Pollock sizes getting smaller

[firetiger7]

Over the summer I was able to land really big Pollock over 60cm almost every time in Galway Bay, feels like they disappeared over the last weeks? The smaller ones are still here, do they travel deeper at the end of the season or what is that about?

[kieran]

I've noticed a decline in the overall size of pollack off the shore over the last decade.
Got one over two kilos there a week or so ago, and that is a rarity now. Can't talk of whats happening from the boats.

[corbyeire]

Definitely a decline - never target them specifically but would always pick them up lure fishing for bass or sea trout - no pollack on lure this year!
I saw one caught off 14 rods in Ballyreen over 5 hours - insane

Had one on the retrieve bait fishing so far this year - never seen the like

[spindlefist]

They have certainly been terrible down west Cork this year, last year I could go down daily and catch several pollack in the 4-6lb range, this year none of that size and just a scattering of the 1lb or smaller.
even out on the kayak, nothing bigger than 2 or 3lb and rhey are few and far between.
Seems to be for all fish though, 10 Oct 2020 I had cod,scad,mack, pollack, coalfish and Gurnard in 1 day off kayak, 10 Oct 2021, similar weather nothing but 4 small pollack

[firetiger7]

Thats strange, I only noticed the decline over the last few weeks! This summer was phenomenal, really big pollock and good numbers too!

[hugo]

Once the lockdowns era ended, and hotels, restaurants, BnBs opened again, demand for locally caught fish shot up. Wonder if that has any effect?

[gregfromfrance]

Hi
A friend and I went for one week fishing in Cork mi-september.
We practised boat lure fishing and caught between 70 and 150 pollocks a day, smallest were around 1.5 kilos, biggest around 3.5 I guess (99.5% were released).

Just a testimony, it was the first time we fished your waters.

[Gonzo]

We only caught a handful between two of us of very small pollock on the boat this year fishing North Dublin, while last year we caught loads every trip, biggest being about 60cm. The mackerel fishing in this area hasn't been great this year either..

[SiDtheFish]

We've noticed a rapid decline in big pollack catches over the last few years, from both boat and shore. This year, post lockdown, big pollack were everywhere. I don't think it was an effect of lockdown. Early summer water temperatures were really high and sandeel, sprat and mackerel everywhere, along with big fat pollack. Everywhere you looked there were baitballs of sandeel and sprat, with gannets, mackerel and pollack in a feeding frenzy. Since then we haven't had any settled hot weather and a spell of cool weather spelt the end of summer by the end of July. Catches of pollack since then have been sporadic with few large ones caught, other than one day when we caught the most big pollack, biggest cod and biggest ling we've had in the six years with the boat!