JINGLE BELLS = SAVAGE ATTACKS!

Again I must apologise for the distinct lack of new posts, work really does get in the way of fishing and having fun doesnt it!!!!!!!!


I have managed to get out only a couple of times recently albeit only very short half hour or 1 hour sessions trying a few new ideas and lures. Last night due to fog descending and causing flights to be cancelled I decided to nip out to a mark that I havent fished since I was knee high to a grass hopper and is only a 4 minute walk from my front door. It looked ''fishy'' with plenty of boulders and weed beds with some sand in between and with a flooding tide meant that I could see a few wrasse in the shallow water under my feet. Why have I only just remembered this place???? 
I started off using my usual go to lures but could see the wrasse were only following the lure and not being that interested. I was scratching my head but then remembered a conversation I had with Henry whilst he was over not long ago and after a rummage through my tackle box found what we were discussing. Wrasse are or certainly can be quite aggressive sometimes when you fish a lure such as an x-slayer because they have a built in rattle. Now being a tight fisted old sod I wont pay the daft money that x-slayers cost and always look for a bargain or two. I must admit that I like the sound of adding a rattle to the lures but am not that keen on using glass ones no matter how small as am sure that they could damage a fish were they to swallow them. So we looked on ebay and found some small 6mm jingle bells which looked fantastic. Nice and small that would make an awesome sound underwater when the cone weight knocked into it. Also they would rust in next to no time and thus not hurt the fish were they to swallow one and snap me off!

I cut off the hook, and added  one of the jingle bells and re-tied it all. A flick out to where I had seen the wrasse in the shallows and twitched the lure back on the spot for a second or two then BANG! A wrasse hit the lure very hard and caught me by surprise so I missed it. I twitched the lure back, it had only moved a couple of inches when the wrasse hit hard again and this time I was ready. After a brief but spirited scrap a nice fish on nearly 4lbs came to the rock.

I was using a funky lure that Monster Tackle had sent called a Molix Sligozzo. It has a nice big fat body that looks like it can handle being on the receiving end of an angry wrasse's hardware and a tail that will entice a bite or two as it flutters.

I had a few more casts with this lure before chopping and changing to see if it was the jingle bell or indeed the lure that was doing the business. I went for a small crawfish pattern from jackslrf and kept on the jingle bell. First chuck and as it was an imitation crawfish I decided to slow down the retrieve and twitching and see how it behaved. Well I hadnt moved the lure 2 feet before it was nailed again really hard (some sort of pattern forming here) and another fiesty wrasse was hooked. This pattern continued with several fish up to just under 5lbs.

They were certainly liking the crawfish pattern and the rattling from the red bell above it!!!! So I decided to take off the bell and just fish the lures to see how it compared. I still got bites and fish but they were no where near as aggressive in their initial bite or take so a change was on again with a different lure.


This time I started without a bell and put on a Mini Flipping Craw. First couple of chucks and wrasse tentatively took the lure and of only a couple of pounds but as soon as the bell was on again then the takes were far more aggressive and the stamp of fish was better too!!

Finally I put on a Junebug Senko and again the same conclusion, without the rattle, small tentative takes and with it,  far more savage and aggressive reactions.

Further proof that on quieter days it pays to experiment and try different lures, colours and also get yourself a rattle or two. It certainly paid off today and it was obvious that the fish were far more likely to attack the lure when I had the bell on the line as opposed to without it! Proves that its good to learn something new each day....