Sunrise on the Coast of Death

Monday morning just before sunrise Marcos and I arrived at the coast near a town called Malpica. We had decided to take advantage of the slightly calmer weather to do some spinning, a decision that’ll take a few weeks to forget. 

As I said the weather was slightly better than that we’d been having, and approaching in the next few days according to the weather reports. It seems winter has returned and returned with vengeance. This coast is the “Coast of Death” because of the treacherous seas and steep and jugged rock formations. 

We parked the car as near as possible but this was still a good 300 feet above sea level and a mile walk down to the rocks. We got changed, set up and set off down the cliff to perch ourselves on our chosen fishing spots. The first hour and a half went by fine, nothing caught except a needle fish by Marcos, fairly calm seas and although we had a head wind we could just about cast a reasonable distance. 

Then as I was clambering over the rocks to find a different spot I slipped and fell. It hurt, it hurt a lot. I slightly twisted, banged and cut my left knee and cut my left hand. I had quickly let go of my rod and reel and luckily didn’t damage either one. Once I could move I thought the best thing to do was to climb back up to the car while the adrenaline was still rushing through me allowing me to limb along. 

The adrenaline ran out about half way up and I had to be helped the rest of the way by Marcos. After the car ride home when I tried to get out I could hardly walk but managed to hobble into my flat. Later that afternoon I had no choice but to visit the emergency ward where after some X-rays I was pleased to be told I hadn’t broken anything but did tear a ligament and that I needed to keep my weight of my leg for at least a couple of weeks. 

So there we have it. What can I say except be careful out there. I guess I’m getting old! I didn’t have the camera running at the time but I leave you a video and some pics of the scenery.

(Un)Happy Fishing

Little’un

Last night the sea calmed, a little more than I would have like (It’s never perfect!), the wind wasn’t as strong as the last few days and was blowing from the south which helps to cast lures in this area of the world. I got a phone call from Guillermo suggesting we went spinning with his mate “Fon” who has never caught a sea bass and is keen to do so. I wasn’t too enthralled as I would miss Dr. House on TV, but it didn’t take much persuasion to convince me to get my lures into my rucksack and set off to the rocks.

As I say, the sea was dead calm, too calm but it had been ages since I’d cast a lure into open sea what with learning to bait cast and the idea of catching a sea trout. The night was quite warm which made it very pleasant to be on the rocks in the dark night that is was without being cold or worrying about dangerous seas even if you can never let your guard down in this area of the Atlantic coast.

There didn’t seem to be much action at all with a good hour gone by without a single hit, but just as we were talking about leaving, because Fon had managed to get an all mighty tangle in his reel, this little bass decided that the Shimano lure looked good enough to eat. The hit came not two metres from the rocks that at first made me think I snagged on sea weed as the tide was extremely low, but in a tenth of a second it started its’ run trying to avoid being landed. I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity of having my picture taken with the star of this blog, and so it was. A quick picture and then released without harm as it was hooked nicely on the lip and was no hassle to unhook.

A pleasant evening and nice surprise for a rather early start in the season for me.

Fon (Alfonso) & Guillermo

The Star of the blog & yours truly

Happy Fishing

The First Catch of the Year

Welcome to my Monster!

It seems apt that the first post should also be the first catch of this 2012 which if you believe in prophesies is also the last year of life as we know it.

I was a fairly good boy last year and was rewarded with some Soft-Lures and I was also lucky enough to get a Go-Pro Hero submergible camera. The sea was rough, very rough with waves reaching 4 metres and hitting the coast like a high speed train, but I couldn’t wait to try both the lures and the camera.

I’d never fished with soft-lures and, as I said, the sea was rough so I headed to a harbour not five minutes away from home to get a feel of this fishing.

I took my Shimano Twin Power 5000 FB spinning reel and a spool loaded with Fireline XDS 0.16 mm braid line with about 2 metres of Seaguar Soft 0.33 mm leader attached by an Albright knot and finishing with a Rapala clip. A Linea Effe pure carbon 8’.6’’ (2.7 mt) Sea Bass 10 lb Italian Rod with SIC low rider guides.

The Soft-Lure: SavageAR (Savage-Gear) LB 10 cm with a 28 gr jig head (just over an ounce).

The technique can only be described as coast jigging. I Cast and allowed the lure to sink and then begun my jerky retrieval.

I wasn’t expecting a Sea Bass but thought a Pollack might be tempted, I was right. On the third cast I got my hit, but why so much explaining! Just watch the video!

Ok! I didn’t quite get the angle of the Go Pro Hero right but I've improved since then.

It’s a shame you can’t hear the sea raging on the other side of the barrier behind me!