orlock head 02/07/06

People:me and tommy

Duration:7.30am-1.30pm

Tide:low tide-rising tide.

Weather:warm, couple of light showers.

Bait:feathers and mackerel

Rigs:sliding float with baited mackerel.

Results:around 30 mackerel between us.


Report:headed to orlock with feathers and lures to catch some mackeral and hopefully some good pollock. first and second cast we were into the mackies with the white feathers. decided to use one for bait and go on the float. glad we did coz we caught some large mackerel, great sport!! wanted to have a try for the last hour for the pollock so i tried a rubber sandeel which so many people swear by but nothing doing. i've only ever caught pollock on ragworm but i have so many rubber worms and sandeels in my tackle box i wish i could make the most of them. maybe i'm using them wrong?! if anyone who is successful with rubber worms and sandeels could they please reply to this and let me know how u setup and how u retrieve them. anyway great fun with the mackies!!! :D

I find most of the Berkeley Gulp! worm immitations work fine for pollock. (at least they do down my way - other areas spinners or tobys are better) The way I do it is to get a 3-4 foot trace of 18lb nylon and tie a 3way swivel on the top end. One leg of the swivel is tied to the main line, the opposite end has the trace tied to it, ending in a 4/0 long shank hook, onto which the Gulp! lure is threaded so the hook lies about 1/2 way down the lure. On the last leg of the 3way swivel, I clip on a 2-3 oz bomb weight. Use too light a weight and it doesn't drop the lure down quickly enough to get a good sink-and-draw action. Some people might say an 18lb trace is overkill, but I find it less prone to tangling on the cast.

Cast that lot out, distance is usually not important as most of the fish take right under your feet as you retrieve. The real trick is to cast out and count down before beginning the retrieve, so it helps if you know how deep your mark is and what the bottom is like. I try to retrieve in a sink and draw manner - lift the rod tip to raise the lure, wind in as you drop the rod tip towards the water. This keeps the lure skipping up and down just above the bottom. I do this until the lure is right below me and then twitch it right to the surface - pollock will often follow the lure and make a last dash for it as it hits the surface.

If you feel the pollock pluck at the lure, don't break your pattern, just keep retreiving - they'll either take it or not. Do not strike a bite. A positive take will see the pollock hook itself if your hooks are sharp. Striking sometimes pulls the lure out of their mouth.

I keep the drag set so that it takes a bit of effort to strip line off the reel - just enough clutch to let it lose a few feet when a decent fish takes. When they do, don't stop winding even if the reel is losing line. After the first lunge, you'll start to gain line again.

When casting, I try a couple of casts to my right, the the next few round a bit and so on, covering all the water before me. If I've worked the lure all around me from right to left and back with no takes, I'll swap for another pattern and repeat. Some days some lures will work, others wont. I find a rising tide on a calm evening best but some marks fish differently, so try all stages of the day/tide.

Having got your pollock to the water's edge, now is the easiest time to lose it, particularly with the heavier fish. I tighten the drag near solid at this point with the fish beaten on the surface and holding the rod tip high but not vertical, slide a landing net under the fish. I lost more fish by tring to lift them by grabbing the trace....if they lunge, they often pull the hook out. Similarly, if you don't keep the rod tip up to keep tension in the line, the hook can easily fall out if they are hooked in the lower jaw - a sharp hook can make a bit of a hole during the fight.

Right, try that and let us know how you get on. If you don't find yourself losing the odd lure, you're not keeping it tight enough to the bottom. You want it to just skim the kelp on the sink and rise about 4-6 feet on the draw.

And at the risk of sounding like a worried mother, watch yourself on the rocks. The best spots often seem to be prone to the odd surge, so keep your eye out on the water in the direction the waves are approaching from and be ready to retreat. Even a calm day can see a rogue swell pop up out of the blue. All the usual precautions - mobile phone, self-inflating lifejacket, sensible footwear, telling someone where you're heading, what time you will be back etc....

now thats a reply sandman, thank u!! i'm thinking maybe i'm retrieving the lure too high up in the water coz i'm used to retrieving lures for mackerel. i'll certainly give u a big shout out if i catch my first pollock to the jellied worm or sandeel!!

No problem, hope it helps.

One thing I didn't mention (you could write books on this stuff.....) is that pollock usually hunt by looking above them for prey sillouetted against the sky and rise to take it. They're normally fiddling about through the upper reaches of the kelp, so that's why you normally fish down close to it.

However, if there are loads of fry or sandeels higher up in the water column, they'll forsake the kelp to work in that layer, so you could end up fishing below them, where they can't really see so well. In this case, fish closer to the surface, same sink and draw technique through the layer that holds the sandeels etc....

Generally, at the start of a session I'll have a rapid scan left to right in front of me and also try to cover the water top to bottom as well to see if I can figure where the pollock are and then concentrate my efforts on that. If all goes quiet, it's back to quickly covering the water left to right and top to bottom to see where the pollock have moved to, swapping lures to see if they've changed what they are feeding on.....

If after 2 hours your arm isn't aching, you're not covering the ground properly....

Any more questions, ask away.

Was out at orlock today as well, the place is full of mackeral, think the 6ft uglystik is gonna be coming out next time i'm out that way! Where did you fish at orlock?? I always find more pollock between sandeel bay and the rocks at the steps, not as many from there to the carpark, think its possibly sandier. Small jellyworms seem to work best, or the small storm shads! Fair few decent pollock knocking about if you can find them!

found a great spot for big mackerel, deep water. it was a good dander from the top of the steps though, can't really explain were the spot was, but its a cracker!! :D

really great advice on taking pollack spinning, sandman, good active fishing

Aye, it's active stuff alright. I'm lucky in a way that the marks I fish are small in area - if I had to do all the above and rock hop as well, it'd be too much like work.....

But that's spinning for you - you have to keep the lure moving. It's a rare fish that will take one that's not moving.