1

2

INTRODUCTION 4

HANDLING 6

TACKLE AND STUFF 8

ALL YEAR 12

FUN FOR ALL14

THE STRAIGHT DEBATE 16

UNDER COVER 20

PADDLING 24

SPLIT SHOT RIGS 28

FLIPPIN 32

HOTSPOTTING 34

COLOURS 38

ZING ! 39

SKISH 44

AFLOAT 49

KAYAK 52

POURING YOUR OWN 55

WHAT NEXT ? 56

CONTRIBUTION 58

CREDITS62

Table of contents.

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3

Wrasse love craw baits.

This is a Reins Axcraw ona weedless head of 3/1 6oz.

Best crawled, shook orhopped but they 'swim' too.

4

OK then, let's get started. HRF isn't something we just made up. No. Infact, HRF (Hard Rock Fishing) is a trade name adopted by Daiwa Japanto best describe the heavier style of 'salt-water rock-fishing' nowcommon in that part of the world.

Rock-fishing itself is a directoffshoot of Japanesefreshwater bass fishing but hassplintered into many forms. I t'sal l 'rock-fishing' but the LRFand HRF monikers describe itwell enough.

Here in Jersey, wrasse arelocally known as 'rock-fish' tooso it made perfect sense toadopt a ready made andrecognised name set.

So, onward and upwards. . . Not all wrasse are'ballans'.

Intro to HRF

5

Remembering that HRF camefrom Japanese freshwater bassmen first putting freshwatertechniques to use in the sea, thisobviously meant that things werealways going to be developed withthis in mind. Traditions and mythswere busted there, just l ike theyhave been 'busted' here too byBritish LRF and HRF men.

In the beginning, we fol lowed theJapanese way quite closely. Theamount of translation workinvolved then, and now, is simplymind blowing. There was also thehelp we received from guys bothover in Austral ia, and guys who

previously resided there.The Aussies have, in the lastdecade or so re-written the rulebook with regard to bream fishingin the 'rock-fish' style.

Of course, we are in a differenthemisphere and, fishing fordifferent fish. US bass fishing hasa plethora of methods andtechniques to draw from too. Bymixing this stuff up with countlessother styles and experiences,British 'HRF' made the light yearjump into reality.

British HRF has it's own distinctflavour.

6

Get to grips...

Just a quick few words here tothose reading this guide. Britishlure fishing has, for many, sadlybeen a case of countless andfruitless hours fishing, and morehours spent blanking, as opposedto catching.

As a guide I get to see the 'void'between anglers that have comefrom freshwater backgrounds andthose from a pure British salt-waterenvironment. There is a void and,the biggest one is fish handling.

These wrasse deserve your ful lrespect and, I 'l l be honest, we'veall made mistakes. You wil l 'haveto' learn to handle these fish simplybecause, unl ike those lost hours,weeks, months and years. . .Now you're going to be catching

'lots' of fish. I t's simple really. Youcan't learn to handle fish unti l youstart catching them. I t's l ike thechicken and the egg.

We sti l l do use boga-grips onbigger wrasse but, no longer forweighing unless the fish go in asmooth bag first. Don't riskdropping fish, use a net. You'l l seeloads of images of wrasse onrocks but, pick a spot where thereis cushioning weed between fish,and rocks.

Most of this stuff is basic commonsense and I 'm not lecturing youbut, rather hoping to make youaware. De-barb those hooks too.Trust me, you rarely lose a wrassebecause of slack l ine. LOL

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8

Tackle and s

tuff.

The first thing to appreciate is, weare going to be fishing al l thoseplaces you have previously chosento avoid because of inevitabletackle loses. HRF isn't for crybabies.

You wil l , initial ly lose quite a lot ofend tackle. This is 'normal' andnothing to be overly concernedabout.

I would suggest the newcomer toHRF wrasse, tackle this with a 7ft to8ft rod of 3 to 28g or, somethingclose to that range. Rods that have

proven track records are the TenyruInjection, Savage GearBushwhacker, Daiwa HRF 7ft, boththe 3-23, and 3-30g Lucky CraftESGI I at 7' 7", and the Shimanodrop shot. That just names a few.

