Pollock Primer (Part 2)

[Tin Squid]

Jigging Techniques:

The two primary styles of jigging for pollock are retrieving and yo-yo style jigging. Each style is useful and knowing how and when to utilize each style will help you with consistency when looking to hook up with the Boston blue. When you are fishing wrecks at anchor, more pollock will typically be caught by dropping to the wreck and retrieving the jig and teaser rig up than by yo-yo style jigging but this is by no means “set in stone”. Retrieve speeds can vary from ultra-slow to speed-squidding just the same as bluefish jigging. The importance of varying your retrieve speed cannot be emphasized enough. There have even been situations where a different speed of retrieve was required at the various different wreck stops on a given trip to produce the best results. Why this is so may have something to do with what the primary source of food is at the moment at a given spot. If the primary baitfish is herring over wreck “A”, you may need to turn the handle much quicker to produce strikes than if the main item on the menu is sandeels at wreck “B” and so on. In general, reel up at least 25 cranks over wrecks for each retrieve, as many times, the fish are simply not tight to the wreck and you have to put the rig in front of the fish to get a hit. If you are getting strikes within the first ten cranks consistently, it may pay to reel up 15 cranks and free spool back down thereby keeping the jig at the fishes level more of the time. Conversely, if all of your fish are hitting at the 25 crank mark and higher, you may not want to free spool all the way down to wreck for the reason just mentioned plus the fact that if you are not hitting the wreck, you will not be in danger of snagging the rig and potentially losing fishing time and rigs. In regards to free spooling, you have to be aware of a few things. Pollock have a very strong tendency to hit rigs in free fall or right after you’ve finished a retrieve and thrown the reel out of gear. You should be very aware of how deep the spot you are fishing is. If your rig stops anywhere above where you are normally free spooling to, get the reel in gear fast and get tight with a big hook set as chances are very good that a pollock has taken the rig and the fish will spit it out quickly if you don’t get tight to the fish pronto. The tendency for this fish to hit the rigs in free fall or right after you’ve gone back to free spooling cannot be emphasized enough here. Monofilament works great for this type of pollock jigging. You can use braid but be careful as fast retrieves and braid combined with improper drag settings or short top shots can result in break-offs.

If you are wreck fishing and the captain repositions the boat over the wreck, two things are in play. The first is that you are very likely to get a hit on the first retrieve or two and the second is the depth may have changed. You may have been fishing the high spot (a very typical place to find pollock) on the wreck previously and now you are fishing the rubble at the end of the wreck. If your rig keeps falling past where you were previously free spooling to and then the line goes slack like it just hit the wreckage, get that retrieve started fast as it could very well be that your rig did not make it to the bottom but got walloped by a pollock. By getting the retrieve going quickly, you hooked up with a fish that hit on the drop. The other advantage here is by getting the retrieve started quickly, you are getting the rig to the fishes level before your neighbors and that might be all the difference in the world as you will be first to take advantage of their aggressive nature and there’s nothing quite like the the brute force strike of a big pollock on a fast moving jig or teaser. Your rod gets yanked down very hard and you’ve definitely got your hands full.

When yo-yo style jigging is in play, generally it is right off the bottom on open bottom spots further north but can vary more frequently when jigging wrecks. On wrecks, try jigging a few cranks above the wreck at first. If that isn’t producing try reeling up about another 10-15 ft and try again. You can keep bringing your jig up in the water column to the 40 ft or greater mark and still be in the strike zone as pollock frequently feed well above the wrecks. The fish almost invariably will hit on the drop so you will sweep the rod up again to work the jig only your rod will get yanked down violently as the pollock and you become “acquainted” rather rudely. With yo-yo style jigging, braid has the definite advantage over mono as you will not have to work nearly as hard to work a jig when yo-yoing with braid and your arms will be a lot less fatigued at the end of the day. The Norwegian type jig stands tall when yo-yoing so have some available if you intend to utilize this style of jigging for pollock. Yo-yo style jigging with straight diamonds has worked pretty well over the years in NJ but not as well overall further north.

