portrush wrasse wrangling fri 21st may

People: just me

Duration: 9.30am - 2pm

Tide: HW 3pm

Weather: 3mph NE winds blazing sunshine 27 degrees

Bait: rag and mack for the conger gear

Rigs: 1 hook rotton bottom rigs and conger gear

Results: 4 ballan wrasse




Report: with jordan dropped off to school i shot up the coast like a man on a mission,,, a wrasse mission . after being reliably informed that one of our deep water rock marks was fishing again i set off in search of my first wrasse of 2010 . i arrived at the mark to find it deserted, great stuff!! within 10 mins i had a rod out at distance and one in close and a conger bait on the bottom. this place is a bit of a tackle graveyard so simple 1 hook rigs with rotten bottoms were the order of the day. no sense in chucking the good rigs away the bites were almost instant and i lost the first 3 fish to the kelp and one of them felt like a monster even with the line caught in the kelp he was still bending the rod but even after paying him some line back i could'nt budge him and the inevitable twang happened and he returned to the kelp to munch his prize of rag . i came here well prepared too as i was using the reels loaded with 50lb braid. but your effectively casting into a kelp forest as thats where the fish are patrolling, so you just have to take the losses on the chin and rig up again i decided to put one of the rods away as you had to have lightning fast reactions to set the hook and lift the fish out of the kelp becasuse if he gets his head down into the kelp it's game over and the fish is the winner. so at the first notion of a twitch on the rod tip i just struck and started winding like a madman and felt a good fish on the end . he gave a good account of himself zipping from left to right, then back again. a lovely ballan wrasse broke the surface and he was a fair size too . i carefully waited for a wave to sweep him up onto the rocks and unhooked him in double quick time as i had noticed his swim bladder had started to protrude from him. sadly the only drawback from fishing deep water marks where you have to reel in fast . so a quick drop in the sling and a single pic revealed him to be a whopper at 3lb 15oz. probably my biggest shore caught wrasse in the north to date unfortunately i spent the next 10mins sorting his swim bladder out and nursing him in a wee rock pool before he was back to fighting fit health and returned him to the sea where he shot off like a skud missile back to the kelp none the worse for his ordeal . that fairly much set the pace for the rest of the session with me losing about 3 fish to every one i landed. only problem was, that the sun was frying me to a frazzel and i'd no sun cream out with me. and to be honest i started to feel a bit woozy after a bit. head was thumping and i'd left all the cans of juice in the motor . i've never had sunstroke before, but when i started to feel like i was gonna hurl i thought enough was enough and packed up and headed for home in the end i lost 12 leads, 8 hooks and 4 complete rigs to the kelp. but the 4 fish i landed and the 12 i lost more than made up for it
right enough of this reporting caper,, i'm away to lie in a bath of cold water for an hour or so seeing as i'm now the same colour as the wrasse

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Nice wrasse there Al, well done.
I've heard that rag worm is a good bait for catching them, do you know is there any truth in this!! Have you found them good in the past?!

apparently only in co kerry paula

:D apparently only in co kerry paula

Hmmmm......I knew who my friends where that day!!

Fair play to ya Al , some fine Wrasse there mighty scrapers & the 2lb + ones can fight like a fish twice the size I got sunstroke fishing for them last year & took me a week to recover

cracking report al' and well done, some nice fish there. its good to see the wrasse fishing is picking up , must get a load of hard backs and check out a few marks for them.

Nice little session there! Some cracking wrasse by you its always good when a plan comes together!

Well done Al! I love Wrasse fishing. Hopefully get a few tomorrow.

some nice fish there well done.

Great report mate. The big one's a great fish. canna wait to get out!

Lovely fish. Same happened to me In achil lesson learned bring sun cream

Great Wrasse there Al Looking forward to getting out for some soon after my Kayak trip which starts next weekend. Had hoped to get out with Der Baron and Kev today but am down with the lurgy and feelin pretty cr4p
Don't take chances with the sun man, get yourself a good hat!!

right, thats it, im coming up!! some crackinfg fish there al,bet jordan is NOT HAPPY!! i can see a request for wrasse fishing coming on then!!

Fair play to ya Al , some fine Wrasse there mighty scrapers & the 2lb + ones can fight like a fish twice the size I got sunstroke fishing for them last year & took me a week to recover

cheers brian. it's got me wondering what size the big one was that i lost i'm still not feeling right thow. my head is still throbbing and feeling queezy to say the least but on a positive note. it has prompted me to put the SP50 back into the fishing bag again

cracking report al' and well done, some nice fish there. its good to see the wrasse fishing is picking up , must get a load of hard backs and check out a few marks for them.

just a pity they were all being taken at 100 yards off the rocks as i reckon the hardbacks would be deadly man, but i doubt they'd still be on the hook at that range. i might have to copy that guy from last summer and bond the crabs to the hooks the night before i go fishing . now,,, where did i leave my tube of grip fill

Nice little session there! Some cracking wrasse by you its always good when a plan comes together!

thanks sully. i know where we'll be camped out at the weekend then

Well done Al! I love Wrasse fishing. Hopefully get a few tomorrow.

cheers rab, good luck man on the hunt tomorrow. i hope you get a few biggies

some nice fish there well done.

thanks mark. hopefully thats the start of them

Great report mate. The big one's a great fish. canna wait to get out!

gotta get your nose out of the books man, not long to go now

Lovely fish. Same happened to me In achil lesson learned bring sun cream

tell me about it matt and i still have 2 sessions at the weekend to get in yet

Great Wrasse there Al Looking forward to getting out for some soon after my Kayak trip which starts next weekend. Had hoped to get out with Der Baron and Kev today but am down with the lurgy and feelin pretty cr4p
Don't take chances with the sun man, get yourself a good hat!!

thanks fenton. i hope you're feeling better for the yak trip as that's some serious miles you've gotta cover . i had a look in the loft and found my crocodile dundee hat for the weekend. i'll get a few pics for the report . all i need to do is get a dozen corks to top it off sadly it wo'nt be nearly as stylish as yours and doggies, but i'll try

right, thats it, im coming up!! some crackinfg fish there al,bet jordan is NOT HAPPY!! i can see a request for wrasse fishing coming on then!!

he gave me a call on his mobile as soon as he got out of school today for a progress report and was'nt too impressed until i told him that's where we were gonna be fishing at the weekend so i was forgiven for leaving him behind in school while i was hauling them in gonna have a good bash for them at the weekend. got sorted with a pound of rag so we're well prepared for a dawn raid on sunday . just have to drag ourselves out of bed for 4am . i think we're walking a fine line between dedication and madness . like i said before man, there's always a spare room here for you if you want to head up before the summer camper trip

Good luck on Sunday.

Myself & Daniel are heading out as well (Daniel's first trip of the year).

PM me if you fancy meeting up.

Nice we session pal, dont think Jordan will be pleased.

nice session al ya gotta love wrasse fishing.......

Some belting wrassse there Al hard iuck on the lost one,

Good going there Al, the wrasse are a great lookin fish!

some nice wrasse and delighted there showing up,was out last wk near killiney with no luck but will be back asap now