Even More Species Hunting Adventures On Gran Canaria: Part 4.

On our penultimate day on Gran Canaria, we headed back to Puerto de Mogan in the morning, so that Ed could have another go at catching a flathead mullet. I focused my efforts on a few goby that I spotted on the sandy bottom of the channel. They eagerly munched small pieces of dried ragworm and all turned out to be black goby.

Along with a small mackerel I had caught the previos day, but didn't bother to photograph, these were easily the least interesting species of the trip, but both were additions to our tally, so were most welcome.

Sadly, neither of us caught any flathead mullet. There were just too many thick lipped mullet and golden grey mullet around. We did enjoy an hour or so of good sport before they became very wary and pretty much stopped feeding.

We caught some decent sized golden grey mullet.

Jumping back in the car, we drove east to nearby Taurito. There we fished from the rocks at the western end of Playa del Diablito. Clambering around the boulders, there was already a local angler float fishing when we got to the spot, and he caught a nice parrotfish whilst we got set up just along from him.

Older locals usually employ float tactics for seabream and parrotfish.

Ed fished on the bottom with bait to begin with, whilst I fished a metal and then a small plug up near the surface in an attempt to catch a garfish. The ground we were fishing over was not very deep and was littered with large boulders. Ed lost a few rigs as a result, but did manage to catch a few ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish. I had a few bumps on my lures, but after a while decided to switch from a faster horizontal retrieve, to jigging a metal closer to the bottom. This eventually paid off when a nice island grouper came out from it's ambush point and grabbed my jig.

Not massive but good sport on my ultralight setup.

I then switched to a paddletail lure rigged on a 3g cheburashka weight. Bouncing this through the boulders, I was hoping to tempt a dusky grouper, but instead it was an agressive ornate wrasse that decided to attack the small fish imitation!

Sometimes, fish strike to defend their territory.

Ed had switched over to fishing with a metal jig, so I decided to try fishing with bait on the bottom. After losing a few rigs and nothing showing an interest in Ed's efforts however, we decided to head around the rocks towards the beach to try and find a cleaner area to fish over.

Out past a flat rock ledge in front of these boulders was a clean sandy area.

I was hoping to catch a seabream here, perhaps a pandora or a Couch's. After a while, I had an aggressive take and the fish tore off. Lifting into it, my rod was nodding away, and I was confident that I had hooked some kind of seabream because it definitely felt like one. Applying some pressure as it came towards the ledge in front of us to get it up over it though, the fish came off. It had bent out my fine wire hook. Removing this and snelling on a much stronger chinu pattern, I rebaited with a chunk of prawn and recast out to the same area. Shortly afterwards, another fish took my bait and charged off. This time it felt different and swam from side to side, making long runs. When a small shark came to the surface, we were both quite surprised, but Ed quickly got the net ready and the fish was soon drawn over it.

My first shark from the shore on my trusty Rock Rover.

With it's very dark grey/brown colouration, I'm reasonably confident this is my first ever common smoothhound, making it my third new species of the trip. Mission accomplished! They are by far the most common species of houndshark found around Gran Canaria, so the likelihood of this being a spotless starry smoothhound is very low.

We fished on for a while, but didn't catch anything else for a while, so we decided to head to our next spot. The tide was out when we reached the Faro de Maspalomas, and seeing a few exposed shallow rockpools, we set about seeing what mini species were in them.

The exposed rocky shorline near Faro de Maspalomas.

Who lives in a house like this?

To begin with, quite predictably, the only two species we encountered were rockpool blenny and Madeira goby. They can be found in most intertidal pools in large numbers. After a while however, I spotted a different blenny slowly moving around in between the rocks. Dropping my tanago hook baited with a tiny piece of dried ragworm into the gap between three touching rocks, I felt a bite, struck, and hooked the culprit. Swinging it up into my hand and examining it, I was sure I had caught a Molly Miller. Popping it into some water once I had taken an initial photo confirmed it was indeed one. It didn't take Ed long to catch one as well, yet another new species for him.

The Molly Miller blenny. If you know where it's name comes from, let me know!

It's punk like row of short hair-like appendages is a key identifying feature that is only visible when the fish is submerged.

