Recently I have been introduced to Moilx soft plastic lures by a friend Steven Neely and also owner of the awesome “Fish on Lures” online tackle shop. Particularly the Molix Sligozzo 4″, now this one has certainly stood out to me. The first thing you take note of when checking out a new lure is the look of it, and when im thinking wrasse lure I want it to stand out from the crowd. I want something special to straight away say dare to pick me! And that’s what it did when I first saw this lure on Stevens site. He had been banging on about this lure for a while now telling me and showing me the pictures of awesome fish he was nailing on it, so I was certainly excited to get my hands on them.

When the parcel arrived I couldn’t wait to check them out and have a close look and a feel of them. Straight away from picking one up you can tell that its going to really move and flap in the water. The lure starts of with a short thick body in a sort of egg shape, which has ridges all the way down. It then tapers of into this big flappy beaver tail. On my first trip with the lures it was my first time out for a month, so I was just hoping there were some decent number of fish about for me to have some sport with. I rigged the Sligozzo initially on a texas rig with a 10g cone weight, but also adopted the Jika rig at points as well. Almost immediately i’m getting knocks on the lure so I know there’s fish about. And a few casts later I nail my first on the Sligozzo, always a great feeling hitting fish on new lures.

As I said the Sligozzo is a 4″ lure and the colour I have is called “Green Pumpkin” a great colour for me as I always tend to stick to neutral, natural colour. Steven has recently got the a new colour in stock in the last few days called “Blu Notte” something I’m very keen to get my hands on. It also has a craw fish scent impregnated into it, now a week ago I would not have been fussed by this. After my recent sessions though I think I had some pretty conclusive evidence that the scent on a lure can really make the difference when fishing in rougher conditions or if the visibility is not great. The tail alone on this lure has enough movement in it to warrant having it. I’ve been tending to fish the Sligozzo on a fairly slow retrieve keeping in good contact with the bottom then every now and then a few good twitches to really lift it of the bottom then let it sink back down. My thinking on the retrieve is that as I’m slowly retrieving in contact with the deck all the ridges on the main body are rubbing over the rocks and slapping together sending of good vibrations. Then twitch to pull the lure from the bottom and when it falls back down that tail is going to be flapping like hell as it sinks. And then finally when I allow the lure to hit the bottom and sit for a second that’s when I’ve been getting smashed, that and also when I just start my retrieve again.

I’ve used this single lure a lot over the past months to try to work it out and see if it’s a lure I’m going to want to have with me at all times wrassing. I must say it’s certainly worked for it’s place beside my already tried and tested lures. Something I’ve noticed with this lure is that sometimes when fishing and bites might dry up or I’m struggling to find fish, on goes the Sligozzo and wallop I’m getting smashed. It also somehow manages to evoke good hits as well, if you wrasse fish a lot you will know that sometimes they can just be a pain and be really picky and finicky. If I find this is the case I’ve pulled out the Sligozzo and it just seems to turn the fish on that more, I start getting the unmistakable smash and run we all love from wrasse. Also over the past few months I’ve been struggling for any decent size to my fish, but a couple of weeks back I nailed 3 good-sized fish in one session and they all fell to the Sligozzo.

A lot of lures that you will use for wrassing (apart from one brand) will eventually sooner or later get trashed, this is just part of the game. I have to say this Material that Molix are using for their lures seem to be that little bit more durable than other plastics I have used, which is a big deal for the wrasse. Ok so they are not wrasse proof, and on the Sligozzo yes it gets quite a slim on the tail end. This can make it a little less resistant to plucking wrasse, but on the other hand it is that thinner tail that gives the lure that extra defined movement so for me it’s certainly something I can live with. Plus a little tip, if your lucky enough to get your hands on some of these lures and you do have a wrasse nip the back-end of the lure off, don’t stop. I pulled up a Sligozzo lure with half the body missing, and it went straight back into the drink and carried on fishing with it. This time just a straight slow retrieve with nothing more. I managed to pull 3 wrasse out on that half lure and I can bet it thanks to those big ridges all over the main body.

So as you can tell even for a few months use of this lure I’m a pretty happy lad. And I shall certainly be stocking them in my bag for next year and hopefully nailing myself a 5lb+ donkey.

Visit www.fishonlures.co.uk and check them out so your ready for when the wrasse are hitting hard.

