Species hunting adventures on Rhodes: Part 2.

The following morning, we headed to a local bakery for some tasty pastries and some iced coffee. Driving south, we visited Charaki, where upon arrival we scrambled over a rocky peninsula so that I could fish the deep water out in front of it. Finding a comfortable spot, a large shoal of baitfish was taking shelter in a gully to our right, so I set about catching one. To begin with I baited a tanago hook with a minuscule piece of isome, but they didn’t show much interest in that, so I decided to try something different!

Perhaps a tiny piece of dough from inside one of our pasties would do the trick?

The result was an immediate increase in bites, and with a bit of patience, I caught a tiny widebanded hardyhead silverside! This fish was dispatched and kept to use as bait.

Turning my attention to fishing in the deeper water, I caught a few yellow spotted puffer, but sadly nothing else. I persevered for longer than I should have and tried isome close to the bottom as well as small sinking hard baits and metal jigs. As the temperature began to creep up, Lillian gave me a look that told me I was wasting my time and that we should leave.

I gave it a good go!

To escape from the midday heat, we drove north and inland to visit the Valley of Butterflies. It was nice to hike up the valley, mostly in the shade, and there were thousands of insects flying around.

The star of the show are these Jersey tiger moths. Yes, that’s right, moths! Not butterflies!

One Jersey tiger.

Dozens of Jersey tigers.

Hundreds of Jersey tigers!

We also spotted a few of these whiptail lizards with their metallic green tails. 

This Aegean meadow brown was the only bona fide butterfly we seen on our 5km hike!

In the evening, after popping to a supermarket where I picked up some raw prawns, we headed back to Stegna to fish in its two harbours again. At the first, I ledgered small pieces of prawn on its sandy bottom and added two more species to my trip tally.

The Red Sea goatfish is another species that I first encountered on Cyprus a few years ago.

I think the common two banded seabream is becoming less common in the western Mediterranean Sea as more invaders from the Red Sea increase their numbers. This would end up being the only one I caught during the trip.

Turning my attention to fishing from the boulders at the back of the harbour, I caught a few ornate wrasse and some yellow spotted puffer. I also lost a couple of rigs to the rocky sea floor and some hooks to the puffer!

Shallow, snaggy and full of two nuisance species. Time to return to the inside of the harbour!

Ornate wrasse are another pest, though they seem to be on the decline also.

Fishing down the inside of the harbour again, searching in cracks and holes to see if I could locate some goby, blenny or scorpionfish, I caught a small giant goby and whilst unhooking it, we both spotted a Mediterranean moray eel slowly snaking its way through the rocks. Tossing the giant goby back, I quickly tied up a much stronger rig and lowered a big chunk of prawn down. The moray picked it up three times, but each time I struck, I pulled the hook straight out of its mouth. Now suspecting that something wasn’t quite right, the moray disappeared into the rocks and didn’t come out again. By this point it was getting dark so we headed along to the other harbour to look for the Atlantic tripletail.

Much to my delight, it was skulking around in pretty much the exact same spot. Lillian kept an eye on it while I baited up my chinu hook with the small baitfish I had caught earlier in the day. Having kept it in water in my wide mouth flask, it was in very good condition. Passing my hook in through its mouth and out through the top of its head, so that plenty of hook was showing, I gently lowered it into the water a short distance away from the fish and slowly pulled it into the fish’s view. As soon as the tripletail spotted the bait, it slowly moved towards it. I was expecting an explosive take, but to my surprise, it gently took it into its mouth. Pausing for a second, I struck, but somehow pulled the hook from the fishes mouth! Incredibly however, my bait had come with it so I tried again. I wasn’t sure how the fish would react, but much to my delight it slowly swam over and gently took the bait again. This time I waited a little longer, and this time my hook set was good. After a short fight Lillian was ready with my net and my third new species of the trip was inside it!

I believe the Atlantic tripletail is a very rare fish in Greek waters. Another angler caught one recently and it made the Athens Times! I was over the moon to catch one myself and it’s right up there with some of the coolest fish I’ve caught in the Mediterranean Sea or anywhere else for that matter.

