winter wrasse fishing

[Bassy Tom]

Hi Lads,

I was just wondering does anyone have any experience of winter fishing for wrasse. I have heard some mixed reports from accross the water but was wondering if anyone here in Ireland has had any luck targeting them in winter?

Cheers.

[kieran]

Never bothered, always assumed they moved offshore to avoid getting smashed on the rocks and presumably find more food?

[Dave78]

up until a month ago I heard of people catching them sporadically from boats mostly inside cork harbor, I always thought the same wrasse migrate and return to the same area each year in milder to warm months

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[Ben]

Any of the marks I fish from on the shore, they start to go slack around the end of September and are completely gone by november

[marty]

I got three wrasse on the 29th December on lures in strangford lough, haven't tried since?

[Bassy Tom]

Thanks for the input lads. I will give it a go this week and see what happens. ill let ye know how it goes.

[JimC]

Certainly they vacate the south facing areas ( in Cork). Water temperature, turbulence and clarity will all play a part. I have snorkelled areas in May and they are still devoid of wrasse. I have picked them up from the boat at this time of year obviously in deeper water on reefs.

[Dave78]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMX4-TQmL-Y
The link in this post is to a Cork Angler named Kevin Mcgowan as far as I know this video was uploaded to YouTube the day after it was made the date on it was the 20th December 2014, clearly shows a wrasse having a look at his bait about 24 secs in.
Video was filmed on a water wolf from the shore in Cork.

[Bassy Tom]

Ok, i went down this morning for an hour to see if there were any Wrasse around.

I tried soft plastics to no avail, so i changed over to a dropshot rig with small popups and a 1oz weight baited with ragworm. Unfortunately the rag died in the fridge so i was hoping that the small swell and the popups would impart enough action in the rag to entice a take.

Within 15 mins i had my first Wrasse of 2015 and my first ever February Wrasse. Happy days!

[red]

Good man tom. If the weather behaves im planning on having a go very soon. How deep was the water you fished?

[Bassy Tom]

Good man tom. If the weather behaves im planning on having a go very soon. How deep was the water you fished?

Thanks, it was a slope down to about 20 ft of water.

[Dave78]

what can I say Tom , well done and thank you, I have been debating with myself on going rock hopping soon for specimen rockling , 3 nights ago I catch small pollock while reeling in a bottom rig with some bling on it while dab fishing and now your post of this lovely little wrasse .
I think its time to start testing the 8ft salty and the grauvel teklon I purchased recently 2 months ahead of schedule
I was starting to get a bit fed up with night fishing on beaches.
thanks

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[Bassy Tom]

No bother Dave, just goes to show that the fish are there.

Probably in relatively small numbers compared to the summer but there all the same. I think the big difference for me was the fact that i had ragworm. Pity it was dead rag though as im guessing i would have had more than one fish if it was live rag.

The fact that i had no luck with the lures makes me wonder why. Is it that they are less wiling to expend energy chasing a small fish in the colder water as opposed to the slow forraging for worms etc? I think i will have to make a couple more outings armed with lure and rag to find out.

Good luck with the fishin Dave.

[Dave78]

I was planning on using black frozen lug and very thin squid strips to resemble a small lure and give a little scent , I'm hoping to test the theory on Tuesday.

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[Bassy Tom]

Never had much luck with the black lug myself. The squid sounds like it would be worth a shot though. Are you targeting any species in particular?

[Dave78]

wrasse on the spinning rod using squid strips and rockling on the bottom with squid and black lug maybe a sliver of mackerel in a cocktail. if I'm still there at dusk I might switch over to pollock on lures and throw down a bait for conger/ dogfish / huss , if the weather and tide don't suit I might wait for a few days more.

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[Dave78]

looks like the weather for pollock and wrasse today and so begins the start of the lure season

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[Bassy Tom]

looks like the weather for pollock and wrasse today and so begins the start of the lure season

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Thought it would never come, cant wait!

[TheHero]

Hi Tom,
Could you pm me a few spots where i could try for wrasse in the east cork west waterford region.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks.

[Bassy Tom]

[quote="TheHero"]Hi Tom,
Could you pm me a few spots where i could try for wrasse in the east cork west waterford region.
I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.[/Sorry Hero, im afraid i do all my wrasse fishing near Dunmore. I have no experience of wrasse in the east Cork west Waterford area at all. Maybe someone else on will have a suggestion for you. Deep water and large flat rocks seem to do it for me if that helps any. Im sure there are loads of spots down that way that would fit the bill.