Wrasse fishing on the Kayak

After spending the last few months on fishing mark reconnaissance, looking for indicators for good fishing I revisited a spot that I thought may produce some Ballen Wrasse. Using well matched tackle these feisty fish can provide some good sport.

Wrasse Gear and Bait

A common Wrasse bait is peeler crab, but for some reason I have a reaction to peeler and my hands blow up and become very itchy (not pleasant), so I chose lugworm as my bait of choice. I selected a rocky mark where it shelves quickly into about 15 feet of water (Nr. The Helford) and made a light running ledger using a ball weight and a long (10ft) 18lb fluro carbon leader. The reason for the 18lb leader was to prevent loosing fish due to line abrasion. The hook I used was a size 1 carp hook, as Wrasse don’t have the largest mouths.

Get my drift

I spent about 20 mins on the mark on the drift, working out where the wind and tide would take me so I could position myself for long drifts covering as much quality ground a possible. The tide had just turned and the outward flow had started. Just as a side note I wanted a fairly shallow mark as I did not want the fish to suffer from decompression and not be fit for returning. I baited the hook by threading the Lugworm onto the hook and up the line as far as possible.

Wrasse bites

I got into position and lowered the rig and started the drift. Within about 4 mins I could feel a rattling bite on the hook, a sure sign of a Wrasse. In my opinion a strike is not needed when you are Wrasse fishing, just give the fish plenty of time with the bait and when you feel the time is right wind into the fish and win lots of line before the fish makes for a hidden snag amongst the rocks. My first fish was hooked, it was small but gave a fight.

There was time to re-bait and get the line wet. Again I was feeling for the bottom making sure my bait went into any deep holes in the sea bed that would likely hold fish. The rest of this drift proved negative. I had about 4 fish in 40 mins. on this same drift and I was selecting fish all about the same size. I then moved the drift. First away from the cliff thinking the slightly deeper more open water might hold the larger specimens. It was doing this when I hooked a fine Mackerel. The take was very different, lots of sharp action and a very confused feeling, not the rattle I had from the Wrasse. I fished this same drift a few times with out much joy.

Working the fishing ground

Fishing closer to the cliff base was my next choice. This drift would be a lot shorter but proved to select the larger Wrasse. They were nothing like specimen fish, but they were far bigger and the sport was great. I had one that made it to a snag, but with a bit of manoeuvring I could get up tide of it and create a new angle to lever it from its hold. Once this fish was in the open water it fought like a Trojan, taking line of the reel on 3 occasions.

It was a good 3 hour kayak fishing session and provided me with some great sport. Every Wrasse was released, unhooking them using a pair of surgical forceps. Bare in mind they have teeth designed for rasping mussels off their holds, so don’t go sticking you fingers in their mouths.