Not more species hunting adventures on Crete?!: Part 2.

On the second day of our holiday we drove into Agios Nikolaos. After a stroll around Lake Voulismeni we visited the fishmonger, so I could pick up some prawns to use as bait. Whilst there, we spotted our first lionfish of the trip. I was hopeful we’d spot them in the sea before the end of the trip, so I could try and catch one!

These venomous invaders aren’t good news for biodiversity in the Eastern Mediterranean, and to make matters worse they are gradually heading west. They are delicious apparently, so at least if there is a commercial market for them their numbers might be reduced.

Heading down to the first fishing spot, I decided to try fishing with one of the small plugs I had bought the previous day. Not something I fish with that often, as I find I get bored if they don't produce any action fairly quickly. I told Lillian I’d only be having a few casts before switching to fishing closer in with small chunks of prawn.

We headed to the shade of a few trees in the lake’s back corner. This spot has produced a fairly wide variety of species over the years.

On its very first cast out into the deeper water further out, the little minnow got smashed as it got about half way back to me! After a few dodgy moments involving the mooring ropes of the boats in front of me, a nice amberjack was drawn over the net Lillian had ready and waiting! What a team!

This small fast sinking sardine coloured minnow, fished with a quick twitchy retrieve, proved to be very effective!

A small greater amberjack. Great fun on my new setup. What a fantastic fish and start to the day!

Due to its instant success, the lure got a little more time at the end of my line than I had originally planned, but the short fight the amberjack put up must have spooked any other fish that were in the area and nothing else went near it! Eventually I switched to targeting the fish I could see in the shallower areas around the edge and over a couple of hours added a few more species to my tally, including a few different types of seabream.

Saddled seabream,..

...common two banded seabream,..

...and white seabream.

I also caught a solitary ornate wrasse and a rusty blenny. Then I turned my attention to a very shallow rocky area to see if I could catch some of the goby that usually live there. I've caught them in the past and always thought they were Bucchich's goby. As it turns out, I discovered recently that I was wrong.

An angry little ornate wrasse bares his teeth at me.

This normally feisty rusty blenny wasn’t too bothered about being caught strangely enough!

It turns out what I had been catching over the last ten years were incognito goby. This species is very similar to Bucchich's goby, but was only recognised as distinct and described by marine biologists in 2016. Something that I only learned about recently. So, whilst it was kind of my first new species of the trip, it wasn’t really! Looking back over my previous catches I’m pretty certain that I have in fact never caught a Bucchichi’s goby. They’ve all in fact been incognito goby.

In the afternoon we walked around the lake again, and I fished from the large platform that juts out over it. I gave the little plug a few casts here along with some metal jigs. A couple of amberjack did follow the plug but turned away as my retrieval ended. I also fished on the bottom closer in, but it was very snaggy, not very productive, and I only caught a couple of rabbitfish.

The water out in front of the large grey platform is incredibly deep. Over 50m in fact!

After lunch and then taking shelter from a brief but heavy spell of rain, we went for a walk and ended up on the open coast next to a large statue. I fished here for a little while from the rocks behind it, but all I caught initially were yellow spotted puffer. Almost one per cast.

This large statue depicts the “The abduction of Europa.” from Greek mythology.

After a while I was fed up catching puffer, replacing chomped lures and tying on hooks, so I moved to fish over a shallower sandy area. I was hoping to catch a pearly razorfish but all it produced was a few Atlantic lizardfish and even more yellow spotted puffer!

A most welcome Atlantic lizardfish.

I love their big toothy gobs. Not sure their prey is as fond.

Before calling it a day and heading out for dinner in the evening, we headed back to Elounda and then visited the Spinalonga viewing point we had stopped at the day before. I thought the rocks below it looked a promising spot to fish, so we made our way down. It was a lot shallower than I'd thought it would be and after a while all I’d caught were more yellow spotted puffer. It then started raining pretty heavily, so we scrambled back up to the car and headed back to the apartment to dry off.

Rain was on the way, and I was pretty fed up of catching yellow spotted puffer!

