Avoiding a duck.

On Tuesday I headed to the Forth & Clyde Canal to target pike and perch on soft plastics. Things were tough to say the least and despite trying four different stretches I did not encounter any fish. When I got home I had a text from my mate Keith, whom I haven't seen for quite some time, asking me if I was free the following day so we could meet up and wet a line. I told him about my towpath blank, that I was indeed free but that I was unsure where we should go fishing. In the end we decided to spend the day at Orchill Coarse Fishery.

Driving up the M9 the next morning we soon arrived and set up a couple of rods each on Alex's Pond. Keith went with a ledgered worm on one and maggots under a small waggler on the other. I opted to fish a single maggot on the bottom under a waggler and double sweetcorn fished with a method feeder. Things were very slow and it took a while before the first fish was landed.

I was in the middle of loading my method feeder when my float rod started shaking in its holder. I'd not seen the float go under so I was lucky that this chub had hooked itself. 

After that things remained painfully slow for a while. The conversation centred around matters fishy for a bit, then we discussed last year's Scottish independence referendum result and Keith brought to my attention a conspiracy theory regarding postal voting statistical anomalies and potential illegal activities that might have caused them. All very interesting but I subscribe to the view that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Anyway, Keith and I both voted differently last September and we still get along fine.

The fish were clearly not in the mood. Keith gets comfortable and his fairly minimalist approach to fishing means he doesn't need an expensive seat box to do so.

The next thing hooked was a mallard that quickly scooted over the surface of the pond and grabbed my maggot when I cast in my waggler. Chaos then ensued as I attempt to "land it" as it tried its best to fly off. Having hooked a few birds in the past an successfully done so, unhooked and released them unharmed I was confident I could do so again and managed to get it out of the air and back in the pond. I slowly reeled it in and Keith was just about to net it when it took off again snapping my hook off in the process. Needless to say the punked up duck with its new #18 piercing and its mates were all a little bit more reluctant to go crashing about in our swims trying to steal our maggots after that.

Back to catching things that have fins instead of wings and shortly afterwards I got caught out again by another fish, baiting a maggot on one hook whilst it was busy on the bottom eating the sweetcorn on my other. Keith soon pointed this out to me, I quickly dropped my waggler rod, grabbed my feeder rod and my second fish of the day was soon being played out.

I was busy baiting the hook on my float rig when my feeder rod tip was pulled around. A short scrap later and this lovely bronze common carp was on the bank.

After this the action dried up again for quite some time. Another angler who was fishing a few pegs to our left wasn't having much luck either although he eventually caught a couple of carp. Keith, now getting a bit frustrated at not getting any bites, decided to head to the far end of the pond and soon reported that he was getting some interest so I headed round to join him. He wasn't having much joy converting the bites into hooked fish though and much to his annoyance a small F1 carp was soon pulling my feeder rod tip right over as it got hooked and charged off.

Keith found the fish but couldn't connect. I caught one of the culprits, a feisty little hybrid.

Much to his relief though, Keith then caught his first fish of the day, a chub, after switching to a method feeder. This was soon was followed by an F1 carp but only after it pulled his rod in. We just managed to grab it as it slowly got pulled out of the margin and out of sight. It was a close call but having successfully averted disaster we both laughed about it and agreed that had his rod gone all the way in then the fish would have been much bigger and would have probably grown in size the more he retold the story.

As well as angling in his spare time Keith is also keen on cricket so he was gald to catch a couple of fish and unlike me, successfully avoid a duck.

I then switched from a flat bed feeder to an in-line bait ball style feeder and this soon paid off when again a fish did its best to try and pull my rod out of the rest and into the pond.

What carp could resist a big tasty ball of groundbait, a few free offerings and most importantly, my hair rigged double sweetcorn hook bait?

Not this one, another common carp in fine condition. It ended up being the last fish of the session and was also the largest so I took my time playing it before Keith netted it for me.

So, typical of the time of year it was another slow but enjoyable session. I may have only caught four fish but I was glad as it was four more than my session the day before had produced. It was good to catch up with Keith again and I really enjoy our chats too, whether they be about fishing or exciting topics like politics and alleged electoral fraud on a national scale involving shady governmental agencies. Unfortunately Keith's job means he works a lot over the summer but I hope we can meet up and fish together more often than we did last year. The weather will soon be warming up a bit more and the coarse fishing should start to improve with it. Hopefully I won't be scoring any more ducks when I next visit a fishery or the canal, or catching them either for that matter.

