Chieftain Wreck Fishing

The fishing on the Chieftain is almost always wreck fishing and involves a drift over the wreck to target the fish. If you are an experienced angler please ignore this page, you will probably only disagree! 

Rods are generally 30lb plus short with a stiff action although lighter rods will give good sport and the new carbon fibre rods are especially good in our opinion. Any decent boat mulitplier reel will do as long as it has the capacity to take 200mts or more of 50Lb plus Braid, don’t  forget the braid will need a mono backing to provide some cushion and prevent the braid spinning on the spool. We do still have anglers who use Scarborough centre pin reels!.Recovery ratio should also considered it is not unknown to pull in three sizable cod on one drop and this is hard work with a high ratio reel the higher priced 2 speed reels being the dogs, giving the best of both worlds, quick recovery when required and plenty of winching power when you have the three big ones on.

By far the most popular fishing method is the drop and draw with a pirk topped by a killer rig, bait works well and is a bit easier on the arms, until you get the fish on that is. If you want to target Ling baited lures using a thin strip of mackerel or squid will often score but in general terms its better to target your species and if you want to bait fish don’t confuse things with lures and vice versa. The fishing is generally in depths of about 40 -60mts but can be as deep as 200mts so make sure you have plenty of line on. Braid is used by almost everyone (50-60lb rating) and has the advantage of being less effected by the tide due to the significantly smaller diameter than mono is far more sensitive to bites and allows you to feel your way over the wreck. The pirks come in all shapes and sizes 12oz being the smallest you can get away with and typically 16oz  and 20oz being the best size, getting you down quickly and not being to much effected by the tide or to heavy to get in quickly.

Tackle losses can be high and experience has shown that rather than the traditional treble the pirk is best fitted with a ripper comprising 2 x 7/0 hooks tied off on trawler twine or cordolyne this set up is less prone to snagging and we have even seen a fish on each hook!!! The Pirk is usually attached to the bottom of a Killer rig which consists of a 60lb or 80lb 1.5mt or 2mt length of mono with 1-3 muppet or hokki droppers depending on the anglers preference. Size matters and as a general guide the bigger the lure the more chance of the big fish also less is better, more lures does not always mean more fish and we frequently see the big fish caught  on a pirk topped with just one big muppet. Colour is also a factor and it seems that some colours are better on the day rather than others most colours will catch the fish it just seems that some seem not to work as well as others on the day, having said that we have seen two anglers fishing next to each other with the same rigs one catching fish and the other blanking, that’s fishing.The other option is a pirk with  hokki rig, most of the Hokki rigs  used are the commercially available rigs which are mass produced in the far east and whilst for the most part they are OK we have seen good fish lost due to the poor quality of them and the low breaking strain of the mono so if you do use them make sure you get them from a reliable source or tie your own. The first choice of rigs then would be a 16oz pirk topped with a 1.5 mt long killer rig with one muppet dropper and a selection of two sizes of muppet 5” and 6.5” the odd one or two larger muppets ( over 6.5”) are worth having available if you really want to go for the big one.

Bait Fishing- As with the artificial lures and Jigs keep it simple is the order of the day the best rig is a simple one As a general rule you will need at least 10 rigs for a days fishing. The pirks do not need to be any thing fancy, home made gear performing just as well as the expensive shiny pirks.The cheaper pirks can be dressed with a large muppet for a lot less than the price of the fancy pirks or jigs which are offered for sale or can be painted with a good spray paint to brighten them up.

Hand made rigs are available from bojo rigs, see link for online purchase.