WRASSE
Boat - Page 2
When a fish bites you have the advantage of being directly overhead, which gives you the chance to take control of the fight and steer the wrasse up and away from the weeds. This does need, however, to be done very quickly, for even with strong gear a big ballan can still snag you in moments, leaving you little option to do anything other than pull for a break.
Float fishing is handled as I’ve already described in the section on catching wrasse from shore, with the main difference being that I would use prawns rather than crabs for bait.
Drifting, however, is handled in a completely different manner. It is exciting, but challenging, since you do need to have one eye – or one angler – on the echo sounder the whole of the time that you are fishing, giving you notice of any obstruction which would cause you to lose your tackle if you did not reel in very quickly. You can also scale your tackle down, though I still would not recommend that you dropped below a rod with a test curve of at least 2 lbs.
Where you choose to drift is up to you, but there are certain locations which lend themselves to this method better than others. The first is right at the edge of the rocks, drifting down on the sand, where it is broken up by patches of little rocks. This can be quite good, hitting reasonably decent fish, but it can also cost you a bit of tackle. On the plus side, however, you will often get bites from other species of fish, including thornback rays, pollack, bass, bream (in some parts of the country) and gurnard.
The second location is right over the top of rocks and reefs, especially at the mouths of estuaries where wrasse can be prolific and there is sufficient current to make the fishing interesting. For this, however, you do need an echo sounder to give you advance warning of any major snags. The tackle that you will need for both situations is basically either a boom to a long trace or a running leger, albeit one equipped with a ten to fifteen foot long trace. (The diagram should explain the tackle clearly.) How you fish, however, depends on which location you have chosen. If the first appeals to you, then you simply drift the leger behind the boat, taking your chances with any snags. (A good idea here is to attach the lead via a swivel and short length of weak trace.)
Float fishing is handled as I’ve already described in the section on catching wrasse from shore, with the main difference being that I would use prawns rather than crabs for bait.
Drifting, however, is handled in a completely different manner. It is exciting, but challenging, since you do need to have one eye – or one angler – on the echo sounder the whole of the time that you are fishing, giving you notice of any obstruction which would cause you to lose your tackle if you did not reel in very quickly. You can also scale your tackle down, though I still would not recommend that you dropped below a rod with a test curve of at least 2 lbs.
Where you choose to drift is up to you, but there are certain locations which lend themselves to this method better than others. The first is right at the edge of the rocks, drifting down on the sand, where it is broken up by patches of little rocks. This can be quite good, hitting reasonably decent fish, but it can also cost you a bit of tackle. On the plus side, however, you will often get bites from other species of fish, including thornback rays, pollack, bass, bream (in some parts of the country) and gurnard.
The second location is right over the top of rocks and reefs, especially at the mouths of estuaries where wrasse can be prolific and there is sufficient current to make the fishing interesting. For this, however, you do need an echo sounder to give you advance warning of any major snags. The tackle that you will need for both situations is basically either a boom to a long trace or a running leger, albeit one equipped with a ten to fifteen foot long trace. (The diagram should explain the tackle clearly.) How you fish, however, depends on which location you have chosen. If the first appeals to you, then you simply drift the leger behind the boat, taking your chances with any snags. (A good idea here is to attach the lead via a swivel and short length of weak trace.)
The second location, however, requires quite different tactics. You drop your tackle down, then start to retrieve it fairly slowly, allowing it to pause at depths near the bottom. When you have recovered about ten to fifteen turns of line, then you drop it back down. You will need, however, to keep watch on the echo sounder. Big rocks can suddenly loom up, grabbing everybody’s tackle, so you do need to be ready to wind up furiously if the occasion demands.
If you don’t mind losing the occasional bit of gear, then this method can be quite exciting, catching not only wrasse but also large numbers of quite reasonable pollack and the odd coalfish or two. Bait, however, needs to be prawns, though occasionally you will catch fish on ragworm. You will find, however, that the size of fish taken on worms is often much smaller than the ones which come up on the prawns.
If you don’t mind losing the occasional bit of gear, then this method can be quite exciting, catching not only wrasse but also large numbers of quite reasonable pollack and the odd coalfish or two. Bait, however, needs to be prawns, though occasionally you will catch fish on ragworm. You will find, however, that the size of fish taken on worms is often much smaller than the ones which come up on the prawns.
Once you have caught your wrasse, my own advice would be to take a photograph of it, then return it quickly to the water, where it will live to fight another day. They are no use for eating after all. However if you catch a specimen, then why not keep an aerator and a large bucket on board. That way you can keep it alive and still weigh it in, returning the fish to the water after weighing. That way you still get your medal and the fish still gets to live.
