Pollock Primer (Part 1)

[Tin Squid]

Pollock Fishing Primer

It is very true that the cod will always be the groundfish with the most significance from Maine to New Jersey. Whole economies were built on the baccala hundreds of years ago and they are more readily available than their cousin, the pollock. This piece will discuss tackle, methods, tips and tricks to help you hook up with the hardest fighting of the bottom fish available here in the northeast.

Before I get into the crux of this piece, I’d like to point out that pollock are often found in numbers in water depths that can exceed the best depths for finding cod in a given area. The shallowest water that I’ve had good Pollock wreck fishing in has been 150 ft. and the fastest fishing for big fish (over 25 pounds) has been in 190 ft. of water and deeper. Pollock have considerably bigger eyes than cod and this helps them in dark of the depths that they like to haunt. Pollock tend to run in sizes and although the chances of running into a decent school of 20 plus pound fish still exists, this occurrence is not nearly as frequent as it did when I was in high school. Further north, you can still get into “blitz type” pollock fishing if you know your areas and times of year to book your trips.

Tackle For Pollock Fishing:

If you have a cod rod, chances are it will do for pollock as well. Rods of 7 to 8 plus ft. are ideal for pollock but are not absolutely necessary. A six and a half foot rod can get the job done, but it is not nearly as versatile as the longer rods are. Some of the best rods for pollock I’ve seen or fished with have been custom made. If you are a rod builder or like having top notch equipment, the Boston blue is a fish that lends itself well to the advantages and options that a custom rod builder can deliver. This will give you a rod that has all the personalized trimmings and is often very good looking to boot. Many of the best big pollock rods for fishing deep water have been made from long surf rod blanks cut back to somewhere in the area of 7.5 to 8.5 feet in length. The rod (whether stock or custom) should be able to fish up to 16 ounces of lead or jig comfortably in NJ and make it at least 24 ounces for further north. Thirty pound test is the minimum with 40 pound being the best all around as far as monofilament goes. With braid, make it a 50 pound test minimum with 65 pound being ideal. If you are fishing braid; remember that this fish can really pull when it wants to and you are advised to take that into account when setting your drag. Braid is not forgiving at all and you don’t want to end up with a break off due to the lack of stretch/give in braided lines. Longer mono top shots combined with sensible drag settings will help prevent your rig from being lost due to a surge by a big pollock. With forty pound mono, you can fish a pretty tight drag, but with thirty pound, make sure that while it’s set somewhat snugly, it will let line out before it nears the breaking point. The inherent stretch in mono makes it a more forgiving choice for pollock fishing. The advantages of braid are more required for the technique of yo-yo jigging. It is also more advantageous to use braid up north with the bigger currents and the decent chance that you will be drift fishing as opposed to fishing a party boat in NJ where you will most likely be fishing at anchor over a wreck. Most of the charter boat fishing I’ve done for pollock in NJ has been drifting wrecks so “being at anchor” in NJ is not a hard and fast rule. As far as reels go, a Penn Jigmaster or Daiwa Sealine 50 H is the lightest that can get the job done. The Sealine 350 H is a good pollock reel that won’t soak you. A 4/0 is as big as you will ever need for even the biggest pollock. The 400 and 500 series Newells do a good job here as do the Daiwa Saltist’s in the largest sizes. You really do have a lot of choices as far as reels go but make sure it has a good, smooth drag and it can be leaned on if necessary as a big pollock hooked tight to a wreck is a battle royal that you don’t want to lose. Pollock are fast swimmers so a reel that has a decent size spool and has at least 3.5-1 or 4-1 on the retrieve ratio will help you if you are jigging and the fish prefer a fast retrieve that day.

