer and the past 2 years has had a huge drop in the size and amounts of both Pollack and coalies. I think the government is talking total crap when it comes to mackerel stocks

Google paradise lost how to destroy a fishery. It was an article in an Irish anglers world 2 years ago. Shocking stuff

Taking pollack as an example.....
Years back you went to the chippie for cod and chips. It went without saying. Nowadays much of the cod eaten in the country is imported from northern countries. Cod is expensive. Now in your chippie you are more than likely eating pollack. The real seafood chippies will advertise what fish they have but the local will just say “fish supper”.
The fact is there is a value on pollack now. More than in years gone by. So they are being relentlessly netted and hammered by jigging machines.
A 12lb pollack is an extremely rare fish!

The decline of the pollack here has been dramatic. Until last summer double figure fish were relatively common off Valentia, now they are unusual. I normally fish with a 9oz pirk, big assist hook (10/0) and biggest gummie mac above (9/0). This is to avoid smaller fish being dragged up from 100m plus (and having to be killed). I would have normally caught enough fish from one mark (an hour?) for food but now it takes all day to catch half a dozen reasonable fish. I've heard locally that fishmongers will give €70-90 per box for decent fish, but I must say this is heresay and probably not true? This has the makings of a good experiment!

Quota for polls l is just under 1000tons. See SFPA website. Lots of gill netters in the South West targeting white fish in the winter months. Pollack is getting €80 box at pier wall which is only about €2 a kg.

Caz

Sorry. Poll s = Pollack

Gill netters and otter boards are the norm now but with the coming of the fiber glass angling boat charging more for a days fishing they basically became commercial vessels also targeting pollack and coley almost exclusively for the bin bag fillers