In the evening it rained a lot, but eventually it stopped for a while. Armed with my headtorch we popped out to the piers near our apartment and spent an hour or so looking for moray eels. We didn’t see any but did see quite a lot of large crabs moving around on the seabed. I dropped at bait down and one of them greedily grabbed it. This allowed me to lift it out for a closer look before returning it to the water.

We spotted quite a few of these African blue swimming crab. You've probably guessed already, these are yet another migrant from the Red Sea!

After two days on Crete I’d caught twenty species. Not a bad start to the holiday’s fishing! Unfortunately, the rain we’d experienced was just the start of some terrible weather. My fishing plans would have to be flexible. The following day I wanted to try somewhere new. A mark with deep water right in front of it, but would the weather throw a spanner in the works?

Tight lines, Scott.

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Even more species hunting adventures on Lanzarote: Part 2.

As the second half of our holiday began we were all feeling a little bit rough, so we got up later in the morning and headed to Costa Teguise, where we would spend most of the day fishing comfortably from its pier. Fishing squid strips and chunks of raw prawn close to the bottom on our ultralight tackle produced a few fish.

Ryan had a look at the area on the outside of the breakwater, but as it was relatively shallow and rocky, we opted to fish on the inside instead where it was deeper and cleaner on the bottom.

As well as puffer and ornate wrasse, a few nice white seabream were caught.

We also caught a few hairy blenny.

I caught this black scorpionfish. Scorpionfish are one of my favourite groups of fish. Punks of the ocean.

After a few hours, we had a break, grabbing a bite to eat and a couple of loaves of bread from the supermarket, so we could see if there were any mullet around. A few slices were ripped into small chunks and thrown in, and freelining bread flake soon produced some interest from salema. I hooked a few, but they all successfully shook the hook before I finally got a better hook set and landed one. I also lost a nice saddled seabream that thrashed on the surface and got free. We did have a net with us, but it was in the boot of the car. I'll never learn!

Salema love freelined bread. I find they’re also pretty hard to hook well.

As the sun went down some thick lipped mullet did turn up, but they were very skittish, only swiping at the free offerings before swimming back down away from the surface again. None of us managed to get any of them to take our hooked pieces. After dark, I also caught what I thought at first might be a small red scorpionfish which would have been a new species for me. A bit of research back at the apartment confirmed that it wasn't however, it had simply been a very red Madeira rockfish.

Scorpionfish identification can be tricky. This is the reddest Madeira rockfish I've ever seen.

The next day we decided to return to the pier in Costa Teguise. It was comfortable fishing and out of the wind, which had picked up again. After visiting the town’s aquarium for an hour or so, we popped to the supermarket and armed ourselves with half a dozen loaves of bread. Using a collapsible groundbaiting bucket and a ladle I’d packed in my suitcase for the purpose, I made up a large supply of mashed up soggy bread to try and attract some mullet again. None showed up unfortunately, but my efforts weren’t totally wasted as I did catch a few salema and also landed a saddled seabream.

Saddled seabream are also partial to a bit of bread flake.

After the bread ran out we switched to fishing strips of squid and small chunks of prawn again. Nick fished further out and further up in the water and caught a few bogue that we kept to use as bait later in the evening. I focused my efforts on fishing straight down the side of the harbour walls. This saw me catching a few more hairy blenny, ornate wrasse, a black scorpionfish and some Madeira rockfish. The scorpionfish gave me a chance to check out sone of their less than obvious distinguishing features.

We caught our first painted comber of the trip. Their blue markings were all oddly a little washed out.

I also caught a few black scorpionfish and played with the appendages above this ones eyes for the camera. They're a key distinguishing feature.

A Madeira rockfish. Note the branched first few upper rays on the pectoral fin and the barbule on the lower jaw. Small red scorpionfish do not have these two features.

In the evening, after dinner in the apartment and watching some of a World Cup game, we headed north to Playa de la Garita for another stingray session over high water. Armed with the fresh bogue Nick had caught earlier in the day we were fairly optimistic, but after three hours and several bait changes, none of our rods had registered any interest, so we called it a night and headed back to Puerto del Carmen.

