Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 19,233
- Reaction score
- 66,350
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
There was a short window this afternoon to do about three hours wrassing before heading home and getting ready to go out for a meal tonight.
Must admit I dithered a fair bit whether to even go, to the point where I lost more than an hour of the available four hour window.
I was also crazy short on weights I was willing to lose, so ransacked the shed to find whatever I could.
An old 8oz flat gripper with only two wires (apparently they were a thing) and a scavenged gripper with no eye - bent the wires over to make a loop, that’ll do.
Oh, and completely forgot I had a few ally billets that I’d drilled out but never used as they cast like a brick.
Still, needs must!
Scooted down to my local mark, winced a bit at putting £4.40 in the machine for a three hour session and threaded through the grockles towards the rocks.
The tide was on the smaller side to what I’d normally fish here, simply because it’s difficult to access on small tides, but I might have to rethink that for future trips.
First cast with spider crab and I was watching what appeared to be small wrasse pecking away on one rod, when the other rod bent double.
By the time I got to it, it was snagged, but slackened it a minute and something was still nodding away.
Couldn’t shift it so left it a while, no more nods, pulled for a break and got the gear back but no fish.
That’s okay, at least it didn’t leave a fish tethered out there on lost gear.
I tried putting one in short on the next cast and it was rattling almost instantly.
Great ???
Got both back out and there was a lot of rattles and pecks, nothing much you could hit but the spider was getting shredded in short order.
I suspect a combination of straps and small wrasse were to blame.
I was mooching around on here when one rod that was at a bit more range to try and catch the edge of a kelp bed screamed over and I managed to grab it quickly this time.
A quick whack and a powerful fish was pulling back at me.
After the initial power it came in relatively easy but made some feisty dives close in.
I could see a wrasse tail flapping around but how big was it?
They seem to be really fat at the moment and I thought this one would go over 3lb, but after weighing and deducting the sling weight, it came in at 2lb 9.
There wasn’t much time left but I kept on whacking the bait out and it was mostly getting shredded by the small stuff.
I did have one half decent bite that may have been a wrasse, but could have been an eel, huss or rockling, all possible here although after dark is better for the last two.
Reluctantly I decided I’d better start packing up, which was annoying as the flood tends to be better, but the tide doesn’t wait for anyone.
Ironically, after sourcing about nine of the scabbiest weights I could fine, all I lost was one ally billet and one plain 5oz.
Lost 10 decent weights there last trip!
Might have to risk one more tide and go back there tomorrow, we’ll see.
Must admit I dithered a fair bit whether to even go, to the point where I lost more than an hour of the available four hour window.
I was also crazy short on weights I was willing to lose, so ransacked the shed to find whatever I could.
An old 8oz flat gripper with only two wires (apparently they were a thing) and a scavenged gripper with no eye - bent the wires over to make a loop, that’ll do.
Oh, and completely forgot I had a few ally billets that I’d drilled out but never used as they cast like a brick.
Still, needs must!
Scooted down to my local mark, winced a bit at putting £4.40 in the machine for a three hour session and threaded through the grockles towards the rocks.
The tide was on the smaller side to what I’d normally fish here, simply because it’s difficult to access on small tides, but I might have to rethink that for future trips.
First cast with spider crab and I was watching what appeared to be small wrasse pecking away on one rod, when the other rod bent double.
By the time I got to it, it was snagged, but slackened it a minute and something was still nodding away.
Couldn’t shift it so left it a while, no more nods, pulled for a break and got the gear back but no fish.
That’s okay, at least it didn’t leave a fish tethered out there on lost gear.
I tried putting one in short on the next cast and it was rattling almost instantly.
Great ???
Got both back out and there was a lot of rattles and pecks, nothing much you could hit but the spider was getting shredded in short order.
I suspect a combination of straps and small wrasse were to blame.
I was mooching around on here when one rod that was at a bit more range to try and catch the edge of a kelp bed screamed over and I managed to grab it quickly this time.
A quick whack and a powerful fish was pulling back at me.
After the initial power it came in relatively easy but made some feisty dives close in.
I could see a wrasse tail flapping around but how big was it?
They seem to be really fat at the moment and I thought this one would go over 3lb, but after weighing and deducting the sling weight, it came in at 2lb 9.
There wasn’t much time left but I kept on whacking the bait out and it was mostly getting shredded by the small stuff.
I did have one half decent bite that may have been a wrasse, but could have been an eel, huss or rockling, all possible here although after dark is better for the last two.
Reluctantly I decided I’d better start packing up, which was annoying as the flood tends to be better, but the tide doesn’t wait for anyone.
Ironically, after sourcing about nine of the scabbiest weights I could fine, all I lost was one ally billet and one plain 5oz.
Lost 10 decent weights there last trip!
Might have to risk one more tide and go back there tomorrow, we’ll see.