Still on a high, I fished on for a short while, but there wasn’t much else biting. A black scorpionfish completely ignored my bait before charging off out of sight, but a rock goby was much more obliging and greedily gobbled it as soon as it got a whiff of freshly peeled shellfish!

It always feels a bit strange catching species that we have in the UK in such a different environment!

In the morning the following day, we drove down the coast to visit St Paul’s Bay so that I could spend an hour or so fishing from the rocks there. Sadly, the fishing was dreadful, and when a group of divers arrived and proceeded to explore the area right in front of me, I gave up and we headed to nearby Lindos to explore the town and hike up to its acropolis.

St Paul’s Bay. I fished from the rocks on the right hand side. It wasn't worth clambering out to them!

The picturesque town of Lindos and its acropolis.

The town's bell tower.

Many of the town's streets are very tourist orientated, but we wandered away from them to find some quiet back streets.

It was a very hot day, but we did hike up to the acropolis.

In the afternoon, we drove all the way across the island to the west coast. Ending up in the small port town of Kamiros Skala, where I spent and hour or so fishing. Yet again the fishing was very poor, but I added two more species to my tally before we left.

Another deep and dissapointing spot.

Casting out onto a sandy area, I caught a few wide eyed flounder.

Dropping to smaller hooks and dropping a bait tight down the side, I caught this solitary damselfish.

As we drove back to Archangelos, I told Lillian I was feeling a bit frustrated about how poor the fishing had been all day, so in the evening I had a night off from species hunting and Lillian and I walked down into town where we enjoyed an incredible meal and a few cold beers. Tomorrow would be another day and hopefully the fishing would be better!

Tight lines, Scott.

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

On day three of our holiday, we visited a few spots up the east coast to the north of where we were staying. Our first stop was the pier at the northern end of Playa de Melanura, to see the statue of Neptune that is located on a submerged rock out in the sea. I also planned on doing some fishing there, but it was completely closed off for repairs unfortuntately. April must be small pier repair month on Gran Canaria.

The Roman god Neptune emerging from the sea.

Heading south, we eventually found a spot at the end of Playa de Salinetas where I could have a few casts. I was expecting to catch a few sand dwelling species, but much to my surprise nothing was biting at all further out. Stupidly winding my rig in to some rocks at the water’s edge immediately remedied that problem, but only in the most predictable way possible!

A treble shot of ornate wrasse! Time to head somewhere else!

Driving up the coast to El Bufdero, I wasn't too shocked to find that the swell was too big and fishing from the rocks there was pretty much out of the question. Going for a stroll along the coastal path we quickly discovered that the area was home to a large population of Cran Canaria giant lizard, which we spent some time observing as they lazed in the sun, and scrambled around the boulders, dissapearing down in between them when we got too close. At one point two large individuals had a stand off and a brief fight which was quite a sight!

With the sea breaking over the rocks, I'd just have to return when the swell died down.

There were lots of these Gran Canaria giant lizard around. They can grow to 80cm long, although we didn't see any that big.

Driving north, we visited the small fishing town of San Critóbal. I fished for an hour or so from the sea defence cubes at the end of the harbour's breakwater. There was a fair amount of weed in the water, but the fishing was quite productive and I caught a steady stream of fish from a sandy area.

There were lots of bastard grunt around.

I also caught a few small bogue,...

...and a solitary striped seabream.

Casting further out, I found a few rockier patches. This initially produced a few Canary damselfish and ornate wrasse, but in amongst them, I caught two other species in the shape of a couple of hairy blenny and a nice common two banded seabream.

I normally catch hairy blenny from down in the rocks. This was the first time I've caught them at range from the open sea.

This common two banded seabream had a deep golden colour to it and put up a good scrap.

Just before we left, a spear fisherman swam by with a few parrotfish attached to his belt.

In the afternoon we drove inland to visit Cuatro Puertas, a complex of caves at the top of a mountain in the south of the municipality of Telde. There was a road most of the way up and then an easy footpath led up a few different sets of caves around the peak of the mountain.

Cuatro Puertas means four doors in English. All of them lead to the same large cave inside.

Gran Canaria Airport and the coast off in the distance.

More caves can be found on the southern side of the mountain along a narrow path.

