Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,344
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- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Had a cheeky Monday off and met up with my mate at Portland lighthouse to try for wrasse.
I had a whack of hardbacks that I caught surprisingly easily on Sunday.
We were meant to be meeting at 10 but I was running about an hour late ? Partly because I overslept a little, but also it seemed I encountered every slow vehicle, tractor and lorry in existence on the roads between North Devon and Dorset ?
Anyway, down on the rocks, a nice short walk from the car park!
Pulpit rock was empty of anglers but we’d already agreed we had no plans to fish it despite its reputation for big wrasse around low water. The tide is too fierce to fish any other time.
I don’t mind heights but wrasse fishing 60 foot up means you need a drop net to lift and return the fish, just seems too much faff.
I’ve been there once before but hadn’t really explored the Portland ledges and initially we aimed at the ledges to the right of Pulpit.
Really struggled to see any way down to them, apart from a couple of very sketchy spots, so we worked our way back and ended up on ledges to the left.
The set up was mega simple. 30lb line straight through on a beachcaster, three way swivel, 30lb hook length, 20lb rotten bottom length for the weight.
Take the hardback, pull the claws off and hook through the sockets with a 3/0 wide gape. Sorry crab ?
As the tide dropped a little, we realised the seabed was pretty shallow where we were and littered with awkward rocks that would make fishing difficult as they uncovered.
I scouted around a bit and found a way down on to a nice looking platform to the left of Pulpit and we upped sticks and moved.
Not the hardest scramble down but awkward with a heavy bucket of crabs plus another one of leads and of course set up rods.
In the end we were down and fishing in the new spot.
Lovely spot to fish and of course, clear south coast water. As my mate said, it was almost as if we were in another country.
Fishing itself was quite slow. To begin with, we had a few pecking bites from small wrasse which weren’t something you could hit, but nonetheless still managed to destroy a whole hardback crab pretty quickly.
I missed one bite which was hardly a clonker and my mate missed a few similar bites, but it was incredibly slow, hardly the prolific wrasse fishing we had expected.
I had brought a second rod as a spare, but would usually only fish one for wrasse. With things so slow, I set up the second one and tried some peeler that I’d brought as an alternative bait.
It didn’t fare any better, being nibbled at constantly by the small stuff, but no bites worth hitting.
My mate had to go around 4, so we knew it was a relatively short session.
Just before 4pm we were chatting when my rod nodded a couple of times and then went over.
Fish on at last!
Finally, a Portland wrasse!
I didn’t want to take the time to weigh it as I like to get them back quickly, so estimated it at about 1lb 8, but it felt a little heftier than that, maybe.
A nice chunky fish anyway, albeit quite a brown one without the more stunning markings. A female?
I did mean to get better close ups of the fish as well, but never mind, always next time.
Anyway, it was neatly lip hooked and back (she?) went.
That prompted us to hang on another half hour, but apart from a few more nibbles, no other bites to speak of.
The majority of the hardbacks were released to make a new home down in Dorset, but I’m sure they’ll manage.
A shorter session than I’d have liked, given the two hour drive, but still very enjoyable, good weather, great scenery and a few things learned for next time.
We’ve got a better idea of the area and how to get on to some of the ledges, plus I suspect nearer low and then the flood might be a better state of tide to fish.
And there are so many spots to try along there, we’ll definitely get back and have another go when there’s more time.
Usually I’m quite keen to fish for edible stuff, but I like wrasse and that form of fishing is nice and uncomplicated. The bait is free and easily collected where I live, the terminal tackle is minimal and the main casualty is really just the number of leads you might end up losing, but that’s rock fishing.
I had a whack of hardbacks that I caught surprisingly easily on Sunday.
We were meant to be meeting at 10 but I was running about an hour late ? Partly because I overslept a little, but also it seemed I encountered every slow vehicle, tractor and lorry in existence on the roads between North Devon and Dorset ?
Anyway, down on the rocks, a nice short walk from the car park!
Pulpit rock was empty of anglers but we’d already agreed we had no plans to fish it despite its reputation for big wrasse around low water. The tide is too fierce to fish any other time.
I don’t mind heights but wrasse fishing 60 foot up means you need a drop net to lift and return the fish, just seems too much faff.
I’ve been there once before but hadn’t really explored the Portland ledges and initially we aimed at the ledges to the right of Pulpit.
Really struggled to see any way down to them, apart from a couple of very sketchy spots, so we worked our way back and ended up on ledges to the left.
The set up was mega simple. 30lb line straight through on a beachcaster, three way swivel, 30lb hook length, 20lb rotten bottom length for the weight.
Take the hardback, pull the claws off and hook through the sockets with a 3/0 wide gape. Sorry crab ?
As the tide dropped a little, we realised the seabed was pretty shallow where we were and littered with awkward rocks that would make fishing difficult as they uncovered.
I scouted around a bit and found a way down on to a nice looking platform to the left of Pulpit and we upped sticks and moved.
Not the hardest scramble down but awkward with a heavy bucket of crabs plus another one of leads and of course set up rods.
In the end we were down and fishing in the new spot.
Lovely spot to fish and of course, clear south coast water. As my mate said, it was almost as if we were in another country.
Fishing itself was quite slow. To begin with, we had a few pecking bites from small wrasse which weren’t something you could hit, but nonetheless still managed to destroy a whole hardback crab pretty quickly.
I missed one bite which was hardly a clonker and my mate missed a few similar bites, but it was incredibly slow, hardly the prolific wrasse fishing we had expected.
I had brought a second rod as a spare, but would usually only fish one for wrasse. With things so slow, I set up the second one and tried some peeler that I’d brought as an alternative bait.
It didn’t fare any better, being nibbled at constantly by the small stuff, but no bites worth hitting.
My mate had to go around 4, so we knew it was a relatively short session.
Just before 4pm we were chatting when my rod nodded a couple of times and then went over.
Fish on at last!
Finally, a Portland wrasse!
I didn’t want to take the time to weigh it as I like to get them back quickly, so estimated it at about 1lb 8, but it felt a little heftier than that, maybe.
A nice chunky fish anyway, albeit quite a brown one without the more stunning markings. A female?
I did mean to get better close ups of the fish as well, but never mind, always next time.
Anyway, it was neatly lip hooked and back (she?) went.
That prompted us to hang on another half hour, but apart from a few more nibbles, no other bites to speak of.
The majority of the hardbacks were released to make a new home down in Dorset, but I’m sure they’ll manage.
A shorter session than I’d have liked, given the two hour drive, but still very enjoyable, good weather, great scenery and a few things learned for next time.
We’ve got a better idea of the area and how to get on to some of the ledges, plus I suspect nearer low and then the flood might be a better state of tide to fish.
And there are so many spots to try along there, we’ll definitely get back and have another go when there’s more time.
Usually I’m quite keen to fish for edible stuff, but I like wrasse and that form of fishing is nice and uncomplicated. The bait is free and easily collected where I live, the terminal tackle is minimal and the main casualty is really just the number of leads you might end up losing, but that’s rock fishing.
Sod that with all the beach gear & crab.
