Hazel & Brad joined me this past weekend and over a few trips out to sea we found loads of life out there… Dolphins, Sunfish, Turtles, Tuna and some mysterious fins in the water…
On Sunday we pulled a multitude of lures, in all shapes and sizes, and eventually a small Williamson Dorado catcher connected with exactly what we were looking for & hoping for, a Spearfish
Although not the best image – a screenshot from a go-pro – here´s a lovely pic of one of the boats fenders, and in the background one of the most elegant fish in the sea…
In terms of raising them & hooking them I think I´ve got if figured and suspect (hope) this isn´t our last this year…
We got this close when they arrived but, as is normal late March, they were just basking in the sunshine…
After that… unfortunately the weather gods decided to play a part…
First week of the Easter fortnight saw us make just 2 short trips which were then followed by a 6 days of bad weather, high winds & lots of rain
Once we could finally get out again we found calm seas but clouded water inshore and an area devoid of Tuna, possibly pushed offshore during the bad weather.
Ultimately, after some great Easters over the last years was a bit of disappointment but there was a ray of sunshine in that we saw multiple Spearfish, connecting with one that unfortunately pulled the hook…
The way I see it is that it´s just Good Luck & Bad Luck balancing itself out.
Maybe we find them again in coming weeks, who knows, we will most certainly try…
Took Ollie out to try and find his Arch Nemesis, the Dorado. Unfortunately he´ll have to wait another year but we did have a nice morning trying with a baby Bluefin…
Arguably the greatest city in the world… bright lights, amazing architecture, great infrastructure, an inspiring way of living life (tax free) and a place that really has something for everyone… it´s hard not to fall in love with the place
Maybe it´s me though… I try to seek more time away from the noise, the crowds, the normality and seek a little more… let´s call it adventure
By luck then, good fortune and by way of much generosity I found myself invited on a mornings fishing trip, away from the dazzling lights of the city – closer instead to the dirty cranes & muddy waters of the cities ports- by two generous gentleman, Uzair & Richard
Looking at the picture below we could be almost anywhere… Liverpool, Newport, Barcelona or Felixstowe but the heat haze gives it all away… as did the fishing…
New waters, a warmer climate, different species – they all need different ways by which to catch fish. As such, this was quite an educational lesson for me and we fished 4000 sized fixed spool reels, 20lb braid and 20g jigs
Our primary species was Queenfish and as we hopped from bust-up to bust-up probably lost count of how many of these wonderful fish we caught…
By default they come with an added bonus feature – they leap..!
We also caught several Kingfish which run to the horizon when hooked, but looking at them… what more would you imagine…
Biggest fish of the day though fell to Richard, this 8kg Grouper or “Hamour” as they call it locally…
Was great fishing for sure, and truly great company but I still smile at my fondest memory of the day because on the way back to port we spooked something big – likely a stingray basking on the surface in the sunshine – which then crashed heavily into the water
Three grown men stood up so quickly it was like they were electrocuted, then simultaneously, faster than they have each ever moved all day, threw 20g jigs out to the horizon hoping for what they all thought, and hoped, was a monster Sailfish or Marlin…
Was back out early this morning and although I connected with nothing big found plenty of life out there… small Dorado around 2kg – not like last weeks monster – and lots of shoals of Little Tuna cashing into bait on the surface…
But catching fish is still only the icing on the cake… words can’t ever describe just how good it is to simply be out there…
On Saturday evening I opened this blog, read back through my old fishing records across past August months and with tales of tiny Amberjack, baby Dorado and little Tuna confess to feeling a little under-inspired about the trip ahead on Sunday morning
Then again, fishing is fishing, my own little escape from reality, so with an early start, as the sun crossed the horizon and gently broke the day, slowly crept out of the harbour whilst Sitges slept…
Trolling lures in the Med has been a continuous journey of discovery for me. Should I run big lures or small ones, close in or far back, spread wide or run tight together, with or without birds or teasers…? I´ve watched experts and taken advice from the best in the business (you know who you are) and like to think that I´m getting it now…
Firstly, I think small lures really do have there place – especially when fish are abundant and they are small – all the chances are that their proximity to that fish and their appropriate size will ensure, almost guarantee, that you get hit. But when fish are less present, no doubt passing less close to your spread how do you get the attention of the fewer fish that might be down there..? I tried going big…
