Rock Donkeys Kicking Off!!!

Well me and Andy headed out the other weekend down to some ground iv eyed up for a while! conditions seems mint bit of low mist then a very bright day forecast with light winds and rising tides most of the morning everything pointed in the right direction!!! After the last few hopeless attemps with horrendous winds and rain then the big drop in temps!!! we even had a session where my braid froze while in salt water..... after being picked up we headed down to the rocks and I said to Andy I felt a bit fishy and had a good feeling! we set the rods up at the car armed with my Tenryu and Andy with the Century it was a long walk up and down hills and then a scramble down one of the steepest marks iv fished and it looked amazing!!! gin clear water gorgeous blues and all the reefs and gulleys clearly on show.

It wasn't long before the action started! ( first cast actually ) bite after bite the fish were hammering out senkos and after about the 5th cast I nailed this little beauty, was your typical wrasse bite tap tap smash!!! and she belted off straight to cover so I put the danny brakes on and got her to the rocks for a quick photo. by this time it was pretty much a bite a chuck and no matter what you had on fish were hitting hard or following the lures up! the most popular lures being the Hawg senkos in melon and Christmas tree colours it wasn't long for the lures to start showing the tell tell signs of wrasse!!! with ripped lures and the classic teeth marks, one happy Danny indeed!

This chunk late 2lber was a awesome fight really bending my gear and almost getting me snagged up I was very much in my element! iv missed these Ballans they literally sum up my whole angling life and this session was the proof I needed to see the season has finally kicked off with both of us getting constant bites and hitting fish! My mission for today as the Wrasse were obviously onnit was to make sure Andy nails his first lure caught Ballan and I wouldn't be happy till that happened! we left the first gulleys and headed over to a big shallow reef which looked awesome with the wind blowing over us it was flat as a pancake this looked awesome no more than 10ft deep, rough as a badgers ass rock and kelp perfect for some big pigs! it wasn't long before I got smashed to pieces I literally lifted into the bite and it just turned and fcuked off to france! there was nothing stopping this fish, I palmed the spool and it still pulled into a snag where it snapped me up! I was gutted!!! Andy was perched on a good little outcrop and it wasn't long before I could hear that sound of joy when a fish is on!!!

I was made up with this little rascal!!! and after god knows how many very unlucky sessions Andy had broken that awful luck..... with him using one of my (for sale 2quid each) Xlayers which he didn't have and boom it was like a light switch on off to on, gone with the tap tap nibble nibble and boom they just nailed this lure on the spot! this soon turned into a hour of sheer madness with countless fish bumped and hooked the we were on double figures now and the fish were getting bigger, well for me anyway ;-) we walked around to a deep pit where there was a large sloping rock face covered in week and barnicles it just screamed wrasse! I flicked my Xlayer into a small crack/gulley and soon as the lure hit the bottom I was smashed!

The camera doesn't do this wrasse justice, the electric green/blues in this fishes freckles, I love these awesome little males they and soooo bright and ballsy you would happily buy these for a marine tank! these things are addictive and with the tide just slacking off at the top of the tide just when I would be expecting the biggys to be lurking around as the start there ebb feed (my fav time for wrasse) still armed with the emerald Xlayers I cast to a 6-7ft ledge next to a deep sandy clean gully and slowly crept the lure down the ledge face and about two foot from the rocks over clean sand I was abused by a bigger fish but didn't hook up! very next cast I crawled the lure to the same spot and this time fish on!!!

these beautiful chap proper done the dirty on me slamming me into the rocks and through the weed but with my Injection looped around and a bit of Parkins persuasion I managed to turn it from the rough and high enough in the water so I could chill a bit! after a few quick snaps and a breather in the net we weighed it and slipped him back for another day :-) buzzing now I was loving getting back on the pigs, Andy was whipping the water to a froth and getting some awesome hits I even caught a few takes out the corner of my eye! these fish are the absolute bomb to lure fishing in my eyes! fight harder than anything else your catch in the uk and the techniques like Texas and Carolina are very enjoyable ways to fish, and lets not forget these fish are stunning colours what more do you want form a days lure fishing! obviously the terrain we fish isn't for everyone and id advise caution when fishing anywhere like this these aren't beginner's marks and experience of rock hopping is needed as well as knowledge of tides and weather. anyway until next time tight lines, will be out again soon on the Rock Donkeys