Wrasse on fast retrieves.

Today was a beautiful day without strong winds, perfect for wrasse fishing but unfortunately I was working... I managed to get a break around 14:00 and I was off, heading for a new mark that I had scouted before and seemed feasibly accessible! After a tricky descent, I was left looking in awe the view in front of me.. Sheer drop offs, deep gullies and plenty of rocks.. The kind of place that you know there will be fish under your feet! And thus I flicked a texas rigged 3" Keitech Swing Impact with a 7g bullet weight, literally under my feet... As soon as the lure touched bottom  I got the first taps and tried to set the hook but missed.. I let the lure touch bottom again and after feeling another tap, I started a moderate retrieve (as if the lure was trying to flee) and got a solid hook up and a powerful run from a decent fish. After some determined lunges and runs I managed to net a nice wrasse that got the hook wedged so hard, I had to use the pliers to take it out..

The first spot

At my feet!

 

After that fish I kept working the same spot but got no more interest, so I moved to the other side of the headland where there was lots of huge boulders and again very deep water. I changed lure to a Megabass Dot Worm and started bumping the bottom. I got no bites and then tried a faster steady retrieve near the bottom, that resulted in a violent take and the second wrasse of the day, after a very energetic fight again (cant get enough of this!)..

 

 

For the second time the spot dried up after the fish, and I moved towards the end of the headland. I changed lure to a 3" Ecogear Paramax and started working it near the bottom with twitches and jerks. As this wasn't proving successful, I tried a faster steady retrieve again and after a few turns of the handle got straight into a fish. Another strong fight but with the same ending nonetheless resulting in a very happy angler! This must be the perfect break from work!

 

To sum up, today the fish were very aggressive something that is definitely caused by the sunny weather and the tide stage (1 hour either side of high tide) but maybe also because of the fish being in spawning mode and very territorial. This can be assumed as every fish caught came from a specific area and there were no more fish coming from the same spot. Moreover, the fish showed a preference for straight and relatively fast retrieves in contrast to the twitched/jerked, bottom bouncing presentations. The lure colour/type seemed insignificant as long as they were around 3" to 4" and retrieved in the way described.

As you can see from the photo, the way up was interesting..

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

 

Gear used:

Rod: Shimano Exage BX STC Mini Tele Spin, 3-14g 2.40m
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000
Mainline: Spiderwire ultracast invisibraid, 0.10mm,
Leader: 2m Trilene fluorocarbon, 15lb connected by Peixet knot.
Rig: Texas, 7g bullet, hook size 2 Nogales Monster Series Ultra wide gape
lure: Keitech Swing Impact, baby ayu, 3", Megabass Dot Worm, Golden shad, 4", Ecogear Paramax, pearl, 3".