THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Joe Gomez, Guernsey
Jumping forward a decade now into the modern era, ballan
wrasse have suddenly become highly fashionable targets
once again. Not so much a case of the wheel having turned
full circle, or even a new generation discovering the
species, because as we all know, angler numbers are
dropping away all the time, and young new blood coming
in to replace them is so desperately lacking.
One thing and one thing only has brought about this revival
in interest, that being the development of Light and Heavy
Rock Fishing, LRF and HRF, and the sudden realisation
that many hitherto neglected species are actually worth
fishing for, with a few added surprises along the way.
Both LRF and HRF are variants of the same approach, the
light and heavy component relating to the size of rods, reels
and lures, plus the areas in which they are deployed.
LRF tends to employ ultra light tackle and the smallest of
lures worked around rocky harbours and inlets, targeting
anything and everything at the lower end of the size range,
bringing into the frame quite a few species which might
previously have been over-looked.
HRF on the other hand requires that heavier, though still
not over heavy hand tackle and larger lures be used, and is probably aimed more at pollack, bass, and
now as it would turn out, ballan wrasse along deeper, open, more exposed stretches of rocky permanent
water coast line.
One of the key practitioners of HRF is north Devon shore angler Danny Parkins who I have chatted
with at length on all aspects of the topic.
Danny is quite open about the fact that he got the idea from Channel Islander Keith White, then
developed it based on what's known as the Texas Rigging method of using a self weighted head with
an offset hook carrying a soft plastic lure into which the hook is embedded so that it won't be a snagging
threat, but will cut through the lure body and hook a fish when a take followed by a strike comes along.
Key to this is the use of none stretch braided line for instant feedback allowing a quick response, not
only to set the hook, but also to help avoid a fish going to ground when it feels the point.
Working in water typically between twelve to twenty feet in sheltered gullies over the snaggiest terrain
imaginable with drab natural looking lures in the three to four inch range tweaked slowly along the
bottom, the success rate with wrasse, and in particular big ballan wrasse, has been nothing short of
phenomenal.
In response, ballan wrasse have shown a whole new actively predatory side to their feeding which no
other approach is able to tap into, nor in numerical terms it appears, comes even close to matching.
Associated audio interview numbers: 167.
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