Pollock Fishing – Five Ways To Catch A Pollack

The Best Methods For Catching Pollock – By Garry Watson.

Pollock (also spelt pollack) are a much sought after sports fish targeted right around the UK by an ever growing amount of anglers.  There are numerous methods to catch pollock from the shore in the UK. This article will discuss the top methods favoured by successful pollack anglers on our coastline.

Float Fishing For Pollock/Pollack

Above : North East Angler Garry Watson With A Mull Of Galloway Pollock
We generally use a heavy spinning rod, carp/pike rod or a light bass rod, matched with a Shimano 6000 size bait runner fixed spool reels with braid, normally we use heavy braid to put pressure onto a good pollack to stop it getting into the weed below, the softer rods act as a shock absorber and takes the harshness out of the sudden dives from a good pollack..

A simple set up really first we put a power gum stop knot on the braid then a bead them the float and then another bead and then a drilled bullet the right weight just to set the float, then tie on a swivel and tie a hook snood we generally use a snood around 3ft with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook. then its just a case of bait we normally use long strips of mackerel or sandeel or launce the latter two we push the hook through the hard part of the head, head hooked ragworm can also be good. Then its just a case of adjusting the depth by moving the stop knot up and down to suite, Pollack are not always down deep and can be caught high up in the water especially as the light fades for some reason i have seen them come up and attack the float on the surface..

Pollack Fishing With Lures, Spinners, Redgills & shads

I love lure fishing moving about searching gullies covering more ground, i tend to use braid again with a lighter mono leader just like for plugging. Pollack are not fussy and will take most lures/spinners true predators..
As for the Shads I just tie a swivel to the braid and then add a 3ft mono snood with the weighted shad. When fishing a Redgill/Jellyworm i first put on a drilled bullet and a swivel then again just a 3ft snood with the Redgill or Jellyworm.
What I have found is that Pollack prefer a steady constant retrieve rather than jerking the rod and speeding up and slowing down the retrieve…

Freelining For Pollock

Free-lining is really exciting way to catch pollack, we normally just tie the braid to the mono snood or use a small swivel to give it a bit of weight then again 3/0 or 4/0 hook and use Sandeel, mackerel chunk/strip, or ragworm, just let it drift around and slowly sink. Ground-baiting can work well to get the pollack feeding. Its great when a pollack takes, and then starts stripping the braid from the reel..

Above : Another MOG Pollack For Garry’s Mate Harry

Bottom Baits

We have had a few very good pollack on bottom baits this works well when the pollack are deep and the tide is strong we fish a heavy grip lead on a rotten bottom but with a long trace maybe 5ft with a 5/0 or 6/0 and a full side of mackerel, we normal fish it on a beach rod or heavy bass rod and leave the reel on the ratchet, its a waiting game so we normally float fish or spin until we hear the ratchet scream off, it can be slow waiting for a bite using this method but generally we have had a good stamp fish with this method..

Fly Fishing – A Very Exciting Method For Catching Pollock

Now this is something I haven’t done personally but I have spoken to anglers who have caught on the fly, Pollack will come right up to the surface to take baitfish and I have had plenty of pollack leap clean out the water as I have lifted my lure out, so the fly will be a great way to fish, I suppose using a sinking line and a sandeel type fly would be the killer method, i think dusk would be the time as the pollack seem to rise to the surface as the light fades..

Above: The Master At Work – Alan Jackson With A fine Pollock Straight Out Of The Kelp.

Learn More About Pollock Fishing

More information on pollock fishing can be found in our fishing forum. Please use the following links to find out more about this exciting species.

A List Of Pollock Fishing Topics In Our Forum

Ask General Questions About Pollock Fishing Here

Pictures Of Pollock And Other UK Sea Fish