"LINGering" in Weymouth

Well wouldn't you know it, the fishing trips are piling up like London buses. As soon as I write bemoaning the weather and my luck I get two trips out within 8 days.

This time it was back to Weymouth and back aboard the Channel Chieftain for a longer distance wreck trip in search of Pollack and Ling. I was particularly looking forward having a crack at some Ling after posting the ancient history page and realising it was more than 10 years since I had caught one of these eel like members of the Cod family.

Starting Out

I had been watching the weather forecast nervously for about 10 days before the date and the period of settled weather we had been enjoying was on the cusp of disintegrating over this week end. Fortunately the closer we got it became clear that the winds would hold off probably until we had just got back in, and so it was we arrived at the quay side at 7am on a fabulous calm and sunny spring morning.

All we needed now was to catch fish and what could be easier? As Pats' boat says "Anyone Can Fish"!

You can see from these photos of the Harbour and the sea front just how calm and protected the in shore waters were. Even out beyond the protection of Portland Bill, and in a wind that built all day, the swell was comfortable and only became a moderate sea right at the end of the day.

Still Waters

Tactics for the Day

Pat (skipper) and Richard (1st Mate) quickly explained that the we would travel some 20 miles to the south and west of Weymouth where we would spend the day fishing a variety of wrecks in search of the Pollack and Ling. Slack water would be through the middle of the day with our best chance of a Ling whilst Pollack should come on the tide at the start and the end of the day.

For the Pollack I use a flying collar rig, which is essentially a flowing trace with an artificial lure connected at the bait end. There are lots of variations on this rig. Some use a boom (as shown below), whereas some use a simple snap swivel to attach to the weight and run up and down the main line. I find that the second option is a good all round set up and works particularly well in small tides, avoiding tangles. It is also a topic of much debate as to how long the trace should be. I favour around 6 feet as it is more manageable and on a busy charter boat is far less likely to snag other crew members. That said, many will claim that the most effective rigs use a trace length of up to 15 feet. Some anglers will also use a swivel in the middle of a longer trace length although the value of this is also a hotly debated topic.

The choice of lures is almost endless. For years the Red Gill or Eddystone Eel were the only choices. In the mid to late '80s the Jelly Worm emerged and for several years was the only consideration for some anglers. This trend was then upset by the emergence of the Storm / Calcutta Shad and now the Tempest Sidewinder. The attraction of these is the weighted head which gets the lure down in to the wreck quicker and enables a shorter trace to fished more effectively. Shads are my preference, however I have found that when conditions are very difficult a Jelly Worm can sometimes catch a fish when all the others fail. I have even seen anglers use Rapala plugs on the end of the flying collar rig however this is a game for the wealthy as at some Ł10 a throw, and with a high risk of losing lures in wrecks, it can be a costly approach.

Now colour is a very personal thing when it comes to lures and I tend to think its got as much to do with personal preference as the preference of the fish. However it was clear on this particular day (after I had tried several other colours) that pink and purple were the killer colours and took the majority of fish.

For the ling I used a simple flowing trace with a 3/0 pennel rig. I baited this with half a fillet of frozen mackerel.

A Dreadful Start

So earlier in this post I asserted that all we needed to do was catch fish and Pops and I thought this would be easy having caught many fine Pollack and Ling in the past. However a combination of poor angling skills, dodgy equipment and a plague of parasitic Pouting were going to conspire to make us look worse than useless.

We arrived at the first wreck and on the first drift a couple of fish were boated but no bites for Pops or me. A second drift and one angler in the corner already had two fine Pollack on the boat with several others being taken by other anglers. At the end of the drift I had a classic Pollack take. I stayed calm and just continued to wind, resisting the impulse to strike. The fish took a terrific run and then "SNAP!" and my leader parted from my main line. Now this is not the dodgy equipment issue I referred to but all my own fault as my drag was set way too tight. At this point you become plagued by doubt - "will this be the only take I have all day?" or "was this my personal best fish?".

Another drift and another take! This time no dramatic run but the fish was lost anyway. I continued to work what I thought was the lure for the rest of the drift with no luck. When I retrieved the gear I had lost the shad from the very end, the line had just parted. Now I had 3 more shads bitten /snapped off until I decided that it must be the mono hook length I was using so I changed it for a Trilene 30lb trace. This seemed to do the trick and I lost no more lures to fish bites - can't help thinking however about all the fish that got away!

A Fish At Last!

So now armed with a reliable trace and a Calcutta Pink Ice 4" shad we set off to another wreck. Here, at last, I hooked a Pollack on the end of the tide. Not a huge fish, certainly under 5 pounds, but a huge relief.

With the tide now gone it was time to try a bait for a Ling. We made several drifts over a very large wreck. The risk of using fish baits however is that these are very attractive to the ubiquitous Pouting. Everyone on the boat landed several of these irritating fish, although I would point out that they were very large specimens with many of them touching 3lbs in weight. It was here that Pops day unfolded in to a steady stream of Pouting and it didn't matter whether he used large baits, small baits or artificials - everyone produced yet more pouting.

It was as the tide started to pick up that I put down my last bait before going back to the Pollack tactics. I had just hit the bottom and immeditaley had a couple of small bites. The rattling became more persistent and I lent in to what I thought would be another Pout - but it was significantly heavier. It took a couple of fairly ponderous runs but then settled mostly for a steady attritional pull all the way to the surface. I was fairly sure this would be a Ling, but with no dramatic runs I assumed it would be a very small fish. I was delighted when it turned out to be this nice 12lb fish.

Repeat Performance

So now with some tide running I switched back to a Pollack rig. We went off to another wreck and I started to work my Pink shad across the submerged super structure. As I retrieved the shad, at about 20 turns off the bottom, I had a very strong take followed by long runs. I declared to all that I was into a decent Pollack. Now I should add at this point that I was so worried about breaking off I had eased right back on my drag and was probably making harder work of this fish than necessary, but better to be safe than sorry.

The fish fought all the way to the surface, continuing to dive and deliver violent head shakes. So I was very surprised, if not a little embarrassed, when my hard fighting Pollack turned out to be another Ling! This one was slightly smaller at 11lbs but fought infinitely harder than the first and was great fun on light Pollacking gear.

That was my last fish of the day. I had also had a nice channel whiting earlier in the day, so with four species and two fish over 10lbs I should have been very happy. I can't help wonder however about the large number of fish I lost due to my own ineptitude and willingness to invest in cheap nylon trace line!

Tall Ships

I love to see the various boats that come in to harbour from time to time and see what I can find out about them - who owns them where they have come from, what they do etc. On this day I saw this fine tall ship called the Pelican. It was French Built in 1948 and is now run as a vessel for adventure holidays, tall ship racing etc. Here is the home page of the charity that owns the ship;

http://www.adventureundersail.com/

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