The next day we decided to head north to check out a couple of new spots. On the way, we drove up through the island's expansive lava fields and stopped to have a walk around the remnants of the volcano where the eruptions that formed them started, Caldera de Los Cuervos.

It took an hour or so to walk out to the crater and explore inside it.

It's a pretty alien landscape. This is a photo of the crater's rim taken from the inside. At one point, it would have been full of molten lava!

Jumping back in the car and continuing north, the first place we fished was a large man made basin to the south west of La Isleta. We weren't sure if fishing was permitted but didn't see any signs, so we gave it a go for an hour or so. Casting out into deeper water, all we caught was a solitary Couch's seabream. We did see some surface activity though, and as we still had some bread in the boot of the car we threw in a few small pieces to see if we could attract some fish closer to us. Large shoals of small thick lipped mullet soon appeared, and tiny flakes of bread on tiny hooks eventually saw us catch a few. Ryan had never caught a mullet before, so the ones he caught were his first. We also caught some small seabream and I caught a small bass. Our thirty sixth species of the trip. Yes, I was still keeping track, despite personally not catching anything I hadn't caught before.

One of the bigger ones I caught. Most of them were much smaller. Still frustratingly good fun trying to catch though!

A little spiky silver nugget.

Next we headed to Caleta de Famara to try fishing from its small harbour. This was also another spot that we'd never visited before. After catching a few painted comber we spotted a few groups of bigger mullet cruising around, coming into and leaving the harbour. We were out of bread so Ryan walked into town and got us some more. These mullet proved a little easier to catch, and we'd soon caught over a dozen. Great fun on our ultralight tackle. We even needed the net for some of the bigger ones.

Most of them were rather plump thick lipped mullet.

There were also a few golden grey mullet in amongst them too.

As the sun set the sky gave an indication that the weather was going to improve. Pity we were leaving the following day!

That evening, after dark, we headed to the pier in Punta Mujeres to fish for stingrays again. The sea was still pretty rough though, with water coming up over the end of the pier occasionally. We'd got some blue jack mackerel from a large supermarket on the way but decided to fish only one beachcaster for the stingrays while we messed around with small fish baits on our ultralight rods. Things were very slow but I did get smashed up again by something big. Same issue with my rig going at the loop knot when I tried to bully whatever it was away from some rocks. I think I'm going to be trying to find an alternative knot or make some kind of modification to make it stronger. Anyway no sign of any stingrays again and I only caught one cardinalfish all night. Ryan did get a nice bastard grunt though, adding another species to our tally. I told the lads I felt we could hit forty if we got lucky on the final day.

The biggest bastard grunt I've seen caught.

The final day had arrived, but as our flight didn't leave until the evening, we squeezed in one final session. After visiting a couple of marks fairly near the airport that were unfishable due to the swell, we decided to head back to Caleta de Famara harbour, reasoning that we could park the car nearby, and also we'd fished it over low water the day before, and I thought it might produce fish over high water. It fished very well and even produced a few species we hadn't caught yet!

We caught lots of ornate wrasse in Caleta de Famara harbour. Nick really loves ornate wrasse.

I caught a solitary zebra seabream. These seem to be quite rare, so I was over the moon to catch one.

We all caught some nice striped seabream fishing over the sand well inside the harbour.

We also caught our last few canary damsel. One of Ryan's favourite fish of the trip due to their bright purple markings.

Nick took a break from catching endless ornate wrasse and caught a common two banded seabream. This seemed to cheer him up slightly.

I then caught a couple of juvenile bluefish, taking our "let's forget targets and just have fun" species hunting tally to a nice round forty for the trip.

It was a nice session to end on but before long it was time to pack up our gear and head off to the airport. Forty species between us over the duration of the week, despite some difficult conditions, a night on the town and the subsequent hangovers, wasn't too bad.

