As I opened my eyes at 8am on a Sunday morning I was pleasantly surprised to see the sun gloriously peeping through the window. A sun-filled day inIreland- what are the odds! I cannot let this go to waste. Like they say “the two best times to fish is when it’s raining’ and when it isn’t!” Instantly I was on the blower to a good mate (John O Connor) to find out if he was available, luckily he was. I informed him it was a spot of rock fishing I had in mind, and I did not have to do much convincing! John made another ‘influential’ phone call to James O Shea, and ten minutes later we had our plans finalised – A day of rock fishing it was.
As we took in our surroundings ‘amazing’ was one word that quickly sprung to mind! The waters were crystal clear and a lovely ledge ran across the front of us – yes this was shaping up to be a good day. As we chatted amongst ourselves ‘Wrasse’ and ‘Pollock’ were the hot topics, and so we began the task of setting up. I was using a Berkley Phazer ll rod, an Okuma Tiro 40s spinning reel loaded with braid and a 5” crystal shad on a Texas rig. These were obviously the right choices; we were landing fish from the second cast. John had the first catch; a Pollock, James was next to land a fish, a nicely coloured Ballan Wrasse. At the same time I landed a nice Wrasse very differently coloured, this called for the camera.
The largest of the Wrasse family the Ballan can show a bewildering range of colouration from lime green, through various shades of brown, to dark purple with white spots.
We were happy to say the least and never looked back from the first cast. We were landing fish after fish, and the great conditions were just adding to the experience. At the end of the day John and James were both using soft plastic lures and the fish were practically jumping at them.
The Wrasse were hitting the soft plastics like a bullet exiting a gun. They were doing so with such force it would send shivers up your back and an instant rush to your head. It was simply un-be-live-able!
Fishing using soft plastics on a Texas rig offers the angler so many more options as to where s/he can fish. On this particular day we were lucky to fish in caves, over rocks, along the sea bed and we even picked up a spider-crab along the way. At one stage we just stood and watched in silence as the Wrasse followed the lures up to the surface and smacked into them right in front of us.
It was a perfect fishing trip and this was evident in the whopping 46 fish caught throughout the day. As the old saying goes “There is certainly something in fishing that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.” I couldn’t agree more!
Written by
Martin McGowan
http://www.ullcatch.com/wrasse-fishing-at-its-best/
