Wrasse Vert Style Afloat

Tuesday this week I had high hopes of fishing glory. I was joining a friend aboard his boat, for a day of fishing out of Dartmouth. The tide was good, the sea was flat calm, and the sun was shining with no wind. I had borrowed a couple of rods from Andrew Younger of Finesse Fishing for the day. These were the Tenryu Bulldog Evo 7.0  and a Tenryu Horizon HSL66B-ML. The Bulldog I paired up with a Shimano Stella SW5000 reel, loaded with Sunline Momentum 4x4 PE#2 / 30lb, and the Horizon was kitted with a Daiwa Ryoga 1016HL loaded with Sunline Superbraid PE#2 / 20lb.

To cut a long story short, 7 hours of fishing, resulted in one small Pollack landed between us. The fish simply were not there. We tried different locations, switched between styles, but apart from one Bass that shook the hook before coming to the boat, no sign of fishy life! I did however get a pretty good tan out on the water all day! The Tenryu Horizon is a really interesting rod. It looks a bit like a bait finesse rod, but I was happily jigging 100g with it. It says the max is 150g on the blank, but not sure I would go that heavy with it. If I was out on a boat a lot more often, it's definitely a rod I would like to own.

So Wednesday night, I wanted to feed my hunger for a fish this week. Headed out in the bay on a paddle ski, again to perfect evening conditions. I wanted to fish a mark usually only accessible at low tide. With the big spring, the only signs of land were a couple of rocky pinnacles breaking the surface. Fishing with the Bulldog Evo, this time paired with the Van Staal VSB150 loaded with Sunline Superbraid PE#3 / 30lb, rigged up some soft plastic lures on 1oz Jika rigs.

As I drifted off the rocky shelf into deeper water, the bites started to happen, with the familiar tap, tap, tap of the Wrasse. The Bulldog is a real took for the job vertical fishing, a nice bend, but lots of power, able to easily bully the Wrasse from the rocky depths. No big fish came to the ski, but good sport none the less. Best results came fishing the Ecogear Power Dart Minnow on a 2/0 weedless hook.