Michael Bould, a commercial lobster fisherman, and skipper of ‘Bold Endeavour’ out of Amble, loves angling for pollack in particular. After dropping the pots, he and friend Colin Dawson, decided to wet their lines. Unlike many northeast anglers who catch pollack by accident, Michael and Colin target them specifically. They use the paravane method common in America but seldom employed in home waters. Colin told me that the paravanes only go down to 20-25 feet, and with Michael’s vast experience and knowledge of the local seabed, they target reefs and gullies in the 25-45 foot depth range.
On the day, Gummi-makk sandeels clipped to the paravanes on fifteen foot flowing traces were towed behind the boat at three knots. Takes from fish are evidenced when the tension on their light rods slacks and the paravanes surface. Taking fish in a variety of depths from near surface to thirty feet, Michael and Colin had a tremendous day taking twenty-three fish to 12lb.
This just illustrates that what sort of fish can be taken in the northeast if the correct method is used. Many charter skippers get quite frustrated when anglers just to want robotically drop great chunks of lead and chrome onto wrecks for cod and ling, when many other species are available.
TOP SECRET: Michael and Colin prefer the Stim 97 paravane.