In the evening after dinner, we popped down to the harbour in Castello del Romeral. Yet again, there weren't many fish biting, but I did manage to add two more species to my tally. Firstly, I annoyed a large redlip blenny enough by aggressively twitching a small lure on a jighead right in front of its face to enduce an aggresive reactionary attack. Striking quickly, I managed to hook the fish in its fleshy top lip and quickly hoisted him out. Shortly afterwards, the light from my headtorch was reflected back towards me by the large eyes of a couple of bright glasseye. A very cool species, I spent a bit of time fishing around the three large submerged rocks where they were lurking to try and tempt one, but wasn't successful. I was however rewarded with couple of island grouper.

Algae eating fish like redlip blenny usually need to be annoyed if you're gong to get one to "bite".

A couple of these small island grouper smashed my small straight lures as I worked them close to some large boulders.

Before we left, we had the priveldge of watching a couple of large stingray swim into and then back out of the harbour a few times. Speaking to a local, we learned that at least eight different individuals have been regularly visiting the harbour for several years.

The stingray were huge and fairly easy to see despite the relatively poor water clarity.

Another half a dozen species added to my tally wasn't too bad a result given the conditions. The wind was due to drop off over the next few days, so I was looking forward to visiting some places that would become safe to fish. Hopefully the fishing would pick up as well!

Tight lines, Scott.

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Species hunting advetures on Sardinia: Part 1.

A trip to Sardinia had been on my to do list for a few years, so when my mate Lee suggested we go, I obviously said I’d love to. Lillian was also keen to come too, so last month we made the long drive down to Lee’s and then very early the next morning, the three of us flew down there from London Gatwick. Lee organised everything and it was nice not to have all the hassle that goes with booking flights, accommodation and a hire car for a change! After landing in Olbia we drove west to Isola Rossa, where we’d be staying for the duration of our holiday. After unpacking our cases, we went for a walk. A strong wind was blowing onshore from the northwest, and the sea was crashing onto the rocks at the back of the town’s large marina, but inside it was nice and sheltered. 

The red rock a few hundred meters offshore that the town is named after.

We decided the inside of the marina’s breakwater would be our first fishing spot, but we were quite hungry so headed back into town for some pizza and beer. 

After our late lunch, we were all feeling pretty tired, so we headed back to the apartment for a much needed nap. When we got up, we headed down to the marina to see what fish we could catch. We decided not to set any kind of fishing targets for the trip. In fact, neither of us had done any pre trip planning, we were happy just to wing it, do some fishing and target whatever species were present. Trying various spots around the marina, it quickly became apparent that we might actually struggle to catch anything! It strangely seemed to be devoid of fish!

Lee fishing away, waiting for bites. 

Eventually I caught a couple of fish. This being the second of two saddled seabream I caught. 

The next day we drove west to Castelsardo, officially one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. From the end of its port’s outer breakwater we got a great view of the ancient fortifications and the colourful buildings on the steep slopes surrounding them. 

The ancient town of Castelsardo.

To begin with, we fished inside the port and were quickly getting lots of little nibbles. Lee was fishing with soft plastics on a jighead whilst I fished small pieces of squid just above the bottom. I had to scale down to a smaller hook to find out what was biting. 

It turned out to be black goby, and they were present in large numbers.

After catching several black goby, and nothing else, we moved along to a gap in the wall of the outer breakwater and fished from the rocks there into the sea. It was quite windy and the resulting swell made fishing tricky. I caught a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse further out, whilst Lee pulled out a beautiful East Atlantic peacock wrasse from much closer in amongst the boulders.

Mediterranean rainbow wrasse would turn out to be by far the most prevalent wrasse species of the trip for me. 

Lee’s stunning East Atlantic peacock wrasse. Easily the most colourful example I’ve ever seen. 

After a while we hadn’t caught anything else, so we decided to head back to the car and drove south to the large port city of Alghero. At the first spot we fished in the city’s expansive harbour, there was a large shoal of juvenile annular seabream.

Catching these small annular seabream soon became quite repetitive.