By this point it was early evening, and we decided to have one last attempt at locating and catching bright glasseye. The wind direction remained the same, but the speed had dropped a bit. I was unsure if the conditions would be suitable, but much to our delight, when we arrived at the venue and had a look around, it looked almost perfect. The water was clear and there was virtually no disturbance on the surface. Climbing down the rocks as light began to fade, it took a little while before I spotted one of our targets, emerging slowly from the rocks. A large red adult specimen, sluggishly moving around, it showed no interest in any bait I lowered in front of it. After being frustrated by the fish's complete disinterest for a while, I left it to search for others. As it got darker, more, much smaller specimens, began to appear! They were silver with red markings. Seeing a few of them, I had a good feeling that we'd eventually catch one, even if we had to fish for hours! Eventually they'd switch into feeding mode, or we'd figure out what presentation they'd be unable to resist. Returning to where I'd seen the larger fish, I switched to a straight lure on a 0.9g jighead and dropped it down the back of a submerged rock.  

A Thirty 34 Four 1.8" Octpus lure on an EcoGear Aji Chon jighead. I fish predominatly with bait these days, but I love this killer combo.

Twitching it a couple of times, I felt a sudden thump and lifting into it, all hell broke loose. I'd hooked the large red adult fish. I managed to bully it up over the rock, but it headed off towards some ropes. Whilst trying to stop it, I called over to Ed to bring the net, but then disaster struck! The fish thrashed violently and managed to throw the hook! I was gutted. Had I blown my chance? 

We carried on, patiently fishing away. Locating the fish using our headtorches and casting our lures towards them. As it got darker, the fish got more and more active. Once it was really dark, they suddenly started moving around with much more purpose. Casting my presentation near a group of four juveniles, they began slashing at it, and eventually I'd hooked my second bright glasseye of the night. Much smaller than the first, it was very quickly wound in and swung up into my waiting hand. 

My first bright glasseye! What an awesome little fish!

By this point, Ed had moved around the venue, so I popped the fish into a bucket of water. When he came back around to where I was, I told him I'd caught one, and showed him the fish. Having seen it, he was even more determined to catch one himself. I gave him a jighead and lure and showed him where I'd caught mine. It took him a little while, but he also caught one, which was later followed by a second, and then later on, just before we left he also lost a third much larger specimen that took a white paddletail lure. It had been a great way to end a very good day's fishing. We'd reached thirty nine species between us with the capture of the bright glasseye, and only needed one more to reach our trip target.

We had to be back at the airport to fly home by 16:30 the following day, so we formulated a plan for our last day of fishing that evening when we got back to the apartment. Doing most of our packing that night, we got up early the following morning, loaded everything into the hire car, and drove to Puerto de Mogan again for one last short session to see if Ed could catch his first flathead mullet. Sadly, he didn’t catch one, but a walk to the end of the rocks at the end of the channel, and a coordinated effort between the two of us, did produce Ed's first redlip blenny. Happy enough that he had caught yet another new species, we returned to the car and drove north, up through the mountains, until we reached Sardina.

The mountainous interior of Gran Canaria with the colourfulrock formations of Fuente de los Azulejos off in the distance.

Arriving in Sardina the conditions around the pier looked much better than our first visit, so we grabbed our gear and headed down. Armed with a few loaves of bread and a couple of tins of sardines in oil, I made up a bucket of groundbait and we began spooning it in.

Much better conditions than our first visit!

I had hoped this would draw in some saddled seabream, white trevally or Madeiran sardinella, so we could catch one on freelined bread flake. Any one of these three species would have taken us to forty species for the trip, our target for the week. Very few fish appeared however, so we had to change tactics. Switching to fishing on the bottom with tiny pieces of prawns, our attempt to catch a monkey blenny had predictable results, with lots of ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish instead making up the bulk of the catches. I did pull out a nice parrotfish that was a welcome capture, but not the fortieth species we were after.

I caught quite a few parrotfish throughout the trip.

Tired of catching the usual suspects from the rocks close in, I had a couple of casts out onto a sandy area further out from the pier. This proved to be a great decision when I hooked a fish and wound it in to discover it was a cleaver wrasse. Mission accomplished! Seeing the bizzare fish, Ed really wanted one too, and casting out to the same spot he quickly caught a couple of the colourful fish himself.

