A few wrasse on lures - West Waterford

[RockHunter]

I haven't put up a post for some time, partly because I was very busy with work and partly because there was not much to report.

Summer 2013 proved to be by far my worst year for fishing. Bass remained elusive and even pollock were scarce. I discovered a new deep water mark which produced some nice pollock up to 5 lbs and some good ballen wrasse.

One evening close to dusk after getting a few pollock in the 2-3 lbs range I spotted a stockier fish with a broad tail following a lure - it looked like a wrasse. So I switched to a smaller soft plastic and after a couple of casts landed a beautifully coloured green ballen wrasse of about 2 lbs followed a little later by another brown coloured wrasse taken on a Xlayer.

Last Saturday afternoon I headed to the same deep water rock mark to target pollock. I got there just after low tide and had a few small pollock of about 1-1.5 lbs. Shortly after arriving the wind changed direction and was blowing directly towards me so I decided to move to the western margin of the next bay.

I found a relatively flat wave-cut platform and had a few casts retrieving through a narrow kelp lined gap in between some shallow submerged rocks. On about the fourth cast as I retrieved the lure close to shore there was a sudden flash of gold up from the depth and a large pollock snatched the lure and dived. It was a strong fish and the rod doubled over as it stripped line. I managed to prevent it burying itself into the kelp and got it to the surface. It made several more dives before I could ease it on to the rocks. It was a nice pollock of just over 4 lbs.

A little later I moved to the edge of a narrow deep gully and slowly retrieved a soft plastic, keeping it deep. I could see faint outline of a fish checking out the lure several times, then on about the fifth or sixth cast something grabbed the lure and dived beneath the rock ledge. I couldn't budge it, so moved to my left to the very edge of the rocks to get a bit more leverage and managed to pull the fish out. It wasn't happy and made a few more dives before I got it to the surface and eased it on to the edge of the rocks. It was a nice Ballen Wrasse of about 2 lbs.

It had destroyed the lure so I put on another and had a few more casts through the same gully. Then the lure was hit hard and the rod buckled over. I stopped the fish going to ground but it was a struggle to get it to the surface. It made several dives stripping line with ease until I tighten the drag and slowly worked it to the surface and carefully eased it onto the rocks below me. It was a fine chunky ballen wrasse, weighing just over 4.5 lbs.

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Last edited by RockHunter on Tue Sep 10, 2013 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nice fishing Frank, I've noticed some odd bass behavior this year also.
Just when you think you are figuring them out... whoosh!

Great to see a report from yourself again frank that fine fishing well done but a bit of a suprise to see a report from yourself with no bass in it

Great report Frank. I have yet to get a wrasse on a lure.

I think that there is too much food for the bass ( sprats everywhere) as we could see them from my boat, around W Waterford/ E Cork, but they only followed the lures but would not take them.

No doubt this will change in the next few weeks.

As tight lines said unusual to not see a bass in your report lovely and a great size aswell

Shame to hear the fishing hasn't been as good down that way this year, especially with the better summer we had. Like the look of the white paddle tail lure . Do ya rig it weedless?

Crackin wrasse, well done.

Thanks guys,

I think that there is too much food for the Bass ( sprats everywhere) as we could see them from my boat, around W Waterford/ E Cork, but they only followed the lures but would not take them.

I am sure you are right, especially all those very mackeral that showed up last month, make a tasty meal for even a small bass.

Like the look of the white paddle tail lure . Do ya rig it weedless?

Its a bit light for weedless I was using just normal jig heads, but is does have a nice action in the water, lethal for pollock and I hope bass will find them irresistable when they move back to the shore !!

Howya Frank, do you think that you have had more wrasse this year because of the lack of pollack? A lot of my friends who like to fish for pollack have had a really good year on the wrasse but very few bass and pollack. I found the pollack were numerous later in the season but much smaller than usual. Only one of all my regular marks produced anything of size.

Howya Frank, do you think that you have had more wrasse this year because of the lack of pollack? A lot of my friends who like to fish for pollack have had a really good year on the wrasse but very few Bass and pollack. I found the pollack were numerous later in the season but much smaller than usual. Only one of all my regular marks produced anything of size.

I wouldn't say I was getting any more wrasse than other years. I usually bait fished for them on previous years, this year is the first time I tried for them on lures (because the bass fishing has been so poor).
But the pollock numbers are definitely down. There are a couple of bass marks that I fish regularly where pollock become a pest in the evening on a rising tide on previous years but this year they have been almost totally absent. One mark in particular I would expect to get 10-20 pollock in an hour and a half before darkness, so far this year I have caught one small fish there. The only mark that has been producing good size pollock is the new deep water one that I started fishing this summer.

I found the pollock very plentiful in June and July at a bass mark that I fish but they had disappeared in August....or maybe they were just too well fed.

I fished from the boat into the shore quite a bit also and could easily land a few boxes if I kept at them. This gave bass very little chance to get to the lure. In the gin clear water we regularly saw both bass and pollock around the kelp.

I reckon that it will be easy enough to catch bass in September and October as these are usually the best months

Great fishing Frank some nice fish caught.