There is something about wrecked ships lying on the sea bed that attracts. Fish love them; anglers love them, even tackle seems to love them if the amount that refuses to come back up after you've dropped it down is anything to by. Wrecks are fascinating places often acting as a rusting oasis attracting extra-ordinary numbers of fish at all levels of the food chain. What they are likely to hold in terms of species mix and size potential depends on where they are situated. Most wrecks these days unfortunately have become the target of commercial netters. But that aside, as a general rule of thumb, the deeper the water a wreck lies in, the better the chance of it turning up a few decent fish. I say this because most of the wrecks around my neck of the woods are on clean ground and in water so shallow that they tend either to be silted up, or in some cases even blown up as shipping hazards. But just down the coast in North Wales its a totally different matter.
Most English Channel wrecks lie in between 200 and 250 of water. Contrast this to the St. Georges Channel wrecks off the Lleyn Peninsula where the minimum depth is usually around 300 feet and you get some sort of hint as to what the potential could actually be. Unfortunately, North Wales is not blessed with the same sort of fish growth rates as the English Channel, nor the cod potential of the North Sea. What these wrecks do actually have is difficult to quantify, as no one so far as I am aware has tried to fish them at anchor yet. All the fishing over the St. Georges wrecks is done on the drift on neap tides and only under favourable weather conditions which means they tend not to get hammered. The Lleyn is a pretty exposed piece of land, with dangerous tides, banks and overfall's around both it and Bardsea Island which have to be negotiated en route. So it can get lively to say the least if you judge the weather forecast wrong. Dave Carey who operates the Judy B has around 50 of these wrecks in his navigator within around 15 miles of the Lleyn, with the potential still to add to that number when he can find the time to get out and explore. Everything from liners to small cargo boats, some standing as much as 50 feet still off the bottom.
Judy B is a very nicely laid out 9 year old 38 foot Bullet based at Pwllheli harbour which is 17 miles from the Lleyn. I've fished with Dave on a number of occasions in the past both offshore over the St. Georges wrecks, and inshore on the bigger tides for black bream and tope, which is equally good fun. It's a nice little set up he has there with a good mix of interesting species balanced over both the spring and the neap tides. Offshore generally means pollack with a few coalfish mixed in amongst them, and the chance of the odd cod. There are some ling down there too which fall to baited pirks. On a couple of occasions, clients have had coalfish well over the Welsh record without realising that it stands at a mere 17½ pounds. Coincidentally, on the latest trip I fished with Dave, we had the captor of a previous 18 pound coalie on board with us. But sadly there was no repeat. I've seen the odd double figure coalie from these wrecks in the past. But most people who book Judy B for the wrecking do so with some light tackle pollack fishing in mind. There have been a few sharks out over the wrecks too with a taste for pollack, as evidenced by fish coming up minus half their body.
While the main bulk of the St. Georges wrecks are clustered pretty tightly together, the area of ground they cover is not conducive with an unlimited pick and mix from all extremities of the patch according to their form on the day. To some extent, they need to be grouped into smaller clusters if too much is not to be wasted motoring about. When all the traveling and re-positioning time is taken out of a 10 hour day, wrecking is never blessed with excessive amounts of actual fishing time, so be prepared to make the most of what there is in any way possible. When I first started wrecking back in the 1970's, we used to have two outfits rigged up at all times so that if you got hung up and snapped off, you had a ready to go spare to fall back on immediately and could do any re-tackling up on the move between drifts. Nobody seems to do that these days. Two outfits also allows you to have different lures and trace lengths to go at. Some days fish wont necessarily favour a very long trace for some reason, and lure colour preference can change by the hour with black the 'in colour' at the time I was there.
Jellyworms and redgills claim most of the fish over these particular wrecks, plus un-weighted shads fished on the same rig. Often, weighted shads tend not to be heavy enough to get down to the fish, even though the fishing is taking place on a neap tide. When the tide is running, be prepared to put 10 or even 12 ounces on to get down, which might not sound a lot, but for pollack fishing where the idea is not to hold bottom but simply to touch it then start a slow vertical retrieve up through the shoals hovering above the wreck, it is quite a big lead, with a knock on effect to the size of outfit required to handle it. Braid would help in terms of scaling down, but is not necessary for this type of fishing, even at 300 feet, and is more prone to chafing on the wreck than monofilament. Pollack are great fish on light tackle and the nearest thing to the kind of sport fishing available in say the US. So again, why not pack two outfits with a lighter one for use when the tide starts to die away. There are some weighted shads such as the Storm Shad which would probably be suitable at least some of the time. Instead of the standard 12 to 20 foot mono trace from a long standoff boom to prevent tangles on the drop, self weighted shads tie direct to the end of the reel line. Over in Norway recently, the Storm Shads took some pretty impressive fish including cod well into the thirties and halibut. Big pollack would surely be suckers for them too.
The pollack on these wrecks don't appear to be under any major threat from commercial fishing, though angling can have some short term effect. Fortunately, with so many wrecks in the vicinity, and pollack being such a free swimming fish, replacement must take place on an almost constant basis as the fish hunt from wreck to wreck. Predicting this however can be a problem, and a wreck that fishes well one day, my not fare so well the next and visa versa. On my most recent visit with a party from Shrewsbury, we started over the wreck of the liner 'Oronsa', which I had been out to in the dinghy some years ago after making the 20 or so mile trip down and out from Nefyn. It produced a few fish, but not to the standard anticipated. So we moved out for several minutes to another smaller wreck nearby which was harder to fish due to the shorter drifts, but worth the effort put in. Unfortunately, non of the fish caught made it into double figures, whereas last time I was out with Dave, we had dozens of doubles up to around 14 pounds. The following day, Judy B steamed down to the other end of the wreck cluster, and bingo, it was back to business as usual with good numbers of better fish, and back into the doubles, again going up to 14 pounds.
On a more personal note, Dave and his crewman Chris have been fishing from Pwllheli for around 11 years now, with Dave having transfered his boating base over from Shell Island further round into Cardigan Bay, after moving up from of all places for a sea faring man, Windsor prior to that. Initially all his fishing and exploring in and around upper Cardigan Bay was done for pleasure from an Orkney Longliner, progressing on to bigger boats and taking out friends who, after catching more fish with him than on their charter trips, suggested he go into the chartering business himself which is exactly what he did. Judy B was bought from new and laid out to suit the angling business Dave had in mind, with enough room to stow gear in a dry manner, and no raised engine compartment in the middle of the deck to eat up space. The power comes from twin Cummins turbo diesel engines delivering a top speed of around 30 knots. The boat has a DTI 60 mile COP and is not constrained by tide times in and out of the marina, providing the best west coast wrecking I know off north of the Bristol Channel.
CONTACT DETAILS
Land line telephone: 01691 650223
Mobile: 07973 823738
Email: judy-bcharter@hotmail.co.uk
There is also a web site at www.wreckfishing.net
