More species hunting adventures on Lanzarote : Part 3.

After consuming a bit too much alcohol celebrating my epic light game bonito the night before we had a late start on the fifth day of our holiday. We decided to try a new mark and headed north to Costa Teguise where we found a small breakwater to fish from the end of. It had a large rusty sculpture at the end so we fished from the shade it provided. It was a fairly shallow spot with a sandy bottom so I was confident we might add a new species or two to our tally but it only seemed to hold one species, puffers. The amount we caught was quite frankly ridiculous and with not much else biting further out we decided to try fishing in very close amongst the boulders. Unsurprisingly this produced a few ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish but eventually we caught an emerald wrasse each as well.

A welcome change from pesky puffers!

I then spotted a red lipped blenny on a submerged rock but, as they usually do, it turned its nose up at my piece of angleworm. After a while I gave up pestering it and began dropping a split shot rig down deep dark cracks between the rocks. After a while my rig got snagged, or so I thought. Pulling it free it came up with a crab's claw on the hook so I used a rock to break it open and put the meat from inside onto my hook. Dropping this down into a big hole saw me catching a few ornate wrasse and then I caught something different which had me rather excited! My third new species of the trip and my first ever hairy blenny.

This one is a female. The males have a bright red head.

After I caught a second female hairy blenny, Nick had caught a solitary derbio and we got fed up of the puffers we decided to break for some lunch. Tasty tapas were enjoyed along with refreshing cold drinks but as it was the middle of the day rather than go fishing again we jumped back in the car and headed to Arrecife to do some Pokemon hunting from the comfort of our air conditioned hire car. As I did a tour of the city Nick scanned the area for his target. I think we were on maybe our third or forth lap when Nick suddenly shouted "STOP THE CAR!". Before I even had a chance to put the hazard lights on he was out of the car and heading off back the way we had just come. I don't know much about Pokemon but I could tell by his expression as I watching him jog back to the car in the passenger door mirror that he had caught it.

Corsola, the tropic region specific Pokemon Nick's son had asked him to catch.

Whilst driving around Pokemon hunting we had spotted some locals fishing so we decided to go back to where they were to see what they were fishing for. It turned out they were targeting mullet, using the usual crude method of a string of hooks in half a baguette so we decided to spend an hour or so fishing for them too. There were lots around so using a loaf of bread we had in the boot of the car and a little bit more finesse in our approach than the locals we had soon caught two types free lining small pieces of flake.

Most of the mullet were the thick lipped variety...

...with the odd golden grey in amongst them.

After we'd caught about a dozen mullet Nick sat under a tree to get out of the sun while I fished on for a bit. We'd seen some big bass coming up to inspect the mullet we'd managed to hook as they thrashed around and I was keen to try and catch one. I tried fishing small paddletails but I didn't have any luck  and when I returned to Nick he said he'd found the location of a nearby health centre and wanted to have the burns on his ankle looked at. A wise decision I thought so off we went. I thought we'd be there for a while but after producing his European Health Insurance Card and filling in a form Nick's burn was cleaned up and dressed after a wait of about only twenty minutes. Very impressed by the service provided we headed back to Puerta del Carmen for a break.

In the evening after something to eat we popped down to the small pier to the right of Playa Chica where we caught a few nice fish. I caught a few cleaver wrasse and Nick caught a few wide eyed flounder. Nick then hooked a nice fish that stayed deep and gave his drag a workout. Once he had played it out I went down onto the rocks at the end of the pier to land it for him. I recognised it as a drum but had to do some research back at the apartment later on to identify it as a shi drum.

A nice fish for Nick that gave a good account of itself.

As it got dark it started to rain and whist this was quite pleasantly cooling, with its arrival the action died off completely so we decided to have an early night with the intention of an early start the next morning.

Up before sunrise as planned we stayed local and headed along the back of Puerto del Carmen's harbour with our lure gear to try for bigger fish. We thrashed the water with various lures for about two hours with no reward. We did see another angler in a group along from us on the rocks catch a small bonito but apart from that nobody else caught anything. Later in the day, after Nick had visited the local health centre to have his dressing changed, we went up to Arrecife and headed out to the end of the long breakwater we'd fished from earlier in the trip. Keen to add more species to our tally we decided to fish small baits on our ultra light tackle. This approach saw us catching plenty of fish including our first combers of the trip.

Most combers were the common variety...

...but we both caught a single painted comber each too.

After a while we switched to our lure setups and began fishing a variety of lures to see if there were any larger predators around. Predictably this resulted in fairly large lizardfish attacking our jigs and paddletails.

