East Antrim rock mark (10/06/12)

People: Me

Duration: 5 hours

Tide: few hour either side of high

Weather: Sunny

Bait: Ragworm

Rigs: Float

Results: Pollack: 12x 4-5lbers, 1x 3lb and 1 at a guess 10-12lb but upon trying to land it the hook just ripped out with the weight.




Report: Decided to give a local mark a go today with the nice weather and low wind speed and actually thought it might be a little early as I usually prefer late Summer - Autumn for the bigger fish. Glad I did as I had some great sport though very surprised by the lack of Coalies, smaller Pollack and Wrasse. Gutted about, yet again, losing a double-figure fish though really enjoyed the 5-10 minute fight we had. Gonna have to pick myself up a gaff sometime soon if I realistically want to land a fish like that as the biggest I have managed to land were all around 8lb. Used to have one years ago too but it was left behind in the loft during a house move. Kept 3 fish to eat as it's all I need for a few fish pies and, as i've found out before, they get very heavy when walking any distance not to mention bags cutting into your hands. Maybe I should pick up one of those old lady tartan trolleys too and fit all-terrain wheels, lol.

Nice result Dave, it was a great day out there

Keep 'er lit!
Monty

im really gonna have to make to effort to give that place a proper go, these days i usually end up on the down coast with drew,

Nice fishing

Great fishing.

Its fantastic seeing all these photos of big pollack rather than the usual array of small ones that most of us encounter.

thats savage fishing dave.
we've had days out on the boat fishing WW2 deep sea wrecks and never had anything that size man.
so from the shore, that's an outstanding result man. well done

the last time we fished a co down big pollack mark we watched 2 chinese lads fishing rag under a sliding float set up. they were cleaning up compared to our lure and soft plastic efforts and we were fishing hard man .
just goes to show that with all the new fangled soft plastics and plugs being used these days, sometimes it's the old simple methods that does the buisness

Thanks man, guess I am a bit old-fashioned despite not really being that old but it's how i've always fished the mark for 30 years and it's always done the business for me. The only thing i've changed really over recent years is that I now use braid, 30lb leader, 30lb trace and size 3/0 hooks. It means i now don't lose most of the bigger fish and even if they dive down into the snags I can just wait them out for a few minutes and they always seem to come free. My dad had a double last year of the same size except he had set his trace up using only the 15lb mono straight through from his reel and the inevitable happened when i tried to land it. Unfortunately this time I had all the right gear on, but still couldn't land it. I reckon if someone had been with me they could have held the rod and gave me both hands free to hold the line with one and lift it by the gills with the other (though that gives me nightmares of a monster wild Brownie I lost the same way years ago ). On my own I have to line hoist them up onto the rocks and hope for the best.
I actually keep meaning to give the soft plastics a serious go as it seems to be working well for guys and looks fun, but always scared of wasting my time when my usual methods work and don't like to use heavier rods for Pollack. I think I might actually give the smaller plastics a go this year and try and get a cheap LRF set-up for my birthday as that really looks the business and would definitely make things a lot more exciting.
Funny you should mention the old ways and Chinese men Al, lol, as when I was fishing one of the harbours in the Isle of Man for big Pollack I was using my usual method and doing quite well, or so I thought. The Chinese came down and they were free-lining catching Macks and Pollack probably every 30 seconds (it was an eye-opener for sure). I changed tactics and it was incredible, not to mention the most Mackeral i've ever had on bait. Over there, as you probably know bait is the leftover frills from the Scallop (Queenie Frills) left in buckets for the locals to use.

@yngkmd, definitely get yourself down mate as you missed out last year with the injury and it will fish great right through to October. If you can't get big rag on any given day frozen sandeels work a treat there too and remember keep it to yourself and you'll have a great spot for life.

