I have felt that winter has set in properly now and even though I’m sure there are a some bars of silver out there to be had I do generally switch my attention to Wrasse during the colder months. Not only is there more chance of catching some fish and having a blast but it is also a good time to get a BIG PIG!  Kory and Tim where both lucky enough to have the day off and join me on a day session in the sun. We all fished with our normal ”Bass gear” in hope that if we did hook a big fish we would maximise our chances of landing the fish. It was a cracking sunny day but there was a building onshore wind and our particular chosen mark was difficult to fish with the onshore wind. To maximise feel we had to fish heavier cone leads from 14-21gm and I started with a 25gm Fiiish minnow that I already had on from a previous session. I also fancied there might be a chance of a Bass still in these nice conditions and started to fish Sink and Draw slowly along the bottom. Casting directly into the wind to also maximise my feel for any bites. This didn’t matter as I got a solid hit and hook up and landed my best fish of the day around 2.5lb at a guess… Not a monster that I had been hoping for, but a fish that just echoed the rest of the results from this year. Tim and Kory both managed a fish each with Kory taking his on a paddletaild lure too…

I managed another smaller fish fishing a 21gm ball weight and 4inch Seaspin Bikoa in Deep junebug (My favourite softie for the Wrasse this year) before moving to another area with more shelter. Here I could lighten the weight and started to fish a 10gm Weedless jighead with the Bikoa. This helped me to avoid snags so much and I could cast into more likely holes and gullies where the Wrasse may sit. I cast over and across a gully a very risky business but I knew if I could get a fish soon enough I would be able to get it up and out of the gully. I was right and instantly I was into a fish and luckily it went to plan.

We covered some ground and Tim and Kory took some fish but we couldn’t find anything of any size. As I brought the lure close to me on one cast I watched as a Wrasse followed the lure up the rock face into a couple feet of water. I love watching there reactions and it is never as it seems. I never used to realise it until I witnessed it for myself how long they will follow and just ”Watch” the lure. Deadsticking for a longtime and they will bite…

I’ve been going over the ”Rockfish files” again recently and a lot of it makes more sense as my fishing has progressed and they mention in there that deadsticking in the depths of winter can bring good results and not just winter of course… The Rockfish files can still be read here for anyone who hasn’t read it, it is great reading! We had flogged away at this patch and fancied a move, we didn’t have enough time to walk back and drive somewhere else so decided to try and climb down to another mark we hadn’t tried before. To our surprise it was a reasonably easy climb down and the excitement grew as it always does with new unfished waters… Almost instantly we where into fish. I think Kory was fishing a Fiiish minnow on the 12gm Shore head and was getting bites every cast. Very slowly bouncing the bottom… I stuck with the Bikoa and managed to winkle a couple of fish out, once again they where following the bait right to my feet and I was hooking them while I could see them pretty much.

Kory started to take quite a few fish on the Fiiish Minnow and this surprised me but they where loving the paddletail. Tim moved around to some different ground and took a few fish also on a Seaspin Bikoa that I gave to him. He soon changed tactic and tried for a Bass with a 5inch white AGM paddler and had a knock mid water. I switched to a Fiiish minnow and proceeded to fish sink and draw but to no avail.

I made my way back to Kory and he’d been constantly pulling in fish but still none of any size. Time was ticking on and we decided to call it a day. I ended up with 9 and Kory and Tim had 8 each but hardly any of 2lb! The Bikoa certainly did the damage as always but the Fiiish Minnows did account for a lot of fish on the day and deadsticking certainly got me a few extra tentative fish. Hopefully i’ll find a big pig before the Bass come back to play!

Kory had his Gopro with him on the day and put together a short video with an insight into Wrasse fishing. We didn’t get any crazy footage and didn’t put any time into actually filming, if the the fishing had been better and the fish bigger we may have put some more time in to make a video based on the action but he did get some cool shots and will hopefully show you a bit about the day too…