Specimen Wrasse, Donegal Bay, 1st September 2020

I had a call from a brother of mine who wanted to take his cub out for “a bit of fishing” and with yet more bad weather on the way, Tuesday was the day. The main target was wrasse so I ended up gathering a supply of small hardback crabs along with a few lug. We met up at the mark bang on low tide so weren’t expecting too much until it filled a bit. I stuck to the hardbacks while The Cub tried the lug and he was soon pulling out a few small coalfish and a small corkwing wrasse, this kept him quite happy, especially as I hadn’t even had a bite. To avoid the possible embarrassment of a total whitewash, I tried a couple of lug myself and soon landed a couple of corkwings; I then reverted to crab in the hope that some better fish would start to show. I wasn’t disappointed as I swung in a nice ballan; my starter for 2lb 2oz. The Cub managed a couple of small ballans himself but the efficacy of the hardbacks soon expressed itself as I hit a real rodbender; a lovely green wrasse at 4lb 14oz, a specimen! As usual, a few pics, a quick weigh and release. I read recently that a scientific study into wrasse in the Isle of Man revealed that a wrasse of this size was 29 years old! That, not surprisingly, was my best of the day though I ended up with a tally of 8-9 ballans and 4 corkwings. My final corkwing was a colourful male which tackled a good sized crab, I didn’t think it would have eaten such a big bait. Plenty of bites were missed, even with the addition of bait elastic wrasse are amazingly adept at stealing bait but if you wait too long they can be deep hooked or snagged; neither is a desirable outcome. The Cub added a few more small coalies and his dad managed a tiny codling until around half tide when the bites dried up. I headed off to check out a slipway where I was considering launching my boat when the good weather comes…..That worked out well; a local pot fisherman gave me some good advice and even offered me a lobster for my tea. That’s the second time in a couple of weeks I’ve been offered one; I’ll have to invest in a portable cooler!

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Nice one JW, great report as usual. Nice to get the Cub out fishing!
I still need to get out and try for some wrasse before it gets too late!

That's a lumper of a ballan... a specimen has eveaded me all year.. im both jealous and delighted for you,, good to see the young lad on a few aswell.. corkwing are a lovely wee fish

Good man paddy lovely fish and a great pic with the apprentice

A couple of fine fish Paddy. A lunker there
Seems to be a lot of good wrasse fishing around the country at the moment
Fair play

What an excellent day and that certainly wasn't a blank. Beautiful wrasse and amazing to think its 29 years around.

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Good man paddy lovely fish and a great pic with the apprentice

Thanks rushnaldo, that's "The Cub" btw,"The Apprentice" is another character; see my last report for details!

What an excellent day and that certainly wasn't a blank. Beautiful wrasse and amazing to think its 29 years around.

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Touche! I was surprised to find out how slow-growing and long-lived wrasse are; unfortunately these characteristics render them very vulnerable to over-exploitation.

I was told before that a 2lbs bass can be 6 years old. Not sure if that's true but going by the wrasse maybe it is

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Well done gents! Nice wrasse session.

Congratulations, beautiful wrasse.