GO Angling charters

Wrasse

All species have a hold on us for different reasons. Tope and smoothies for example, bait out, ratchet on and wait, adrenalin pumping waiting for the ‘click click’ of the ratchet. Pollack over wrecks – wind up nothing, drop down, wind up again whilst waiting for that short pluck of a pollack teasing your lure – then bang your losing line as the fish makes a bid for freedom.

Bass fishing is another one that has us dreaming of what can be!

Wrasse fishing though can offer you all this adrenalin pumping action and more, basically a much greater chance of success.

Identification & Habitat

There are many members of the wrasse family around the world. The British Record fish list has 7 members on its books. These are the Rock cook, Baillion’s, Scale-rayed, Goldsinny, Corkwing, Cuckoo and Ballan wrasse.

From the 7 wrasse, only the cuckoo and ballan wrasse appear on the main fish list, with weights regularly above the 1lb threshold. The previous 5 listed are all mini species, with the corkwing and goldsinny the most common in our seas.

The ballan wrasse, pictured above, is a very strong fish with a deep body and large head and mouth. Similar to most wrasse the ballan has large protruding lips, built onto an extremely powerful set of jaws. Behind the lips you will find a single row of strong food crunching teeth. The ballan wrasse also has another set of teeth further down in its throat. With the first set crushing its prey, the second will grind down the food to aid digestion. Young fish are usually a shade of green, whilst older individuals tend towards a reddish brown and dark green, the fish though, like many others tend to show colour similar to that of their surroundings. All the ballans have what appear to be numerous small white spots all over the body.

Built far more slender in the body with a long snout the cuckoo wrasse, pictured below, will never be wrongly identified as a ballan. The cuckoo wrasse is a particularly colourful member of the family that would not look out of place swimming a coral reef in a very distant tropical climate. Colouration varies with age and sex; females and immature males tend to be more of a yellow/brown nearer the head leading to a pink body with a very distinctive row of black and white patches along the latter section of the dorsal fin, and with blue edging to the fins. Mature males on the other hand have large blue heads and a wealth of blue, orange and yellow colours over the whole of their bodies. When courting the males colours are even more pronounced to attract a female partner for breeding.

Both the ballan and cuckoo wrasse start life as female fish, with some maturing later in life into the male of the species. It is reported that the male of the wrasse will have a harem of females that he looks after. Should this male die, a female will change sex to replace him.

Corwking Wrasse	Goldsinny	Rock Cook

Varying in colour although normally green and brown with a lighter underside. The most distinctive feature of the Corwking is it's serrated Gill Covers.	Small member of the wrasse family, with a light golden brown appearance on the top half lightening off underneath. Has 2 distinctive dark spots. First at the base of the dorsal fin, second on the tail..	The tail has a distinct dark band across it. Blue flecks are also visible on the tail.

The above 3 photographs courtesy of The Aquarium Project

Feeding

They feed predominantly on crab, mussel, shrimp and worm, ragworm being the most effective from a boat angler’s point of view. Wrasse are to be found mainly in rock and weed strewn areas. During the mating season of between April and August for most wrasse, the female of the species are known to build nests of weed and mucus. It is in these nests that the female will lay her eggs.

On the drift

Whilst afloat the most popular and productive form of fishing for wrasse is on the drift. More often than not the grounds you will be fishing will be relatively close to shore, in shallow waters of below 60ft. By nature of the wrasses habitat, these grounds will be weed covered rocky areas; therefore tackle loss will be inevitable during your quest for these hard fighting species.

Tackle up

There is a popular belief that rods need to be in the 20-30lb range with stiff characteristics to bully the fish onto the hook and up to the gunwales. This though is a fallacy, and one that you will find most successful wrasse hunters steering well clear of. When drifting over the rocky outcrops, that shelter the wrasse from its predators whilst hiding it from its prey, your bait will pass by the fish, enticing it to strike hard and turn with its lunch in mouth. Stiff action rods tend to pull the hook and bait from the fish before the hook has had time to set properly in the mouth, this action then spooking the fish from the bait.

A softer action rod will help cushion the initial attack of the wrasse, and allow you time to hook and play the fish instead of losing it. Wrasse can give you an extremely powerful and courageous fight. They hit hard, and twist and turn all the way, in their struggle as they ascend to the surface of the water.

To get the most of your wrasse fishing your rod choice needs to allow for this. Downtide rods no stronger than 12lb, or uptiders in the 2-6oz bracket being the more favoured for most anglers. Why not take this one step further and help yourself get the most from your wrasse fishing by using one of the sensor tip rods that have become increasingly popular over the last 2 or 3 years. These rods, , such as the Cono-Flex Sensor Tip, Mustad multi tip, Fladen Maximus sensor and Abu Premier sensor all offer the angler some great financial choices, but ideally will all cover the job just as well as the next. At around 10 – 12ft in length these rods are much larger than your standard downtider, but after a little practice no harder to use.

Rigs
Rig choice varies depending on how quick the drift is and just how snaggy the bottom you are fishing is. Your rig can be either a three hook paternoster style, with all the hooks safely above the lead, or my preferred method of 3 hooks down below the lead. In both instances though it is advisable to use a rotten bottom, this is a weak link between your lead and rig, so if stuck fast in a crevice your lead will break free allowing you to retrieve the rig, and hopefully your fish. Hook sizes again vary, if you are fishing for 6lb plus specimens then bigger 3/0 to 5/0 hooks should be used with bigger baits such as peeler crabs and hermits. But for simple and straight forward everyday wrasse fishing, or in a match where numbers of wrasse is most important, then using ragworm as bait, hook sizes between size 2 and 2/0 will suffice. There are many different patterns to choose from, Varivas, Mustad Vikings etc but I always choose the Kamasan B940. These hooks are extremely sharp, and can also bend out of snag should they get hooked up.

Normal bottom or 3 down rigs tend to be fairly long at around 4 to 6 foot in length but the rig I use most often is only 2 foot long. Credit for this wrasse catching spectacular I have to give to Scottish International Pete Redshaw, who after narrowly missing out on a boat win to me on day one of the 2004 Home Internationals, won the boat on the second day whilst giving me an extremely valuable lesson in how to catch plenty of wrasse.
Built from 50lb mono, the first hook is fast up to the lead, with the second hook barely 12” away, and the third with a small silver spoon, a further 12” from the second. This heavy duty rig and spoon, lies flat in the tide, keeping all hooks firmly on the bottom where the wrasse will be looking for the worms and crabs that they feed upon. This rig never ceases to catch wrasse, sometimes fished clean, and other times with different attractor beads depending on the venue.

	GO Angling Charter Services Wrasse	Holyhead Marina Anglesey
	Tel: 01248 716315 \| Mobile: 07971 924046	gethyn@goangling.co.uk


Related articles
Wrasse fishing
Favourite rigs
Bait - ragworm
Wrasse video