Be sure to ask advice of guysactual ly fishing HRF styles asotherwise, the recommendationslack that vital backbone of personalexperience. This fishing is differentas you wil l learn. Now, right now, isthe best time to plan as we getready for the 'spring run'.

9

Let's talk quickly about reels andlines. You'l l notice that earl ier, Isuggested you'l l be fishing in somepretty rough terrain when youestablish yourself. I would suggest,that for wrasse HRF styles youchoose a good 3000 sized reel with2 spools and a fairly high retrieveratio and, 'strong internals'. Ofcourse, should you prefer adifferent size, use that.

The fact is, you wil l be hooking bigfish really close in and, the reel,whilst it needs to be lightweight andsmooth, needs to be able to stop abig pig on a dime. The dragsettings for close up work arehigher than I would everrecommend for say, bass, or evenwrasse in more open territory, but,there is a reason.

Big wrasse wil l hit, actual ly 'hit you'and run through a maze ofboulders in seconds unless 'you'stop them. This is why it is soimportant to have both a good reeland l ine but, a rod that bothabsorbs sudden shocks 'and', hasreal low down power to stop thesethings quickly. Short and sweet letssay.

When it comes to l ines there are nospecial requirements other than'common sense'. This means wehave to have a line that is strong,transmits bites really well , lays onthe spool well and, is 'abrasionresistant'. Oops, did I say this wasgoing to be easy? In fact, finding al l

of these qualities in 1 l ine is nighon impossible. What to do? Well ,it's best to make the compromisesin your favour taking intoconsideration where you fish andthe level, the 'true' level of yourabil ity. We've all gotta startsomewhere eh ?

I use all types of l ines for HRFwrasse from 8 strand, 4 strand andstraight through fluorocarbon lines.I would suggest that you start witha decent 4 strand l ine l ike powerpro at 20lb in moss green or, l ikesome prefer, a coloured finish l ikeyellow.

I f going the straight throughfluorocarbon route which, to start, icannot recommend due to it'sspecial handling qualities, at leastchoose a good one. Choose onethat isn't too heavy and too stiff but,don't choose a hybrid one or onethat is too soft. Both braid andfluorocarbon are going to be shownsome very rough ground in yourfishing so, be aware that l ines wil labrade, they wil l fai l , you wil l breakoff with high frequency.

A few forward thinking dealers aresupplying HRF tackle in GreatBritain and a good majority haveadvertised within these pages.They are sourcing the real dealfrom the far east and from personalexperience, the stuff making it overis pretty good. Proper PE fixedspool reels are, at last, starting tomake an appearance.

10

Only use, what you can truly affordto use. As we have suggested, HRFcan be end tackle heavy from aconsumable perspective. Look atmaking your own jigheads and softlures as many have done beforeyou. There is a starter article on softplastics further along in this mag.

Use a good leader but, if using a20lb braid, use a 1 6, or an 1 8lb

leader of 'high quality' fluorocarbon.I f you get it snagged, rub it overrocks, or finish for the day. . .change it. Don't skimp, you'l l besorry. I prefer a much longer leaderof around 6 - 9ft for boulderprotection but, we'l l discussspecifics later because, not al lfluorocarbons are equal and werequire different properties in aleader as opposed to a mainl ine.

Fluorocarbon does transmit bites well, even when slack. It 'is' heavy,so it's best reserved for really close range boulder or ledge work. I

use it on a small baitcaster.

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12

Before we move on, pleaseunderstand that wrasse have beencaught on lures prior to HRF.

However, not usually on purposeand in fact, a much, much rarerevent than HRF wil l present to you.

The simple facts are, that, the moretime your lure is in the right place,the more chance you'l l have ofhooking one. In fact, I 'l l go so far asto say, if you don't hook up, you areeither. . . fishing the depths of winteras a beginner, fishing in the wrongplace or, you are sti l l contemplatinggoing and reading this, instead ofactual ly going fishing.

You can't catch anything if youdon't go fishing.

But, going fishing isn't the onlything. Why didn't you, we, al l , catchwrasse in their hoards before?Surely, they were there? Of coursethey were but, we were nottargeting them.

