Chartplotters will show wrecks and tide tables.
In the waters round the UK there are thousands of wrecks made up of warships, cargo boats, trawlers, barges, submarines and aircraft. All of them will have fish living in or around them, especially during the summer months. It’s well worth stopping over one of the wreck marks shown on the Admiralty Charts and having a few drifts, as the rewards can be very worthwhile. Cod are one of the species that hang around wrecks as there is always a good supply of crabs and shoals of small fish, like the pouting, using the wreckage as shelter from the strong tides and predators. Above the wrecks there will probably be pollack that feed in mid-water on the small fish such as sprat, sand eel and mackerel. Both cod and pollack eaten fresh will be well worth the effort of stopping to drift over the wreck a few times.
Chartplotters will show wrecks and tide tables.
FINDING THE WRECK
When planning a trip, look to see if your journey will take you close to any wrecks and maybe include them as a waypoint, giving yourself a bit of time to fish over the top of them. Admiralty Charts show all the wrecks and underwater obstructions and these can easily be located using a GPS plotter. Not all wrecks are exactly where they are marked on the chart, but they will be pretty close. Start where the wreck is indicated on the chart then, keeping a close watch on the sonar, work the area up to 100m surrounding it until some wreckage is located. As soon as you find it, mark it on the GPS chart. With this fixed point the wreck can be sounded all round to see how large it is and which way it lies on the sea bed. The next thing is to do is to see which way the tide is running by steering uptide a few hundred yards before cutting the engine, then see if you drift back over the wreck. Leave the tracking mode on the GPS so you can retrace your steps if you’ve got it right, or use the tracking to guide you onto the right drift.
The two wrecks and the obstruction shown on the chart will all hold fish.
BEST TIDE
Fishing a wreck is best done when the tide is not at its strongest and as a rough guide an hour and a half before and after high tide or low tide are the best. In the full run of the tide it will only be a matter of seconds before the boat has drifted over the wreck. In the period either side of high and low tide the drift won’t be too strong, which will give you more time to fish it effectively.
Check the tide tables to see if it is a spring or neap tide as this will also affect the speed of the drift and catch rate. Most GPS systems will show a graph with the size of the tides on it. On a neap tide it’s possible to fish wrecks more or less anytime, but the full run of spring tides will make the drift too fast for effective fishing. Generally the best fishing will be when the boat is moving at between half and one and a half knots. When it gets to over two knots the catch rate drops dramatically.
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Always allow for the wind when planning a drift. |
COD
One of the main targets when wreck fishing will be the cod, as they use the wreck to shelter from the full run of the tide and begin to feed as the tide eases. Their diet consists of crabs, brittle star, prawns and any small fish they locate.
They will generally be found close to the bottom, but not exclusively. Many are hooked when winding up between 10 and 15 turns off the bottom. Drifting over different parts of the wreck is important as the cod will sometimes be located some way behind the wreck, close in to the wreckage and at other times they shoal above it. Once they have been located the drift can be shortened and repeated to go over the same spot.
The British record cod caught off Whitby weighed 58lb 6ozs but hook into a fish over 10lbs and you will certainly have an exciting tussle on your hands.
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You will feel a series of heavy nods on the rod as the cod shakes its head in an effort to dislodge the hook. |
COD RIG
A cheap and easy to make rig for cod involves using just one swivel link:
Tie the main link to the top of a swivel.
Connect the weight to the link.
Tie the trace to the bottom of the swivel.
There is nothing complicated about fishing a wreck, as rigs are fairly basic. For the cod, a lead weight of 8oz to 12oz is needed to get hard on the bottom, so the lure can be worked in the first few feet of the sea bed where the fish will most likely be. The trace line to the lure should be between one and two metres of 30lb nylon monofilament or fluorocarbon. The fluorocarbon line is more expensive than premium mono but is meant to be virtually invisible under water.
As most wrecks are in deep water the chance of a thin piece of nylon putting the fish off is very unlikely. A slightly longer trace can be used on the bigger tides as they are not so likely to tangle and a slightly shorter trace can be used as the tide eases. The lure can be a shad, sidewinder or artificial eel fixed to the end of the trace. The rig can be tied using just one swivel link with a weight on the bottom and the trace tied to the bottom end of the swivel.
Cod will take lures of almost any colour but do seem to have a preference for orange. It’s always worth trying different colours and different sized lures as it depends what the fish are feeding on that day.
Examples of nylon and fluorocarbon lines.
METHOD FOR COD
Example of a cod rig.