Yesterday I pulled 5 x trolling lures, the two at the top- Offshore Angler Mahi Cup & Black Bart Mini 1656 staggered close in, the smaller ones at the bottom, both Williamsons, out wide a little further back and a single Williamson flash feather ran way out back, right smack down the middle. It´s called a Hawaiian diamond shape…
The results of fate, deja-vu, Caribbean curses from my past visits to Cuba all surfaced next as my first capture of the day, on that smallest lure out the back, mirrored his cousins from years earlier, and despite what you might think its not the same picture from years past..! A tiny Amberjack…
I plodded on, keeping the faith, following my usual route around the contour lines, coming in for close passes towards any buoys, structure etc. At times it was tempting to drop down in lure size – I´m not catching on these big lures & both big and small fish surely eat small lures – but I kept the faith – stay big, get their attention, just get their attention…
It was without any doubt, at a definitive place, on a particular contour switch, with an anchored surface buoy close by that any bad ju-ju disappeared and my lure strategy served me well as the Offshore Angler lure was well and truly munched and a sound louder than any alarm clock screamed out for attention…
After several spectacular leaps skywards and some short, fast runs he was close but it´s not the proximity of the fish, nor the thrill of it´s impending capture that enthralls at this stage – it´s peering over the side, into the depths and seeing that first glimpse of colour as the fish comes to the boat – with Dorado that view is beyond spectacular with vivid Yellows, Golds, Greens, Blues, Indigo & Violet all on display, the whole right hand side of the spectrum…
If colours were a drug then fishing might be a very dangerous hobby because we would all be hooked…
And eventually…
At almost 22lb and over 3 feet in length this was an adult fish that has likely passed from the Atlantic into the Med, the breeding stock for all the 2-3lb fish we´ll surely be catching in October
And as my biggest ever Dorado, was a real honour and privilege to have caught you…
Out of the frying pan & into the fire summed up my journey from Spain to Oman. At a desert dry 44 degree C breathing was borderline uncomfortable and out in the midday sun was truly a place for mad-dogs and Englishmen. Me.
Outside work commitments I had just the 1 day spare so headed East towards a small coastal town called Yiti and found rock ledges bordering deep water…
No 50kg GTS, just this small, blank saving, Snapper which kept me happy…
An early start this morning granted me some really scenic views…
Me one day…
My real interest though lied further offshore, around five miles out, in 100M water where I soon found the small shoals of BFT I was looking for…
Thinking back, I guess I hooked up around 09:00, on my usual small Tackle House 135mm popper, initially thought it to be a similar sized fish to what we hooked last week and consequentially looked forward to a quick fight and several more fish across the day.
Soon it was pretty clear that this fish was in a different league, it pulled hard, fast and long and I just couldn´t budge if from the depths it was swimming at. I would gain a metre or two of line, he would always take it back, seemingly laughing at me, and our dance, to and fro, went on for what seemed like ages…
Fishing on your own always makes things doubly hard so as I´ve always done before used the pull of the fish and the angle of the rod to steer the boat. At one point I thought I had him beat, locked into a pinwheel – but he somehow broke out of it. At another point he surfaced, maybe weakening, but it was all meaningless – no matter what I did I just couldn´t get him anywhere near the boat…
Surfacing but too far away
Hanging over the side I could see the iridescence of the fish reflecting the sun’s rays, deep down in the sea. So close…. but at this stage it might as well have been a million miles away…
Colour
Time made no sense at all, my phone was in the cabin, I was dehydrated, the sun was blazing down, I needed a drink but all I could do was hang on. At one point I simply had to re-hydrate and confess to putting the rod in the holder and creeping forward with the engine on tick-over, only so as to grab a quick drink. And a moment from the pain…
Then, as always happens, doubt & mental badness started to creep in… Subconsciously I knew we were getting uncomfortably deep into this fight… I could see my braided line slowly becoming frayed and weakened as it was endlessly brought onto, then pulled off the reel, across itself. Colours wise it was orange, green, purple then the fish, 30M down- orange was looking really bad so all I could do, when I was past it, and it was firmly on the spool, was crank up the drag and try to stay in the green.