Tight lines, Scott.

Here's one I made earlier.

Inspired by the beautiful hand crafted metal jigs that Angelo had shown us when Lee and I met up with him on Madeira and keen to explore shore jigging metals as a fishing style and I have a selection of small metals on their way to me as I type to supplement those I already have. Interested in learning some new skills and reduce the chances of losing the metals whilst at the same time hopefully improving my hook up rates I couldn't resist buying a very cheap fly tying startup tool kit for the bargain price of £20 along with a spool of thread, a packet of micro crystal flash, a bottle of fishing superglue and some small rig rings to make my own light game assist hooks. Not sure how difficult it was going to be I started watching a few YouTube videos and began practicing with the tools to get the hang of the jam knot, the pinch wrap and the whip finish. Using the components I'd bought along with some #4 hooks and some 50lb braid I gave making some assist hooks a bash and was quite surprised by the results of my first few efforts.

Here's one on an IMA Gun jig. I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

I have to say it was very satisfying making them and I love the fact that I can produce them exactly how I want, tailoring the hook size and cord length to each individual metal jig. They'll also work out cheaper than the ones you can buy too and I won't have to experience problems sourcing them either as finding them in the U.K. is virtually impossible and ordering from abroad can incur extra charges. Once I've made enough for all my metals and a few spares I'll hopefully catch some fish on them which will also be very satisfying.

Going forward I'd like to try making some of my own lures. Given I now have the fly tying tools I might buy a few more materials and have a go at tying some basic flies to chuck at the trout in the summer. Pouring my own soft plastics is something else I am keen to have a go at and it would be good to knock out a few paddletails for my trip to the Ebro in late August. Perhaps I'll get around to making some of my own metal jigs eventually as well. I doubt they'll be as nice as Angelo's as his were superb but that standard is something to aim for. Who knows, maybe one day my lure buying days will be over!

Tight lines, Scott.

Making a fresh start.

On Wednesday the weather forecast looked good with the wind in particular dropping away to virtually nothing so I headed west to Balmaha to fish for some of Loch Lomond's pristine roach. Unfortunately when I got there the pier was already taken by a couple of anglers who had made themselves comfortable and were fishing about half a dozen rods so I set up my mini seatbox on the rocks a little bit along to the right of the pier. It really was a lovely morning and as forecast there was hardly any wind at all. Maybe not ideal fishing conditions but sometimes fishing isn't just about catching fish and given the weather so far this year I wasn't complaining.

The surface of the loch was like a mirror and there was still a little bit of early morning mist over the water, hiding the mountains to the north. What a view!

Fishing a swim feeder of maggots with single maggot on my #18 hook it took a while to get a few little touches but I was quite content enjoying the peace and quiet. It was so quiet apart from the rhythmic noise of a woodpecker over on the small island opposite me hammering away and a couple of mallards diving around in front of me after any maggots that fell out of my swim feeder on the cast. There was also a small plane overhead lazily doing acrobatic manoeuvres, the pitch of its engine rising and falling slowly as it did. All very hypnotic, a bit like staring at my light feeder rod tip meaning I was sat there in a soothing trance like state. When the first decent bite eventually came my rod tip went over, I quickly lifted my rod and felt a good fish was on. My senses fully awakened again the fish was scraping away and I suspected it was a trout so kept my rod low to try and tire the fish before it got to the surface. Sure enough a silvery sea trout soon came into view and was out of the water twice doing its best to do an aerial display of its own but my soft rod cushioned these attempts to throw my barbless hook and after a few short bursts I slipped the fish into my net.

What a stunning way to open my 2015 freshwater tally.

Heart still pumping I released the fish and settled down again. The next hour or so was pretty quiet and I had returned to my chilled out state when my feeder rod tip pulled round quickly twice and I lifted into another nice fish. It fought a bit differently and I was confident it wasn't another trout but wasn't sure what it was. When another long silvery fish appeared from the depths I realised it was a powan.

Another beautiful silvery fish. One of the rarest freshwater species in the U.K. too so it always feels a little special when I catch one. 

Again quickly releasing the fish I settled down again to watch my rod tip and enjoy the warm sun on my face. There wasn't much happening for the next three hours however but I was quite happy just relaxing, enjoying the view and watching the wildlife around me.

Bright yellow flowers on the spiky gorse bushes.

