Bray Head 29th & 30th May '08

People: Just me

Duration: 29th - 16.30-21.30, 30th 16.00-21.00

Tide: incoming to full

Weather: fine, warm

Bait: lures, rag

Rigs:ledgered rig, 1 hook up

Results:
29th - (1)Corkwing, (1)Cuckoo-female (7)Ballan Wrasse
30th - (1)LSD, (1)Corkwing, (3) Ballan Wrasse (1) Cuckoo(male) or Ballan?




Report:

29th - I had an appointment in Bray so threw the spinning rod and lure box into the car on the off chance I was done in time to get a few hours spinning for Pollock on Bray Head. Sure enough was done at my appointment in good time, so headed to Viking Tackle to get some hooks, leads and rag, just in case the Pollock were not showing I could have a crack at some wrasse I thought.

Spent the first hour and half spinning without success, not so much as a knock, tried jelly sandeels, german sprats and a few others but nothing.

Lost 2 lures in quick succession so decided to try the bait for some wrasse.

After checking the depth of the water down the ledge right in front of me, I set up a basic 1 hook up ledgered rig and set the hook on a very short snood and about 2ft off the bottom. With the tide at that time, I was fishing into around 6/7 ft of water, with lots of kelp around the base of the ledges I was fishing by.

Had lots of bites, had a few fish spit the hook out, and lost a cracking ballan to a snag, I would say it was around 3-3 1/2 lb, I could see him/her snagged in the kelp right down below me, but due to the rock I was fishing off, I couldnt get down to try to manouvre it out :(

Had 9 fish in all, largest I would estimate at around 2 - 2 1/2 lb, some lovely, vivid and very different colour to them aswell. I caught 2 which I thought had some sort of disease/infection as one had 3 black spots at the end of the dorsal fin and another had a single black spot at the tail - only later when I had read one of the species guides did I realise that they were indeed a cuckoo and corkwing wrasse :wink: - Both new species for me, so I was well happy 8)

http://www.cfb.ie/pdf/fishbook.pdf - very helpful :idea: :idea: :idea:

Had soon ran out of rag, but I was desperate to get the fish count into double figures, so knocked off a few limpets, fished these for another 45 minutes, but not a single bite. Time to go home, great to get a couple of new species, but dissapointed not to get into double figures.

All fish caught well off the bottom, and within a space (left to right) of around 15 feet, no further than 6 feet out. Lost count of the bites I missed.

30th - After a decent session the day before, I decided to hit the same mark, but with a bit more gear, and more importantly my "CAMERA"

Fished exactly the same spot, at around the same time, so was anticipating similar results :!:

Was straight in with the bait, didnt bother with the spinning this time, was getting a few bites, but very timid bites, not the strong bites I was getting the day before. Within the first hour missed around 6/7 bites. Finally into a fish, felt quite heavy aswell, but didnt have the same power as the larger wrasse I caught yesterday, anyway got it to the surface and was suprised to see a doggie - ah well at least I was off the mark.

The timid bites continued, missed a few more bites, and I was beginning to question my methods (which had simply been the same as yesterday). I presumed the swim was full of fish, but perhaps some of the bites were just fish swimming into the line rather than actually going for the bait :roll:

I was beginning to think I had cursed myself by bringing the camera today :shock:

The bait was however coming back nibbled on most retrieves so only a matter of time before I hooked one :?

This continued for another hour or so, I then decied to try different depths, a variety of hook sizes (both larger and smaller), and longer/shorter snoods - didnt seem to make any difference, but if I'm honest, the rag I bought this time were much larger than the day before(the biggest one in the pack was as thick as your thumb :shock: ), so maybe it was easier for the fish to suck at the bait( this wasnt helped by the fact I had lost my bait elastic and baiting needle so presentation of the bait wasnt the best) - When I fish this mark again, I will definately bring some mack/squid to tip the bait with :idea:

Finally I had hooked into a wrasse, and landed a small Ballan.

Then for the next 90 minutes the fish just seemed to come on the feed much stronger than they had been doing, within that 90 minutes I landed another 4 wrasse (all Ballan's I think, but one possibly a male cuckoo, see photos), lost a few fish, and missed countless bites.

Biggest fish of the day a miserly 1/2 lb or so :(

So all in all not a terrible few days, a pity the fish size's were smaller on the 2nd day, but I suppose thats the curse of the camera :roll:

Forgot to mention, I had collected some small green crabs from the rocks by Bray beach, all around the size of a €2 coin, tried these as bait (based on what I have read a great bait for wrasse), but didnt get a single bite on these :?

2 more pic's.........

Well done shamoo ,,very informative report and great pics,,, nice work :lol: :lol:

great report, just read it twice

smashing report there mate,,,,,, :D

first fish looks like a corkwing though

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/page ... rasse.html :idea:

well done shamo, jus cant handle dis not been able 2 get out fishing, im starting 2 crack up :(
havent wet a line now goin on 4 wks wit work and wedding as ye no :twisted:

but ill jus av 2 be happy wit reading the reports 4 now :evil: :evil:

keep up da good work shamo and tight lines 2 ye mate :D :D

Thanks lads, I really enjoyed going after the wrasse, great little scrappers they are.

Cant wait to go after some bigger ones though 8) 8) 8)

Dont worry wayne, you'll soon get out I'm sure, but in the meantime I'll keep the reports coming :wink:

smashing report there mate,,,,,,

first fish looks like a corkwing though

Think you could be right there cameron jack, cheers.

I had a quick look at your link, thanks.

Its amazing how the various species guides give slightly different descriptions and highlight many parts of the fish, ie colour, shape, features etc - a bit confusing to us novices :? :?

thats good fishing mark - great to get into a few species of wrasse!

Sounds like a decent session. I fished bray head on monday. There was a few scattered limpet shells at the mark. Could have been yours ;)

feesh

I fished bray head on monday. There was a few scattered limpet shells at the mark. Could have been yours

I've seen a good few there before myself.......so maybe I'm not the only one :wink:

Great report, you had a great wrasse session there.

What size hooks do you find best for wrasse?

Tomorrow I am going to give a couple of rock marks in West Cork a go - mainly for pollock but both also look likely wrasse habitats. Looks like the rag was really working for you. So I will pick up some rag on the way and see if I can get a few wrasse.

Rockhunter....

I havent really targeted them before if I'm honest, so this was a bit of a tester session really.....

And I'm still somewhat confused about their behaviour as the 2 days were quite different in terms of the types of bites I was getting etc.

I used as small as size 2's and as large as 2/0's.

The best thing I could say would be to remember that the mouth of a wrasse is quite small, and therefore adjust your hook size to the size of the fish you are targetting/catching, however myself and eric had an hour or so targetting mini-species and small wrasse inside Dunlaoighaire Harbour on monday, eric was using size 8 circle hooks and I was using a size 6 long shank hook, I still managed to catch a ballan wrasse of around 2 1/2 lb :wink:

We fished vey basic 1 and 2 hook rigs fished with the bait(rag) around 12" of the bottom and around 6' out from the harbour wall.

Hope this helps