Stop the boat a couple of hundred yards upstream of the wreck, and drop the lure down right to the bottom. Lift the rod right up and drop it down again in a regular motion so the lead bumps along the sea bed. The noise of the weight attracts the cod and they grab the shad following along behind.
When a cod is hooked it may feel like the line has caught in the bottom or on the wreck itself. After a few seconds the rod will start to thump up and down as the cod shakes its head and starts to swim off. The fish is then brought up with a pumping action on the rod, winding in the line as the rod is lowered each time.
Another way to fish the lure is to hit the bottom, then slowly wind up about ten turns of the reel. If nothing grabs the lure, drop it down again and repeat the process until a fish is hooked.
Watch the sonar as the boat drifts close to the wreck and when it first starts to show on the screen, warn everyone to wind up off the bottom to avoid hooking the wreck. It’s inevitable that some tackle will be lost, so before fishing get several rigs ready to have replacements to hand.
There are a variety of cod lures that are proven ‘fish takers’. The larger cod work in among the wrecking picking off the smaller fish. This means they are not so bothered about the size of the lure, taking whatever comes their way.
POLLACK
The other target when wreck fishing is the pollack, one of the most underrated fish in the sea. They are in the same family as the cod, grow quite large, are good to eat and super fun to catch. Where the cod are generally located close to the bottom the pollack patrol the water above the wreck and are often caught in mid water.
Pollack are a striking bronze colour when first caught and can be identified by their lower jaw that juts out past the upper jaw. This design of the mouth helps them seize fish when attacking from beneath. Pollack are common all round the coast of the UK, with the larger fish frequenting wrecks and deep water reefs, while the smaller and immature ones can be caught from the rocky shoreline.
The current record for the pollack is 27lb, but fish of 3lb to 12lb are the most likely to be encountered through the summer. The bigger fish are usually caught during the winter when the fish are full of roe.
POLLACK RIG
A pollack rig is a little different from the one used for cod as a longer trace is generally used. To cope with the longer trace a fixed or French boom is used to help avoid tangles as it keeps the trace away from the main line while it’s being lowered to the bottom. This method is usually referred to as a ‘flying collar’. Tie the main line directly to the top of the boom – don’t use a swivel link as it will slip round on the metal boom and cause tangles. On the bottom of the boom tie a short piece of nylon of about 1 Ocm (4in) with a lead link on the end. This should be slightly less than breaking strain to the main line as it needs to break off if the bottom is snagged. This is referred to as a ‘rotten bottom’ and another way to do it is to use an elastic band to hold the lead as the band can spring the weight clear if snagged or break off if firmly caught. A trace of between two and four metres of 201b fluorocarbon or nylon is used depending on the strength of tide. As the tide slackens the trace may need shortening as it will be more liable to tangles. An artificial sand eel or a jelly worm is then attached to the end of the trace. Favourite colours for pollack are black, black with a red tail and dark red.
Example of a pollack rig.
METHOD
Catching pollack is one of the more skillful and enjoyable parts of sea fishing, and will frustrate and satisfy the angler in almost equal measure. Once again the boat should be stopped a few hundred yards upstream of the wreck and the lines lowered to the bottom. The line should then be wound up slowly and the number of turns counted up to around 30. If no fish are felt by this time, let the lure back to the bottom and start again. When you feel a pull on the line keep slowly winding and the rod tip will pull over as the pollack starts to dive. Don’t strike but keep winding steadily and the fish will hook itself and then it will need pumping to the surface.
That initial dive of a pollack is one of the most exciting things a sea angler experiences. A big portion of their diet is made up of sand eels so using the artificial plastic sand eels (above) rather than the chunkier shads that the cod enjoy is probably the best option.
BASS
One of the other fish that can be caught over wrecks is also the most striking looking fish in the sea: the bass. With its bold silvery scales and impressive spiny fins that stand erect when first caught, it is probably the favourite fish to catch for the majority of sea anglers. Their take is very aggressive as they are often competing with other bass for the same bait. They can be caught on most coloured lures but seem to have a liking for pearl, white, and blue and white.
They are a fish that can easily be fluked and it’s on the first couple of drifts they are mostly caught. By the time the boat has been over the wreck a few times they seem to disappear. Professional bass anglers will go to great lengths to make a wide berth of the wreck when they go up to start another drift so they don’t put them off the feed. To catch a bass over a wreck, a better method is to firstly catch a mackerel on feathers and put it on live. With the mackerel hooked onto a 6/0, it is dropped to the bottom then wound up four or five turns of the reel and held there. Bass will find it hard to resist.
