Baillon's Wrasse (Crenilabrus bailloni)

[Mike Fox]

Has anyone seen one of these before?

 

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=9186

 

Two were caught on Poole Outer Patch in our species comp (by the opposition), and I'd never even heard of them. Frankly, I thought it was a pink-finned Ballen Wrasse, but Rich put me right - they catch a few in species comps down at Weymouth.

 

Mike

Edited June 7, 2008 by Mike Fox

[petesnr]

Judging by the photo they are commonly found in the mixed bag of wrasse species caught off places like Hengistbury Groyne or Weymouths Stone Pier.

Pete

[alun j.]

.....also says it's good to eat!!.....unlike 'common' wrasse

 

.... and not 'vunerable' [yet!]

 

[boybilly]

Mike, You will find that they are more common than people believe. As you have correctly said, most people think they are Ballan, or more often, Corkwing. We caught 5 yesterday on Strongbow. The more difficult species is the Rock Cook. This is almost identical to the Goldsinny, but has a black bar at the tail root. Sometimes this bar is very faint so making recognition very difficult. We have now changed some species comps to Ballan, Cuckoo, Corkwing and others. This stops I.D. problems. The same with Blennies and Gobies. The Poole Species comp is my highlight of the angling year, great comp. Nice to see a PBSBAC entering. How did you do? Regards, Billy