It had been a while since I last caught a cleaver wrasse, so it was nice to catch one again.

Also known as the pearly razorfish, the markings on them are beautiful!

Soon it was time to pack up and drive to the airport, but before we left Ed caught his first Guinean puffer of the trip. I've no idea how he managed to avoid catching them up until that point! I'd caught dozens of the pests! Just before we left, he also caught a nice striped seabream from the same sandy area the cleaver wrasse had been coming from. It was a nice fish to end the trip on.

The last fish of the trip was Ed's striped seabream. We'd both caught much smaller specimens from the channel in Puerto de Mogan earlier in the week.

So, another species hunting trip to the Canary Islands had come to an end. The fishing had been a bit of a mixed bag, but despite the conditions limiting our choice of venues, we had achieved all of our pre trip goals. I'd caught four new species and Ed had caught eighteen species for the first time too. We'd managed to catch exactly forty species between the two of us, with Ed catching two that I did not. He’d caught twenty eight species in total. Here's a summary of what I caught with the new species in bold...

1. Atlantic Lizardfish
2. Azores Damselfish
3. Bastard Grunt
4. Black Goby
5. Blacktail Comber
6. Bluefish
7. Bogue
8. Bright Glasseye
9. Butterfly Winged Comber
10. Canary Damsel
11. Cardinalfish
12. Cleaver Wrasse/Pearly Razorfish
13. Comber
14. Common Smoothhound
15. Common Two Banded Seabream
16. Convict Cichlid
17. Diamond Lizardfish
18. Flathead Mullet
19. Golden Grey Mullet
20. Greater Weever
21. Guinean Puffer
22. Hairy Blenny
23. Island grouper
24. Ornate Wrasse
25. Macaronesian Sharpnose Puffer
26. Mackerel
27. Madeira Goby
28. Madeira Rockfish
29. Molly Miller
30. Moroccan White Seabream
31. Mozambique Tilapia
32. Parrotfish
33. Planehead Filefish
34. Red Lip Blenny
35. Rockpool Blenny
36. Striped Seabream
37. Thick Lipped Mullet
38. Wide Eyed Flounder

Ed also caught...

39. Derbio
40. Bermuda Sea Chub

It was nice to fish with Ed and get to know him a bit better. We've been in touch with each other for years, but this was only the second time we've fished together. I'm sure it won't be our last foriegn species hunting adventure I've enjoyed two fishing trips in the last two months, but it won't be long until I'll be heading off abroad again. Later this month, I'm off to somewhere new, the Italian Island of Sardinia. Lillian is coming with me, and we're going with my mate Lee. I'm not sure what we'll be fishing for, and the fishing will be limited, but I'm really looking forward to wetting a line in the sun yet again!

Tight lines, Scott.

Even More Species Hunting Adventures On Gran Canaria: Part 3.

Keen to try fishing somewhere new, the next day we headed to a spot I'd seen other anglers fishing from in a YouTube video. Isla de Anfi is an artificial island that sits between Puerto de Anfi del Mar and Playa Anfi del Mar. Obviously, fishing in the marina, or from the beach, is prohibited, and as it turns out, fishing on the small island is not permitted either. A local who was fishing when we got down there, came over and told us that the police sometimes patrol the area, and whilst we wouldn't get into serious trouble, they would politely ask us to leave if they found us fishing. We only fished for thirty minutes before he approached us, and as the fishing was very poor, this information made the decision to leave a pretty easy one. I added one new species to our tally before we headed back up the hill to where we had parked the car, meaning the visit hadn't been a complete waste of time.

Isla de Anfi. No fishing allowed. We only spotted a sign as we left. If you decide to try here yourself, I'd visit at first light for a couple of hours.

A solitary small comber made our visit worthwhile.

We then headed west to Playa de Amadores to fish from its eastern breakwater again, but both the car parks were full, so we decided to head back to Puerto de Mogan once again. Having fished there twice already, we knew what to expect. The fishing had been reasonably consistent, and the draw of catching a red banded seabream, or something else unusual, was too hard to resist!

We just couldn't stay away!

Like previous sessions at the venue, we caught a reasonable amount of fish and in amongst the usual suspects we also added a few more species to our tally.

