Soft Plastics for Wrasse

[Dave78]

I'm set and ready to go for the coming season for lure fishing, I'm hoping to target Pollock and Bass mainly but I've been reading alot about fishing for Wrasse on soft plastics,
I've read they are a very territorial and attack lures not for food but to scare off what they think is another smaller fish in there area,
what I was hoping to find out is, What size jig head would be suitable as casting great distances would be unnessicary due to the habitat they live in,
I already have an array of lures, different colours and sizes and I'm looking forward to finding which colour works best and finding marks myself, that to me is the joys of a days fishing finding out what works and where, I have been playing with the idea of using size 4 aberdeen and using some heavy slit shot on the line help the lure sink, any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Bassy Tom]

Hi Dave,

This is what i use. I have caught Bass on this too. Its basically a 2/0 weedless hook with a 5g bullet weight and a stop beed. Thats the set up i like, but you can use without the bead or with a 5g weedless jig head. I just prefer it this way because it almost never snags. In relation to what lure and colour to use, i have had wrasse on all colours. You dont have to use the Savage gear sandeel slug either. there are a lot of cheaper soft plastics out there that will work every but as good, and the wrasse do a lot of dammage with those big chompy teeth of theirs. Hope this is of some help to you.

Tom.

[Dave78]

Hi Dave,

This is what i use. I have caught Bass on this too. Its basically a 2/0 weedless hook with a 5g bullet weight and a stop beed. Thats the set up i like, but you can use without the bead or with a 5g weedless jig head. I just prefer it this way because it almost never snags. In relation to what lure and colour to use, i have had wrasse on all colours. You dont have to use the Savage gear sandeel slug either. there are a lot of cheaper soft plastics out there that will work every but as good, and the wrasse do a lot of dammage with those big chompy teeth of theirs. Hope this is of some help to you.

Tom.

Thats a great help Tom , I have a few of these lures, I have I wouldn't be using Savage gear for Wrasse in some of the marks Ive found at €8 a pop I will keep them for bass. Those weedless jig heads look fantastic, I've never used them, I must pick up a few of them they could stop me from losing so much tackle, cheers

[Bassy Tom]

Hi Dave,

This is what i use. I have caught Bass on this too. Its basically a 2/0 weedless hook with a 5g bullet weight and a stop beed. Thats the set up i like, but you can use without the bead or with a 5g weedless jig head. I just prefer it this way because it almost never snags. In relation to what lure and colour to use, i have had wrasse on all colours. You dont have to use the Savage gear sandeel slug either. there are a lot of cheaper soft plastics out there that will work every but as good, and the wrasse do a lot of dammage with those big chompy teeth of theirs. Hope this is of some help to you.

Tom.

Thats a great help Tom , I have a few of these lures, I have I wouldn't be using Savage gear for Wrasse in some of the marks Ive found at €8 a pop I will keep them for Bass. Those weedless jig heads look fantastic, I've never used them, I must pick up a few of them they could stop me from losing so much tackle, cheers

Thats not actually a jig head on that rig Dave, that is one i made up myself with a weedless hook 2/0 ,a bullet weight, a bead stop and some flurocarbon. The Rig, weight and hook are shown below. Not exactly the same a s mine but very close.

[Steve]

Just echoing what Tom says - weedless with our without a cone weight - depends on how much the plastic weighs and the depth of water. Most wrasse are found close in so you don't need to cast more then 20 yards. A 10g plastic will cast plenty long without added weight assuming you aren't fishing a deep water mark and need extra weight to get the SP down in the water column. Weedless allows you to cast into the rough stuff where they will be found. Definitly no need for expensive SPs - have a look on AGM discount fishing where you can pick up suitable SPs for a few euros which will more than do the job. Wrasse shred SPs so save the softer more expensive ones for bass.

I love wrasse fishing, dont do enough of it - superb scrappers. Hook up and hang on for dear life!

[Dave78]

Lads those posts are diamond, thanks Tom , thanks Steve, I can't wait to go fishing now

[agardiner22]

Wrasse will take any type of sp's. I usually go for the slug type on a weedless size 1/0 with a lead just at the eye for control.
I tend to use cheaper sp's as the savage gear one get hammered after a short time and they are more expensive.