A maggot drowning session wouldn't be complete without a little red breasted thief appearing and getting up to some stealthy tricks to try and steal maggots.

Things remained slow but pleasurable and I was pleased at catching two beautiful fish on such a nice day. I was just about to pack up when my rod tip went round again though and I soon landed a lovely roach. This encouraged me to have a few more casts but I called it a day shortly afterwards.

A lovely Loch Lomond roach in fine condition. 

The anglers on the pier had already left and some geese then headed off as well. I'd soon follow.

What a great day, it had been almost therapeutic. Balmaha pier is one of my favourite places to go fishing. I might try and get back before the ferry starts up again and the peace and quiet is spoilt by the never ending hordes of tourists that the summer brings. I'd like to catch a ruffe again and perhaps do some lure fishing for pike and perch. Now that I think about it I might return in the summer too actually as hiring a boat for the day is always an option to avoid the crowds and enjoy a day fishing in relative peace and quiet or I could always explore other spots around the shore too to seek a bit of tranquility and maybe some lovely Loch Lomond fish to disrupt it. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Icy cold Furnace.

To hopefully get my 2015 Scottish saltwater species hunt moving again I decided to visit Loch Fyne last Sunday. It has in the past produced a number of different species but at this time of the year my expectations were realistic and I had the much maligned dogfish in mind with perhaps the chance of a thornback ray as well. My mate Nick was keen to join me and I also asked along a lure angling enthusiast called Dimitrios who writes the excellent Luremaniac! blog. We picked him up in Glasgow on the way and after a quick visit to the Glasgow Angling Centre were soon on the road again. As we got closer to our destination the weather got gradually nicer and by the time we got to Loch Fyne the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Unfortunately the first mark, normally a good one for the two shark species I was after, was already being fished so we headed down the western side of the loch to Furnace quarry. It is well known amongst bait anglers as a conger eel mark but I thought it might also produce some dogfish and perhaps some other species but never having fished there before Nick and I were not sure what to expect.

Adequate warnings were posted.

Dimitrios on the other hand has fished the area extensively with very light lure tactics and while we set up on the pier he set off hopping around the rocks to target coalfish, cod and pollock using small metals. It might have been sunny but any icy cold wind was blowing down the loch and this made fishing from the wooden pier rather unpleasant at times. Undeterred, Nick and I were soon set up and had a single bait rod out each. I went with a mackerel bait on a pulley rig whilst Nick opted to fish black lug on a running ledger. Whilst we waited for bites we both started drop shotting Angleworm with ultra light tackle. This didn't produce any fish initially and then an old battered looking boat arrived, mooring up to our left.

One of the crew came around to ask us what we were catching. "Nothing yet!" was our reply.

Casting my drop shot rig around the snaggy bottom closer in eventually produced a couple of little taps and just as I converted two of them into a couple of tiny cod Nick caught a bigger cod on his bait rod.

One of my micro cod. It obviously still had a health appetite judging by its portly little gut.

Nick soon caught a second cod on his bait rod then I caught a short spined sea scorpion and a poor cod on my drop shot rig as Dimitrios returned to see how we were getting on, reporting that he had caught a few of his target fish.

I was quite pleased to catch this little fish. They aren't anywhere near as widespread as as their long spined cousin but seem to be more common in Scottish sea lochs than they are around the coast.

This little poor cod was the third species added to my 2015 tally so on that front things were going well.

Nick and I then joined Dimitrios fishing metals from the rocks but the wind was making things difficult and after a couple of coalfish and loosing some of our lures Nick and I tried another spot with the bait rods. We were sure that some dogfish would start biting but they never did and the water was very deep, we were struggling to hold bottom and our rigs were being pulled into snags resulting in multiple tackle loses. We ended up returning to the wooden pier and thankfully the icy cold wind had finally dropped off a bit. The sun had disappeared too though so it was still a bit chilly. Nick decided to drop a mackerel flapper down the side for a conger but probably would have been better visiting the mark at night for them. I lobbed out a mackerel bait again and drop shotted but neither of us had any joy. Dimitrios meanwhile went off rock hopping again and caught a few more coalfish, pollock and cod on metals.

Dimitrios fishes from the rocks in front of the nearby fish farm cages as the blue sky turns into a much more dark and moody one.

He caught a few dozen fish on a variety of different metals. This one wasn't even hooked, just having the vibe bait wedged in its jaws.