Bait Fishing For Pollock:

While few will argue that the best bait for cod is clams, few will argue that whole squid is the best bait for pollock. A six to 9 inch whole squid is candy for these fish and they will eat them heartily. One point that bears bringing up here is that bait fishing with whole squid works on a more consistent basis at night than it does during the daytime hours. Pollock can feed very heavily at night and this tendency is many times best taken advantage of with a whole squid fished “at least” 5-6 ft. up from the sinker. What has been most productive is fishing the squid fish about ten ft. up from the sinker at night for pollock. It pays to drop down to about 5-6 ft. during the day as cod will readily eat whole squid and you may very well catch some while targeting pollock during the day with squid. A 6/0 octopus hook is the right size as their mouths are not nearly as big as the considerable maw of the cod. Sinker sizes for bait fishing will typically run 12-16 ounces in NJ, but have some up to 24 ounces “just in case”. Up north, 24 ounces just won’t do sometimes and that is not a joke. The rig should have a single hook when fishing at night for a couple of reasons. The first is that the second hook has a great tendency to snag when you are fighting a fish and secondly, the leader line to the sinker can then be of lesser breaking strength than the main line. This is an advantage because if you are hooked up and the sinker snags, you can break off the lighter line and still get the fish in the boat. Use a three way swivel to make pollock bait rigs with 20 pound mono for the sinker line. When using squid during the day, it may very well make sense have that squid up around 6 ft. up with a clam at about 3 ft. above the sinker on a hi-lo rig to try to catch both cod and pollock. If you want to fish a two hook rig at night, make it with a 5/0 octopus hook right off the sinker for hake (both red and white) with the second hook at around ten ft. up for the pollock. This would be an extended version of the popular hi-lo rig. Bait the lower hook with a fish strip or clam. Set the hook hard like you do for cod with the bait rigs as the considerable water depth and the fact that their mouths can take it make a big hook set the way to go. Other baits that will work when bait fishing for pollock are clams and strips of mackerel or herring.

Good Luck!

[Duffman]

Nice article Ken.

Question - last year (or the year before, cant remember??) Gambler trip, you had teasers that had a bead swivel in them and looked like a helicopter when ya dropped them in the drink.

Home made deal or does somebody mass produce em?

[Tin Squid]

Duffman,

Thanks! In regards to the teaser question, that particular tube used to be mass produced but sadly, not any more. The next time we get together, I'll hook you up with one. There is another brand that works like that one as a teaser, but not as well as the one you saw me using.

[Ryan W]

If you want to make the sinkers easier to bust off, try making an overhand knot right above your surgeon's loop (and don't use a kiwi loop). This will reduce the breaking strength, enabling the line to bust easier.

[Tin Squid]

Originally Posted by Ryan W

If you want to make the sinkers easier to bust off, try making an overhand knot right above your surgeon's loop (and don't use a kiwi loop). This will reduce the breaking strength, enabling the line to bust easier.

That is absolutely a good way to make a sinker break off and I've made rigs that way as well. The reason for recommending the 3-way swivel rig is it has been the easiest way to quickly bust off sinkers with big fish attached. I have seen people trying to break the sinker off in the past with a big pollock on the hook and frankly, they were having some serious difficulties as the fish was limiting the leverage they could get on the rig. I opted for the 3-way swivel rig with light line so as to not have that problem. That rig with one hook at 4 to 4.5 ft and a 20 pound sinker line with a 3-way swivel is one I still use on "very sticky" cod wrecks as well. I keep a few in my bag "just in case".

[Chico]

Thanks for all the great info. I did manage to land a 29# pollock last Aug. with Capt. Jeff, "beginners luck". I already booked on the Voyager's May 1st trip this year! Can't wait, gonna try jigging for them this time.

[Tin Squid]

Originally Posted by Chico

Thanks for all the great info. I did manage to land a 29# pollock last Aug. with Capt. Jeff, "beginners luck". I already booked on the Voyager's May 1st trip this year! Can't wait, gonna try jigging for them this time.

You are certainly welcome! Jig up a few for me on May 1st.