Reef Conger at anchor

[Adam S]

Hello All

I have kinda asked this question before but never really gotten to a consensus.

Planning to do some conger fishing off a favourite reef/pinnacle. We plan to anchor. We have not conger fished the reef properly yet but we have had one on the drift on baited feathers of all things from about half way down and we have also had some small ling off the base of the reef.

The reef is kind of an oval shape and rises from 150 feet on all sides to just 30 at the pinnacle over about half a mile in diameter. Plenty of pollock, wrasse, pout etc on the reef itself.

My question is where to anchor and fish on it?

My thoughts are to anchor just off the base (or just over the very start of the incline) in about 150 feet with a dubby bag on the anchor with the tide pushing the scent onto the reef to draw any fish off it. Should be a chance of some ling here too. Fishing during the day so am pretty sure the eels wont be found in the more shallow areas.

Anyone have any thoughts on positioning?

Plan to fish baited pirks and standard ledgers with muppets and fresh mack as these have done us well elsewhere.

Any input appreciated.

[donal domeney]

Hello All

with a dubby bag on the anchor with the tide pushing the scent onto the reef to draw any fish off it. .

The dubby bag could be too far forward when attached to the anchor.
Depending on what depth you are fishing at attaching it to the anchor could see it 40-100yards ahead of the boat. It will draw in fish but not where your baits are.

Dropping it from the bow might be a better option. Put a big stone into the bag.

Then if you are getting then on the drift there should be plenty there and you might not need one

[Seaniebo]

I was chatting with some of the lads in work about this. They do a lot more boat fishing than I do and like Donal said thet commented on the dubby actually working against you on the anchor in deep water with any bit of tide or wind. They reckoned the scent trail from 3 or 4 big baits would be ample to attract the congers off the reef.

[offdawall]

If the wind is exactly the same direction as the tide the boat will lay downtide and the dubby will go directly behind the boat drawing the conger to your baits. The dubby will work in ths scenario. But if the wind is stronger and maybe accross the tide then the boat will lay differently depending on tidal strength and you'll be in a different place to your dubby trail if it's on the anchor or even on the bow. I'd prob anchor uptide of the pinnacle in the deeper water and draw the fish out with lots of baits as the lads above have said. you can't beat a bit of conger fishin!

[Adam S]

Cheers gents

I can drop some bait right down over the fishing area alright so the dubby bag could be left out.

Will try dropping off the base with big baits first and I can drop a bag down if there is no action. The tide is not too strong really. As you said Donal if they are coming on the drift then there might be plenty of them.