This big atlantic lizardfish took a brightly coloured Savage Gear Sandeel fitted with a stinger.

Whilst I was reeling in a lizardfish that had taken a jig I spotted a large barracuda following it. At over a meter in length it was the biggest barracuda I've ever seen and I thought it was going to grab the hooked fish but as it got closer it lost interest, turned away and disappeared with a powerful burst of speed. It was quite exciting just seeing it. We carried on fishing for a while but when the Port Police pulled up and politely informed us and some locals who were fishing nearby that fishing wasn't permitted where we were, we apologised, quickly packed up and left, deciding just to call it a night and have a drink back at the apartment.

Our last full day had arrived and we were still keen to add a few more species to our tally. Having a think about what I'd caught the last time I visited the island but hadn't caught this time we formulated a plan and headed to the back of Puerto del Carmen harbour to a spot I though might produce a planehead filefish. After a few dozen puffers and ornate wrasse I managed to catch a few of them.

The planhead filefish is a rather funky fish.

After a while things slowed down and the all that was biting was puffers so we walked along the coast to the small pier to the right of Playa Chica again. Things were pretty quiet in the open sea there too so we turned our attention to some nearby rockpools where we had a bit of fun sight fishing for the super aggressive gobies and blennies.

There were dozens of these Madeira gobies on the bottom of the rockpools in plain sight.

The rockpool blennies were a little more timid but soon darted out of their hiding places when a piece of irresistible angleworm was dangled in their vicinity.

There's only so much fun you can have pestering gobies and blennies so we decided to try a new spot off of the rocks at the opposite side of the beach.

We hoped that this spot might produce something new.

It was relatively shallow and sandy area and with the wind at our backs we were able to cover a lot of water. Plenty of fish were biting and we soon caught a few greater weevers, lizardfish and this poor wide eyed flounder that a large lizardfish assaulted and swallowed as I reeled it in. The poor flatfish got regurgitated as I lifted its assailant out of the water.

Lizardfish snack.

The last fish of the session, or should I say the fish that ended the session, was a greater weever which, despite me carefully attempting to shake it off the hook without touching it, managed to flip itself up and sting my thumb, drawing blood. A tingling sensation soon became a gradually intensifying painful throbbing so we quickly packed up and headed off so I could seek treatment. Luckily we were near a restaurant that offered me first aid in the form of several cups of very hot water that I spent fifteen minutes holding my thumb in. Afterwards my thumb was rather numb but the sharp pain had gone so we headed back to the apartment for some (purely medicinal) alcoholic beverages.

The next day was our final on the island and as we had to be at the airport later that morning we didn't do any fishing. After packing up our stuff and checking out we had a couple of hours to kill so we went for a drive trough the volcanic landscapes of the island's Timanfaya National Park and then stopped off at the César Manrique Foundation on our way to the airport.

Examples of César Manrique's work can be found all over Lanzarote. This colourful metal sculpture is animated by the wind.

This piece of César Manrique art was obviously inspired by the islands volcanic origins.

  Manrique believed in the harmony of man and nature. A great example of his philosophy is this window in his home. It looks like the lava has poured in from outside through the glass.

Seeing a bit of the island's strange volcanic landscape and taking in a bit of culture was a nice relaxing way to end the trip and bring our adventure on Lanzarote to a close. I love that part of the world and leaving is always tinged with a little sadness but I'll be back soon for sure.

Farewell again Lanzarote.

It had been an fantastic trip and our species hunting had been a great success. Between us we caught thirty seven different species.

Here's a summary of what I caught, new species are in bold...

1. Annular Seabream
2. Atlantic Bonito
3. Atlantic Lizardfish
4. Axillary Seabream
5. Azores Damselfish 
6. Bass
7. Bermuda Sea Chub
8. Bogue
9. Canary Damselfish
10. Cardinalfish
11. Cleaver Wrasse/Pearly Razorfish
12. Common Comber
13. Common Pandora
14. Common Two Banded Seabream
15. Couch's Seabream
16. Diamond Lizardfish 
17. Emerald Wrasse
18. Gilthead Seabream
19. Golden Grey Mullet
20. Greater Weever
21. Guinean Puffer
22. Hairy Blenny
23. Macronesian Sharpmose Puffer
24. Madeira Goby
25. Madeira Rockfish
26. Ornate Wrasse 
27. Painted Comber
28. Planehead Filefish
29. Rockpool Blenny
30. Saddled Seabream
31. Striped Seabream
32. Thick Lipped Mullet
33. Wide Eyed Flounder

...here are the species Nick caught that I didn't...