This is the difference. When hardlure fishing I might catch 6, maybe7 a season. Now, it's l ikely in thethousands. Serious ! Most aresmaller but, some exceed 5lb andbigger. Much, much bigger. Beunder no il lusions. A big wrasse, atclose quarters is a serious matchfor HRF gear.

A cracking 'spring' wrasse caught in heavy boulder ground.Fish like this aren't one a chuck but are now, a real soft lure target.

All year.

13

Spring, summer, autumn andwinter. No matter, the wrasse aresti l l a viable boat and shore targeton lures HRF style.

Sure, the methods change, habitschange. So does their environmentand the way they live and feed too.From where I 'm writing here in socalled 'sunny Jersey' we can seewinter conditions of 6 deg C watertemperature, and 1 5 meters of clearvisibi l i ty. Then, just as fast aswriting this, a storm rolls in with 9ftswells, heavy winds, rainwater run-off and suddenly, we are faced withcompletely different conditions barthe actual water temperature. So,armed with that, fish according towhat 'has' changed, not what

hasn't, regardless of how itaffects. . . 'you'.Fishing seems easier focusedaround the low water marks in thewinter whilst spring and summersees fish become incredibly activeat times as they fol low up the tidel ike soldier ants eating everything intheir path.

Locally, autumn is tough. Cuttlefishinvade our local waters and makeanything even remotely food-l ike atarget for our sepia friends.

Changing seasons, conditions, pre-spawn, actual spawning, postspawn are all indicators to dosomething different, not give up.

14

Another 'great' thing about HRFand associated LRF sport is thatunl ike other lure sports, it is great in'close proximity' to others. We'vehad numbers exceeding 25 guyswhere 'al l ' have caught fish.More often seen are three or fourHRF men combing the rockycoastl ine, pitching to cover, fl ippinglures between stones into l ikelyholes and clambering out ontopoints to find ledges that have bigwrasse lurking below.

All it takes is one cast. Well ,normally, three casts is usuallyenough to indicate whether of notthe fish are home. Bites come invarious forms. Tail nips, tap tap tap,or 'whack! '

Either way, if you have that rod inthe pitch cast position and youcontrol the l ine tension correctly,you'l l know when you get a bite.

Don't forget, HRF can be familyfishing too so get the kids involved.

Fun for all.

15

16

The straight debate.

Earl ier in 201 0 we noticed thatwrasse love lures that are sat onthe bottom and worked in very slowanimated motions.

The Megabass xlayer was the first'real ' lure that started the, straightlure for HRF wrasse movement but,even at Japanese prices, it wassoon discovered that price wasprohibitive when it came to wrasse.Not for tackle losses, no. This waspure and simple, the wrassedestroying any lure in seconds thatcame close. This 'spring' periodwas very costly with lures due to'the confidence factor'. Xlayerscaught wrasse. End of story.Everyone and his aunt neededthem.

I t didn't help that most of the bigwrasse in the 201 0 HRFcompetition were also caught onxlayers. everyone was using em.That was, unti l we discovered alure that equalled it.

The 'Gary Yamamoto Senko' was arevelation. Sure, I 'd used them forbass for a while but neverconsidered them as wrasse HRFammo. Wrasse love em. The 4"model is just about right to start youoff.

This year, 201 0 as I write this, hasalso seen many more peoplestarting to self pour soft plastics.I 've learned much from the manyposts and experiments that peoplehave shared on the JBG forumsand it is something we wil lourselves be adopting for 2011 .

Straight, or dead-stick (see laterpages) and slow, carefulanimations of the lure aren't theonly way. When combing waterfast, or the water is clear, or there isa swell running and you can't holdthe bottom with a straight and areasonable amount of weight, weuse search pattern lures. Thesepaddle tai ls or 'shads' are the samebasic design. The shad fishing lureis designed to mimic the swimmingmotion and profi le of the freshwatershad.

17

Green wrasse are a locally sought

after favourite. Here, Kevin sports a

fine 'green' specimen.

This small boulder field has produced BIG fish.

