Sunday, August 28, 2011

Pollock Frenzy.


I first became aware that I was surrounded when I lifted a lure out of the water at my feet and a small plucky Pollock propelled itself clear out of the water in pursuit of my lure. I then noticed diturbances on the surface of the water and was immediately tempted by the idea of catching Pollock on the surface, as the Bass hadn't turned up at that stage. I decided to try with a Lucky Craft Sammy, as the fish were small, and for the next half hour the walking lure was attacked and missed half a dozen times per retrieve on average but they just couldn't or wouldn't take it fully. After a couple of foul hooks I switched to some hard metals to learn a bit more about how they work and was able to see the fish attacking the lure under my rod top. I think using something like a Feed Shallow would have led to multiple hook ups, it was very similar to mackerel behavior. As darkness fell I was joined by an Otter who went right through the Pollock which didn't seem to effect their enthusiasm. Walking back to the car through the shallows my headtorch picked up some unusual baitfish in the shallows which I couldn't identify but I think they were the reason for the Pollock frenzy.


Pollock Frenzy Day 2.
24 hrs later I returned to the scene of the crime to see if the action was still on and it sure was. This time I opted for a small weightless soft plastic in white to match the bait fish I 'd seen previously. As I was nearing my chosen spot I stopped to clip on my plastic and whilst doing so I noticed a disturbance in the shallow water to my left, I cast in that direction and Bang, Fish on.....a solid fish....doesn't feel like a Pollock........oh no slack line.......whats happened? I wound in to find the clip had broken, most unusual !?! I quickly retied and cast......again Bang, fish on and this time it was indeed a nice Bass not the Pollock or even Mullet I'd thought was the cause of the disturbance. For the next hour I caught hard fighting Pollock almost every cast and got broken off in the weed and rocks more than once, eventually I was catching  in knee deep water before I moved on in search of Bass......