More time passed. This was relentless and there seemed no end in sight. Crank up the drag Paul, stay in the green. Stay in the green….
And then it eventually happened… I could feel the fish tiring. Every pinwheel seemed to track via a perceptible and increasingly smaller radius. It started to look closer, just a fraction closer ever circle. Purple line started to slowly creep onto the reel. We were almost there….
At the side of the boat my pre-thought out landing plans caved in to pure necessity. I grabbed the leader with my left hand, dropped the rod, switched the leader to my right hand, grabbed the grippers with my left hand then clamped firmly on the jaws, (luckily) at the first attempt. He was mine…
Unfathomably it was now 13:20 and after a +4:00hr fight I stared in awe at my biggest ever Med fish… it´s length, weight, dimensions, size really didn´t matter. It was just HUGE, way beyond those we caught last week
On another day I would have better photos but hopefully the ones I managed help share my memory of an amazing day…
Compare the size of the jaws of the grippers to what you see on the circa 25kg fish in my previous post
The fishing gods sure loooked down kindly at me today……..
Friends, Dustin & Duncan came down this week but we started poorly – Sunday was much too rough and Monday we struggled. Rest of the week we made up for it though…
On Tuesday I managed 3 fish and on Wednesday 1 fish, all caught in the usual way and all released boatside courtesy of “Gary the Gripper”…
Hero of the week was undoubtedly this lure, which took all 4 fish and got smashed by many others – now looking a little worse for wear and approaching retirement from duty, a Tackle House Feed 135mm popper, Sardine colour, the only modification being the substitution of the standard trebles for BKK inline 4/0 singles…
Was also a “week of learning” and a couple of times we hooked up well, here´s Dustin putting that Stella and Temple Reef rod to work…
And heres me scratching my head and probably wondering, “what the hell did we hook up here…!?!”
With a spool emptying way too fast for my liking, a rod bent right to its limit, and for the first time ever, feeling the need to follow the fish with the boat, the sea clearly holds a couple of mysteries for next year…
As anyone might understand, this was always going to be a “difficult” week…
And, as might be expected, not everyone made it everyday…
When you stay in bed and the sun rises like this then the saying “you snooze, you loose” always holds true…
For those ducking out, and the reasons why, considering the folks in the picture above ,I’m sure you can figure out who, why and when…
So, the fishing…
Monday started off with this, and a first for us, a pretty sizeable Little Tuna, sometimes known as a False Albacore, taken on a small Bertox soft plastic…
Across the week we plugged away and saw some amazing sights… busting tuna everywhere, sunfish, wild seas, wildlife galore and the once in a lifetime Mega Shoal. For me the highlight was seeing John hook up and catch his first Blue Fin Tuna, the strongest fish in the sea …
It was my last day of Med fishing this week and I wanted to do something different so turned down the strength of the tackle – to what would be pretty light for UK Bass fishing – but still managed loads of the small 2kg BFT & Little Tuna that are around right now.
Couldn´t find anything big and unfortunately didn´t see the busting Tuna that were around on Monday.
Pulling lures saw multiple hook ups of all species…
Joachim and me fished this morning and it proved to be another day where counting the fish was futile. Once past 4NM these small 2kg BFT were everywhere and smashing these daisy chains I rigged up with 2 small white lures running ahead of a purple one (I made up two and they worked really well)…
We found shoals of Little Tuna feeding on the surface – with some very big ones within them, 10-15kg sized – but despite throwing small poppers at them I could only get these 2-3kg sized ones to bite – they way out-numbered their bigger brothers…
Dinner tonight came courtesty of the first Dorado of the year. Ollies arch nemesis is back…
Unfortunately some rough weather lies ahead of us over the next two days… gives me time to think ahead to Thursday & Friday and how to round the year of with a big, er… Little Tuna
I was about 7 years old when I caught my “most ever fish in a day”. I still recall it quite clearly – it was when Dad took me to The Isle, we fished off the jetty, it was a sunny day and Dad was super happy because he caught his first ever 10lb carp. I beat him pretty comprehensively though with 159 Carp and 9 gudgeon – the fact that my biggest was around 4oz didn´t matter as a kid back then…
History almost repeated itself today and if I´d stayed fishing any longer – and could count with the same mental clarity – I could proubably have beaten my old 168 fish record.
