Weekend in the West: Part 1 - Wrasse

It has been a while since I have had the time to really sit down and do a proper blog post. So first off - I apologize for that.

The weather all summer has been, lets say, less than kind to me on the West coast. Huge swells have stopped me getting access to my favorite lure fishing grounds but thankfully we had a break in the weather and we headed out in search of some Wrasse.

Any time I have managed to get out I have been having great success of the Illex Ammonite Shad in the watermelon / bluegill colour. The Wrasse simply love them. I have tried this lure rigged Texas style and it works but I have had more hits using a 7g Jika rig - Just goes to show the presentation really can make a huge difference to bites.

I also started to play about using black lures - something which I have read about and heard others talk about but not something I had tried before. It wasn't long before we smashed a few using the 4 and 1/2 inch Sluggo rigged with a glass bead and lead.

It still frazzles my brain that nobody else is out chasing these wonderful fish on lures around the North West .... I have yet to meet another lure fisherman or another angler for that matter. It just screams HRF for Wrasse! I am only learning about the art of catching Wrasse on soft plastics but I would love to see someone with the knowledge and expertise to come and explore this part of the world with me. I am pretty sure it has a lot of hidden gems lurking beneath my feet.
























I love my photographing but the best part is always watching them kick back and swim off down to the boulders and kelp.

The weather (as always) was changeable and we got all four seasons thrown at us in the space of two days but we stuck at it - I was determined to squeeze in as much fishing as I could while we still had some sort of calm weather and before the cold starts to set in.

It has been great fishing with the Century HPR 7ft 7 - A simply awesome rod for battling Wrasse in heavy ground. It has great tip sensitivity yet powerful to wrench those pigs out from their hiding spots.

We found it hard to track down any great numbers of fish but moving around seemed to produce steady bites and hook ups. No insane quantities but we still managed to nail a good few.

Hopefully if the weather holds up we will be able to make another few session before things start to slow up for the year. Keep an eye out on the blog next week for the other half of our weekend in the West. I will have our Pollack pictures up. 

Stay tuned!

Tight lines.