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Cold, clear, hard. . . This clarity of water often meanssearching for active fish or getting extremely close tocover. With wrasse in mind, that means boulders,hard reef, ledges, whitewater, weed and swell toname just a few.

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Fishing for wrasse with soft lures,j ig heads or other methods wil lrequire 'thinking outside of thenorm'. You know, the old 'castingto the horizon' syndrome reallyhas l ittle place in HRF wrasseunless using 'search pattern'techniques.

Most often, you'l l be underhandcasting using a 'pitch cast', or a'fl ip cast'. Both have their ownbest scenarios. Overhead castingis best left for throwing smallpaddle tai led lures in heavierground swells or very clear, brightwater and on those days whenthey just aren't close in. The latterisn't al l that often.

Working to rocks a few rodlengths out is 'pitch cast' territory.However, working along a ledge,or a heavy boulder set with holesright, left, and centre is 'fl ip cast'ground. In the first case, the pitch,you have the bail arm 'off' andmake control led, accurate casts tovery tight spots. Fl ipping is superclose range with the bail 'on' anddrag 'set'. This is for droppinglures real tight and gettingsmashed on the drop as the lurefinds it's way through the cover.You've gotta be ready, or pay theultimate price.

Under Cover.

If they wont come to you. . .go to them.

21

Senkosorsenkocopiesare

standard

HRF

wrassefodder.

22

Dave Watson with a beautiful wrasse.Taken at a time late in the year when many have simply. . . .

given up.

Senko

23Left click me to view BIG.

24

Up the creek but...

I've got a paddle.

As we discussed earl ier, wrassearen't always on the bottom and,even if they are, things l ike surgingground swells can make presentinga HRF lure, very difficult.

Enter the 'paddle tai l '.

You can fish these in sizes from 2"through 5" but, the bigger the lureand, the bigger the tai l , the morechance you have of getting a short,Manx cat style lure back. Wrasse'hate' paddle-tai ls. I l ike to fishthese lures on either weed-less j igheads or, footbal l open hookdesigned jig heads in ranges 1 /8oz

to 3/4oz. I f you use a heavierweight, the fal l rate changes and, I fyou do let it run into the bottom, itmakes itself known to the 'rockpigs'.

Many people cast and retrieve only.I feel this is a mistake. In shallowwater, one depth, big swell , sure. Inmulti tiered water columns withdrop off’s, ledges, boulders, etc. Il ike to 'buzz' the tai l with a sharpaction and then, let it fal l and bangbottom. At the very least, let itswing, or 'curve-fal l ' right underyour feet. Many big wrasse arecaught this way.

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ZOOM fluke tailed gobiesmounted on 'round', and'football' type jigheads.

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SS pplliittSShhoottRRiiggss..

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We've been using certain lures invery close proximity this past fewmonths with stunning results. Often,we throw lures into the smallestholes between boulders with fl ipcasts and wait, as the lure sinksslowly, into the hole.

Pitching into area's just that bitfurther away, often requires a bit ofadded weight and weed-lesspresentation. The lighter the weight,the slower the fal l and the 'less' itaffects' the 'way' it fal ls. Yes, evenfor wrasse. . . , the way it fal ls canmatter.

So, we quite simply use 'spl it shot'pinched lightly on the l ine at variousranges away from the hook which isinvariably, an offset design or, a'pegged' straight shank. in bothcases, the hook should be withinthe 'one quarter' to 'one third'distance away from the front of thelure.

Wrasse are 'biters'. They wil lphysical ly bite, with teeth, at thelure and this can be the cause ofmany missed bites if the anglerrushes or, is unlucky. Wrasse canquite simply, chop a lure in two inone 'munch'.

I f you getting rapid bites, get theweight (the split shot), on the noseof the lure and let it fal l quickly. IFthe bites are tentative or fish seemneutral, try moving the shot away afew inches or maybe even a foot.The shot then hits bottom first andthe lure, well that, free-fal ls after it.You can use this in many situationswhere the shot taps bottom but, thehook and lure, sti l l fal l ing, neveractual ly make bottom contact. thisis useful in very snaggy rock typesand in area's covered with weed ofdissimilar height.

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The concentration of the HRFangler. Keep that rod / l ine angleclose to 90°.