I knew it was a seabream when I hooked this common two banded seabream, but it wasn't the red banded seabream I was hoping would snaffle my squid strip.

I caught the first butterfly winged comber of the trip.

This diamond lizardfish also munched a strip of squid.

As the sun began to get fairly low in the sky, and the beach behind us began to empty, we decided to head around to target mullet for an hour or so in the channel. Ed wanted to catch his first flathead mullet, but there were a lot more mullet present and this made catching them very difficult. Numerous thick lipped mullet were around, and all we caught were those and some small golden grey mullet.

Our first thick lipped mullet of the trip.

Their thick upper lip with its rows of papillae make the species easy to identify.

The following day, we got up early and headed back to Playa de Amadores to ensure we got a parking space. First order of the day was a bit of fun in the rockpools at the end of the eastern breakwater.

I caught a few Madeira goby. They're not shy!

After catching a few fish from the rockpools, we turned our attention to fishing in the sea. I spent a bit of time trying to target garfish using a metal jig. I added a few pieces of thread from my fish handling towel to its treble hook to improve my chances of landed one should I get take, but despite getting a few hits, I didn't connect with any of the culprits. Switching back to fishing on the bottom out in the deep water, I caught a few bogue, as did Ed.

Bogue are quite a pretty seabream species in my opinion, in a sort of subtle way.

In the evening, we headed back to the bright glasseye spot. In my heart, I knew it was almost certainly a waste of time, as the condition were pretty much the same as they had been for the duration of the trip, but we went anyway. Whilst waiting for the security guard to leave and the sun to set, we fished from the beach nearby. The bites were few and far between, but came eventually and we both caught a few fish. I caught a bastard grunt and Ed caught his first Atlantic lizard fish and a greater weever. I caught a small wide eyed flounder and Ed caught his first one too, shortly afterwards.

A small bastard grunt. Much more common after dark in my experience, but you do catch some during the day as well.

Always love catching these pretty little flatfish. Ed was over the moon catching his first one too.

In the end, the conditions inside the glasseye spot were still very poor, so we decided just to head up to Arinaga to fish the pier there for an hour or so. We were both feeling pretty tired at this point, so we didn't stay for that long.

I ticked off a greater weever, just before we decided to call it a day.

We had been fishing pretty hard from the moment we arrived, and being honest, it had caught up with us. In the evening, we decided just to relax. I treated myself to a steak and a few cold beers, and we watched some videos on YouTube about the island and also some fishing videos too. We had two days left to reach our target of forty species, and I wasn't sure if we would do it. Hopefully we'd be suitably refreshed the following day to refocus and get the remaining species we needed.

Tight lines, Scott.

Even More Species Hunting Adventures On Gran Canaria: Part 2.

Early on day three, we headed south again, away from the strong winds that were coming from the north east. Again, our first stop was the small pond in Maspalomas. When we arrived, another angler was already at the  water's edge, fishing away.

No rod required! A little egret stalking its quarry.

Armed with tanago hooks and some bread, we quickly set about locating the suspected convict cichlids that I thought I'd spotted two days previously. It didn't take too long to spot a few, they're pretty distinctive little fish with bold stripes, and they moved around differently to the Mozambique tilapia too, hiding in the rocks in the shallow margins, close to the bottom. Given we were being a little bit naughty again, we caught a few and left before anyone noticed us. It was a fun way to start the day, I'd caught my first new species of the trip into the bargain, and Ed had caught his first convict cichlid too!

Does the fact that they have been released into the pond makes them former convict cichlids?

Heading back to Puerto de Mogan, we began the session fishing in the small tidal channel that runs out through the town to the sea, separated from the beach by a small rocky breakwater. Our target species from one of the blue metal bridges crossing over it, were mullet, and when we arrived, there were plenty of them around. Mainly small golden grey mullet, which we both quickly caught on freelined small pieces of bread flake, another new species for Ed. I also spotted a few that were bigger, a shade of light brown across their back and with yellow anal fins and edges on their tail fins too. We'd stumbled across some flathead mullet, a species I'd seen a solitary example of only once briefly before, last month whilst I was on Fuerteventura. With a bit of persistence, I managed to catch three of them.

My first ever flathead mullet and my second new species of the trip!