34. Derbio
35. Shi Drum
36. White Seabream

...and I have to include the pesky Pokemon. A fair amount of time driving around Arrecife and a lot of money on mobile data were spent hunting for it.

37. Corsola

Overall we had a great time and obviously the highlight of the week for me was catching my first Atlantic bonito. On light game tackle it was an unforgettable, awesome experience that will really take some beating. Since returning my Rock Rover has been re-branded.

Cracking rod.

The trip wasn't without it's mishaps. Nick's sunburnt ankle and me being stung by a weever being the main two. These painful accidents are memorable all the same and memories is what it's all about at the end of the day. One thing we didn't do was take the ferry over to Lanzarote's northerly neighbour, La Graciosa. Maybe during a future visit to Lanzarote I'll make it over or perhaps La Graciosa warrants spending an entire holiday. Hmmm. There's a thought.

Tight lines, Scott.

Light game fun on Fuerteventura : Part 2.

By late afternoon on our first full day we were having a great time, had racked up an impressive species tally and had caught and released a lot of fish. We were also getting a bit sun burnt!

My first planehead filefish of the trip. They give a very good account of themselves on light game tackle. 

There were lots of small mullet around so I stole a chunk of bread from Nick's sandwich and caught a couple of them to find out which species they were. Turns out they were golden grey mullet. 

Casting further out I found a sandy area which resulted in a few greater weevers being caught. 

We also caught a few bigger painter comber. They don't fight very hard after a few initial head shakes. Still very pretty fish. 

Trying to tempt something larger I switched to a Gulp Sandworm on my drop shot rig. Holding it in a static position and giving it the odd twitch the smaller fish destroyed a few but eventually my rod bent over and a fish was stripping line after a solid take. An already battle scarred common pandora was eventually netted for me by Lee. 

This fish had obviously had a tough life with a fairly big chunk missing from its back. Evidence of a near death experience. 

Before heading home to survey our sunburn we popped to nearby Gran Tarajal where we had a few casts from the rocks at the back of its harbour's western breakwater. We caught a few more fish but things slowed down after the sun set and as we didn't have our head torches we called it a day. 

Casting out away from the rocks produced a few small white seabream. 

As light faded the ornate wrasse and damselfish became less active and the cardinalfish began appearing. 

Pleased with the day's non stop action we drove back to Caleta de Fuste where in the apartment the full extent of the damage the sun had wrecked on our skin became apparent. Nick wasn't too bad as he'd sensibly worn a wide brimmed hat all day. I had burnt my forearms and my rather red face and neck contrasted beautifully with the white areas that had been protected by my hat and glasses. Lee however was by far the worst off. Half way through the day his hat had blown off and landed in the sea. We managed to rescue it but he hadn't put it back on and his head had been badly burnt. All feeling a bit sore after dinner we applied plenty of after sun cream and went to bed. 

Up early the next day Lee's head was pretty bad and it was weeping yellow liquid. Not good but luckily it was overcast, which was just as well as we all needed to stay out of the sun, as we headed to Salinas del Carmen to try fishing for larger species. The wind however had picked up and there was a fair swell running. We trashed the water for a while but apart from a couple of greedy lizardfish that Lee caught on 40g jigs we didn't have any joy and returned to the apartment discuss what we'd do for the rest of the day, picking up a big bottle of sun cream on the way. To try and seek a bit of shelter from the strong wind in the afternoon we decided to head west. The coast on that side of the island doesn't really have that many roads leading to it but we visited Puertito de los Molinos to see if we could do a spot of light game there. It didn't look that promising being very shallow and fishing there involved a scramble down some fairly steep rocks so we headed south to the next small coastal town, Ajuy. 

Halfway between the two we stopped at an observation point. Compared to the other Canary Islands Fuerteventura is relatively flat. Probably why it is so windy!

When we arrived at Ajuy its steeply shelving black vocanic sand beach looked much more promising so we had a few casts from the rocks at its northern end. This produced a small derbio for Lee on his first cast so we were optimistic we'd found a good spot.

Lee fishes from the rocks with a metal jig to begin with.

A rather cute little derbio.

Fishing here however was pretty unproductive until we cast in closer to the rockier areas which produced two species of wrasse for the three of us.

An emerald wrasse. Another new species for Nick.

They're aptly named. 

After a while we tried fishing directly from the beach at different points along its short length but this didn't produce much so we headed south again all the way to Gran Tarajal. This time we fished from the rocks at the back of its harbour's eastern breakwater. The water there was nice and deep and we caught a few small common pandora, common two banded seabream, ornate wrasse and lizardfish. Lee also caught a few Azores damselfish, common combers and some planehead filefish. Nick caught a small black seabream as well before we headed back to check out the state of Lee's crusty forehead and apply more after sun to our red bits.