You should find similar area's ofheavy boulder or broken manmade structure.

With a balanced outfit, holdingthe rod for long periods l ike thisis made far easier. Not only doyou get the 'best' take detectionfor a variety of methods, you getthe best fighting angle andcushion against bolting pigs.

However. . .

I f fishing really close amongstthe heavy boulders, I 'd lower theangle to between 35° and 45°.The moment that big fish hits,al l hel l breaks loose. I f you don'tstop em, it's over. That 90°angle between rod tip and luremight give the best bitedetection but, it places the'maximum' amount of torque onthe angler. This is why, big pigfishing is so initial ly violent.Have that drag set !

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Flippin' n pitchin'

Two simple 'underhand' casts forfishing real close proximity, downand dirty, structure and cover.Pitching and fl ipping' can be donewith fixed spools or small bait-casters and can place lures 'farmore' accurately and quietly thanconventional overhead casting.

There are 'other' useful casts butthese two are worth learning.

Pitching sees you hold the lure atabout rods length in your 'non rod'hand. You put a l ittle tension on thetip, hold the rod horizontal ly and 'l ift'smoothly. You simultaneously letgo of the lure and away it fl ies.

Great cast for getting lures upagainst rocks, walls etc.

Fl ipping is different. I t can be 'ultraquiet' and, with the standard 7-8ftHRF rod it's useful range is about2.5 rod lengths in shallow water andless, the deeper it gets. However, itis a special cast than that drop luresright on top of fish without spookingthem, and, your bail is over alreadyin case you get hit on the fal l . Thecast is similar to the pitch but for thefact that l ine control passes to theleft hand.

We'l l cover these casts and more infuture issues.

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Hotspotting

Hot spotting lures is another USthing. We suffered loads of shortstrikes earl ier in the year and, wealso noticed a definite differencewith the use of 'colour' for Wrasse.

Enter the 'spike it pen'.

You can buy these in variouscolours and various 'scents' too. Ido 'not' recommend 'garl ic'. Youmay enjoy different mileage, butme, in my experience, wrasse aresimilar to vampires in thatthey. . .hate the stuff.

Hot spotting is the use of colourand scent. I t can be either or both.I would recommend the use of thehook area for application as in ourextensive trials, it does draw theinitial strike or 'bite' closer to thehook. Green 'craw-fish' seems tobe quite well received in ourwaters locally.

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A look at colour.

Does colour matter ?Well , for many years,colour has been 'low' onthe priority l ist when it hascome down to our bassfishing. Sure, generalcolour patterns have beenfol lowed but with wrasse,it's different. Verydifferent.Much depends on thewater clarity but, there arecertain colours that seemto trigger wrasse unlikemy experiences withbass.Main colours in clearwater have been purple,watermelon and pumpkin.However, do someexperimentation because,often you can get a strikeor two on a wrasse in aparticular hole andthen. . . it goes quiet. Withbass, you rarely get thechance to show the

'same' fish, a new colour.I f you are 'buddied' upwith a group or a mate,get them to pitch to thepig. You'l l be surprised atjust how effective a colourchange can be.

Unless you are alreadyon 'the preferred colourpattern', start on arotation of dark to l ightand work the colourwheel.Make adjustments to suitcoloured waters. I findpink or jet black/ bluegood in coloured waterand we'l l make use of arattle. We wil l cover thisfurther in coming issues.

39

Zinging (touch and scoot).

Sometimes fish are more active. Inthe spring and early summer, fishcan be in droves, l ined up ready torun the incoming tides over fairlybare hard reef and boulders.

Of course, the prize is the weedladen traps at the top of the tideand the high tide hideaways inholes under larger near shorel inestructure. Wrasse seem to move incolonies and, there seems to be ahierarchy to it. Better fish get betterholes.

So, these fish are active and whilstthe usual 'dead and shake' orpaddle searches can of coursework, faster 'zinging' can produceVIOLENT ! strikes and well hookedfish that take some holding on to.This can happen at extremely closerange too so be ready.

40

**

Curve-fall: The act of casting, takingup the slack and letting the jig orlure swing around the fixed point

that is your rod tip.