Jig Rigs For Pollock:

Jigging is the method that is responsible decking more pollock than any other type of fishing. The approach to pollock jigging can vary considerably from cod jigging so this part of the article probably is the most important if you want to catch them on a consistent basis. Pollock do not necessarily “hug the bottom” like cod tend to do. They can be found way up in the water column over wrecks and ridges. If there is a school of herring sixty feet above a wreck, chances are that is where the pollock will be because they are more aggressive and opportunistic feeders than cod. As far as jig sizes go, 8-16 ounce will get it done in NJ, but up north, you may need to go as high as 24 ounces to deal with deeper water and stiffer currents. While the favorite jig for baccala is a Norwegian style jig, the diamond gets the nod in NJ for pollock. Norwegian’s get the top spot as you fish further north. The straight diamond with some “adjustments” have produced the most and biggest pollock in NJ over the years. Having both types will be an asset but if you have to “pick one”, make it a diamond for NJ and bear in mind what I’m about to get into as far as tuning up the jig for maximum results.

Standard diamond jigs tend to come with a single hook in sizes up to 8 ounces and then, trebles can become more prevalent on the larger size jigs. A standard diamond jig with a tube tail connected to the jig via a barrel swivel or bead chain swivel and single hook is the most consistent producing jig you can fish for NJ pollock. You will probably need to make adjustments to your jigs to get the most out of them for the “Boston blue”.

The next important piece of the jigging rig is the teaser, which should be rigged about 2.5 feet above the jig in NJ and about 20 inches to 2 ft above the jig up north. It can be another tube or maybe a six inch twister tail but you should use one as on many occasions, the teaser has caught more fish than the jig by a wide margin. In addition, by utilizing this rig, you can catch the ultimate doubleheader (two big pollock at once) which is something one does not soon forget because the fight is an all out brawl. Colors for both the tube tail and the teaser can make a difference as well. Dark green, wine, purple, fluorescent green (chartreuse) and green are the best colors with blue being another that works well too! Regular red is probably the most over-rated color for the tube tails and teasers because red disappears first in the water column making it harder for the fish to see than the aforementioned colors. While wine and red may seem similar in color, the fact remains that a wine colored tube is much more visible in the depths than a red tube is. In fact, blue and green tubes show up the best in very deep water. Make your rig with 80 Lb test mono or flouro. I have switched to flouro from mono because fluoro is more abrasion resistant than mono and wrecks eat up rigs with pollock surging tight to them. As far as knots go, please heed the following advice. Do not use a perfection loop to attach the teaser! This knot frankly is a waste of time and you’ll lose big fish if you try using it as it will only be a matter of time before you have a shattered rig in your hands without the jig, teaser and the pollock you “were” wrestling with. The kiwi loop is by far the better knot to use as it is over 90% of the strength of the line if tied correctly. A perfection loop is not better than 60% of the line strength and that is if it was tied very well. Use a good quality barrel swivel two feet above the teaser to finish off your rig.

[Leif]

Very nice, well written and informative post. Now I can't wait to get out there and get some Pollock!


Leif

[JOHN D]

what do you think about butterfly jigging for pollock? i want to get on the gambler one last time this year and catch my first pollock before its too late and i was thinking of using butterflys. only used 1 once and snagged a keeper cod then lost it on the wreck

[Tin Squid]

Originally Posted by JOHN D

what do you think about butterfly jigging for pollock? i want to get on the gambler one last time this year and catch my first pollock before its too late and i was thinking of using butterflys. only used 1 once and snagged a keeper cod then lost it on the wreck

I've never used the butterfly style jigs for pollock. While I believe they'll work just fine, they "may" snag more often than a standard jig. I'd say try it but have some jigs rigged with the single hook tube tail as well. That single hook tube tail jig really does work well, especially when working wrecks.

Good Luck!

[giantfan]

Hey Tin.... great info. Thanks for sharing.

And your still on my list that we discussed last year. I plan on doing some trips early season if the weather works out, hitting some offshore wrecks .

[Tin Squid]

Originally Posted by giantfan

Hey Tin.... great info. Thanks for sharing.

And your still on my list that we discussed last year. I plan on doing some trips early season if the weather works out, hitting some offshore wrecks .

That (to me) is what this site is for. A useful exchange of fishing info which members can put to good use!

Sounds great to me on hitting the wrecks!