No new species at all for me, and this was the only disappointing aspect of the trip for me personally. That and the lack of action whilst we were targeting stingrays after dark, but that was more down to the conditions I think. Here's a summary of what I caught...

1. Annular Seabream
2. Atlantic Lizardfish
3. Axillary Seabream
4. Bass
5. Black Goby
6. Black Scorpionfish
7. Black Seabream
8. Bluefish
9. Blue Jack Mackerel
10. Bogue
11. Canary Damsel
12. Cardinalfish
13. Common Comber
14. Common Two Banded Seabream
15. Couch's Seabream
16. Diamond Lizardfish
17. Emerald Wrasse
18. Golden Grey Mullet
19. Guinean Puffer
20. Hairy Blenny
21. Macronesian Sharpnose Puffer
22. Madeira Goby
23. Madeira Rockfish
24. Ornate Wrasse
25. Painted Comber
26. Pandora Seabream
27. Planehead Filefish
28. Ringneck Blenny
29. Rockpool Blenny
30. Saddled Seabream
31. Salema
32. Striped Seabream
33. Thick Lipped Mullet
34. White Seabream
35. Zebra Seabream

Species caught by the lads that I didn't catch myself...

36. Azores Damsel
37. Bastard Grunt
38. Blacktail Comber
39. Greater Weever
40. Wide Eyed Flounder

I've been to Lanzarote three times now and if I'm honest I'm not sure I'll return in the near future. If I do, I'll be focusing on catching new species. I'd also like to revisit Tenerife and catch the ferry over to La Gomera while there to do some game fishing. It's safe to say I've got my passion for travel back though. I'm off to Asia again soon, in March I'll be going for three weeks, visiting Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island in South Korea and also the Japanese island of Okinawa with Lillian. Of course, some fishing tackle will be going in my case.

Tight lines, Scott.

More species hunting adventures on Crete : Part 1.

At the end of August I returned to the Greek island of Crete for two weeks' holiday with my girlfriend Lillian. We didn't arrive in Kissamos, where we'd be staying for the first week, until late in the evening but it was quite windy when we got there and as our accommodation was very close to the sea we could see a swell running and some waves were coming over the sea wall at the front of the town's promenade. In the morning we went for a walk along the coast to get our bearings. The wind had died down during the night but the sea was still fairly rough and coloured up.

Not great for fishing with the ultra light tackle I had with me.

Later that morning I got permission to quickly check out the nearby port of Kavonisi, a venue recommended to me by my mate Andy where several large vessels moor at night that take tourists on day trips to Gramvousa island and the lagoon at Balos on the western side of the island. It was fairly sheltered inside so I had a quick fish and discovered that the water inside was very deep. I thought this was promising but to my surprise the fishing was pretty slow going. I still managed to catch a few fish and got my species hunt for the trip underway.

My first fish of the trip was this rainbow wrasse.

A few common combers were also keen on my angleworm.

I caught this saddled seabream in a corner where some fishing boats were tied up.

In the afternoon to get away from the wind we drove south through the mountains to Paleochora for lunch. I thought it would be sheltered on the south side of the island but it was still fairly windy. After lunch I fished in Paleochora's large harbour for an hour or so but again things were pretty slow. I only managed a single striped seabream, a couple of annular seabream and a few black gobies.

Black gobies are probably just about small enough to escape from the fine mesh nets the Greek fisherman use.

The next day we headed east into Chania and wandered around the harbour area before having some lunch. As well as seeing all the old buildings we were lucky enough to see a large sea turtle swimming amongst the moored boats. After lunch I had a quick fish as we walked along the inside of the breakwater and added three more species to my tally for the trip, catching a few ornate wrasse, a single rusty blenny and a common pandora.

Chania's old Venetian harbour is very pretty with lots of shops and restaurants lining it.

The breakwater of Chania harbour where I did my fishing.

Seeing this sea turtle was an unexpected bonus. Not the empty plastic bag though,its never great seeing those in the sea.