Lee abused a few of his fish before releasing them again. 

Back at the apartment Lee was feeling pretty bad and his cap had not let his forehead heal so on Saturday morning we fished locally at first light which just produced a few more small fish. Afterwards we visited a Pharmacy to see if Lee needed any medical attention but luckily he didn't so he picked up a buff to cover his head with and we headed back to the apartment. Nick wanted to have a siesta in the afternoon so Lee and I headed to Tarajalejo and tried fishing from a small pier at the beach's eastern end. It was very shallow though and there weren't many fish biting so we headed back to the car to head further west to a rocky peninsula at the other end of the beach that we had seen from the pier. On the way back to the car I spotted this funky metal fish on the outside of a house. 

The one that got away? Not sure about the hook choice or the knot.

Soon at the peninsula we found it was easy to get down and below the small cliffs there we discovered a large flat rocky area that was comfortable to fish from, surrounded be gullies and submerged rocks. It was nice and sheltered and we caught a few fish before heading back to wake up Nick. 

Planehead filefish are very weird looking fish indeed. I love their elongated fin ray. We caught a few of them at this spot.

By this point in the trip we'd caught dozens of colourful ornate wrasse. They are probably the most aggressive fish at close range and the novelty of catching them wore off a long time ago but they're so photogenic I always take at least one photo of them.

When we got back Nick was up, had been to the supermarket and was busy making some meat balls. After a very tasty meal we headed north to Puerto de Rosario to see if we could fish from a long stone pier there I spotted on Google Maps that looked a good spot. We weren't sure if we were allowed to fish from it so I asked a couple of police officers who were sitting in their car parked nearby who told us we could fish right at the end underneath its small light. Things were slow though and after a while all we had caught was a single saddled seabream and a few cardinalfish so we headed back to Caleta de Fuste's harbour to sneakily fish under the crane again to see if Lee could get himself a salema but it was very quiet there as well. After a few more cardinalfish we called it a night. The following morning the wind was due to drop off so we decided to get up early and have another go for larger species again.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the final part.

Light game fun on Tenerife : Part 1.

After a two week long self imposed fishing ban, which to be fair was quite easy to observe due to horrible weather, I was looking forward to relaxing for a week and enjoying a bit of light game fishing in the sun on Tenerife when I flew out there with my girlfriend, sister and her partner on Tuesday the 8th December.

El Teide, the tallest mountain on Spanish soil, pokes up through the clouds. 

Arriving at our hotel in Los Gigantes on the west coast in the middle of the afternoon it was nice and warm despite being overcast and rather windy. From our balcony I could see the large marina down below that I had looked at on Google Maps before travelling and was planning to fish around early in the mornings. There was a bit of a swell slowly rolling in and breaking around the outside of it. 

I knew fishing on the inside of the marina wouldn't be permitted but I was hopeful that I'd be able to fish from the back of it or perhaps the end of its outer breakwater. 

Once we got unpacked we took a walk down to get our bearings and have a look around Los Gigantes. Unfortunately a quick walk round the marina soon revealed that as a fishing venue it was a non starter. There was no way to access the sea defences on the outside of its outer breakwater and the end of it was walled off too. Fishing from Playa de los Guios, the black volcanic beach to the right of its entrance, was also not permitted. 

Off limits as well.

I was a bit disappointed but we went for a walk following the coast so I could find a place to fish from in the mornings. This proved to be rather difficult with most of the coastline as we headed south being built upon and no obvious way to get to the shoreline. In an area called Crab Island I finally found two alleyways leading to the coastal rocks but at the end of both I found a set of metal gates which were locked. Walking further south still we finally found a stretch of coast that was easily accessible just past the Barcelo Santiago hotel. It looked promising and despite some waves breaking over the rocks someone was fishing from them. 

A local float fishing. 

The next morning I didn't do any fishing and after picking up our hire car we headed into the island's interior to visit El Teide and take a cable car up to it's summit. After driving up undulating roads through stunning scenery and several distinct areas of different vegetation as our altitude increased, we drove along the road which passes through the barren lava fields that surround the mountain. 

Typical of the Canary Islands these lava landscapes are quite strange and look a bit like ploughed up rocks. They always make me think of the planet Mars. 

Strange twisted rock formations are dotted around, formed by various volcanic processes and weathered over time. Some of them have been given names like the one above which is called "God's Finger". The softer rock at the bottom of the warped column has eroded faster than the harder rock at the top. It looks very odd and will eventually collapse under its own weight.

