THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

So expect them anywhere and everywhere when the terrain is right and the baits are small enough,
though most especially along the western side of the British Isles from north to south. And if you do
hook one there should be absolutely no doubt as to its identity. Along with the cuckoo wrasse, this is
one of the easiest and most obvious species to pin the right label on.
A small fish with a typically wrasse like profile, but one coloured plain reddish brown to bright orange
with a dark spot at the start of its dorsal fin, and a second at the top of the body immediately in front of
the tail. Another wrasse species thought to be a protogynous hermaphrodite with some females
switching to being males as required. Grows to seven inches.
ROCK COOK WRASSE Centrolobrus exoletus
Bucket List status – result
Also known as the small mouthed
wrasse, with the obvious angling
connotation that brings. Again, as
with the corkwing, a fish almost
identical to the ballan wrasse
described in full detail elsewhere.
Taking the corkwing out of the
equation is easy enough by checking
for the presence of the dark spot just
in front of the tail. If that's absent, the
next thing to look for is a serrated preoperculum
or first gill cover.
If serrations are absent then its a small
ballan wrasse. But if they are present,
look for a broad dusky coloured
crescent shaped mark across the tail along with a lighter band at both the base and outer edge of the tail
fin. Rock cook also have five very strong spines at the start of their anal fin.
In my experience, they appear to have hints of blue on the fins and upper flanks along with blue lines
around the head. A fish with more of a northerly bias perhaps than the other small wrasse species, and
one with more of a preference for water depth.
Accurate information regarding sex changes in this species has been difficult to come by, though the
suggestion is of it being a protogynous hermaphrodite switching from female to male as required.
Scotland and the west coast of Ireland rate highly on its distribution map, though I have caught them at
Anglesey on more than one occasion whilst float fishing small pieces of ragworm with my children
when they were younger from the rocks at Rhoscolyn Head, where on one several occasions we caught
five species of wrasse in a single session. Grows to around six inches.
SCALE RAYED WRASSE Acantholabrus palloni
Bucket List status – no result yet
Yet another small wrasse species to be aware of when baits and hook sizes are small enough, though
unusually for wrasse, one with more of a tendency to place itself out of reach of shore anglers, preferring
depths down to around sixty fathoms.
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