[Dave78]

https://www.fishingmegastore.com/cjt-ju ... ~6334.html

https://www.fishingmegastore.com/fishea ... 19740.html

Thanks lads i just picked up 2 packets of these hooks.

[lucky13]

i've seen the fiiish black minnow take wrasse for a buddy of mine but like the lads are saying tore it to shreds...

[Crevan]

Dave
Wrasse will take pretty much any softie you throw at them. I find the Xlayer to be an excellent lure for them.

They tear them to bits mind with their teeth....thats why I wouldnt be using any Fiish minnows for them!

I usually keep a "wrasse bag" of SPs (usually xlayers). This bag contains all the torn up sps and they work perfectly fine for the wrasse.

They can be right good fun on light gear.

[Dave78]

Thanks for the tips lads, I now have a nice stock of fisheagle 1/0 and 2/0 hooks 4.99 a box of 100 from glasgow angling, i also picked up a 2 boxes of those bullet type weights that Tom has pictured above, I have found a Polish angling shop on the tramore rd with some very cheap soft plastic shads and worms for sale and I'm looking into buying the moulds to make some myself, Thanks again for all the info Tom, Crevan, Lucky13, Steve and agardiner22 I'm going to try out the Texas and Carolina rigs hopfully soon enough and I have a stock of SP's of all sizes ready to go and a surecatch jerk bait rod and multipler that I havent used yet along with the surecatch salty I already have, I just need to get out fishing now hopfully in the next two weeks for Bass and for Wrasse in another month or so.

[Dave78]

Hi Dave,

This is what i use. I have caught Bass on this too. Its basically a 2/0 weedless hook with a 5g bullet weight and a stop beed. Thats the set up i like, but you can use without the bead or with a 5g weedless jig head. I just prefer it this way because it almost never snags. In relation to what lure and colour to use, i have had wrasse on all colours. You dont have to use the Savage gear sandeel slug either. there are a lot of cheaper soft plastics out there that will work every but as good, and the wrasse do a lot of dammage with those big chompy teeth of theirs. Hope this is of some help to you.

Tom.

Cheers Tom, I've made up a few of these using sandeels, shad and anything really , I cant wait to try them out

[gneoh]

Thanks for the tips lads, I now have a nice stock of fisheagle 1/0 and 2/0 hooks 4.99 a box of 100 from glasgow angling, i also picked up a 2 boxes of those bullet type weights that Tom has pictured above, I have found a Polish angling shop on the tramore rd with some very cheap soft plastic shads and worms for sale and I'm looking into buying the moulds to make some myself, Thanks again for all the info Tom, Crevan, Lucky13, Steve and agardiner22 I'm going to try out the Texas and Carolina rigs hopfully soon enough and I have a stock of SP's of all sizes ready to go and a surecatch jerk bait rod and multipler that I havent used yet along with the surecatch salty I already have, I just need to get out fishing now hopfully in the next two weeks for Bass and for Wrasse in another month or so.

Never knew there's a polish angling shop on the tramore road....where is it close to? is it new opening?

[Dave78]

Never knew there's a polish angling shop on the tramore road....where is it close to? is it new opening?[/quote]

Arthur is the guy who runs it, its above the Polish food store which is located in the old Adidas Factory on the Tramore Rd opp Ballypheane GAA pitch, I've picked up a good few bits in there over the last few months from bank sticks to weights, lures etc, not bad prices either and stocks a few frozen baits also.

[Dave78]

sorry gneoh just realised you are in waterford, it's tramore rd in cork city.

[Jon]

I've found that wrasse tend to nip at the tail of lures. My hook up rates increased once i learnt to get the hook back as far as possible in the lute and started to use short plastic lures such as a 3in rockvibe, tiny xlayer os 3un senko.

[hugo]

Cheap jellyworms rigged weedless work fine too.

[Dave78]

Thanks for the info Jon and hugo, I can't to get out and find the marks for myself, I've a few places picked out for when the weather improves already.