Oban pollack – April 2010

Pelamid finds a great weather forecast too hard to resist and reports on an early season trip to Oban to fish for pollack taking along James Thorburn for his first experience of these hard fighting fish.

Pollack fishing around the Firth of Lorne is in quite shallow water over reefs and rock points. Generally the fish will be in less than 30′ depths even in the winter. Unfortunately Spring fishing can be poor as the pollack are more interested in spawning than feeding – but you can only try and the fish always show on the sounder to tease you.

After a 2 1/2 hour drive from Stirling I arrived at the Puffin dive centre, Oban. They have a good slipway and only charge £5 for a launch – best value in the country with access to an area of magnificent scenery and good fishing.

The approach to the dive centre has magnificent views:

Those photos were taken last year of the Sound and the Puffin Dive Centre slipway.

James (the “Sharkman”) from SSACN arrived a few minutes behind me. He wanted to gain some pollack fishing experience and was taking his first chance fishing with me. So I tried to do everything right and even remembered to put the bung in the boat!

After an easy launch we headed off to fish a mark about a mile down the sound. After a couple of fruitless drifts I decided to drop the grapnel at the edge of the kelp. Tackle set up was medium spinning rods, 10gr weights and a variety of rubber lures.

I managed a few pollack to about 4lbs from that first mark but it was tough fishing and the pollack were covered in bite marks. They were also leaking milt, so clearly actively spawning and not overly interested in feeding.

So I pulled the anchor and we headed around to the seaward side of Kerrera. Lot’s of good marks here showing plenty of fish on the sounder – but still the fish were reluctant to bite. I managed a couple of more pollack about 3lb and finally James got his pollack:

…..and my smile was probably broader than the one James wears in that photo – it was such a relief to have put him on a fish.

The weather was calm and it warmed steadily into the evening. I varied lures and presentation methods between long traces, drop-shotting and even Sbirulino (slow-sinking float). The Sbirulino method with a black slug lure hooked me the best fish of the day. Unfortunately it went to ground after a steady 20 metre run and no amount of boat manouvering by me could tease it out.

James managed one more pollack and we quit just before sunset. A long drive home for me but mission accomplished….. James had his pollack and all but one fish released.

It’s always good to get on the water around Oban – great scenery and so many reefs.

Anyone planning a trip there with their boat is best advised to have a chartplotter with a decent electronic chart as without such and an a reliable sounder, some of the best pollack marks are too dodgy to contemplate but even if you have no chartplotter, there are plenty of pollack marks that are clearly visible.

Still best to have a paper chart and plan which marks will be safe before you go out.

Any of the rocky headlands will have a pollack shoal resident, some of the bays have kelp beds visible and it’s always worth having a few casts around these.

Don’t go too light with tackle – I lost the best fish on this day due to stepping down to 10lb line. It was good fun with the 4lb fish but there are much better pollack and in shallow water they will not be stopped. A thicker line about 15lb gives you a chance of teasing the better fish back out of the rough stuff, fluorocarbon traces also help as they are more abrasion resistant.

You need to get the boat in really close to the shore at many marks. Take great care to avoid shores where the wind will push you onto the rocks, I usually keep my engine running and this does not seem to spook the pollack.

This fish was caught with the boat no more than 30′ from the shore. The depths drop off rapidly in the Firth of Lorne and the 20′-30′ depth band the pollack prefer can be very narrow. I have seen others fishing for the pollack here but they seemed too wary of getting in close – and a few boat lengths too far out and you could be over 100′ and be fishless.

Further out in the Firth of Lorne there are large stretches of reefs that may be only 10′ deep. There are also pinnacles of rock that come from 300′+ depths and are marked as “awash” on the chart. So I can only repeat what I said about having a chartplotter – and make sure you plan carefully where you aim to fish.

For the light tackle angler this is Heaven – and last trip out there were no other anglers over several miles of coast. So close to a major holiday destination with good roads and a rail link I really cannot understand why so few fish it. Those anglers that come here generally have been attracted by the chance of a “ton-up” common skate.

For me the pollack are so much more fun!

Photos and article (c) Pelamid

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