Wrasse on light gear

Just for a change a few of us went out and tried for some wrasse today. A few years ago I was adicted to fishing for these beautiful fish, but that was from the shore using a light beachcaster, multiplier reel and a bucket of crabs. This method is much more fun, we went out with our Tenryu Rod Bars and Super Mix, 4000 size spinning reels and a selection of soft plastics including Xlayers, Mother Worms and Spindle Worms.

We headed along our south west coast where the water is deeper than were we normally fish. Don't get me wrong, there are some huge wrasse on our south east coast but the conditions were right to try some deeper marks for a change. Just look atour south coast cliffs in these pictures, remember the rough boulders and drop offs continue under the water too, in places we were only yards off the shore and in 45 ft of water.

We hugged the coast looking for drop offs and heads, never staying in any place for more than 15 minutes. The sea bed just looked so good and it didnt take me long to hook this nice 4lb'er.

We moved along a bit more, fining some deeper water. We could see the big boulders that had once been on the cliffs that are now strewn along the bottom, great wrasse ground.

We were using our soft plastics very gently, finding the bottom and ever so slightly jigging and lifting the rods, making the baits just quiver in the water. This is definately better than the normal fast jigging you would do with pollack and cod. The Xlayers and Mother worms love this method, they just seem to come to life with the most subtle of twitches.

Bob Jameson soon slammed into this lovely wrasse of 5lb 8oz (2.7kg), it really did give him a good fight, all the way to the boat this fish just banged and tugged on his braid, really bending his Rod Bar 240 to its max, it was a sight to see indeed.

Here is Bobs 5lb 8oz

Next up was Nelson Gouveia with a huge wrasse of 6lb 6oz (3kg). It took a Megabass Giant Xlayer Ayu and once again fought like a gladiator all the way to the surface.

It made a change from going for the bass, and I am sure if today is anything to go on we will be back trying for some more big wrasse this season. Bon temps indeed.