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Wreck Fishing
The early 1970's saw an explosion of anglers all keen to sample some of the
fantastic catches that were being reported in the angling press,
Skippers of Licensed fishing boats were finding it more lucrative to take a
party of anglers wreck fishing than it was catching & selling the fish
themselves, in those early years wreck fishing was simply a matter of getting on
or near a wreck, lowering a bait to the bottom and bingo! fish were so prolific
that anglers could have a bumper catch regardless of their skill or tackle used,
The Inshore wrecks were soon plundered to death and so it was that a new breed
of charter skipper evolved, one that was prepared to invest in faster boats and
go longer distances to find the better fishing,
At the same time tackle starting evolving and in 1973 one of the first
innovations on the market was the the Eddystone eel, The Original Eddystone was
the fore runner to the many variations of lures that adorn the groaning shelves
of our local tackle shop today,
However, The concept still stands true today as it did back in the 70's, That is
that the artificial lure should as close as possible imitate the natural prey
that our target species are feeding on,
As a charter boat skipper I often despair at the equipment that some
anglers bring with them when we go wrecking, Old fashioned "broom handle" rods
fitted with equally old fashioned reels filled with heavy mono line,
The old adage that "You only get out what you put in" seems to be a fair
analogy, If you borrow your dads 30 year old rod and reel (or even if you are
dad, and still using it!) and then expect to catch as many fish as someone who
has sourced themselves a nice tippy 20lb class rod fitted with a silky smooth
lever drag reel loaded with good quality 30lb braid line, then I am afraid you
are in for a very rude awakening!
Whilst your gear is streaming out behind the boat and nowhere near the wreck,
the guy next to you with the modern tackle is continuing to fish close to the
wreck, and, with less lead than you are using, as a direct consequence he is
catching and you are not!
Also by now you have realised that this guy rarely snags the wreck, You on the
other hand seem to be unable to get your lure even close to it without snagging
and losing the terminal tackle, eventually frustration gets the better of you
and you resign yourself to sitting and watching (usually because you have lost
all your gear)
The problem is that by the time you "feel" the wreck on your stretchy mono line
it is already too late to react and you are resigned into hanging on until the
line parts (again), The guy with the braid line can feel every twitch and tap on
his rod and is able to react in time before his gear is snagged in the wreck.
Luckily on Lady Godiva we are now able to offer a suitable alternative to your
1960's tackle, we have teamed up with the world famous fishing tackle
manufacturer 'Fox International' they need no introducing to anyone involved in
coarse fishing and especially Carp Anglers, Fox produce the finest fishing
tackle that money can buy and have an extensive array of Coarse, Carp, and Fly
fishing tackle and accessories available to freshwater anglers,
Fox International have supplied an extensive range of their new "Fox Sea" rods,
reels and terminal tackle on board Lady Godiva for our anglers to try out so
instead of dusting off that old rod & reel that you were planning to use on your
wreck fishing trip, just give me a call to arrange a free trial of our superb
Fox Sea tackle.
If you are contemplating a wreck fishing expedition and have no experience in
this field then read on,
Wreck fishing can be divided into two categories:
Drift fishing and Anchored fishing,
Lets deal with the most popular first,
Drift fishing
Drift fishing is exactly what it sounds like, drifting over a wreck and
trying to catch fish close to and on the wreck itself, One of the best rigs for
this style of fishing is the flying collar rig,
This illustration shows a standard flying collar rig with a Jelly Worm attached,
although it is equally effective with a Shad, Eddystone eel or even bait,
The method is to lower the rig carefully (so as not to tangle) to the seabed
when the boat is uptide of the wreck, as the boat drifts toward the wreck you
should wind in on the reel at a nice constant rate avoiding any jerky motion and
more importantly counting as you go, when you have turned the reel handle say,
25 turns, Stop and lower the rig back down to the seabed, continue doing this
until your skipper tells you to wind in so that he can drive back uptide to
start a new drift,
If you feel a fish plucking at the lure DO NOT STOP WINDING just carry on as if
nothing had happened, when the fish takes the lure properly it will
instinctively dive for the wreck and in doing so will hook itself, At this point
you should lift the rod tip and let the tip of the rod absorb the shock from the
fish shaking its head, and, let the reel drag do its job by slipping when the
fish does one of its crash dives, Take your time, enjoy the fight and,
hopefully, victory will be yours, If you were counting then you will now have a
good idea at what depth the fish are feeding and on the next drift will be ready
for them,
There are several variations that you can try on this rig, you can try a faster
or slower retrieve rate, you could try winding in only 10 turns before dropping
back or, try winding in 50 turns,
You could try different coloured lures, a longer leader length (or shorter), a
heavier or lighter lead, or even try two lures on the same leader, The
permutations are endless,
In more recent years we have have been using a new variation which we have
called the hopper rig, this is a flying collar rig with a short leader (2 -3
feet) and a leaded shad attached, instead of retrieving we bounce the shad along
the seabed and over the wreck in an attempt to specifically target Cod, once
again this rig can occasionally be very effective.
