Rats and Hogs

Wrasse, or hogs as the boys call them, are as tough as they come. Hook into one and you’ve got a battle on your hands. Your first 30 seconds are crucial, hit and hold, if you give an inch you’re done for. As such you need the tackle to stand your ground – and Danny is ready for war.

This boy’s gear is, not to put too fine a point on it, sexy as hell. A Shimano Stella SG 4000 with its drag set to ‘you’re going nowhere’ lays up 20lb Power Pro Depth Hunter braid, running through the rings of a Slash 28g, 7ft 4in rod – a sublime looking weapon designed for black bass, but with a fast action that sets hooks and holds on perfectly for wrasse.

At the business end Danny has options, but his first lure for the wrasse is always a senko worm. Rigged Texas-style with a 3/0 worm hook (extra strong) and 10g cone weight it’s soon searching around in the salt. This arrangement is tied up to a 22lb fluorocarbon leader, needed to soak up the sharp and snaggy underwater terrain.

Danny always starts his wrassing on a senko and in neutral colours. Dark greens, browns and blacks tend to work better for the species, but that’s not a given, so he has a range of backup colours, sizes and types in his vest pack.

Wrasse are a highly territorial species, move around, keep dropping into the holes, gulleys and crags and you will find them. Hiking over the rocks along the coast line we keep trying until we hit gold. With a mouth holding two rows of teeth wrasse are biters, taking lures completely differently to, say, a bass, that will inhale and engulf your offering. It’s the reason you often pull in half a soft plastic. It’s also a giveaway on a retrieve. “Here we go!” shouts Danny as he starts getting tap taps on his rod.

Following a bait often for quite a distance wrasse will sometime nip at a lure before taking, although sometimes they’re equally likely to just nail it.

Another cast, another retrieve and bang. What had been a sedate scene of a slow wind on the Stella has turned into a high octane blur of straining carbon, frantic cranking and facial grimacing as Danny leans into a fish. These wrasse are strong, abnormally so for their size, but looking at the body build you can see why. In a few high tension seconds the fish is turned and on its way in to our rocky perch. Out of the water it’s a stunner. Golden with a tinge of green. One of the most stunning fish in UK waters it wouldn’t look out of place in the tropics.

The action has spiked the adrenaline and next cast Danny’s in again. This time it’s a bigger fish. Even with his drag set as it is there’s still a small trickle of line that requires Danny to grab the spool as he holds on. And then slack. In reverse the MTV-style, rock-and-roll action of a full-on wrasse storm has blown out in a nano second. Nothing is
said. We move onto the next spot.

More fish fall. A slow retrieve, lifting the senko from the bed to around 12 inches before dropping it again is working.
A change from green to black has also pushed the fishes’ buttons.

The catches are like a rainbow, from lemon yellow with blue flecks, through to terracotta reds and deep greens, the fish are incredible.

After hundreds of casts, several fish and more laughs and adrenaline hits than you can count, we’re done.

Wrassing rocks – full stop.


WRASSE
Growing in popularity with lure anglers the wrasse – or ballan wrasse to give it its correct title – is an incredible species of fish found from Norway down to Morocco.

Because of their love for boulders and weed, shore fishing from rocks is the perfect way to target the species and with their average size being between 1 and 3lb they’re great fun.

In bigger sizes, though, they’re even better. At the top end wrasse can get on for nearly double figures, but catch one of over 4lb and you’ve had a great fish.

At around 4lb a wrasse’s head and body shape changes and they get bigger mouths making them even more powerful and harder to get to the shore.

Given their fierce territoriality, after catching a wrasse always return it as near to where you caught it as possible.