Catching big pollack from wrecks and wind farm power

BIG POLLACK WRECK TACTICS
The biggest pollack are usually underneath the main shoals of average sized fish tight to the wreckage and hugging the seabed. The knack to hooking them is to get through the shoals of smaller fish and work the lures bouncing hard on the seabed.

The best rig for this is a two-hook rig made from 80 or 100lb mono with plastic squid or muppets on short 12-inch snoods and size 8/0 hooks. Use either a big chrome pirk or a lead weight to get the tackle down. Have a single 10/0 hook on the pirk and bait this with a whole flapper mackerel. It's a 50/50 chance whether the pollack take the lures or the baited pirk. Often the very biggest fish go for the pirk.

Big wreck pollack

Fish 50lb braid on a 30lb rod and reel combination. The braid requires much less weight to stay on the seabed than standard mono does and offers greater sensitivity. When you feel the lead or pirk touch the seabed, tighten the line just enough so that when the rod is lifted and dropped down again you can "bounce" the pirk or weight on the seabed. The pollack invariably hit on the up lift, but sometimes as the lures are falling. You may need to release a little line to maintain contact with the seabed as the boat drifts.

To catch pollack in numbers you must risk tackle amongst the wreckage. The biggest fish often take a lure when the pirk has literally banged in to wreckage and comes free.

Pollack feed best during the hour or so before and after slack water. Occasionally they feed freely during the neap tides when the tide is running, but this is not general.

During slack water periods of neap tides they may lift higher in the water and fall back off the wreck a little way, so keep fishing until the very end of the drift, not just over the wreck itself.

TIPS AND TRICKS
When using harbour rag or king rag for flatfish at close range the idea is to just nip the hooks in the head of the worm to leave lots of fish enticing wriggling tails moving about in the tide. Problem is, the tails are fragile for casting. After baiting up, dip the rag baited hooks in seawater for a couple of seconds. The water collected in the wriggling tails helps stop the rag tails breaking up during the cast.

WIND PROBLEM?

Wind farms destroying our natural beauty?

This latest idea to get wind power generating turbine banks offshore tends to worry me a little. Has anyone stopped to think what effects these generating banks might have on localised fish, especially migratory fish like mackerel, cod, salmon and sea trout? I doubt it!

My concern is that the amount of vibration and noise generated from these massive turbines will pass through to the water and be broadcast many miles away due to water being a much denser mass than air. Might this not disturb fish and effect potential migration of seasonal species in to that area? I remember reading that seismic surveys can badly affect dolphins and porpoise living 50 miles or more away from the test area.

Deliberately playing Devil's advocate, maybe the turbine banks anchorage will be an advantage to local fishing and act like a FAD, a Fish Aggregating Device used overseas to provide baitfish with a little protection and pull the bigger predators in to the area. Maybe these turbine areas will also act as nursery sites and create a ripple effect of juvenile fish that repopulate the seas.

Whatever, I'd like to hear just what if any work has been carried out in studying both positive and negative effects on local sea areas exposed to this type of power generation and whether fish are likely to be effected.