THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

The biggest of the four was put at
around nine pounds, and the others not
far behind that weight. Still a
magnificent haul taken long before the
severe winter mentioned earlier. So the
fact that the record keeps creeping on
up and may yet continue to do so was
always on the cards.
Wrasse have always been a fish of
mixed patronage. In my early days
there used to be shore wrasse specialists
who would openly sing the species
praises in the press. Then that all
seemed to subside, and ballan wrasse
Dave Lewis Ballan Wrasse, Oxwich Bay
were relegated to being more of a bycatch
or something you fished if there
was nothing else, or needed one in a species match.
From the boat it was even worse. I do recall reading the odd article extolling the virtues of using a small
boat to get in over inshore marks which couldn't be fished from the shore, in the main because of
impossible or dangerous access. So once again, wrasse were being projected as something to target for
a change, but never as part of any ongoing enthusiasm.
I think what I'm trying to say here is that ballan wrasse have never been fully valued or taken seriously
as a single species obsession for as far back as I can remember. But over the past couple of years, that
situation has very definitely started to change, with people both appreciating their hard fighting qualities
and their inshore availability, though no longer fishing for them in the time honoured ways of old, which
has both elevated their standing, and made them even more catchable than ever before.
But before we start digging too deeply into the present and the future, let's first do a little bit more raking
over the past.
Ballan wrasse have long been looked upon primarily as a shore anglers fish, which quite simply is not
the case. They are not in the strictest definition of the term even a shore loving fish. What they like is
permanent shallow water down to around forty feet with lots of heavy kelp, weed, and other rough
ground cover, which just happens to bring them in close to some sections of the shore.
On the other hand, it could just as easily be around some isolated piece of drying offshore rock or
shallowing reef. The wrasse neither knows nor cares what the exposed bits are used for, and some of
the best wrasse fishing I have taken part in has been from boats fishing offshore.
I remember one day anchoring off Peninnis Head in the Isles of Scilly and having an absolute burster
fishing short dropper rigs with lugworm baits, catching dozens of hard fighting ballan's to just short of
five pounds as we struggled to keep them from power diving back into the snags and kelp.
Another memorable occasion, though we weren't specifically fishing for wrasse this time, was a patch
of reefy ground in around thirty feet of water in some pretty nasty weather conditions fishing ragworm
baited feathers out from Wexford. There wrasse in the three to four pound bracket were really in feeding
mood.
Those are just a couple of examples of red letter boat trips, though there have been numerous other
occasions when we caught well whilst not necessarily always specifically targeting wrasse, and could
229