On this mornings trip the sea was packed with small 2-3kg Tuna. Everywhere.
Little Tuna came first, a mile or so from the harbour…
Small Bluefins were next, starting from 3NM onwards,..
I was trolling 4 rods all the time but found lures being hit faster than I could wind the fish in then get them back out again and had double, treble and even quadruple hookups.
I cast small metal lures for then but best of all fished small, walk the dog type surface lures on my Bass tackle and watched hoards of fish smash them on the surface.
Amongst the fish I landed was our first ever Skipjack Tuna – see those horizontal dark bars, quite different than Bonito, Bluefin, Little Tuna etc…
I lost count of the fish tally quite early in the morning and with sore arms wandered back to port at lunchtime feeling pretty happy.
On the way back I pulled a large 8″ lure, 2 medium 6″ lures and a small pink lure – similar to the orange and green one in the pics above. Only a couple of miles from port the smallest one was hit by something much bigger than all those fish above and came back with the hook bent/straightened. I don´t want to think what it was, even though I do have my suspicions… it´s just one of the reasons I´ll head out to the horizon again soon…
It is horribly hot right now but this morning offered a little relief with a nice sea breeze, a sky filled with clouds and, falling from them, some very welcome & cooling rain showers.
An escape from the heat on land was thus primary in my thoughts so I left the harbour around 09:00, headed south and pulled an assortment of lures, large and small, to just beyond where the sea drops off into the depths.
Fishing was perhaps a secondary consideration today because a sea filled with breaking waves and white caps undoubtedly made it difficult for the fish to see the lures . One did though, a miniature version of those fish we caught in April, taking the smallest lure in the spread.
Carefully released back into the sea this juvenile Blue Fin Tuna has a wonderful journey ahead of him… a nice run South down the Spanish coastline, a passage through the Straits of Gibralter and then out into the wild Atlantic Ocean. With luck he´ll be back in these waters in a few years time, when he’s more than a hundred times the size he is now…
Back to one of our favourite places and the previous home of the boat, Shell Island.
With no boat this time the fishing would have to be different so I started with a before-sunrise, early morning wander to the harbour as the low tide turned and water started to feed into the lagoon.
I used my favourite Bass lure, a Lucky Craft Gunfish, casted behind the breaking waves, much like the one you see in the picture above and started the week with this small Schoolie…
Later in the week Brad and myself took a trip on the charter boat running from the harbour, Western Flyer. Although it is primarily catering for holidy makers catching Mackerel & Bream I avoided the lure of plenty of fish on feathers, briefly transitioned to the dark side and contrary to all the ethics of this blog… I used bait…:(
Freelining a live mackerel onto the reef – which is almost lure fishing – I had this nice Bass which later starred as lunch on the BBQ…
My favourite fishing though was undoubtedly on the sandy beach that runs from Shell Island right through to Barmouth, a mark we never really used to put much effort into.
After some rough weather early in the week Friday turned out to be the best day weather wise – sunny skies and no wind – so an almost flat, calm and clear sea. Bass were just offshore and pushing tiny whitebait into the shallows – all given away by small gulls and Terns plunging into the water to feed on them.
Wading waist deep into the light surf, maybe just 20-30 yards out, I launched this small metal lure into and around some emerging bait balls and managed several more Bass, similar in size to the one caught on the boat. Was also a pretty exhilerating way of catching them…
As regards the Bass fishing it all ended up as… Lures 3:1 Bait
All in all, a great week and very likely to see a repeat visit next year
We seem to be in a nice period of warm weather, calm winds and smooth seas so with the memory of last years Spearfish still in my mind set out at dawn for a morning trolling session.
I pulled an assortment of trolling lures, two larger ones down the middle running in the clear water just behind the prop wash and two smaller ones running down the outside, positioned a little further back.
Pushed out past the drop-off, to where it´s really deep and found plenty life out there… a pod of dolphins who ran with me for a while, flying fish & some sun fish
Unfortunately any Spearfish out there eluded me. Fish wise I found nothing big and nothing new but lunch is sorted with this small Tuna who couldn´t resist what is probably the best trolling lure we´ve ever used…
Found a place to do some fishing on my work travels to Worcester… the local canal…! Had a stroll down it this evening, casting a small jig head and managed this little perch and what must be the smallest, fish tank sized Zander you could ever imagine.
