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Wednesday 22 January 2020

January pollock and coalfish on topwater. Mission accomplished!

Got another chance yesterday to get out for a couple hours as the winds subsided... I was very curious to see if there'd be any fish keen to come up for the topwater as they did a couple weeks ago. My reasoning was, the weather hasn't changed so their behaviour shouldn't either...
The only negative on the day was the state of the tide, as it hit low tide already when I got there but nevertheless, I was glad to be out of the house and fishing.
I clipped on the Autowalker 115s and started fan casting the first spot. I failed to raise any fish and after 30mins I switched to a soft plastic and got a few smaller pollock and some nice coalies. The bigger pollock didn't seem to be active yet...
As the tide started coming in and the current picked up, I anchored-up and moved to a different spot.
Again I started with the Autowalker but after 15mins I had no swipes. I was about to give up and accept defeat when I saw splashes behind my lure and a fish hooked up momentarily before getting off!
Game on...
They were more like slaps on the lure by multiple fish, so I assumed they were coalfish. I hooked up on the next cast and after a spirited fight, I pulled a nice coalie in the boat.
I was chuffed with my fish but I really wanted to get a pollock... Coalfish come up on the surface while hunting throughout the year (seen them blitz sprats in February), so I wasn't too surprised to get them.

Lovely coalie!

A few casts later and a fish partly breached and took my lure... Now, this was what I was after!
Took a bit of drag but I soon had him under control, my first ever January pollock on a topwater. The day was made for me...

Job done!

Quickly released the fish after a couple pics and put the Autowalker back in the case. It did its job well.
I put on a shad and had a couple nice pollock before heading back home.
What a fantastic wee session!
Here's the video of the fish.


Can't really ask for much more this winter. Gonna try for a session on the rocks if the weather behaves but other than that it'll be more chilling-out at home for me this month.

Tight Lines











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