When he came back to the pier we called it a day and Nick and I hadn't added to our tally. I was surprised by the lack of action on our bait rods but I did move three species closer to my 2015 target of fifty from Scottish saltwater and it was nice to try fishing somewhere new. It was also good to meet up with Dimitrios in person for the first time, even if he did end up ambling off to do his own thing most of the day. He is quite dedicated to the style of fishing he enjoys most and clearly does it with great skill. Hopefully we can meet up again in the summer for a lure only session. A trip to Skye is something he's keen on so perhaps we can head up there?

Tight lines, Scott.

Species hunting adventures on Madeira : Part 3.

Last Thursday Lee and I had a lie in. When we got up and I sorted out our breakfast on the balcony there were a couple of anglers out on Praia Formosa below us surfcasting. I believe in the summer the beach hosts a "grunt hunt" competition.

I dare say these guys weren't drinking copious amounts of poncha the previous night. 

The girls were going to spend the day exploring Funchal again so jumping in the car Lee and I drove east to Caniçal to spend the whole day fishing there. Starting on the smaller of two concrete piers it was non stop action although the sport was provided by an endless stream of ornate wrasse. We caught dozens of them and when we cast out away from them the bites pretty much stopped. I did manage to add another species to my tally when I caught a Macronesian sharpnose puffer and Lee also caught a small wrasse that wasn't the ornate variety. 

Puffers might munch their way through your lures but they are pretty cool fish. Macaronesian sharpnose puffers are very colourful too with lovely blue spotting.

When Lee caught this we weren't sure about it's identity.

After a while we moved to the longer pier inside the harbour but this saw a dramatic decrease in the amount of bites we were getting. A passing local helpfully suggested that we try from some rocks towards the beach so that's what we did. Hopping out onto them we were soon catching ornate wrasse again then I hooked a slightly bigger fish at range that put up a good scrap trying to get down into the submerged rocks in front of me. 

I would later discover that this very lovely green fish was a male emerald wrasse and that Lee's earlier capture was a small female of the same species. 

As the tide slowly receded revealing the rocks in front of us Lee headed over to fish from a small pier next to a slipway to fish a different area and I joined him shortly afterwards. 

It was turning into a lovely day. It had been cloudy all week so I had stupidly left my hat in the apartment and had no sun protection cream on. Before long my bald head was rather sore.

Casting around the fishing slowed down a bit so I gave the drop shot rig a break and fished other methods. I started of with an AquaWave shad I pinched from Lee's bag on a Decoy Rocket jighead using a slow sinking caro to cover more water. This saw me catch a few more ornate wrasse and a second emerald wrasse.

A different presentation, more ornate wrasse.

 

Lee meanwhile began fishing some soft plastic lures that he designed himself on jigheads. The puffers soon made short work of those however.

Lure length reduced by 50%? Check. Perfect semi circular chunks bitten out? Check.The evidence of a couple of puffer attacks was clear to see.

Getting annoyed by the destruction of his prototypes Lee switched to a small Hart RSF Mebaru Blade and after a short time had a fish follow it and have several goes at it. When it came into view Lee called me over as he realised that it was a grey triggerfish. He tried to tempt it again but sadly could not and eventually it swam off again out to deeper water. It was still quite cool to see one and Lee carried on fishing the small metal. He was soon rewarded with his first ever diamond lizardfish.

Lee catches another new species.

I then tried fishing an IMA Gun metal in the top few feet of the water column with a straight retrieve and then a sink and draw approach. This didn't produce any fish either so I lazily switched back to my trusty drop shot rig baited with an Angleworm. This soon resulted in me hooking what I call a swimming snag. The type of fish that you are so under gunned against that you think you are attached to the sea bed for a brief moment. The fish doesn't seem to know it's hooked either and begins to carry on with its business, swimming off and  slowly bending your rod a little more. When you both realise what is going on the fish charges away and normally breaks you off which is exactly what happened to me. I was pretty annoyed with myself as I had tightened up my drag while fishing amongst the rocks to our left and should have loosened it off again. Luckily I wasn't kicking myself for too long as I had another nice take and my now correctly set drag was soon working to protect my light braid. The fish stayed deep and made a few powerful runs but I took my time and Lee gave me a hand landing what turned out to be a lovely common pandora, the biggest I have caught. 

Perhaps the swimming snag was a larger common pandora. I'll never know and it's probably best to forget about such bad angling incidents. 