Another rig for drift fishing (although not as popular) is the Killer Rig,
This is basically a straight line rig with a Pirk at the bottom and one or two
Jelly worms or Muppets at approx. 18" intervals above the Pirk, the Pirk is
often a home made affair being a short (8" or so) length of chromed bar with a
treble hook attached at the bottom, Muppets are brightly coloured plastic lures
that imitate a squid,
The method is monotonously simple, you just lower the rig to the seabed and
proceed to jig it up and down with long up and down sweeps of the rod tip, this
method can be productive on occasions but often accounts for foul hooked fish,
also, if the rig manages to catch a fish on each lure, the result is often a
parted line leaving the fish tethered together to die a lingering death.
Anchored Fishing
When the tide has slackened sufficiently your skipper will often elect to
drop the anchor down and settle the boat a short distance uptide of the wreck,
the main target species at slack water are usually Conger Eels and Ling, both of
these species possess a set of very sharp teeth and are often much bigger than
the species encountered when drift fishing,
Consequently it would be prudent to use heavier tackle to target these fish and
especially in the case of Conger Eels, A 50lb class rod fitted with a large
lever drag multiplier reel loaded with 50 - 80lb braid is the norm, hook traces
should be mono line around 200 - 300lb breaking strain and a strong 8/0
O'Shaughnessy hook completes the rig, whole fillets of mackerel, Squid or
Cuttlefish are typical baits and should fished on a short running leger rig,
Bites will at first be slow in coming until the scent from your bait has drifted
downtide to the wreck and coaxed the fish out to investigate, bites can be very
very gentle almost imperceptible from Congers they tend to gently mouth the bait
until they have gained enough confidence to take it completely, on feeling the
weight of the lead they will dash for the sanctity of the wreck, this is when
you have to hang on to your rod and let battle commence,
The conger can swim as strongly backwards as he can forwards and it is this
capability that makes him so difficult to fight, even when you have him at the
side of the boat he still has one more trick up his sleeve and that is the power
spin, he will test your swivels to the limit as he spins around and around and
it is here at the side of the boat where most Congers win the battle, The best
tactic is to tire him out in mid water and only let him see the boat when he has
given up,
Like me, most Charter Boat skippers will insist on releasing the fish in the
water rather than stressing them out by hauling them over the gunwales, However,
If you do want to take one home for the table please take a small one say 15 -
20lbs as these make better eating than the larger specimens,
Ling on the other hand will attack your bait with gusto and is very much a smash
and grab affair, the fight will be hectic at first but less dogged as the fish
starts to suffer from the effects of decompression, by the time he is on the
surface he is to all intents and purposes, Dead,
One word of warning if you handle a Ling, He has a set of teeth almost identical
to that of the Pike and like the Pike he has an anticoagulant coating on them
which means that if you scratch yourself on them you will bleed for hours, You
have been warned!
Other species that you are likely to encounter at anchor are Cod, Pouting,
Anglerfish, Turbot and Tope to mention but a few.
© Seadrive Charters
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