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Left Hartlepool about 8:30, stopped off South Gare for mackerel, which were positively leaping onto the hooks. Headed south to Salt Scar, then rough ground off Skinningrove - nothing doing.
Set off for one of the nearby wrecks, found it using a combination of plotter & sounder (thanks, Norman), appeared to be covered in fish.
I had a flowing trace on, and being too lazy to switch it for a pirk, I put on a firetail left over from my Cornish holiday. First drop, got a take, good fight - 6lb Pollack! Dropped again, even bigger pollack which Ian dropped during boating. We then got out the landing net, thinking dark thoughts about stable doors and horses, but the next drift produced an even bigger fish, at 9lb. Spent the next hour redrifting the wreck, Pulling up 1 or 2 fish per drift, all in the 6-9lb range, until we had enough and set off for home.
The really funny thing was, at least 4 of the Hartlepool charter boats and another private boat visited the wreck looking for ling while we were there, and caught nothing - couldn\'t work out why they didn\'t switch tactics as they could clearly see us pulling out big fish at regualr intervals (we were making enough noise about it as well!). We were just using standard south coast pollack methods with firetails - drop, retrieve, drop, retrieve until you feel the pull, keep winding and they hook themselves. The fish also gave a good sporting fight all the way up, with repeated dives just when you thought they were coming quietly.
Also, bonus Gurnard for Ian - just a tiddler though.
Great fun, best day\'s fishing this year. Also, I love pollack - think the taste is better than cod, and I now have enough good-sized fillets to last quite some time.
Set off for one of the nearby wrecks, found it using a combination of plotter & sounder (thanks, Norman), appeared to be covered in fish.
I had a flowing trace on, and being too lazy to switch it for a pirk, I put on a firetail left over from my Cornish holiday. First drop, got a take, good fight - 6lb Pollack! Dropped again, even bigger pollack which Ian dropped during boating. We then got out the landing net, thinking dark thoughts about stable doors and horses, but the next drift produced an even bigger fish, at 9lb. Spent the next hour redrifting the wreck, Pulling up 1 or 2 fish per drift, all in the 6-9lb range, until we had enough and set off for home.
The really funny thing was, at least 4 of the Hartlepool charter boats and another private boat visited the wreck looking for ling while we were there, and caught nothing - couldn\'t work out why they didn\'t switch tactics as they could clearly see us pulling out big fish at regualr intervals (we were making enough noise about it as well!). We were just using standard south coast pollack methods with firetails - drop, retrieve, drop, retrieve until you feel the pull, keep winding and they hook themselves. The fish also gave a good sporting fight all the way up, with repeated dives just when you thought they were coming quietly.
Also, bonus Gurnard for Ian - just a tiddler though.
Great fun, best day\'s fishing this year. Also, I love pollack - think the taste is better than cod, and I now have enough good-sized fillets to last quite some time.
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