On day 1 we only had the evening to fish, as setting up our tent and fishing gear took up most of the day. We headed over to Gap Point, which was sheltered from the wind (this becomes a running trend…) in hope of some big pollack, as this fishes straight into 40 metres from shore. We initially started with some small metals, as we couldn’t fully access the point until the tide was lower, but no luck. Once the tide had dropped we managed to hop across to the point, and clipped on one of the bomb squad each in hopes of either a wrasse or a pollack. Before long, Ollie was hooked up on a decent fish, he fought it until midwater before it took off, bending his rod in half and his reel screaming. At first, we thought this must be an absolute slab of a pollack, until a seal popped up about 30 metres away with a pollack in its mouth. Ollie kept the pressure on, keen to keep both the lure and to try and land the fish. Unfortunately, the fish got stolen but luckily we got the lure back, surprisingly unscathed. Additionally, straight away after this adrenaline rush, Ollie realised that during the hop across to the point he had badly hurt his ankle. This ended our day with a trip to St Marys hospital, however luckily it wasn’t anything serious.
After a few LRF sessions dodging the wind on the majority of the days, we spotted a weather window for my favourite mark on the islands. We knew this would be our last fishing session for this holiday and I still hadn’t had my revenge for losing 3, yes that's right, 3 big pollack last time I was over on Scilly. After figuring out what the pollack wanted lure wise for most of the week, I immediately clipped on the Salty Sandeel, as this undoubtably had outfished any other lures so far. I cast right beside the rocky outcrop that I had had a huge bite from my previous trip and let the lure sink the 35 metres down… I opted for a slow retrieve, in hope to let any predators on the seabed see the lure ascending towards the surface. At the end of the retrieve, I saw a gold flash below the lure, before seeing a mouth the size of my hand completely engulf the Salty Sandeel. I struck into the fish, knowing it was now or never… In hope to not lose this one to a snag too, I tried to immediately pull this fish up, however it was having none of it. It turned 180 degrees, aiming for the rock and with one huge tail splash, this thing took off. Just feeling the pure weight of this thing alongside my screaming reel was enough to get the adrenaline going. I immediately shouted to Ollie- ‘HUGE FISHHH!!’. With almost full locked drag now, this thing took two more big runs, however luckily I was able to steer it clear of any available snags. How I managed to do that I'm not sure, complete adrenaline had taken over by this point. Using the swell to our advantage I got this fish on a small ledge 5 metres below us, however by this point some of my braid was touching the rock so this was a very tense moment. Ollie began lifting the pollack, but he thought it was snagged, so I grabbed the line to help too. It turns out it was purely the weight of this fish…After both obtaining braid cuts to our hands, we finally (somehow!?) managed to hand line this beast 5 metres vertically. How it didn’t come off I don’t know, but thank you fishing gods. As soon as it was close enough, I got my hand in the gills and bought this fish to a safe place on the rocks, before lying down as I didn’t really know what to do with myself. We got round to weighing this monster, coming in at 9lbs on the dot, and measuring in at 83cm long and 35cm girth. What a monster fish, almost definitely a pollack of a lifetime for me from shore, and without the Salty Sandeel I doubt this beast would have been landed. Well, what an epic trip. First of what I’m sure is many fishing holidays. As for the Bomb Squad, for sure my go-to lures. A must-have in anyone's tackle box.