Free-fall: Basically, the lure hits thewater and you 'feed it line' in a

controlled fashion. This ensures anear straight down trajectory but,

you can 'feel' interceptions.

So, what is zinging?

Zinging means bouncingsomething, off of something else.We like football heads for this styleand in particular, the 'Owner footballstyle j ig heads' that have goodweight, but small , yet strong openhooks. This is opportunity fishing soopen style hooks have a betterchance of connecting solidly withfast biting and snatching wrasse.

Cast, let it sink curve fal l ( ** seefootnote) so you feel it hit thebottom and then, fl ick the rod tipand make up the slack reallyquickly to feel the j ig remakecontact with the bottom. Move thejig immediately, do not let upregardless of whether or not youfeel initial taps.

Touch the rocks and scoot the lureand jig head 'away'. You don't wantlong hops across bottom. Short butsweet is best. You'l l soon figure thetype of ground and circumstancesbest suited to this approach.

41

Paul B with a super reef 'rockfish'.

This photo is deceptive. You could easily lose a small car in there.

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Drop Shot

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The future ofdirect drivesalt-water HRF

44

In the water HRF (Skish)

Yes, actual ly 'in the water'with rod, reel and fish. Thisis 'skishing'. Created byPaul Melnyk in 2005 overin the USA for 'striped bass'simply to evade thecrowds. We took itconsiderably further to usefast currents to take us onround trips covering manymiles. All without a boat ofcourse. We owe a hugedebt to our dive consultantChris Isaacs for many ofthe more 'extreme' runs.

We fish l ike this for basstoo, in the dark but, forwrasse, we use the silentrunning approach to creepclose up on the reef andother structures and coversboats and kayaks dare noteven consider.

45

We use Van Staal VS 1 00 bail-lessreels, Tenyru rods (have withstood2 ful l seasons usage underwater),PE 1 .2 through PE1 .5 braids, 7mm2 pc wetsuits, long free divers fins,wrist compass, special ly designedlure bags and carriers, boga-grips,salt proof pl iers, etc.

Everything gets wet, end of story.You don't want anything other thanthe car keys and your phone in adry bag because, your position inthe water is rel iant upon positioningeverything around your body insuch a way that, a natural balanceis attained at rest.

We often travel many hundreds ofmeters without a fin stroke. We usethe tidal currents, timed toperfection to get us, to the 'rim'. Onour SE, SW and NW coastl ines,Jersey has incredible shallow reef

structures that have fast waterpushing through them.We fish the fast water for the bassbut travel the veins to reach thearteries and ultimately, the heart ofthe HRF fishing 'out there'.

Big wrasse fight dirty, not so badwhen on land. Take that fight out tothe middle of the sea, nothing tobrace against, fish pul l ing l ike atrain, you are kicking l ike a mule inriposte to the wrasses everymove. . . .

That is HRF daytime skishing. Theultimate HRF wrassing experience.

Strange yet true. .

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Boat.

Alan Aubert with a lovely big pig ofover 5lb.

50

From being a hard lure angler a fewyears ago I have given up keepingthem in my tackle box. I have noneed for them, I know it is a matterof personal choice but having takenhundreds of Bass from my boat thisyear including double figure fish Ican see little point in reverting backto hard lures.Currently my favourite method isusing a home-made paddle-tai l softplastic on an 8gm jig head, 1 5lbbraid and 1 5lb fluorocarbon leaderfished over or near to reefs androcks. Fished as slow as possiblewith the occasional wrist movementimparts enough action into the lureto encourage the fish to bite.We normally have two rods set upeach with a different coloured lureof type of lure to see what catchesthat day, some days it can be thepearl coloured ones that work thebest whilst the fol lowing day couldbe the bright green ones. Keepexperimenting as you wil l alwayslearn, look at new methods do notdismiss them, look at old methodsthat have gone out of favour assometimes they can be adaptedwith modern techniques. My biggesttip is get to know the area you fishbuild up a picture of when fish are

caught, tides, lures used etc. Wecan move from reef to reef on someoccasions know that fish wil l bethere for only a specific time. Thereare some off shore reefs I intend totry , that wil l only fish one hour afterhigh tide. I t is that specific, also tryareas which you would not give asecond look at, as sometimes theseplaces can hold fish.I found that I do not know as muchas one thinks. Having been takenout on a LRF trip with the Whitebrothers has given me a lot to thinkabout during the next Bass season.How to adopt the methods learnt onthe shore to the rigours of boatfishing. We are already movingaway from paddle-tai ls to other softplastics such as senko worms andif I persist with LRF during thewinter it should be an exciting time.

