ROCK POLLACK FLOAT FISHING TACTICS
Pollack are just getting re-established inshore now, with the rock ledges under cliffs giving access to deeper water being the prime hotspots.

Keep tackle simple. A spinning rod about 10-feet long to cast no more than 2ozs is okay, or if you're mainly a coarse angler, use your 11/2lb test barbel rod. Best reel choice is a fixed spool holding around 200-yards of 10lb line. You'll need some cigar or small pike floats that will support 1/4 and 1/2oz round bullets. Occasionally 1oz bullets and bigger floats will be needed if the sea is carrying a decent swell.

Instead of traditional floats with coloured tops in red, yellow or orange, paint the tops of the float black. Black stands out far better against a sea surface reflecting light back at you. The best sea floats have a yellow body and black top. You can easily see the black as it floats, but as a bait is taken and the float disappears, you'll still see the yellow body under water as it dives away giving you an indication of where the fish is heading

Top baits are firstly live ragworm hooked only through the head end to gives the tail maximum movement. Also try long slivers of mackerel, or whole small sandeel with the hook just nicked through the upper lip of these to let the bait cantilever as the move moves in the swell to give life.

Start by fishing tight to the rocks you are stood on. Set the float to fish the bait about two thirds depth, but experiment if bites are not forthcoming. Use any tidal current either way to work the float over the ground. Pollack are not delicate eaters and the float will more than likely tilt a fraction before disappearing fast in to the depths. As the float goes, strike to make contact.

Also search the ground further out in front of you. Look for up welling currents that indicate rising rock below and slightly uptide, work the float around the edges of rocks that break the surface, and especially over and around kelp weed beds. Kelp can often be seen when you're on the higher paths leading to the rock ledges and are worth pinpointing.

TIPS AND TRICKS
One of my regular fishing mates has found a really novel way to clean the salt corrosion that builds up on the chrome frame of his beach multipliers.

Remember as kids we were shown in basic science at school that if you dropped an old and dirty copper penny in to Coke or Pepsi and left it overnight, by the morning the penny was shiny bright again? It's the same principle.

He pours enough Coke in to a container to fully immerse the stripped down cage, leaves it overnight, and tells me by the next morning the chrome is spic and span, shiny as new. A quick wash in warm soapy water to wash the acidity and sugar off left by the Coke and the job is done.