Fishing Around Ships

Most anglers know to look for structure, but one form of structure that often gets ignored is ships. Naturally, ships on the move aren’t going to hold fish, or if they do, would be impossible to fish around anyway. Ships that sit at anchor as they wait for a berth or for repairs, however, can be fish-attracting magnets.

As one might guess, the steel hull protruding far down into the water creates cover plus interrupts currents. Those big ships, however, hold a card up their sleeve that other forms of structure just can’t match: light.

By law, ships at anchor must illuminate their decks. Most have huge lights set up high on bridges, cranes, and towers, from stem to stern. Naturally, a lot of this light spills over onto the water. And it’s thoroughly bright enough to have the same effect as streetlights on bridges. It creates distinct light-lines, and baitfish are attracted in hordes. When the sun comes up and we anglers venture out onto the water, yes, the lights do go off and no longer have an effect. But that’s okay – with the lights pulling in fish from afar for hours at a time, there are often plenty of fish that remain in the general area, sometimes hugging the ship’s hull and remaining with the physical structure through the day.

As you might expect, a ship that’s only been at anchor for a day or two usually won’t hold as many fish as one that’s been sitting in the same place for days or even weeks. And in packed anchorages, the fish may prefer one ship over another and can be difficult to locate (look for the ship with the brightest lights around, if you can observe them after dark). But when you see ships sitting at anchor and you think fish are in the general area, give ’em a look. You may well be surprised at just how many bites you get when fishing a commercial ship anchorage.

Note: why not go fish a ship at night? Well, you can – but in my experience this usually doesn’t work well, because half the time the crew is dropping down lines from above!