Over the past few months I’ve been really targeting wrasse, a species I’ve really come to enjoy fishing for due to the great ability to put a bend in the rod. To be honest the weather we have had has not exactly been ideal, and at times has been more the conditions for bass. The problem is though that when you have been catching wrasse and you know they are there its really hard to not try for them. Especially when its deep dark winter and the thought of nailing anything on a lure is a huge thrill. It’s been far from frantic action and there has been a couple blanks when the weather is seriously crappy, but I’ve been getting them slowly and steadily. Also the average size has been slowly improving, ok I have not had any donkeys but plenty big enough for some good sport.

I’ve found that I’ve needed to move around a lot more to find them from different marks and to find the most suitable conditions. Also my whole approach has been slowed down. I’ve been using heavier weights to allow me to pin the lure to the bottom and really work the lure in and around all the holes. I’ve not really been imparting much movement into the lure either, just the odd twitch and letting the lure sit on the bottom still for a moment. Most of my fish have hit me just after starting to retrieve after a pause. I can only imagine that they see it pause so they go and investigate and as soon as it try’s to move off again they nail it. Also with all the fish I have been hooking its been different to what I would normally expect from a wrasse, usually you would always get some little tap that warns you that you’re about to get munched. Lately though there’s been nothing and then I have a fish hooked, no aggressive hit or sharp bite. It’s as if they are not hitting it aggressively rather just picking it up in their mouth and swimming off. That however doesn’t mean that when they realise they are hooked its a lame fight because for me they seem to be fighting as hard as they ever have. On the flip side when I have been getting bites and indicators that there are willing fish out there the bites are so small and finicky its impossible to hook. Whether this is maybe the smaller fish just messing around with the lures I don’t know but it can drive you crazy. I went out recently with a couple guys Keir and Mike over in Brixham and they both caught fish while I failed too. The frustrating part was that I knew there were fish there as they kept reminding me by gently knocking the lure once every half hour. Then right at the end of the day when I had a solid bite and hooked into something decent he cuts me clean of on a rock!

Another observation from these past months is that the fish that I am hooking have all been under my feet, for me I love catching them close in under the rod tip. You by far get the best fight out of them this way, its just a straight tug of war up and down. I find sometimes with wrasse hooked further out that after the first few pumps of the reel when the fish has been turned then its a case of the fish surfacing and you just dragging it along the surface. I must say the highlight of the past few months for me was a wrasse that smashed me right under my feet. The thing that makes this that bit better was the fact that I saw the fish nail the lure, now that’s something to put a smile on your face watching a soft plastics get nailed by a decent wrasse in early January. I was fishing a mark that had a habit of chucking up better sized fish right under your feet, ok the conditions were not great with a strong onshore breeze and a reasonable amount of swell to deal with but at least I had the clarity. No previous bites or interest and to be fair I was ready to move to the next mark, but I persisted with a few more casts. Just as I was pulling the lure up over the last ledge a wave started to break actually picking my lure up in the barrel where I could see it, next thing from right under the ledge a wrasse appears and smashes me. Now that is something to get the heart going, trying to keep that strong fresh fish up and away from the holes and then to land it in horrible waves and swell.

As far as lures go I have been using a select few that are tried and tested and certainly do the business. These being a selection of Z-man and Molix soft plastics, with my two favourites being the Molix Sligozzo and the Z-man Punch Crawz. Both these lures have caught me good fish and when times have been hard, they have always seemed to tempt that one more wrasse. As usual I have stuck with the neutral looking colours with greens, browns and bluey colours. One thing that of late has become apparent is that scented lures really are seeming to make a difference. I’ve never really paid much attention to scented lures or at least not bought them for that reason. After speaking to Keir when fishing with him he was saying that a lot of his wrasse had fallen to scented lures and his normal lures were not getting much attention. Now at first it didn’t really sink in for me to really think about but as the weather got worse and the clarity got worse I thought it might be worth a try just to experiment. I remember buying a packet of Z-man scented Pogeyz a while back and never really using them so I dug them out and took them along with me on a wrassing session last weekend. At first I used my usual lures changing between a good few with absolutely nothing, no bites. So with nothing to lose I rigged up a Z-man Pogeyz on a 10g Texas rig and started fishing, at first there was nothing so it got me thinking the scent might not really affect the fishing but then I got smashed by a nice size wrasse at my feet. Well, that certainly got my attention and I continued fishing. I was moving about between marks a bit always starting with my standard unscented lures. When I had tried all I could I  put on the scented lure and not long after I was into a fish. I only had 4 in total but all fell to the scented Z-man Pogeyz, and I only put that lure on after I had tried with all my standard lures first. So for me that is some pretty conclusive evidence that in this bad weather with bad visibility the scent on a lure really can make that difference between blanking and catching.