WRECKS: Sussex has literally hundreds and hundreds of Shipwrecks offshore, from England to the French coast, most of which are remnants of the two great wars. These hulks have been found over the years by commercial trawlermen, charter skippers and the Royal Navy, a large number of them being listed at the Hydrographic Office in Devon, where up to date positions are plotted onto Navigation charts for use by anglers, divers and for commercial fishermen to log positions so that when trawling, expensive nets & gear does not get towed into the debris.
Most top flight charter skippers in the Channel also have, a selection of uncharted wrecks, which nowadays are kept very tight to ones chest, due to competition from commercial netsmen and the like, so that ones customers can still have the odd red letter days fishing on a wreck that has not been well hammered.
Nowadays, the only real decent fishing is on far offshore wrecks, which are too far out for the average boat to get to in a day, with plenty of good fishing time once you get there, and out of range of the wreck netters, who tend to hit the wrecks daily up to 20 miles + offshore. A fast boat is a necessity so that travelling is kept to a minimum and should bad weather show up whilst a long way offshore, time to safely return quickly in relative comfort. Wreck fishing is exciting, and big fish are always on the cards, especially on the older WW1 wrecks which always seem to hold the bigger fish.
The size of a wreck is not so important, I have taken bigger catches from small lumps only 10ft high on average than off of a super tanker type wreck that is 60ft high, especially where quality Conger & ling are the target. Wrecks are located nowadays using GPS navigation systems which give exact positions of the target on the seabed, and enable more and more boats to find these hidden treasures, than of old, where landmarks or the old decca system made it impossible apart from a select few.
Most wrecks in our part of the channel lay along the tide, East to West, making it a necessity to be precise when anchoring to fish, the difference between catching or not. Fishing all over the world is under tremendous pressure, and our wrecks are no different, and unlike the old days when fish were coming out of the woodwork, more skill is needed as the fish stick tight to the wreck for safety most of the time. Inshore wrecks off Sussex are mostly productive for the large Seabass which prefer the shallower water, up to 10 to 12 miles offshore during the summer months, but for fish like Cod, Ling, Conger & Pollack, wrecks in 180ft plus and over 30 miles offshore are favorite.
Some of our deep water wrecks are well known and are named, where either divers have been down and identified the vessel, or a known position that a particular boat or ship sank, but in the main many remain classed as 'Unknown' is because water is too deep and tides to strong for divers to venture. If only fish could read and talk!