Moving to fish along the outside of the northern breakwater of the port, I spotted a few blenny sitting on some submerged rocks. I had an idea which species they were, but there was an element of doubt in my mind, so I spent ten minutes or so trying to catch one, just to be sure. 

My suspicions were correct, they were rusty blenny. This particular specimen was rather plump!

A bit further along the rocks we found some deeper water and focused our efforts fishing over a cleaner area. Again, I fished small baits just above the bottom whilst Lee fished with lures. There were a few fish around and we were fairly sheltered away from the wind. 

I caught a solitary painted comber,..

…a couple of common two banded seabream,..

… and also my first East Atlantic peacock wrasse of the trip. 

Annular seabream were also around in good numbers. 

Lee wasn’t catching as many fish on soft plastics, so he went off to try his luck at another spot on the inside of the breakwater. When I went over to join him, he told me there were lots of damselfish in a corner next to where he was fishing. I switched to a split shot rig with a very small hook and quickly caught a few of them. 

Although we didn’t have a target, I just couldn’t help myself and added a damselfish to my tally. 

I also caught a few small seabream and wrasse by letting my split shot rig fall all the way to the bottom. Just before we left, I also caught a goby. Swinging it up to my hand, I quickly recognised what it was and realised that I had caught a new species! 

My first ever red-mouthed goby! I had no expectation of catching anything new on Sardinia, so this was a very welcome surprise indeed!

After a while, we walked back to the car, put our tackle in the boot, and went for a stroll around the older walled part of the city. Many medieval features remain, most notably its high sea walls. As well as some sections of the city’s fortified walls, there were several pieces of wooden artillery on display that would have been used to attack the ships of unwanted visitors. 

Quite an impressive catapult and some hefty stone projectiles on display. I’m not sure if this is an original weapon or a reproduction. 

The following day the wind had picked up again, so we drove west to Stintino. Being located on the eastern side of a peninsula we figured it would be fairly sheltered. It was, but when we arrived at the first spot it was raining heavily. When it stopped, and we started fishing, we were quickly approached and politely told we were not allowed to fish in that area. At the next spot the bottom was very snaggy, and the fishing was very slow. Apart from a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse, I struggled to catch much else. 

More spots that looked very fishy turned out to be pretty much devoid of any fish. 

With a lot of perseverance, and by moving constantly and trying a lot of different spots, I did manage to add one sharpsnout seabream and a five spotted wrasse to my tally, but it was really, really tough going. 

Only my second ever sharpsnout seabream. 

I pulled this tiny five spotted wrasse out from a deep hole in the rocks.

By this point, it was becoming quite clear that the fishing was going to be very challenging. Most of the areas we visited looked like they should hold plenty of fish, but the lack of any was quite startling. After some seafood for lunch in a small restaurant, we headed back to Isola Rossa. In the evening we fished around the marina again. It was another tough session, but Lee’s persistence with soft plastics was rewarded when he caught the biggest fish of the trip so far.

A cracking black scorpionfish, a nice reward for his efforts. 

The following day, we drove all the way over to the northeast coast. The first two places we visited, we didn’t stay long because it turned out fishing was not allowed. We ended up driving into Olbia where we fished for a couple of hours over an almost featureless silty seabed. We quickly discovered there was a very healthy population of black goby in the area.

All we caught was black goby. The bottom was carpeted with them. I must have caught about fifty of them by the time we gave up trying to catch anything else!

Sardinian goby fest 2025 in full flow.

I did spot a blenny down the side at one point, but it swam off into a crack and refused to come out again. Feeling pretty deflated at this point, we again put our tackle away in the car and spent a few hours wandering around Olbia, Lee treated himself to a pair of hand made loafers, and then we went for some pizza and pasta before driving back to Isola Rossa.

Passing this fountain in Olbia, I was tempted to toss a coin into it and wish for better fishing!

Our first few days on the island had not been kind as far as the weather or the fishing had been concerned. Lee’s East Atlantic peacock wrasse and black scorpionfish, as well as my first red-mouthed goby aside, the fishing had been very disappointing. To make matters worse, much stronger winds were forecast for the coming days, with gusts in excess of 50mph. Before those arrived, we decided to have another evening session in Isola Rossa’s marina.

Tight lines, Scott.

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