Dingle Light House

fished 7am to 1 pm .High tide 10 am.My best days fishing this year. :D .I went to Dingle specifically to fish for wrasse armed with about 50 small hardback crab.Decided to try for mackeral for the first 20 minutes and caught them 3 or four per cast for about 1 hour.Even changed to a toby to make it more fun and had the bonus of 2 pollack.Another guy arrived and pulled out 1 at least every other cast for another 2 hours.I then changed to freelining the crab for wrasse and caught 14 all about the 3-4 lb mark.I started fishing this mark about 4 months ago and every trip back there just gets better and better.

Col,

What do you mean "freelining"?

Read,
by free lining I mean no weights.You just tie on a swivel to your shockleader then tie off about 2 foot of 20 lb line to a 3/0 hook.Attatch your hardback crab and drop it about 8 feet out from the rock without any weight(hence freelining).This allows the crab to sink slowly and find the correct level that the wrasse are at.This can only be done with a fixed spool and you must keep in contact with the crab while it is sinking.If it hits bottom before a hit then just raise it about 10-15 feet and let it sink again.I learnt this method a few months ago and my catch rate has trebled.Give it a try.It saves messing around with floats aswell.

Col,

I caught my first wrasse last month and it was great sport. I must try this. The abundance of bait and the the simple rig makes it attractive. It must be at least as good as doggie bashing. By the way, how do present the crab on the hook?

Declan,
I pull out the back leg and put the hook through the hole.Bring the hook out right in the middle of the top of the shell and expose pltnty of the point.I find the best size crabs are the ones a little larger than a 2 euro coin.Let me know how you get on if you try this method.

Col,

Will do, thanks for the advice.