A bit of a size difference from my last fishing trip..! Enjoyable all the same…
As is now obligatory I took the first week of April as one of my annual breaks from work. Purely for fishing.
A couple of friends came down from the UK who helped massively – spotting the fish, positioning the boat, unhooking the fish, taking some pictures etc – is all so much easier when done as a joint effort than it is on your own.
No secrets to how I fished this week… casting big poppers at the passing Blue Fin Tuna.
What a week it was…! Across the four days we fished I had multiple strikes, hooked up and pulled the hook on three of them, watch fish hit the popper so hard they simply launched it airborne, got so close we almost run over them, had one on the first cast of the morning, another on the second cast and in the end brought four to the boat, all but one released boat-side.
A little collated go-pro footage tells a better story than I might ever write…
And some pictures…
Here´s one chasing down the popper, a heart stopping moment…
And some more boatside pics of what must be the greatest fish in the sea. Black, Gold & Silver…
With the boat recently back from its annual scrub, paint & maintenance this morning seemed like the perfect opportunity to take the first proper trip of the year.
As always, we start the year with high hopes, big dreams and even bigger lures but unfortunatedly – although not unexpectedly as it is early February afterall – the theme of today became dawningly clear the moment I left Vila this morning and set off on the drive to Sitges – a little display in the car was smiling (laughing) at me showing it was 4 degree C outside. Oh boy, was it cold out there…
Started out from the port around 09:00 into a horrible lumpy sea which thankfully calmed down late morning but the waves weren´t disgusing anything – no gulls were dancing on the surface anywhere and it seems that I tried just a little bit too early – there is being nothing big here yet.
In the depths I found the usual culprits prowling the sea bed though, some Blotched Pickarel, a cool looking Lizardfish and huge shoals of the ever present Scad…
In anticipation of the weeks ahead, some photos of the fish finder show that there is plenty of life and food down there, all waiting for when that big stuff arrives… Won´t be long, can´t wait…
I found the weather pretty spectacular today, with monsoon style downpours it probably seemed best to avoid…
Was quite a lumpy sea but just like we saw a couple of days ago, with Joachim & Juan, packed with small BFT in the 3-4lb range.
Best lure by far… a 2 euro special from Game Fisher, this yellow and orange Williamson Jet Head…
Ultimately it was not my best ever day, characterisized by a bizzare incident… as ever I had a 2 x rods in side mounted rod-holders. Starboard side hooked up, somehow rattled and then unfothomably popped right out of the rod holder… if anyone finds an Avet MXL attached to a Colmic trolling rod… and maybe attached to a Dorado… it´s mine..!
As ever, lessons in life are always learned the hard way…
Joachim, Juan and myself ventured out early this morning and at 8 NM found the sea literally alive with small Tuna… small Bluefin, Little Tuna and Bullet Tuna all mixed together and demolishing massive shoals of tiny whitebait.
We probably had 40-50 between us trolling and spinning with double hookups and even a treble hookup as we passsed one dense shoal.
Haven´t seen such a density of fish like this for a long time…
It was great weather this morning, no clouds & no wind so went offshore looking for some fish. As is normal I pulled 4 x 140mm Williamson trolling lures together with a small one out back which got all the attention today.
First hit on the small lure was a little Tuna, it then got chomped and bitten off by something larger, most likely a Bonito, then its replacement gave us todays lunch…
Not much doing offshore today, just a small Tuna for Kate and a small Dorado for me. We came inshore and found bigger stuff near the cliffs with this nice Bluefish…
Plan today was only to take lunch on the back of he boat with Loira and enjoy a bit of sunshine.
After a quick stop at the supermercado we left port mid morning then anchored up just beneath the cliffs under the coast road.
