Lure Fishing For Winter Pollock!!!

During the winter months here in Ireland the salt water fishing generally stops, pretty much completely. Mainly due to fish moving off to warmer waters and the added factor of generally pure weather preventing kayaks and boats getting out on the salt.

At this point I normally clean and service all my salt water gear and put it away for a few months, bring out my fresh water gear and mainly fish inland lakes and loughs for pike and perch. As much as I love fresh water fishing nothing beats getting out on the open sea regardless of catching fish.
When the weather allows me to during winter I normally jump at an opportunity to get out on the salt, there’s normally not many species to target at this time of year but Cod and pollock.

If you can find a good run of pollock you are going to struggle to beat a days fishing for them! Especially if you target them with lures on light gear…
I am fortunate enough to have a ship wreck not far from the shore that holds some pretty big ass Pollock. I paddle about to find it on my RayMarine downscan then drop a waypoint to mark it, this insures I can drift around it and always know excactly where to cast my lures.

Lures of choice are heavy jig heads between 15-13g connected to shads or jelly tails, personal favourites would be Quantum tobizer in glitter blue or dark red, Berkeley firetails and savage gear eels. I also smear the jigs in BioEdge wands to add some scent to my lures, this certainly improves the hook up rate especially if the fish are being picky.
On this particular mark you can vertically jig for Pollock bud casting away from you allowing the lure to sink to the bottom and retrieving very slowly seams to pick the bigger fish out of the wreck, tho in using this method you do loose a bit of gear snagging on the structure etc.

A few things you will be sure of when your on the pollock is you will find it hard to beat with excitement and fun and your arms will feel like your just out of the gym at the end of the day, pound for pound they are great fighters, espically if they have a bit of tide flow to help them.

I’m already excited about getting back out at them, weather permitting……