In the evening I popped along to Kavonisi Port for an hour's fishing whilst Lillian had a nap. Again the deep water out in the harbour didn't produce much so I turned my attention to fishing for the small species down the side of the wall using #26 hooks baited with tiny pieces of dried ragworm. Amongst the fish I caught as light faded I added bogue, cardinalfish, damselfish, marbled rabbitfish and salema to my tally.

Cardinalfish are like little rubies.

In the morning on the third day of our holiday I got up early and headed back to Kavonisi Port again. The wind had now completely dropped off and the open sea was flat calm so after an hour of trying various methods inside the harbour with little reward for my efforts I decided to move along the coast to try a new spot.

This needle nosed chap took a piece of angleworm on a drop shot rig and was my only reward from the deep water in the harbour.

At my chosen mark the sea floor was very rough and I quickly lost a fair amount of drop shot rigs so I moved along to try another spot. This was less tackle hungry and produced a few ornate wrasse and a common two banded seabream.

Feisty little fish.

Later that morning we took a drive up through Therisou Gorge. It's the only gorge on the island that has a road running through it. Perfect if you are a little out of shape.

The easy option if you want to explore one of Crete's many gorges without all the hassle of walking.

Watch out for pedestrians! The gorge is full of goats but the noise of their bells clanking gives their presence away.

Exiting the top of the gorge we carried on up into the mountains and headed to the small village of Drakona to have lunch in a restaurant called Dounias that Lillian had read great things about online. It's on a sharp corner making it easy to miss it and we did just that, driving right past before realising our mistake and turning back. I'm not sure how I missed it though to be fair as some of its ovens are out in front of it and lunch was already being prepared!

Dounias' speciality is traditional Cretan food cooked slowly using wood ovens.

You can sit inside but on a beautiful summer afternoon the outdoor dining area is the only real choice.

Relaxing in the shade we didn't even have to order any dishes, instead simply allowing Stelios the chef to send us a selection of dishes including some meat ones. The food soon started arriving a dish at a time and whilst my expectations were high the food didn't disappoint. Everything we ate was mouth wateringly tasty.

Stuffed vegetables have never tasted so good.

The rustic meat dishes were full of flavour too.

After several plates of amazing food we continued our mountain drive, heading slowly east until we eventually reached the National Road. Driving on the windy roads was a lot of fun and some of the views from the mountain roads were great too.

A view from the mountains towards the island's north coast.

Before heading back to Kissamos we visited Kalyves Harbour, a venue where my mate Andy has caught stargazer whilst fishing during his holidays on the island. While Lillian hid in the shade and enjoyed an ice cream I chose to ignore the obvious target, namely the several mullet cruising around in the harbour, and instead began by working a small metal along the sandy bottom hoping to twitch it close to a buried predator. This approach didn't produce anything though and when Lillian spotted some gobies moving around on the sand I got some tiny hooks, split shot and a packet of dried ragworm out. I had an idea what the tiny gobies were and being gobies it didn't take long to confirm my suspicions.

An incognito goby. When species hunting you can't ignore micro species.

Having turned my attention to the fish I could see, I began pestering some blennies that were hugging the wall below my feet. They were being quite skittish, and I was pleasantly surprised when a filefish appeared from a crack down the harbour wall to eagerly attack my baited hook. It had a few goes before being hooked and was quickly hoisted up into my hand. Whilst it looked similar to the filefish I've caught before in the Canary Islands, the planehead filefish, this one was a little different shape wise and had different markings too. I remembered looking into the filefish found in the Mediterranean when Andy had sent me a photo of one he had caught and this one was the same species as his capture.

This is a reticulated filefish, a migrant from the Red Sea. It was also my first new species of the trip.

By this point Lillian was getting a little bored and when I suggested we go and get some bread and try and catch a mullet she gave me a look that told me I was pushing my luck, so I packed up, and we drove back to Kissamos. It had been an enjoyable start to our holiday and whilst the short sessions spent species hunting were slow at times I'd still managed to catch a few different fish and an unexpected first new species of the trip.

Tight lines, Scott.

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