The coalfish is very similar to pollack and is sometimes misidentified by anglers as the latter.
It has the same 3 dorsal fins and 2 anal fins, however the lower jaw is almost equal to that of the upper jaw. The lateral line on the coalfish is all but straight The topside of the body is a dark, brown/green colour running to silver down it’s sides, finishing white underneath.
Coalfish can be found over a variety of grounds and are fairly common over rough broken areas and wrecks.
Sadly the days when we would get large double figure coalfish have long gone. Our better specimens now tend to be in the 4 to 6lb bracket.
Moving in early season we tend to fish for the coalfish over shallow rocky areas in similar fashion to pollack, with ragworm being the main target.
Coalfish are full of blood and make a far superior bait at times for the likes of tope and spurdog around our waters.
