On the Wrecks again - 2nd Aug

[GPSguru]

The weather was looking good for a trip to the inshore wrecks, so we launched at 8:00am and pushed out to the first wreck at 11 miles. A very decent sea allowed us to travel at a comfortable 28knts.

The crew for the day was my wife and Kyle, the idea was to fish 3 wrecks to see if there is any improvement in the fish population from a couple of weeks ago.

At 6 miles we picked up a small amount of wind swell and the sea was confused but still very much OK.

I was in no rush today, so we stopped on top of the wreck and I set the rods up, which allowed me to see the drift line. The drift was 0.4knt on a flooding tide, so almost perfect for drifting the wreck.

Kyle went for a 3 string of 4/0 Gummi Makks in Red with luminous tips, the wife went with a 5 string of tinsels on size 6 hooks, and I was using both a tube boom rig with Blue/White Red Gills and a 230g knife slow jig on the other rod.

We were into pout on the first drop, and I immediately noticed the quality of Pout was much larger than we had previously seen.  There was a shoal sitting on top of the wreck at mid water (the wreck is in 150ft), we were soon to discover it was a shoal of huge Scad, most of which were easily 2lb+, with many pushing 3lb

We fished for about an hour, continually hooking large pout and scad, then we were joined by Matt Forrester with Silver Halo. Matt's crew were also catching plenty of Pout and not much else. Matt left after  45 mins and good few drifts. The direction he was heading told me that he was going to a line of 4 wrecks at  25 miles.

We stayed until mid flood and then pushed on to the next wreck, which is an old clay boat in 150ft and almost exactly 12 miles out. First drift and Kyle was into what looked like a good Pollock, but was 3 Pollock all of about 3lb each and one of the then was hooked in the dorsal fin, so it took him a while to land those. Again, there was a Shoal of king sized Scad on top of the wreck that were grabbing the lures on the drop. For the last 90min of the flood, the Pollock came thick and fast in sizes ranging from 3lb up, with the best going 6lb. All of us brought them up quite slowly, which allowed us just to keep a few for the table and release a good many.

At the top of the flood, bites dried up (apart from the Pout)  and the wind swung to the South, which I knew would give a nasty chop from wind over tide. We stayed for an hour into the ebb, still catching fish on each drift, until it got uncomfortable in a 1.5m short beam sea.

The trip back was uneventful, and we had quite a comfortable ride at 20knts with the 1.5m swell on the port quarter.

Lost count of the fish, but I guess 30 – 50 Scad, probably the same number of Pout, and exactly 15 Pollock, of which we kept 5.

A trip of 30Nm, with some decent fishing, all in all a good day to be out there.

Not many pictures as most of my time is spent looking after the boat, mending the drift, and fishing.

 

 

 

 

[Andy135]

A nice productive trip. Good work 👍. Very envious of your pollock too. We hardly get any round here.

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, Andy135 said:

A nice productive trip. Good work 👍. Very envious of your pollock too. We hardly get any round here.

On the inshore wrecks I would normally expect to catch half a dozen low doubles per year. The normal stamp of fish is 5lb ish.

The offshore wrecks (20 miles +) generally produce a couple of low / mid doubles on every trip. The stamp of fish on these wrecks is 7lb +

[Saintly Fish]

Another great day out Ian. I love your attention to detail. Drift, wind speeds and direction etc. I struggle to remember where I’ve been and what I caught usually. 

[Dicky]

Nice day out, did you see any big mackerel chasing those scad? 

[mike farrants]

nice report and a good day out!

sounds like there was plenty of action!

[GPSguru]

3 hours ago, Dicky said:

Nice day out, did you see any big mackerel chasing those scad? 

No Dicky, we haven't seen any since late Jan, which is quite unusual. On the second wreck we did see one big fish on the panoptix and I assumed it was a porgie patrolling the wreck.