They have a very sort snout whose length is less than the diameter of the eye and have thin lips which have tiny serrated "teeth" on them that are just visible in this photo. Another key identifying feature is a well developed adipose eyelid, also shown in this photo. The base of the pectoral fin has a dark spot and when bent forward the pectoral fin reached past the rear edge of the eye.

In the water, the yellow markings on their anal fin and the lower edge of their tail are quite obvious, making targeting them specifically in a shoal of mixed mullet species slightly easier.

Ed tried his best to catch one too, but after a while the fish all became very wary, so we moved down to the end of the channel onto the small rocky breakwater on its left hand side. There, we set about lowering split shot rigs baited with small pieces of prawn into gaps in the rocks. My target species was a hairy blenny, and after pulling an ornate wrasse, a Canary damselfish and a Madeira rockfish out of one particularly deep hole, I caught one. Ed really wanted one too, but after trying for a while longer with no success, we opted to move again.

I find deep dark holes in rocks and boulder are a great place to catch hairy blenny.

They don't look very hairy out of the water, but when submerged, it becomes quite apparent why they are so named.

Heading around to the fish from the outside of the beach's breakwater again, my mind turned once again to catching a red banded bream. Once again the fishing was nothing special with some very quiet periods, but again we caught a few fish and were slowly adding more species to our trip's tally as we did.

There were lots of puffer around, like this Macaronesian sharpnose puffer. They are expert bait stealers, and a lot of the time you don't even feel them doing it! Regular bait checks were the order of the day. No bites after a short period usually meant a bare hook.

I caught lots of these Guinean puffer, but for some reason Ed only caught the more colourful Macaronesian sharpnose puffer.

Planehead filefish are also pretty skilled at stripping bait, with their small mouths and sharp teeth.

Casting out as far as I could, I caught a few blacktail comber. They definitely don't mess about nibbling at a bait!

From closer in, I managed to catch a huge redlip blenny by speculatively dropping my rig onto a rock that seemed to be a stopping point for a few of them. It was out of sight when this fish took my bait. It's the first time I've caught one without actually seeing them take my bait.

Like most blenny species, they can be pretty aggressive when being unhooked and handled. I wouldn't want those fangs in my finger, that's for sure!

On the way back to our apartment in Arinaga, we stopped at the bright glasseye spot again, but if anything the conditions had deteriorated, so we decided not to even bother trying. Checking when we got back, I noticed that the weather forecast had changed slightly towards the end of our stay and the wind was due to drop off the day before we were leaving. Hopefully, this might provide one opportunity to revisit and target them. We decided the following day to start the day off by trying to fish somewhere completely new that I had never visited before.

Tight lines, Scott.

Even More Species Hunting Adventures On Gran Canaria: Part 1.

Only five weeks after visiting the Canary Islands, I flew back down there again for another fishing trip. Returning to Gran Canaria for a week, this time I was accompanied by my mate Ed, who also enjoys a spot of species hunting. He brought with him a handwritten list of thirty-five species that he’d never caught before that he was keen catch. His target for the trip was to catch ten new species, which I was very confident he'd achieve. As I've fished in the Canary Islands a lot over the years, I’ve caught many of the species found there already, but was still hopeful that I’d perhaps catch some new ones myself, so set myself a target of three, with a bright glasseye being my number one target new species for the trip. Perhaps that doesn’t sound very ambitious, but I felt it was important to be realistic. No point setting unachievable goals after all. As an additional challenge, we also decided to set an objective of catching forty species between the two of us over the duration of our trip. 

After arriving in the evening, and dropping off our luggage at our apartment in Arinaga, we headed down to the town’s pier for our first after dark session. This was the exact same spot I’d fished at the beginning of my trip last month with my mate Gordon, so a feeling of déjà vu quickly kicked in. Fishing small pieces of prawn down the side, we quickly caught four of the species I had caught the last time I fished there. We caught a few Canary damselfish close to the pier, as well as lots of Madeira rockfish from the rocky bottom. The two main targets for the session were bastard grunt and cardinalfish, as Ed had never caught either before. Before too long, he'd caught them both.

There were plenty of aggressive Madeira rockfish hard on the bottom.

We both caught plenty of cardinalfish.