Back at the hotel by the middle of the afternoon, I grabbed my light game gear and headed down to the mark I had found the night before to fish for a couple of hours. Climbing down to the rocks below the coastal path I couldn't pass some nice big rockpools without quickly finding out what was hiding in them. 

Rockpool blennies were the first fish to appear from the weed to attack my Gulp! Angleworm.

They were quickly followed by a few much more aggressive Madeira gobies. 

Turning my attention to the Eastern Atlantic I clambered around the rocks exploring various gullies and more open areas. I started of with Angleworm on a drop shot rig and soon added two more species to my tally.

The small stretch of coast I fished offered access to lots of spots on the various lumps of black volcanic rock. 

I wasn't at all surprised to catch the first of many ornate wrasse. Like on the islands of Lanzarote and Madeira they are found in great numbers at close range amongst the rocks and attack with a lot of aggression. 

Canary damselfish were also common. They have very small mouths but I still caught a few on my #10 hooks. 

I then began casting further out. The rocky sea floor was a bit snaggy but loosing the odd drop shot lead wasn't what prompted a change of method. My lures were being rapidly munched by what I suspected were pufferfish so I switched to fishing metal jigs and vibe baits. These didn't attract as much interest as I'd have liked and when I finally got a positive take and hooked the culprit the fish was only on briefly before it threw the vibe bait's hook. As the sun began to set my two hours were up and I headed back up to the hotel. 

The sun disappears behind the nearby island of La Gomera. 

The next morning I got up early before sunrise and drove down the coast to San Juan to fish from the end of its harbour's breakwater. It is a popular mark with local and visiting anglers alike and there were already a few people fishing when I arrived. The locals mainly fished bread paste under floats for bream species whilst the main target for the visiting anglers and their heavy beachcasting tackle seemed to be shark species. Not many fish were caught whilst I was there but I did see a a few white seabream being caught and a couple of small stingrays. Fishing down the harbour wall I was hoping to catch a red lip blenny or a hairy blenny but once the sun rose the chances of anything beating the ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish to my angleworm were slim to say the least. As the sun got further up above the hills to the east and illuminated the water I spotted an Atlantic trumpetfish swimming around in the submerged boulders but couldn't tempt it. I tried fishing paddletials on jigheads but the pufferfish were again being a nuisance, quickly biting the tails off of them and ruining their action. To nullify their destructive assaults I tried metals again with little interest so went back to a drop shot rig, casting it out away from the end of the breakwater onto cleaner ground. This produced fewer bites but I added two more species to my tally when I caught a greater weever and a bastard grunt. 

Handle with care or not at all if possible. 

A bastard grunt. I'm not sure why they are bastards but they do make a grunting noise.

After heading back to the hotel and having breakfast we set off for Masca, a remote mountain village. The drive there was something else along narrow winding roads through the mountains and we enjoyed a relaxing walk around it before sitting down to enjoy a very tasty lunch. In the shade eating our rustic rabbit stew we watched a few lizards running around.

Masca has less than one hundred inhabitants and is way up in the Macizo de Teno moutains in the north west of the island. 

There were lots of these lizards running around. Pretty cool. 

We then headed north and again the drive was spectacular, winding back down through the mountains to the coast. Eventually we arrived in Garachico where the girls wanted to see an old church. I took the opportunity to fish while they did so and quickly found a nice looking spot at the end of a concrete pier close to where we had parked the car. The fishing was very good and I caught a few fish although the puffers were again a problem, quickly destroying my pieces of Angleworm and also damaging my line meaning I had to repeatedly tie on a new drop shot rig. 

My first cast produced my first ever male parrotfish. Much more colourful than the drab, all grey females.

An impressive set of teeth.

A switch to a slightly smaller hook eventually saw one of the lure chomping pufferfish get caught. This one is a Macaronesian sharpnose puffer.

Just before the girls returned, I tried a second spot which held a lot of canary damselfish. It also produced my first wrasse and my first seabream species of the trip.

I pretty confident this is a male emerald wrasse.

This saddled seabream took my species tally for the trip to ten.

Before heading back to the hotel we visited El Drago, a very old tree, in the nearby town of Icod de los Vinos.

El Drago is over one thousand years old.

A couple of days into the trip and I was was thoroughly enjoying the holiday. My short fishing sessions were good fun apart from the onslaught of the pufferfish which were a bit of a nightmare. With a few more excursions planned over the rest of the holiday I was excited about stealing an hour or two where possible and perhaps catching a few more species. I also planned to return to San Juan harbour breakwater again early in the mornings to try and tempt an Atlantic trumpetfish, a new species of blenny or maybe something else from the deeper water there. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Part 2.