Here's a pic of the fish I kept as I don't like to stop to take photos when fishing and also my phone's touchscreen gets unresponsive when my hands are wet. The first I caught was the smallest one which I would have released had I known the fishing was going to be so good this early in the year. I kept the 1st 3 I caught and released bigger ones.


ps. Brian i've been picking up Codling pretty early at that Belfast Lough shore mark i'd been urging you to fish, none over a pound yet, but I did lose a good fish which might have been one when a defective snood swivel broke (a Berkley not a cheap one too). I have only fished it a few times over the past month and did quite well, though next time I get down will bring a supply of lug with me.

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great report mate i will be hiting our pollock mark in 2 weeks cant wait now after reading you report

good report mate, unlucky for not landing that pollock mate because it would of been a stonker from the shore.

Gonna have to pick myself up a gaff sometime soon if I realistically want to land a fish like that...

Dave, could i suggest a net..
since seeing a friend (he's a fanatical trout fisherman) bring his net with him every time he went out to target sea trout and pollack form the shore, i thought it a great idea and now do the same myself.
we both fish a lot for trout too and so we have the jackets with all the pockets and the same jackets that have the loop on the back to hook a net onto. its a handy way to fish from the shore with the net right there on your back. i always wear the jacket and net on my back now when i head out to do fly fishing or spinning from the shore.
regardless, you could just carry a net with you anyway. nets are far better then gaffs as the gaffs can only be used when you are definitely going to kill the fish, nets are also far easier to use and have better success rate.
IMHO i reckon a big pollack like that should be returned unharmed to breed again - we have seen a HUGE decline in pollack numbers in Red Bay over the last 20 years due them all being slaughtered!!

great fishing man!

That's a serious amount of very good fish, well done brilliant stuff

Hi Charlie, i only keep about 6-8 large Pollack on average per year out of about 100 caught mate and to be honest nothing would be wasted as we eat a lot of fish anyway. I do get your point about the net, but unfortunately they are too expensive for me at the present time and the trout one I have is too small (there's one on the boat but it's huge and haven't been near the boat much for years). I will actually get myself a good big fold-up net for sure when I get back to work.
I ordered a small telescopic gaff for £6 off ebay but only intend to use it just the once if i hook another double figure Pollack. I would like to take just the one home to show everyone and get photographed, eaten etc and that would be it, mission accomplished. If I got another double after that I would not gaff it and also any of my usual fish up to 8lb I will continue to land by line as I always have.
Say, for example, I was to head out today and catch more I would keep none as I have not yet used the fillets in the freezer. A Pollack of 4-5lb would be enough to make a large fish pie that feeds my whole family very very well for 2 days and the kids love it even the fussy-eating eldest who is a nightmare to get him to eat anything healthy. Honestly man, i'm very against needlessly slaughtering fish and pure greed, but I have always kept a few when I need them as I would be buying it from the supermarket anyway. Have the numbers of big Pollack drastically dropped up round Red Bay as, to be honest, it's still as great as it always was up my way?

ps. I was joking about the tartan trolley, , though that would actually have been a fair amount of meat to keep us going while i'm not earning. I would never do that though but nothing wrong with keeping a few if you are a seafood lover like myself and will definitely use them.

Have the numbers of big Pollack drastically dropped up round Red Bay as, to be honest, it's still as great as it always was up my way?

red bay used to be great for pollack fishing Dave but not any more. i used to have a small boat and could head out spinning for pollack in it and would have always been pretty much assured of catching several decent pollack each trip, no problem. good big pollack, maybe even double figures. but they arent there any more. its even harder to get one from the shore too.
people have caught-on to the pollack fishing and have been targeting them more and more over the years because the fishing in the rest of the bay has degraded i.e. the pollack had not been overfished because the trawlers couldnt get at them with their nets over the rocks and kelp beds. people didnt use to bother with them years ago as the fishing was so good out in the bay but over recent years they have been targeted more and more, i have seen a lot of pollack killed
there were certain parts of the bay along the shores that were great but i have covered them in small boats over recent years and the pollack just arent there in the same numbers and size. definitely not. there are still some decent marks for them around our shores not far from red bay however, just not in the bay. i should be heading out a day this week maybe in a kayak to target them. i'll let you know how i get on if i do.. maybe put a report up

Dave thats incredible fishing, great size of fish. Well done.