Soft Plastics from Boats

Article by

Alan Aubert.

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Kayak Fishing HRF

I t’s no secret, HRF kayak fishing forwrasse is extremely effective.Catch rates and numbers confirmthis and to be honest exceed allexpectations for 201 0. Rememberthis is the first year we're actual lytargeting these fish on lures and tobe more specific, soft plastics.

What makes kayak fishing soeffective then? There are a numberof reasons which spring to mind butmost important of al l is location.Wrasse love structure, rocky roughground and kelp covered areas.Sometimes these marks are notaccessible to the shore angler andat times not even by boat. Think ofcl iff marks, deep rocky groynes oroff shore marks, pure habitat forwrasse but not accessible by shore.These are the areas to target

wrasse by kayaks, marks that haveprobably never been fished before! !

No precise casting is required butmostly straight up and downfishing. Well , not always due towind and tide but its not a bad thingand actual ly al lows to cover moreground. Wrasse seem to live in

colonies and also specific areasand the more ground coveredresults in more fish. Find thesepods of fish. Most pods consist ofsmall fish but there’s always aspecimen lurking with intent. Ialways fol low my rule “if you catchone you can catch two” and in factcaught 3 dozen fish in lateNovember on two marks no furtherthan 30 metres apart but thesurrounding area almost devoid offish.

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Article by Stephen Olsen.

As far as tackle goes it's standardHRF tackle really. A 7 foot quicktaper rod, l ight in the tip with a bit ofback bone down the bottom with a2000 or 3000 fixed spool reel. I fcasting is required I tend to use 20lbs braid but for straight up anddown in the super rough I tend tofavour 20 lbs fire l ine. Now 20 lbsmight seem OTT but trust mepound for pound wrasse in shallowrocky structure have few equalsand need to be bull ied quickly toget them off the bottom and out of

the rough or suffer theconsequences.1 0 gram jig headsround or football work best on thedrift to hold bottom with a shorttrace line of 20 lbs joined by a smallswivel to the main l ine.

Soft plastics lures. Well now, to behonest wrasse just don’t favour anyone soft plastic lure but I wil l leaveyou with this, my PB was caught ona purple jel ly worm cut down to 4”long.

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I f it ain't raining...

PART 1

Hand Pouring

Why hand pour when you can buyready made soft plastics by thebucketful? Well , there are a numberof reasons. The excitement ofcatching fish on lures you havemade yourself, and the abil ity toalter the colour design to fish yourparticular area. The final plus wouldbe the abil ity to recycle old lures,especial ly if you are fishing forwrasse that wil l often leave you withhalf a soft plastic on the hook.I am fairly new to hand pouring butwas determined to have a go.Hence, I started off with the basicsa couple of pyrex measuring jugs tomelt the plastic in a microwave.RTV plastic to make a mould, somecolouring and glitter to colour thelures and, I nearly forgot the plasticitself.Having designed your lure out ofmodell ing clay or plasticine, theyshould be glued to the base of a

metal tray, or sandwich box, andthe RTV solution well mixed withthe hardener. This should bepoured slowly around the lures unti lwell covered and the mouldal lowed to set.

Once set, remove the mould andtidy the mould up if required. Poursome plastic into the pyrex jug, addsome colourant and glitter to suityour needs. I heat the plastic fortwo minutes on high then give it astir and continue to heat on 1 5second bursts unti l the plastic isready to pour. Make sure you haveyour hands and arms covered asthe plastic can be extremely hot.Then, it is a quick pour into themoulds and allow the plastic to coolfor a few minutes before removing.and placing in some cold water toharden off. I do not use scents buta lot of people do.

