Love it when a plan comes together!

Having a few hours to spare yesterday afternoon I had planned to get out on the wrasse again. Due to my Quantum Smoke not willing to play ball I had sent it back for a repair leaving my HRF setup without a reel (More about that in another post!). So it was time to dust off the 2-7g Sakura Shinjin and Alpax 2000 reel and cross my fingers hoping for the best.

I planned to hit two of my favourite marks fishing the first one for a couple of hours up to high tide, then retreating to a more sheltered venue before it all got a bit too gnarly for me and my LRF gear.

Upon reaching my first mark things seemed settled enough and knowing how quickly things can change there I eagerly got about setting up my texas rig and began fishing. I was instantly getting a few tell-tale nibbles and before long had landed a couple of pound-size fish. It was great to be fishing with the Sakura setup again and it was bringing back fond memories of my introduction to saltwater-lure fishing around 11 months ago. Happily sifting through my thoughts I carried on twitching and resting my lure around the rocks and kelp enjoying the beautiful scenery and soaking up the afternoon sunshine. Interrupting the tranquillity for a brief moment I noticed a knock on the line and laid my lure to rest. Unlike the aggressive takes I have become accustomed to with wrasse, this felt as if it had just picked up my lure and was gently sucking on it for size. Slowly lifting my rod and feeling it nibble again I decided to strike and boy was I in for a surprise. Momentarily thinking I was snagged, the Shinjin bent double and then came a run from something on the other end instantly stripping line from my reel in sharp bursts. Knowing it was a decent fish I kept on as much strain as I could to prevent it from returning to its lair, it refused to come up off the bottom and all I could do was hang on and try to keep it from running me aground. After several runs along the ledge below trying to chafe my leader I had managed to guide the fish up off the bottom and towards the surface. Fully fuelled on adrenalin I almost had a heart attack when I saw the huge orange head of a wrasse break the surface, I knew it was unlike any other I had caught before and with my LRF setup at full strain I didn't hesitate in jumping into the water on the ledge below in order to retrieve the fish.

In full-on panic mode I managed to find the self-timer setting on my camera for the first time and captured the moment before another quick photo and back onto the ledge to return this beautiful specimen of around 3lb. I need some practice with the timer mode as you can see, probably best not to have the sun behind you James but who wants to see your head anyway!!

My two hours at the deep water mark were up and as predicted conditions changed for the worse and it was time to head for my next location. Absolutely buzzing and soaked through from the knee down I managed to ascend my escape route in record timing and jumped in the car for a quick drive.
On arrival conditions again were perfect and feeling rather pleased with myself to say the least, I quickly got about finding a rock to perch on and set up my gear. First cast and nip-nip, then bang straight into another good fish. This time smaller but nonetheless a great scrap on my LRF gear.

Carrying on down the beach it was fish after fish with wrasse jumping out from the kelp and nailing my lures on almost every cast. Mostly smaller fish but as my photography needs all the help it can get I was happy to carry on snapping a few of these colourful creatures.

Most fish fell to my favourite soft-lure of the moment, The Sawamura One' Up shad available from www.mrfishjersey.com. An awesome service and an amazing selection of lures and tackle that you'll find hard to beat anywhere.

All in all a fantastic way to spend the afternoon and with soggy trainers intact I headed home for a well earned cup of tea and some dinner. Unfortunately my usual partner in crime Stu was unable to attend due to family commitments. On chatting later I found out he had managed to get out briefly and nail his first 3 bass of the year, and drop a hungry plaice that had smashed his lure on a very slow retrieve. Safe to say we were both pretty pleased with our efforts!

That's all for now anyway so thanks for reading. I'd like to say I'll attempt to get onto some different species in the near future but for now I'm well and truly preoccupied with the wrasse. They're such good fun and on light gear can really get your heart racing. I am planning to get back onto the rivers this season and try out my new techniques on species such as perch and pike. It's been years since I migrated from course to sea fishing and with so many amazing places around me to fish I don't think it will be long before I give it a go so watch this space!! Bye bye for now!!

Paddletail fetish and redundant plastics!!

It seems I just can’t get enough of catching wrasse on lures. It was this time last year that I decided to bite the bullet and start experimenting with lightweight lure fishing. Wrasse and pollock would never have been my intended quarry up until then but now I’m a full-time, rough-ground addict!!

After the initial surge of building a suitable lure collection, I have now established some serious favourites and it seems the majority is now relegated to the Tupperware’s and biscuit tins surrounding me in my office. If you like big-boys toys then you too are likely to have been sucked in and now have many boxes of plastics in various colours, shapes and styles. It seems more than ever that the lure market is as good at hooking fish as it is the customer and I for one have been guilty of thinking any new bit of sparkle is a must have if I'm to make the most out of my sessions. This of course isn't true and the more I learn, the less that seems to go into my bag each time I go fishing. I'm also remembering why I set out on this journey and that was predominantly to fish lighter!! 

During most sessions last year I was leaving home with everything I had acquired, including jig heads, lures (hard and soft), weights, hooks, leaders etc.. It was defeating the object of going lighter but I suppose at the time I was unsure of the right tackle for the situation and didn't want to be caught short on the rocks without the right gear. It seems now with more experience I've become better at assessing the situation beforehand and now only leave home with the bare minimum. For one it’s lighter to carry and above all, it’s easier to find what you’re looking for in your bag and organise things so it's there to hand when you need it. I've always been a bit OCD and if you’re remotely similar you‘ll know the impact that good organisation can make to a days fishing. I'm hoping as the year progresses I will find a need for the excess tackle but for now it seems that in most situations I will fish a weedless hook, soft plastic lure and maybe a small nose weight running free on the leader. Jigheads would just be a nightmare in the kelp and even over clean ground I find myself adopting texas-style rigging to limit dragging in any floating bits of weed which are everywhere at this time of the year after a good blow. 