It really wouldnt be me if I didn´t take at least one rod and make the most of the opportunity (I took 3, just in case) so with a small popper cast towards the rocks under the cliffs quickly hooked up to an old favourite, still as acrobatic as always. Did manage a 2nd take a short while later but it didn´t hook up. Great to see them here for the summer…
Summer seems to have started today. Hasn´t just been the weather but also the relaxing of lockdown measures…
Not that it all bothered me, I just went trolling…
A confession – I actually like trolling. It covers far more ground then you otherwise would and it allows you to fish more than one rod. Sure, it goes wrong when you have multiple hook-ups but that´s all part of the fun…
Anecdotaly, it was “expect the unexpected” which held true today. I set out all prepared to cast poppers at Tuna but, as ever, trolled lures on the way out. Just in case like…
No more than 2nm out from Aiguadolc one of the two rods arched over and the reel, losing line fast, screamed for attention.
At first I was sure this was just another Bluefin but right from the start the fight was quite different. Tuna are brutes, thugs, heavy & angry and pull fast & long, like freight trains. This was different, manageable, actually more enjoyable.
After a relatively short fight the first time I saw the fish was pretty close to the boat and it was just amazing, the colours of it were just not of this earth, it was all lit up, glowing neon blue & green. Angry. My first billfish…
We are guessing this as a Mediterranean Spearfish. Too big to ever come home so released back to the sea – an absolute privilege to have met you…
Back at the harbour, after washing the boat down, I walked through the port, up to my car. Sun was shining, bars were open, people were everywhere, taking drinks, smiling, talking, laughing and enjoying life.
I can assure you – not one of them had a bigger smile than me…
Had one last try before what looks like a stormy weekend followed by going back to work next week. Found them slow today, with little interest in poppers so switched to a Duo Rough Trail Malice 130 lure. Had one take it but miss the single hook on the back but then hooked up a short while later. Popped it off at the side so not the best of pictures…
Sadly, maybe my last opportunity for a while… its been a fun Easter break.
That’s now 5 this Easter… if Carling did breaks from work…
Set out nice and early this morning, at a time most normal people are finishing off their nights dreams, but was faced a nightmare of a horrendous, lumpy sea ahead of me which kept speeds down to 6 knots & below. At one point I honestly thought of turning around, jumpimg in the car and driving South for a day on the Ebro…
Kept going but with a sea literally alive with waves found it hard to see fish like I had over the past week. White caps & seagulls looked all the same – just white markers on a sea of blue – but I kept looking.
Boat fuel is expensive and boats aren´t exactly the most frugal of vehicles so in the interests of maximising my fish/litre ratio have always hung a lure out the back whilst mooching around like this, trolling, looking for life & fish activity. Today, a tiny, little Bertox Natural Sardine…
Thought very little of it & expected exactly the same from it and as I saw gulls ahead of me started to gradually reel it in. Thats when I hooked up first, something seeing it far more interesting than me and snatching it just metres from the boat..!
Wasn´t a big fish, perhaps just 18-20kg but was a handful on quite light gear like this, a Saltiga 8000 with 50lb braid & 40lb leader. With just a single hook there was no need to bring onboard so I released it boatside.
Immediately after, and with Tuna Gods obviously looking down on me, could see dancing gulls no more than 100yds away so slowly approached, this time with the “big rod” ready.
Launched a popper close by the shoal which led to 4-5 big Tuna visibly pursuing it. First one lunged at it clearing the water completely but missed it whilst the second totally nailed it. On again after only 5 mins – luck of the gods…!
Put some serious heat on this one and it was in the boat in 20-25mins…
And todays hero of the day, again a Tackle House Feed 135mm, this time in total white, a colour I really like as it´s pretending to be nothing special…
Left the harbour very early again yesterday, as dawn broke.
Was fortunate to have a really calm sea ahead of me and quickly stumbled on a shoal of fish maybe 4nm out from Sitges, splashes in the water and Seagulls dancing above them the obvious markers of what lay below.
Crept up slowly so as not to spook them then the second cast was all it took to connect but this was immediately tougher than last weeks fish. Looking back at the Go-Pro we connected at 08:09…
Finally, at 09:46….
All on the same lucky lure as I used last week – Tackle House Feed 135mm Popper – this one now retired from active duty..!
Some collated Go-Pro footage, from the hook-up to just before the Go-Pro battery ran out, not that we were anywhere finished by then…
It is no coincidence that the last two Tuna I hooked up came at 07:30 and 08.09 – I think these fish are like many others and after a night of darkness feed heavily as dawn breaks.
