The Irish and Celtic Sea are littered with many shipwrecks, mostly dating back to the first and second world war and were mostly sunk by U-boats whilst on passage through St George’s channel. These wrecks offer the perfect home for large shoals of Pollack, which use the wreck to shelter from the tide and stalk their prey. Sat above the Pollack, coalfish can sometimes be found, with cod, ling and conger hiding down close to the seabed in and around the wreck. There have also been pouting, whiting, spurdogs and haddock caught on these trips. Many of these wrecks are quite large, giving a decent drifting time and are all between 65m and 110m deep, so this type of fishing isn’t for the faint hearted.
St. Justinians is an ideally situated departure point for fishing the wrecks of the Celtic sea and Irish sea, with a whole host of wreck’s within 20 miles, which means less time steaming and more time fishing. These trips give a good opportunity to stock the freezer up with quality fillets, as fish from these depths cannot be returned, but the crew will prep your catch for you as long as time permits. Tackle The basic set up for drift fishing the wrecks is a 12lbs-20lbs boat rod, around 7ft+ paired with a 15 or 20 size multiplier loaded with 30lbs braid and a 30lbs mono leader.
A flying color rig of 20lbs – 30lbs Amnesia or Fluro carbon works best at lengths from 6ft to 12ft using a boom rig, triplex swivel or Portland rig. When lots of smaller fish are present, a boom rig with two lures works well. You will also need a selection of imitation eels in both 4”and 6” and in a variety of colors, shads can work quit well close to the seabed and there is always a place for the good old jelly worms! Baited Hokais and Muppets can work quite well when the tides are slacker to pick out a variety of species.
To get down to the Wreck, a selection of lead weights from 6oz to 1lbs will be required. We prefer to connected the weight with a lighter length of mono known as a rotten bottom, to help keep tackle losses down. We have always favored the cannon ball lead as they tend to bounce off things better, but can be a pain when rolling round the deck!
