DEVIL’S IN THE DETAIL
Tactics for catching offshore wrasse.
Fishing for wrasse is something few anglers think about as a specific form of boat fishing. You inevitably catch a few when general drift fishing, and for many that is as far as it goes, but it is a missed opportunity. Offshore wrasse live under less fishing pressure, grow bigger, fight better in the deeper water and are available in greater numbers. As is so often said, charter fishing is about getting the best from the whole day, and if the skipper says you’re having an hour drifting over mixed ground, with wrasse one of the target species, then you need to be prepared to make the most of it.
It is important to understand exactly what ground feature wrasse like. Even on flat, rough ground you’ll pick up the occasional wrasse, but they tend to be smaller fish and will group around any bigger boulders that stand up off the seabed. This type of ground is much more hit-and-miss and, in this case, it may be more prudent to fish generally for anything that comes along, including wrasse.
Things work far more in your favour when the ground is heavier with a mix of much bigger boulders among general rough ground or, better still, constantly undulating reef ground with higher pinnacles rising up off the seabed.
Wrasse love gutters among rocks and pinnacles because they can get behind these to break the force of the tide. Such areas also hold lots of food. It is the perfect ground for bigger fish and is best for overall numbers.
I often say that dialogue with the skipper is vital to your fishing success. Keep asking the skipper what type of ground you’re over and for detail of the ground composition. The rougher the ground, the better.
A skipper once said to me: “The wrasse are like the Devil, they’re in the detail”. He meant they are right in the worst of the rough and tight to the seabed. It was good advice.
CHANGING TIDES
When the tide is slack, wrasse move up in the water and swim around the sides of rock pinnacles, and along the sides of reef walls and shelves. They will also be positioned over the top of or alongside bigger boulders or reef structure.
Wrasse won’t go too high in the water column though, because they prefer to stay in close proximity to their preferred structure, seemingly for safety reasons. They also have specific patrol routes while the tide is relatively slack, but will not stray too far, rarely more than a few yards, from their chosen rock structure.
As the tide increases in strength on the flood or ebb, they drop to the seabed. Here they take up station at the base of boulders, peaks and pinnacles on the downtide side in the calmer bubble, where the tide flow is broken by the structure. It is then easy for them to dart out and pick off any food that passes by them.
Wrasse will be found in the gutters and holes where the tide flows overhead but leaves them in calmer water. This particularly applies to deeper reef ground, say in depths over 50ft.
In shallower depths, daylight penetrating through the water column comes into play. Days with cloud cover are best. If it is sunny and bright, wrasse will move into kelp weed beds or rest under rocky overhangs where the light level is more subdued. This limits the number of fish available on the more fishable open ground.
BEST RIG
A two-hook rig is the best set-up because it allows a bait to be presented tight on the seabed and to drop down into all the nooks and crannies or trundle naturally along the seabed. The higher secondary hook works off the bottom around prominent boulders, pinnacles and peaks. It
Glow time – try lumo green beads on the rig means you are covering as much ground as possible and various depths.
I keep my rig as simple and as cheap as possible with the minimum of components. For general fishing, use a rig body length of about 48 inches made with 40lb fluorocarbon, but mono is fine too. At one end, tie on a lead clip. Slide on a 4mm length of neoprene tubing, double the tag end back through the tubing a second time and pull it tight. This locks it in place, but it will move under heavy finger pressure.
Now slide on a 5mm bead, a size 6 swivel, another bead and another section of locked on neoprene tubing. Add another swivel, bead and
tubing sequence above the former. Finish the main rig by tying on a size 4 rolling swivel.
The neoprene tubing allows the angler to alter the swivel positions in seconds to lift or lower the height the baits fish at to suit the changing tidal conditions. Over slack water, I have the top hooklength at the top of the rig and the lower one about 12 inches above the lead weight because the fish are free swimming. When the tide run increases and the fish drop back to the seabed, move the lower hooklength to sit just above the lead weight and have the top hook about 30 inches above. In the latter scenario, expect the lower hook to catch the bulk of the fish.
The hooklengths are made with 20lb fluorocarbon for strength and abrasion resistance, and I may shorten them to 12 inches if the tide is running fast, but in slack water lengthen to 18 inches to give more movement.
I like a strong size 2 or 1 Aberdeen pattern hook, such as the Kamasan B940. The long shank helps reduce damage on the hooklength from the teeth of the wrasse. Wrasse snatch at baits and will often miss a bigger hook.
Adding two or three beads above the hook can gain you extra bites, in both clear and slightly coloured water.Wrasse are attracted to luminous green. My favourite combination is a mix of luminous green and orange. I use one or two beads in clear water, but after rough seas I use three 3mm beads to give a bigger, brighter target area.
Some anglers, especially in Ireland, like to add a short section of luminous green tubing above the hook, and this works really well. Try swapping standard lead weights for green ones because they can be used to attract the fish’s attention. They will home in to find the baits.
A great way to fish for cuckoo wrasse is to use the small luminous shrimp rigs, such as the
Shakespeare ones with smaller size 8 hooks. Bait these with tiny strips of squid or mackerel and the fish cannot resist them. You’ll catch the occasional big ballan on this rig too.
TACKLE CHOICE
To help fish the rig properly, you should use a rod with a softer tip, but with power in the mid-section and butt to bully the fish away from the seabed snags as quick as possible.
When drift fishing, a stiff tip gives good bite indication, often better than a soft tip because it does not cushion movement at the hook. However, a stiff tip drags lead weights into snags too easily. A softer tip gives you awareness of what’s happening below, but is less prone to pulling the weight hard into cracks and snags, giving you that split second longer to react and often lift the weight away from danger.
Therefore, a soft tip is a good compromise for feeling the lead weight tripping across the seabed and deciphering the difference between an animated fast rattle or ‘thump thump’ of a taking fish, and the more rhythmical ‘bump, bump, bump’ of the weight dragging along the stone.
Fast-retrieve fixed-spool reels in sizes 5000 to 6000 are ideal for this work because they maximise fishing time. Load them with 30lb braid and add a 30lb shockleader, ideally fluorocarbon, twice the length of the rod to protect the braid from potential snags and to give a clear non-visual gap between the rig and the braid.