They may also be less sensitive to our lines at this time which show more as the sun rises because I later made many other casts, right into similar breaking shoals, all without interest.
Once my arms recover I can test that theory again…
I tried for them from the off but no matter what lures I first flung at them, starting with small lures like these Bertox Natural Sardine soft plastic lures, Jackfin Pelagus & various metals, then moving up to Dual Adagios & Duo Pressbaits they just weren´t interested…
I had a go at sneaking out early in the morning, trying to catch them before breakfast – theirs and mine – but that didn´t work either…
I had pretty high hopes yesterday though as the sea was like glass, Tuna were breaking the surface everywhere but big lures, small lures, every design you could ever think off, all launched right into the feeding melee… again, damn, simply no interest…
Tried again this morning but it wasn´t ideal conditions. Far from it actually with a cold 20 knot wind pushing down from the North, but as Capt. Ralph once said, “if its blowing, we´re going”
Left Sitges at sunrise and was upon a shoal at just 2nm from the harbour but same as… simply no interest in anything I cast at them.
Mooched out a little bit further and after a few casts to several other busts, yet again without interest, spotted a flock of gulls moving North. Quick. Undoubtedly there were Tuna beneath then but these weren´t shoaling and pushing up small baitfish, they were behaving differently, they were moving.
I raced to catch up with them, eventually drawing parallel then launched a popper -Tackle House Feed 135 – just ahead of what I anticipated to be the head of the shoal.
It had barely touched the water when it was smashed by a Tuna going airbourne, taking it completely out of the water. We´re on..!
Adrenaline immediately kicks in when you connect and initially there´s a million and one things going on in your mind… am I still tight to the fish, is my drag set right, wheres the Go-Pro, wheres the camera, I must get a picture, I still need to wind in the other rod I stupidly left trolling, it´s going under the boat, the engine is still on, how long will this last, my line is near the propellors, I need to physically hang on somewhere because it´s rough and I´m either falling down or over-board. Unnecessary mental badness slowly proliferates too, shit – the Go-Pro won´t turn on, where´s the landing net, damn – a tackle box fell off the bait well and now there´s lures all over the floor, I´m gonna lose it…
Beyond the chaos and excitement you eventually find yourself in this zone where nothing matters – only that fish on the end of your line. Your line too… right now thats maybe 100m out, stretched out so tight you´ll hear it whistling in the wind, only fractions of a millimetre thick and all thats standing between glory & devastating disappoinment. If there´s ever a time to doubt the integrity of your knots and your tackle it´s here and now.
Furthermore, the simple aspect of Time works very differently when you are hooked up to fish like this – 5 minutes might seem like an hour, an hour might seem like 5 minutes… I couldn´t hazard a guess as to how long the fight/agony/wonder/hope lasted…
And so, eventually… When it came to the boat it was the similar class size of fish we usually see, 60-70lbs. I couldn´t lift it onboard – it´s size and the waves not helping – so released it boatside. I really wish it well and would like to think that some day, sometime in the future – when it´s bigger, and I´m wiser – we´ll dance again once more…
Squeezed out for a mornings trip this weekend. Winter is very clearly here now and it was pretty cold outside but I did manage a few of these small Bullet Tuna…
And at what is normally a great time of year. Sat at home on the balcony right now looking at a cloudless sky, not a breath of wind rustling the trees and undoubtedly a mirror calm sea, with a boat fueled up and ready to go all just 10km away. Some mental inspiration for when we open again…
Enjoyed a really calm morning out at sea today. Pulled the usual small trolling lures and a little past the drop off three rods arched over at the same time and I landed these two..
Was on the lookout for debris in order to cast for them but spotted nothing. I did see splashes everywhere – several small Whales, not sure what type, and dozens of Dolphins, many of them coming to ride the bow wave… all is well out there…
Sneaked out this morning as it was all a bit of a calm before the storm moment… Found lots and lots of these small Tuna everywhere from 3 miles out to the horizon but sadly not the Dorado I was looking for.
Offshore I found plenty of debris in the water but only baby Amberjack beneath it. Fishing small jigs and surface plugs was good fun… for a short while.
