FISHING OUT TO SEA OVER ROUGH GROUND
You regularly hear anglers saying that wrasse have ‘nipped’ the tail off their lures or just hit the lures and not been hooked up. Wrasse will strike a bait to stun it then return to eat it, but quite often in these situations, the fish are defending their territory from invaders. These are known as reaction strikes. These wrasse can be and are regularly hooked, but they aren’t necessarily feeding.
One thing you can do if you feel a hit is don’t strike immediately, but tighten up slightly. If you feel any resistance, strike. If there’s nothing there, let the lure sit for a few seconds before starting your retrieval again. If no further strikes happen, re-cast to the same spot several times as quite often the wrasse will still be present and can often be tempted into hitting again.
FISHING IN GULLIES
When targeting gullies though, I find strikes are generally confident and fish are hooked immediately as they aren’t defending an area but visiting a gulley to actually feed. Spend time fishing these areas as wrasse will visit periodically in search of food throughout the tide. I’ve caught wrasse in less than 2’ of water, so don’t worry if it’s quite shallow, fish will still be present.
Click the blue button below to see the lures that I use to target this species.
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