The following morning, checking the weather forecast for the rest of our trip, strong winds from the north were predicted, so we decided to head south. Stopping in Maspalomas, we quickly visited a small pond and caught a few Mozambique tilapia, Ed's third new species of the trip. Walking around the venue before we left, I thought I spotted some very small convict cichlids, so we decided to return later in the trip to find out if I was correct.

We quickly got a few dozen of these Mozambique tilapia before leaving. Strictly speaking, I don't think fishing for the invasive species is allowed, although the signs around the venue aren't exactly clear.

Drivingfurther west to Puerto de Mogan, we headed to the rocks that make up its beach's breakwater and fished from them into the deep water out in front of it. Last month, my mate Gordon caught a red banded seabream there, so I was hoping to catch one of those myself. The action wasn't great, with some quiet spells, but we caught a few fish and in amongst them Ed caught his first ever derbio. I didn't get what I was after, but my morning efforts were rewarded with a lovely parrotfish.

I'm not a massive fan of brown damselfish generally. They can be a real pain to identify, but that can't be said about the Canary damselfish, with its intense violet accents.

It had been a while since I caught a female parrotfish. It would end up being the only one of the trip.

In the afternoon, we visited the eastern breakwater of Playa de Amadores. Again, the fishing wasn't anything spectacular, and the action was sporadic, but we ticked off a few more species before we moved on again.

There were plenty of rockpool blenny in the rockpools. Another new species for Ed.

Casting out into the deep water on the outside of the breakwater, I caught quite a few Azores damselfish.

Our final stop for the day was the small harbour that has the resident bright glasseye population. Fishing isn't technically allowed, but when Gordon and I visited last month, the security on site saw us entering with our tackle and let us fish anyway. This time however, the guard on duty immediately approached and bluntly told us that fishing was not permitted. This was a bit of a blow. I really wanted to catch a bright glasseye. Their presence was sort of the inspiration for my return to the island! Heading to a small beach nearby, we had a few casts over the sandy bottom. I pulled out a few Atlantic lizardfish, a species Ed had never caught before, but he didn't manage to get one, sadly.

The Atlantic lizardfish prefers a sandy environment. It's cousin the diamond lizardfish is usually found over rocky ground.

In the evening, at exactly 18:00, the security guard left the site. We waited a while, to see if they would return, then entered once it began to get dark to see if we could see any bright glasseye. Due to the windy conditions, the water was slightly coloured up, and the surface had a lot of ripples on it. I shone my head torch around, trying to catch the reflection of the bright glasseye's huge eyes, but we didn't see any. Given the forecast for the rest of the trip was to get slightly worse, I was concerned we wouldn't get an opportunity to fish for them.

The next day, we decided to head all the way up to Sardina and Puerto de las Nieves located on the northwest coast of the island. With the wind coming from the northeast, I thought they might be slightly sheltered. Arriving in Sardina, a slow constant swell was rolling in, and making our way out onto the pier, a strong wind was howling through, so we headed to the small harbour further along the base of the cliffs. Fishing there provided us with a bit of shelter, but the action wasn't great, with ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish out in force. I did manage a nice parrotfish and a Moroccan white seabream.

In calmer conditions, the pier is a great spot that throws up lots of different species.

This male parrotfish almost broke me off when my line came into contact with the corner of one of the concrete cubes we were fishing from. I've started fishing with 11lb braid, previously I used 6lb, and this probably made a difference. My line was damaged, but it didn't fail.

This nice Moroccan white seabream also went straight for the refuge of the concrete blocks, but I managed to bully it away from them. 

Late in the afternoon, we headed further south to fish from the end of Puerto de las Nieves' ferry terminal. It was quite an effort to reach it, traversing rocks and concrete block for hundreds of yards. To be honest, other than getting a workout getting along there and enjoying the views of the cliffs to the south once we did, it was a very disappointing end to a pretty poor day's fishing. All we caught were ornate wrasse, Canary damselfish and Madera rockfish!

The impressive cliffs to the south of Puerto de las Nieves.

So, one evening session and two full days into our holiday, we had enjoyed some mixed results. Species wise we were into double figures and Ed had caught a few new ones, so that was promising. It was obvious that unless the weather forecast improved, our choice of venues would be restricted to those on the south coast, so that's exactly where we opted to fish the following day.

Tight lines, Scott.