Seems like the weather is cooling down nicely again right now though and hopefully weed-beds will soon start gather on the surface. As always, that´s when we´ll meet our arch nemesis again…
Not exactly fishing but swimming with them, so “fishy “all the same… http://www.tuna-tour.com is an amazing experience I would recommend to anyone.
Is now an annual pilgrimage and for a brief hour is worlds apart from anything else you´ll ever do this year. Is like entering an alien world, floating in space, being surrounded but monsters, each with the grace of a ballerina, passing inches by you, with hardly a flex of their muscles.
Out for a quick evening session today. Much like the weekend we found lots of fish hanging around marker bouys – small Amberjack, small Tuna and best of all, lots more of these Dorado. All seemed a little bigger than they would normally would be in August so October is looking really promising now, they should be a great size by then…
Back on familiar, home territory today. With the boat all refreshed with a new engine Kate, Olivia and myself set off early today. Was a breezy day with a pretty rough sea but we did well, eventually losing count of the fish we caught, Amberjack, Small Tuna and best of all… lots and lots of Dorado.
“Awesome” just does not do justice to the place and the views on the island are literally mind blowing…
We also went fishing, on a boat run by Filipe from azorseaadventures.com from a small village called Vila Franca do Campo.
Was initially nothing more than a day out at sea where we enjoyed seeing the wildlife… turtles, several whales, countless gulls and even more dolphins.
We also did a little fishing, dragging 4 lures around.
Nothing happened for a few hours but we saw plenty bait balls being smashed into on the surface. All the while, as we ran up to them it was seemingly always dolphins in on the party. “Too many dolphins...” is not something we say too often.
Filipe worked the boat really hard and pursued flocks of birds endlessly, often doubling back through them. At one point he muttered something on the lines of “They are here, I know they are here….“
He wasn’t wrong.
Both port side rods arched over and massive 80W reels screamed as line was pulled from them.
Much of what happened next was a blur, grabbing pictures seemed a distant thought vs. fighting the fish but heres Kate hooked up…
After 2:30 we had my fish through the door and into the boat, a 109kg (240lb) Big Eye Tuna and after a 3:30 fight Kate landed hers, 117kg (258lb), more than twice her weight.
This was truly a day beyond our wildest dreams and I was so proud of Kate.
We all have our favourite holiday destinations… Shell Island, Cuba, Nefyn, Sitges, Abersoch etc. There´s a new one of the list now, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that´s like nowhere else on Earth.
My long awaited, first trip out this morning now that lockdown is over. Unfortunately it seems I´m too late for the big Blue Fins passing by but did manage this small Little Tuna. Happy days are back…
Am suspecting Spain to go into virus lock-down soon so had a final trip out to sea before my fishing opportunities close. Was really hoping to see Tuna but unfortunately they just don´t seem to be here yet so dropped some sabikis to the bottom in order to see what small stuff was around. All seems well down there as I found it alive with the usual culprits… Red Bream, Scad, Blotched Pickerel, Red Gurnard, Bogue, Mackerel and my very own Arch Nemesis – the Greater Weever…
That was the thinking Oli and myself had in deciding to start 2020 with a quick trip down to Adlington Canal. With hailstones blowing sideways we didn´t last long but taking a small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow for a swim kick started the year for me. Now, back to BCN and out into the sea…
Has been extremely windy these last few days but I managed to get out this morning. Sea clarity was quite poor and I couldn’t find any Dorado but did manage this stonking Bonito which was too long to fit in the fish box. Gonna eat well tonight…
Tom came out with us today but boy did we have an angry sea. Holding the boat steady and catching anything in 2M swells proved to be pretty tough but we did well I guess and came back with fish on the deck. Luck certainly had a part in it…
October. By far the best month for both the weather and the fishing here in the Western side of the Meditteranean.
Slipped out for a quick session this morning (work in the afternoon) and just lost count. As I recall… Amberjack no more than 500m from the harbour entrance, a substantial 6lb Dorado next around the 1km mark then out at sea too many small Tuna to remember. Bonito, Little Tuna, Small BFT everywhere.
Easy. Just like this…
Tomorrow is not a half day at work. Its a full day off work. Lets see what comes…
It Ate My Lure 