How to catch Exotic fish on lures in the UK!

August is the month that normally throws up a few exotic fish around the UK waters and this year is no exception. We have heard reports of an unusual species that as a Mediterranean fish that I am familiar with as well as some other fish that have reached UK waters. One of these species is silver fish aka  the Pompano(Trachinotus Ovatus). A very fun and delicious species, that with the right planning can be caught on light tackle and even lures. Pompano are fork tailed fish with a slender body able to swim and put up a good fight even on not so light tackle if they’re a good size.

Below is an image of a pompano caught of Chesil very recently.

 

What tackle do you need for this fish? Well, It does require some special attention and the lighter the better. Micro jigging with 5-7 gram jigs works very well on these fish since it has a small mouth and having these tiny jigs will enable the fish to mouth the hooks on it. If pompano are large like the picture they do also grow larger as well, you might be able to get away with a 10-15g jig. Silvery colors are great!

poppers also are great for catching these species… but not any popper! 3-5 cm ones work very well! Ultra light poppers have proven to be a formidable lure for such species!

Here are example images of the jigs lures you need:

Allblue Drager micro, 3-7 grams will work.

Small poppers in, 3cm and 4grams work very well.

 

 

if you do not own an ultra light setup then I have a trick for you, get your normal spoon or jig, remove all the hooks on it and tie on the back of it about 30cm far a small silicone Raglou using 0.22mm to 0.28mm mono or flourocarbon line. Anything from 3.5cm to 5cm would be great! sometimes this method catches a ton of other species as well!This is a raglou which works very well for many species too but it has shown that pompano cannot resist it. Best sizes are from 3.5cm till 8cm. Just tie it behind a jig or spoon that’s flashy and skip the spoon or skip it along the surface, pompano will chase it and eventually mouth the raglou behind it.

Raglou are quite similar to Eddystone eels, both lures are very successful for many other species, especially Bass and Pollock.

 

 

Other fish that wander into UK waters at this time of year are trigger fish and Couches Bream aka Red porgy.

 

Below is an image of a Trigger Fish(Balistes capriscus) and Red Porgy respectively(Pagrus pagrus).

 

 

Both of these species congregate around rocky bottoms, The best option to fish these out is also using metal jigs. I sure mention jigs a lot huh? Well, they just work so well for almost anything! However, since these like rocky bottoms… it’s a good idea to remove the hook on the back of the jig. Keeping on one assist hook only on the jig is more than enough to hook these up. Best jigs to use is slow jigs and normal jigs. Also worth noting since these are bottom species fish, it’s best to play your metal jig around the bottom rather than mid water and upper water columns.

These Jigs work well for both species.

 

 

 

Usually anything ranging from 10-30 grams depending on the size of the species present will be enough.

 

Thanks you.

 

Links:

ALLBLUE Drager micro

ALLBLUE Slow jig

Micro Popper

Raglou style silicone lures

Jigpara

Jigpara Slow