Alan Aubert.

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Where next ?

Well, this brings you to the end ofthis concise, but obviously, notcomplete journey. There is so muchmore to discover. I f I 'd haveattempted to put every technique,every lure type, and all the tackle,types of water and conditions thatwe have fished to date, here, in thisguide. . .

Well then, you'd sti l l have a fewhundred pages left to read. HRFwrasse is a growing, emergingforce. We are fishing for a fish thathas a very good geographical rangeright around the British Islands and

I 'm certain, something l ike fivespecies are available to us all .

There are boundless techniques,carol ina rigs, stoopid rigging, wackyrigging, weightless rigging, texasstyles, offset hook types and much,much more that is impossible tocover in a 'teaser' guide l ike this.The goal here was to throw somelight on the subject in a way thatisn't too technical or bloated. Yet,you see, to cover even the veryselect methods and just giving an'overview' has taken a sixty pluspage online-mag.

57

CCaasstttthhaatt''JJiigg'',,ffeeeelltthhee

''PPiigg''..

Further reading available on http://www.jerseybassguides.com and it'sassociated registered only forums on

http://www.jerseybassguides.com/rockfishing/index.php

Enjoy the Jerseybassguides experience.

Only two years ago, this bookletwouldn't have even been aconcept. Now, it's a reality. Quitesimply, HRF wrasse fishing is asport in it's own right. Take awaythe bass for many people and thefact is, their whole lure fishing worldcollapses. The bass are a muchpressured fish, chased by us and ofcourse, anyone and everyone whois looking to make a quick buck. I tis 'unsustainable' and sooner,rather than later, I 'm afraid we'l l al lpay a terrible price but, sadly, notas expensive as the speciesthemselves.

Wrasse are a much moresustainable prospect. They are nota l imitless resource but, they are

abundant, not a commercial lypressured 'food fish' and they fightl ike crazy.

Give HRF wrassing a chance andI 'l l bet you'l l never look back.

Go one to one with your fish.

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Contribution.

Future issues wil l include soft lureHRF for 'bass', LRF (winter game)and more. These wil l fol low the firstrelease some time after. I say'some time' because, the work inthis is 'vast'.

however. . .

This wil l soon become, a bi-monthly series to include catchreport articles, lure and gearreviews, how-to's, hi-res images, acrossword, a competition, acartoon strip, the works. . . and, I 'mlooking for contributions fromcertain fields. . .

I wil l need, 'clear', ful l size digitalimages of lures, fish, people,scenery(not specific marks, becareful) emailed to me. Three perarticle at least.I wil l 'require' either plain text, worddoc or even better, open-office odtformatted text of a few hundred

words. I f you fi l l a ful l A4, that’sfine, but, no more unless it'srelevant.

I want stuff from 'al l levels' and 'al langles'.

IF you are interested in becoming a'one time' or 'ful l time' contributor,PM me or email me asap. Thestandard needs to be 'high' but weare all learning.

I f you have good material thatmight appear in a future plannedissue, email me a nice article andprovide images. Both as describedabove.

Prospective advertisers need tocontact me for detai ls.

Thanks.The Rock-fish fi les(publishing team).

What are the pictures of the 'Pigs'all about ?

A 'commonly' used fishing slang.People often refer to big or hard

fighting fish as 'pigs'.This isn't a nasty reference to

these fine fish, more a 'pet name'.if you don't like it, don't use it.

Simples.

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60

"The sun may rise in the East, but it sets in the West."Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson)

Shanghai Noon.

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Open source software: Scribus, Inkscape and Gimp.Article contributors: Alan Aubert and Stephen Olsen

Photo's by Keith White, Kevin White, Paul B and Patrick CaseySVG graphics courtesy of www.openclipart.org otherwise by Keith WhiteProof readers: Dave Fitzpatrick, graham_hk, Tom Laws and Mike Sullivan.

Friendly, constructive critique by Henry GilbeyFormat inspired by 'The Surfcasters Journal' and Zeno Hromin.

Thanks to everyone involved. A big job, but worth it I think.

Credits.

Coming soonThe Rockfish Files (LRF) Light Rock Fish.