Kiss my wrasse goodbye! Donegal Bay.1,2/10/15

Day 1. I wanted to have another go at the wrasse before the weather turns cold so I headed for a mark that has given some good days in terms of numbers, variety and size including my ballan p.b. I also wanted to give the lrf rod a run out so with some jigheads, lug,prawns, mackerel fillets and a few small hardback crabs I arrived at low tide to fish the early flood; by about half tide you get pushed off this spot. As I got on site, I could see a pair of mullet nosing around the edges but they departed without showing any interest in anything I had to offer. First to show was one of a series of small coalfish and pollack which can work their way through a supply of lug very quickly, I changed to small hardbacks for a while but absolutely nothing happened. There didn’t seem to be any wrasse about so I reverted to using lug or mackerel strip. Eventually I was rewarded with a better pollack of about 1.5lb which was good sport on the lrf rod. A couple of small corkwings showed up followed by a single small ballan wrasse, elegantly attired in harvest gold. By now the tide was pushing me off the mark so I called it a day. On the way back to the car, I saw a shoal of 20-30 mullet feeding by skimming the surface of the water just a few yards out, candidates for the fly rod perhaps?
Day 2. With some lug left I thought I would try a different spot though with the ebbing tide there wouldn’t be much depth for some hours. I set up anyhow and straight away the coalfish plague began with an occasional pollack for variety, all small. With the tide dropping and the sun shining, I could see the bottom clearly so was able to cast to the edge of some weed and boulders without landing in the land of no return and began to get a few small corkwings. Then something bigger in the form of a 2lb 6oz ballan, this turned out to be the best fish I landed. By now bait was running out so I packed up temporarily to dig a few lug over low tide. Big tides at the moment meant that I could access areas not normally exposed and this had two bonuses; the first that I dug about 50 good lug in about 15-20 mins. The second was that as I was walking down to the water’s edge, I felt a small splash on my hand. Automatically looking up for a seagull, possibly equipped with a laser guidance system, I couldn’t see a bird in the sky. Checking my hand, instead of a white splatter there was clear water, as I wondered what was going on I heard a spitting sound and saw a small column of water shoot up from the sand to about 3’ high; razorfish! I had no idea they could spit so high. I managed to dig a few with the spade but they go down pretty quickly. Next big tide I’ll be back with the salt shaker. I got a few more later when I saw them poking up a few cms out of the sand, sneak up gently and grab them quickly. Back to the fishing and using the lug and razorfish, a few more wrasse and coalies came but the biggest was about 2lb. There still wasn’t a great depth so I was surprised when one bite buckled the rod right over and I had a great scrap with a very decent ballan. I could see where all the snags were and was able by brute force and ignorance to haul the wrasse away from them until he swam up and thrashed about on the surface until he tired himself out. This was easily the biggest wrasse I have ever seen, lips on him like Mick Jagger and easily dwarfing my p.b. of 4lbs so there was no way I could swing him up to land him. I gingerly made my way down to the water’s edge where the rocks were matted with that slippery green algae. As I reached for him, the rod tip snagged on a rock just as a small surge dragged the fish away from me. Unable to yield line, the by now very tenuous hook hold gave way and my prize slowly slipped away. Kiss my wrasse goodbye. I fished on for a while but it was all downhill, a few more corkwings and small ballans, then the wrasse went quiet and a few tiny pouting started to show. Wrasse are territorial they say, so as soon as I steal some leather clad thug’s motorcycle, clothes and sunglasses, I’ll be back!

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Some nice looking fish, well done.

Quite a read enjoyed it, pity about the big one but you know where the beast lives, maybe bring a net next time

Some stunning looking wrasse there john well done

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lovely colours there JW, some nice fishing
I spent yesterday on a beach on the north coast throwing a lure trying to catch hen's teeth (bass). Not a shiff, again. Think that that might have been the 6th or 7th time this year with no result just too many man-hours with no result there unfortunately
pity about Mick Jagger
I'd be eating those razor..