Where to start on this one......? Definitely a fish to target deliberately and fast catching on as a valid quarry for the lure fisherman.
There are possible advantages to fishing for wrasse with lures.
1. From the boat, if you are vertical jigging, you have a good chance of getting the fish away from cover quickly.
2. From the shore, you are not trailing a sinker (unless you are drop shotting, when it should be on a sacrifical link anyway).
3. Lures tend to attract better fish.
4. Deep hookups are uncommon, so C&R is easy.
5. Bait fishermen get very jealous!
6. Time of day is not crucial. They will feed at any time IME.
7. It's great sport and you will get distracted from bass fishing. Honest.
There are some potential disadvantages too;
1. A big wrasse is a real handful on light gear. Much harder work IMHO than a bass of the same size. So prepare to be beaten up if you dare.
2. Wrasse have every SP catalogue memorised and can pinpoint an expensive soft lure from way off before biting the tail off within millimetres of the hook.
3. The lure is usually wrecked when you catch even a half decent fish.
4. You will lose plenty of lures working close to rough ground.
5. Once you work out which lures work, you will have more reason to buy more.
6. See (7) above!
Early season is good from the boat, possibly due to breeding season and/or lack of weed growth giving the fish better sight of lures? I suspect the same time of year will work from the shore but I've caught them throughout the season from shore and boat down here. That might be different further north if water temp is a factor.
Down this way you can catch them on most ground and at anything from a few feet to 60' of water so long as there is structure they can take refuge in (boulders, ledges, cracks etc) within a couple of hundred yards or so. I have taken decent fish off sand beaches 100yds away from the nearest reef. Look for that structure and start there.
Lure wise, Spindle worms, FinS Fish, Mother Eels, XLayers, Sidewinders, Hart Absolut worms, large shads.....they all work. Jig heads will need to be heavy enough to keep the lure near bottom.
Next year should see a lot more wrasse being caught as the SP revolution picks up more steam.
Cheers
There are possible advantages to fishing for wrasse with lures.
1. From the boat, if you are vertical jigging, you have a good chance of getting the fish away from cover quickly.
2. From the shore, you are not trailing a sinker (unless you are drop shotting, when it should be on a sacrifical link anyway).
3. Lures tend to attract better fish.
4. Deep hookups are uncommon, so C&R is easy.
5. Bait fishermen get very jealous!
6. Time of day is not crucial. They will feed at any time IME.
7. It's great sport and you will get distracted from bass fishing. Honest.
There are some potential disadvantages too;
1. A big wrasse is a real handful on light gear. Much harder work IMHO than a bass of the same size. So prepare to be beaten up if you dare.
2. Wrasse have every SP catalogue memorised and can pinpoint an expensive soft lure from way off before biting the tail off within millimetres of the hook.
3. The lure is usually wrecked when you catch even a half decent fish.
4. You will lose plenty of lures working close to rough ground.
5. Once you work out which lures work, you will have more reason to buy more.
6. See (7) above!
Early season is good from the boat, possibly due to breeding season and/or lack of weed growth giving the fish better sight of lures? I suspect the same time of year will work from the shore but I've caught them throughout the season from shore and boat down here. That might be different further north if water temp is a factor.
Down this way you can catch them on most ground and at anything from a few feet to 60' of water so long as there is structure they can take refuge in (boulders, ledges, cracks etc) within a couple of hundred yards or so. I have taken decent fish off sand beaches 100yds away from the nearest reef. Look for that structure and start there.
Lure wise, Spindle worms, FinS Fish, Mother Eels, XLayers, Sidewinders, Hart Absolut worms, large shads.....they all work. Jig heads will need to be heavy enough to keep the lure near bottom.
Next year should see a lot more wrasse being caught as the SP revolution picks up more steam.
Cheers