Being a southern angler I’ve had my fair share of huge Pollack and long gone are the days where I could spend time chasing a high double figure specimen, but over the winter I do enjoy grabbing a few days offshore in search of a bit of crash diving sport. The Pollack has to be the nation’s most prolific fish – available everywhere in the UK – and admittedly, over a year, I catch so many that I do get slightly bored with them, but one thing you can’t fault Pollack for, is their reliability to put up a great fight. A fight of searing ‘hold on for your life’ runs from the take, ending with arm aching pumping until the fish reaches the net. A Pollack is a tough opponent and there is no better time to catch one than now, but why?

Pollack are available all around the UK, but over the winter something strange happens on the south coast – a fish breeding phenomenon. Pollack of a few pounds to five or six pounds are very common around the UK coastline. Eight, nine and ten pounders are great fish to catch, but a double figure fish is by no means an average specimen standard (excluding shore!). Early double figure Pollack of eleven to thirteen pounds are still very common when boat fishing from many ports, but every winter deep in the middle of the English channel, huge Pollack, which can grow in excess of twenty pounds turn up to breed and when they do...they don’t do it quietly!

Breeding Pollack shoals start to show up sometime around November, deep in the southwest and slowly over the following months they start to fill the English Channel wrecks, from Cornwall to beyond. “Fill” some days can actually seem an understatement. It’s quite some sight to see twenty or so high double figure Pollack, a good handful of low doublers and the odd twenty-pounder chucked in for good measure. In reality, days like this can be expected if the wind and tide are right and, obviously, if the fish choose to play ball. We’re not just talking a few fish here with the odd good one, we’re talking thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands – who knows - and BIG double-figure brutes make up a large percentage of this migration. But what makes this fishing special is that, as far as I am aware, nowhere else on Earth does this Huge Pollack wreck feeding and breeding frenzy happen.

In days gone by, this glut of Pollack have been abused by anglers, using overkill rods to catch what today would be classed as an unacceptable amount of fish. But I’m glad to say that things have changed and today’s more sporting angler takes the light tackle, one lure approach which, whilst providing maximum sport, also never fails to provide some good fillets for the freezer.

Later this month will see this fishing peak, and hopefully this will coincide with some better weather, so if you’re going winter pollacking, here are my top tips. I’ve thrown a few things in to think about for the small boat angler who tows his own boat too. If you’ve never caught a big Pollack, now is the time to try.

HARDWARE
On flat calm days with no wind I get away with a 6lb class downtide rod, although 10-12lb class I use more commonly as flat calm days are few. On blowy days I increase my rod to a 12-20 to fish with over 12oz of lead comfortably. Longer rods like the MTI 15lb class etc make pretty good all-round offshore rods and will handle a little more lead than an average 12lb class. My rods are matched with medium sized multipliers that have a medium to high retrieve – this helps with lure motion. Slow retrieves just can’t crank enough when you want to work a fast lure.

In 200 plus feet of water, with a reasonable run-of-tide, mono is certainly dead and buried. I’m sorry if that offends anyone. My reels are loaded with top quality 30lb Calcutta super-braid. This gives me strength – low diameter tide cutting ability - and some abrasion resistance without going overkill. 50lb braid almost defeats the object of ditching the thicker mono to start with! To all braid I add the same breaking strain monofilament leader of about 10ft – I feel clear is better – this hopefully should give at the knot should it become snagged.

RIGS
It can only be one, the flying collar rig. Tubey booms are more user friendly when you have cold, wet hands and can also be pre-rigged – threaded with a 50cm length of mono with a swivel at either end for the mainline and trace. French booms, although also outdated, can still provide a cheaper option on snaggy wrecks where tackle losses are regular.

For traces I like 25lb clear mono and I always add a swivel one third of the way in from the boom if the length is over 8ft.

Another good tip, instead of fiddling with paper clips, rubber bands or light mono for a weak link – try wire garden twist wrap. It comes on a huge roll and with a few wraps to attach the lead; it couldn’t be simpler or more reliable.

Garden Wire ready for action...

Take a length of garden wire...

Twist the wire around the boom...

Twist the lose end of the wire to the lead for the perfect weak link...

EYE CANDY – THE LURES
For lures. The last ten years have revolutionised UK lure fishing and I would far rather carry a box full of weighted, ‘real fish’ patterned lures than anything else these days. It’s clear that pearlescent, silver and blue tinged lures, plain or with patterns, represent our bait fish like anchovy and sprat perfectly. Having said that, I’d still feel uncomfortable leaving home without my old faithful red, orange, green and black afterburner Redgills and my black-fire tail jelly worms. With winter pollacking, any lure can work on any given day, and there will be a best lure of each day. Make sure you take a variety of styles including shads, worms, and eels etc and take a variety of colours to include real fish and fluorescent.

Whilst fishing vary lures, trace lengths and retrieve speed till you find what works. My observations are that on spring tides, long traces paired with an average retrieve work well, but on neap tides, I often find myself fishing a smaller trace with a faster retrieve. Note that longer traces present a lure the best distance possible from the scare of your lead and boom, whilst a short trace certainly increases lure action.

If you’re having a tough day, try fishing a small lure with a provocative action, very fast on the retrieve. I personally like a three inch shad. And If you want to continue catching throughout slack water, when the fish almost cease to feed, chuck on a jelly worm – black with red fire tail is still the old faithful here – and again wind like the clappers.

Throughout the stages of the tide, and on different days, Pollack will feed at different heights around a wreck. From when the lead touches down on the seabed, count the amount of turns you make with the reel handle until you make contact with fish. It’s almost certain that the majority of Pollack will fall within a certain bracket i.e. 10-15 or 20-30 turns etc of the reel handle.

TIDES, TIMES AND TOP AREAS
For times and tides, winter Pollack arrive in the western English Channel and appear to move east. In November start by looking in Cornwall and west Devon. After Christmas when the action kicks off properly, some of the best fishing can be found between Plymouth and Weymouth. From February and into spring, the fishing hots up around Weymouth, to the east and out around the Channel Islands. Pollack feed better during spring tides, but neap tides and their associated moon phases produce times of better weather with steady fishing.

Some top ports to try are Mevagissy, Falmouth, Looe, Plymouth, Salcombe, Dartmouth, Brixham, Torquay, Exmouth, Weymouth, Poole and Lymington.

SMALL BOATING TIPS
For the small boat angler who tows his own boat. Remember tide times for further out in the English Channel can differ up to 3 hours from the nearest port – make sure you’re fishing when the tide is running.

Pollack usually lie up-tide of a wreck, and most days can often be located by fish finder so, make sure you start your drifts allowing ample time to get your tackle down to them.

Big wrecks can offer fast and furious fishing but small wrecks can often offer slower fishing but bigger fish.

Pollack love an obstruction, like a wreck, and will usually favour the steepest and most abrupt section where the tide is most disturbed. Having said that, if you are catching small fish, try drifting just off the wreck on the sand as sometimes this is where a bigger specimen will be, away from the huge shoals of harder feeding smaller fish.

Winds from the west are always better for winter Pollack fishing but don’t be put off by east winds – Pollack are not as disturbed by east winds in the winter as they are in the summer. Perhaps that’s because of the sheer quantity and size of these fish, and competition means they have to feed almost daily.

Dress warm. Lots of layers that can be removed are far better than one thick layer. A warm angler is a better angler.