General fishing trips, My Way, Holyhead, North Wales

Our patch, the north west tip of Anglesey, has a vast amount of rock ledges and reef marks that become home to many species from the wrasse family. There are many types of wrasse around the world. In north Wales there are 5 main species - Ballan and Cuckoo the bigger family members, with the smaller corkwings, rock cook and goldsinny holding their own within species hunting circles. With the latter 2 being classed as a hard find, but species we seem to do fairly well with.

These hard fighting fish, off some excellent sport for all angler. Drifting for wrasse, is a firm favourite with us and a style of fishing that we enjoy on a regular basis.

Tides & Times
A good days wrasse fishing can be achieved on all of the our tidal range - 23ft right through to a big 34' . Where as the larger tides may stop us fishing some of the reefs a couple miles off, wrasse can still be found underneath the mountainous cliff tops that over look some of our more productive inshore marks. The wrasse fishing tends to come alive from mid April and can last right through until the end of October, when numbers start to decline as the colder weather takes grip. I would suggest that the most productive times from June onwards.

Rods
Wrasse hit hard and fight hard. As soon as they have your bait in the mouth, it's off they go, as quick as they can swim to the safety of the nearest kelp bed or rocky crevice. A softer action rod will help cushion the initial attack of the wrasse, and allow you time to hook and play the fish instead of losing it. Wrasse can give you an extremely powerful and courageous fight. They hit hard, and twist and turn all the way, in their struggle as they ascend to the surface of the water.

	To get the most of your wrasse fishing your rod choice needs to allow for this. If worried about your rod, fear not, we have plenty of quality rods and reels aboard My Way for your use, free of charge, if required.

	Rig Choice, Weights & Bait
	Ragworm is the main bait. Either head hooked, or 1inch pieces threaded up the hook, leaving only a small trailing tail. I have found that around the country various attractors beads often help to entice the wrasse to your hooks. Depending on where you fish and the surrounding kelp etc the wrasse can be attracted to - yellow's, red's, silver or quite often luminous beads.
	Trial and error with various rig beads will soon help your wrasse fishing improve. Holyhead wrasse tend to favour yellow attractor beads.
	Weights for the drifting can range from 2oz to 8oz, depending on tide and area being fished.