wrasse ,county antrim 16th febuary 08
Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:42 pm
People:myself and helen
Duration:3hrs
Tide:2up 1 down
Weather:bright sunshine ,light s wind
Bait:ragworm and mackerel
Rigs:single hook paternoster and float
Results:wrasse !3 bearded rockling,corkwing wrasse
Report:I was on the antrim coast this weekend for a couple of dayswith the other half , she'd even suggested taking a couple of rodsalong as the forecast sunshine seemed to actually be happeningfor a change( she has a bit of interest in fishing luckily )
so the dogs were walked in the morning and on the way back from the beach I called into flyin tackle in portrush to get some rag-worm hoping to tempt a few pollack or coalies on the floatfor helen and i would have a nosey round on the bottom and see whats around .
On arrival at the mark there wasn't a soul to be seen so duely set helenup with the pike rod and float set around 20 feet hoping to fish above the weed to cut down on tackle loses .I set up the beach caster with a mackerel fillet on a pulley rig and lobed it out .I then set up a single hook paternoster on my new greys bze and baited up with rag on size 1 hook
and fired it out into the rough ground ,around 40 mins passed with not a touch and I decided to check the conger gear ,on lifting into it expecting a snag it came free but felt a bit heavier than it should then a nice 3 bearded rockling broke the surface
coming in at a pound exactly I was well chuffed .
just as I was putting a fresh mackerel fillet on I noticed the bass rod getting a couple of good rattles ,quickly hitting it I thought it felt a bit wrasse like in the fight but thought nah no chance in febuary ! how wrong could i be a nice wee female ballan appeared,quickly unhooked and
returned ,drop the conger gear back in and bait up the bass rod for a quick turn around and back into the same area ,helen was still having no luck on the float so I changed her over to fish the bottom as well , i 'd no sooner got her sorted when the bass rod started getting a bit
of interest again this time a male ballan appeared at about 2 lb .
Things were started to waken up a bit it seems , Helen was only in the water 10 mins when she connected with a small fish ,this time a corkwing wrasse ,oh what Iwould have given for that fish for the species hunt !
things went quite for a while again as the tide started to run a bit harder , when my rod started banging about with something a bit bigger this time , a couple of quick pumps pulled the fish from kelp but it kept trying to get its head down ,thankfully the bze has a bit of back bone so i was able to bully the fish free , as it got closer in it started to break the surface and even 30 yrds out it looked a half decent fish , praying i could lift it up the ledge another beautifully marked fish landed on the rock beside me 3lb4oz of ballan wrasse ,a few photos and a quick weigh saw him disappearing back into the depths hopefully to fatten up a bit by the summer .
Really strange to get wrasse in the winter especially around these parts , I would normaly only start fishing for them at the end of march at the earliest and even then fish would be few and far between ,maybe the settled spell has woken them up , I just hope we dont get a bad cold spell
a maybe lose alot of fish .
Duration:3hrs
Tide:2up 1 down
Weather:bright sunshine ,light s wind
Bait:ragworm and mackerel
Rigs:single hook paternoster and float
Results:wrasse !3 bearded rockling,corkwing wrasse
Report:I was on the antrim coast this weekend for a couple of dayswith the other half , she'd even suggested taking a couple of rodsalong as the forecast sunshine seemed to actually be happeningfor a change( she has a bit of interest in fishing luckily )
so the dogs were walked in the morning and on the way back from the beach I called into flyin tackle in portrush to get some rag-worm hoping to tempt a few pollack or coalies on the floatfor helen and i would have a nosey round on the bottom and see whats around .
On arrival at the mark there wasn't a soul to be seen so duely set helenup with the pike rod and float set around 20 feet hoping to fish above the weed to cut down on tackle loses .I set up the beach caster with a mackerel fillet on a pulley rig and lobed it out .I then set up a single hook paternoster on my new greys bze and baited up with rag on size 1 hook
and fired it out into the rough ground ,around 40 mins passed with not a touch and I decided to check the conger gear ,on lifting into it expecting a snag it came free but felt a bit heavier than it should then a nice 3 bearded rockling broke the surface
coming in at a pound exactly I was well chuffed .
just as I was putting a fresh mackerel fillet on I noticed the bass rod getting a couple of good rattles ,quickly hitting it I thought it felt a bit wrasse like in the fight but thought nah no chance in febuary ! how wrong could i be a nice wee female ballan appeared,quickly unhooked and
returned ,drop the conger gear back in and bait up the bass rod for a quick turn around and back into the same area ,helen was still having no luck on the float so I changed her over to fish the bottom as well , i 'd no sooner got her sorted when the bass rod started getting a bit
of interest again this time a male ballan appeared at about 2 lb .
Things were started to waken up a bit it seems , Helen was only in the water 10 mins when she connected with a small fish ,this time a corkwing wrasse ,oh what Iwould have given for that fish for the species hunt !
things went quite for a while again as the tide started to run a bit harder , when my rod started banging about with something a bit bigger this time , a couple of quick pumps pulled the fish from kelp but it kept trying to get its head down ,thankfully the bze has a bit of back bone so i was able to bully the fish free , as it got closer in it started to break the surface and even 30 yrds out it looked a half decent fish , praying i could lift it up the ledge another beautifully marked fish landed on the rock beside me 3lb4oz of ballan wrasse ,a few photos and a quick weigh saw him disappearing back into the depths hopefully to fatten up a bit by the summer .
Really strange to get wrasse in the winter especially around these parts , I would normaly only start fishing for them at the end of march at the earliest and even then fish would be few and far between ,maybe the settled spell has woken them up , I just hope we dont get a bad cold spell
a maybe lose alot of fish .
Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:50 pm
great report nice fish, hope to get a few wrasse this year from the hook :)
Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:25 pm
Nice one Ronald.But as you say wrasse Feb.. About two months before they should be about :shock:
Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:09 am
................. :shock: Feb!!
Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:38 am
Portrush always ses to be a hot spot for the wrasse, My mate got a few good ones there last year, Good fishing!
Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:55 am
Its February man, not June :shock: . You shouldn't be fishing for Wrasse, its not natural. :shock: Nice one Ronald, catching a fish when its out of season let alone a 3lb+ specimen is something special. Congrats :D
Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:06 pm
thanks guys , I'm trying to find out the sea temp for the last couple of years and the present one to see if that has made a difference or have the fish always been around and just no one fishing for them .
Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:59 pm
Ronald wrote:thanks guys , I'm trying to find out the sea temp for the last couple of years and the present one to see if that has made a difference or have the fish always been around and just no one fishing for them .
I remenber reading an article in a magazine about 2 years ago - 2 fellas were out catching near-specimen aized ballan wrasse on hard-back crabs in January and they were of the opinion that they were always around just no one went after them until the summer.
Not 100% sure if it was a UK or Irish publication but I think it was the south-west coast of Ireland for some reason...
Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:01 pm
Well done Ronald... Nice Fish 8)
Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:49 pm
nice report some nice wrasse there happydays 8)