There’s also the matter of my serious fetish for paddle-tails this year! Senkos and X-layers were becoming my favourite styles last year but now it seems I have found extra confidence with lures such as the awesome Sawamura One’ Up Shad and the Keitech Easy Shiner. 

Both have added impregnated scents but the movement as soon as the lure hits the water seems to drive some fish into a feeding frenzy. I now refer to these as Haribo for wrasse and whilst not being the cheapest lures to let them rip to shreds they do pay for themselves with the amount of fish you catch.

Anyway, enough waffle for now, time for some fishy photos. Needless to say it’s been wrasse, wrasse and more wrasse. Don’t think I’ll ever get tired of catching these beautiful fish. Well done to Stuart on nailing that fatty that ran you aground last time!! Thanks for reading!!

Wrasse on lures again!!

It’s been another great weekend exploring the local coastline and as always we've met plenty of people along the way; Most of them lovely, genuine sea-caring people but of course there’s always the odd one who seems more intent on killing everything he lands with no consideration for others or the environment around him. It's such a shame there are still some people out there giving us anglers a bad name, leaving rubbish on the beach and not to mention shoving baby school bass into carrier bags without conscience. I'm constantly trying to explain to these people how young these fish are and how we need to look after our resources for future generations. I never get much of a response and if I do its some rubbish like 'they all swallowed the hooks'! Hmm.. Really??! I know a shore fishermen has little impact on our seas in comparison to a commercial boat but I believe anyone who fishes should be made to understand the lifespan of anything they catch, observe the size limits that are put in place for a reason and treat our seas with the respect it deserves.... There, that's that off my chest!! Anyway, about those lovely people!! I can’t help but notice the vast number of anglers, like myself who are new to lure fishing but still unaware of the variety of species that can be targeted with artificial baits. Many still seem intent on catching bass and if you are fishing catch and release as you say you intend to, then why are you ignoring the great fun that can be had with hard fighting species such as wrasse.

If want to give it a go you’re best off fishing a weedless set-up like the one below bumping your lure along the bottom or simply ‘dead sticking’ your bait in a more static manner as you would with touch bait fishing.

Wrasse tend to inhabit rough ground, so if you find boulders and jungles of kelp and bladderwrack then you’re sure to find them in numbers. As I understand at this time of year like other species, wrasse move inshore in order to find a safe haven to deposit their eggs. They are highly territorial creatures and will defend their nests with serious aggression and it seems in the process they’re quite partial to turning that fight into a convenient dinnertime.

Our latest trips have found myself and Stuart intent on hunting down these rocket fuelled little beauties and we've found some pretty stunning places to do exactly that.

It’s not all fun and games and after witnessing two rock falls in the past two sessions we've become increasingly conscious of the safety element involved in reaching our chosen marks. Waders keep us away from the base of the cliffs and I can only cringe when I see families setting up picnics in exactly the same spots we habitually try to avoid.  I attempted to capture the aftermath of one of the falls, notice the cloud of dust at the side of the cliffs.

In our last evening session we managed to bag a good few fish each such as this greedy little bugger that managed to scoff a whole x-layer.

Another lure that seemed to be working well that evening was the Culprit 4" Dropshot Worm in Smoke/Black & Purple Fleck from agmdiscountfishing.co.uk. I'm sure there's going to be plenty more wrasse falling to this one!

Stuart also hooked a clonker on a Megabass Inch-Zic which we unfortunately didn't get to see as it ran him aground on some kelp and managed to escape our photoshoot. I don’t think I've seen his Lucky Craft ESG II bent like that before but it most certainly would have been his biggest wrasse to date. Safe to say he was pretty annoyed to lose it, sure you’ll nail him next time anyway mate.:)

I’ll leave on that note and hopefully next time as we scale the lures up we’ll get onto some more specimen sized fish. Thanks for reading as always and good luck nailing a lure-caught wrasse of your own!! 

Back on form!!

Well, the forecast for this weekend sure was welcome, sunshine with a north westerly breeze and slight seas. Everything looked on for a good day hitting wrasse on SP’s so we planned to get out to a mark which had showed some promise when I fished it last weekend.

We  took a long walk around the coast hopping from boulder to boulder whilst keeping clear of the very crumbly cliffs which after a good drenching were now baking in the sun, crunching and creaking and sporadically dumping down the odd rock or buckets-worth of sand and slate.

Upon reaching our mark all inhibitions faded at the sight of a kelp-strewn bay that was crying out wrasse. After setting up our texas rigs we began the wade out along the ledge which takes you about 80 yards off-shore, away from the landslides and into a good metre of water for most of the day.

After a fairly intense week it was great to be able to revert to a child-like state and upon the first nibble that’s exactly how I began to feel. Fishing light was the way forward but with our drags tightened in order to bully any fish away from them returning to their lair where they like to snag you up. 3”plastics, #1 wide gape hooks and some 5g cone weights were all we needed in our pockets in case anything did manage to snap us up. (thankfully no tackle lost this time!)

Fish started coming thick and fast and before long plenty of nice wrasse were darting out from beneath the ledges and nailing our baits. Being that we were wading quite far off-shore, photography was a challenge but nonetheless we managed to capture some of these beautiful fish for the diary. Their initial surge once hooked is awesome fun on light gear and the variety of colours they sport is unlike any other fish that I know of. I'm well and truly hooked on them!