We fished on into dusk and I gave some other metals some water time in the hope that some barracuda might arrive but they didn't so with an hour long drive to make back for dinner we called it a day. 

On Friday the girls had the car and headed off to explore the north coast so we stayed local. The wind had dropped off during the night and the sea was nice and flat and clear so we decided to give the rocks at Doca do Cavacas another go before sunrise. I told Lee I had a good feeling about the day but by the time the sun was up I was messing about in the rockpools again. 

Rockpool blennies have a nasty little set of fangs on them. Another subtle difference to our common blenny.

To his credit Lee carried on fishing away using a small Reins Palpuntin jig and was soon rewarded when his rod suddenly arched over and his braid started being stripped from his spool. I had just started drop shotting in the open sea to his left and quickly reeled in to go over and assist him with landing the fish should he require it. Lee skilfully played the fish out though and soon swung it up to hand. At first we thought it might be a blue runner but we'd later discover it was in fact a white trevally. 

Finally Lee caught a fish that tested his light game setup. I was so pleased for him.

Excited by this capture we both carried on fishing with a renewed sense of optimism. The clear calm conditions must have made a difference and shortly afterwards it was my turn to catch a nice fish when I caught my forth new species of the trip, a lovely pink dentex.

Still fairly small but these fish can't half pull when they want to. 

Not to be outdone Lee then joined my up on my rock and caught one too, again jigging his small metal close to the bottom. It was turning into a great start to the day. 

Reins Palpuntin proves deadly again. 

After that brief period of action though things slowed down again so we decided to have an amble along the beach to the rocks at the opposite end. On the way I caught a small lizardfish and when we got there I decided to scout even further west to look for a new spot. I tried a few places but this only resulted in heavy tackle losses and I ended up all the way along in Câmara de Lobos after walking for about half an hour. I sent Lee a message to tell him where I was and he replied telling me that he had caught a nice striped seabream and was now on his way along to rejoin me.

Unfortunately this fish's mouth was badly damaged by the treble hook fitted to the bottom of the jig so Lee dispatched it and gifted it to a local fisherman. This improved the local's mood somewhat as he had just finished complaining to Lee that he had been fishing for two hours with nothing to show for his efforts and Lee had caught a nice fish almost straight away.

Meanwhile I had finally found my way onto a nice rocky outcrop on the eastern side of the bay and started catching a few ornate wrasse, a Guinean puffer and a lizardfish. Just after Lee arrived I caught my second pink dentex of the day. 

Probably my favourite fish of the trip so far. I love their elongated dorsal fin rays.

They also have incredibly strong jaws and a set of teeth that Dracula would be proud of. No doubt they use these to crush the shells of crustaceans they eat.

Not long after Lee arrived however the wind began to pick up and the bites dropped off so we headed around to one of the small restaurants in the town and treated ourselves to some tasty limpets for lunch and some cold lemonade. Feeling refreshed we fished from the back of the western side of the harbour again. I managed a few common two banded seabream and ornate wrasse.

For some reason Lee just couldn't seem to catch himself any seabream despite fushing right next to me and using the same approach.

Even I have to admit that ornate wrasse were getting pretty annoying to catch and I'm normally happy just catching fish.

I then had a text from the girls to say that they were heading back from the north and would come and pick us up. Before heading back to the apartment I drove us up some crazy winding roads to get to nearby Cabo Girão to enjoy the spectacular views from the viewing platform.

What a view. There is also a glass section you can stand on and look down the cliff!

At the start of the week I had promised the girls that Lee and I would catch some fish to eat on our last evening on the island. We specifically had barracuda in mind as I fancied grilling steaks of it. Obviously we failed to catch one so we went out for another meal in the small restaurant near the apartment instead. This time we avoided the poncha as we had to make a start to packing up ready to head home the following evening. Angelo got in touch later that night too and arranged to meet us at Doca do Cavacas early in the morning so we all had an early night.

The last sunset of our trip.

Up early Lee and I were at the mark at the agreed time but Angelo was a bit late. No prizes for guessing that a few glasses of poncha the night before were blamed. Angelo catches lots of his fish on small jigs that he makes himself and he very kindly gave Lee and I one each as a gift.

Beautifully made, I was reticent about using it in case I lost it to the rocky seabed but figured Angelo didn't give me it to admire so I had a go fishing with it.

Lee and Angelo jigging away. 

As the session went on it soon became apparent that the water wasn't as clear as the day before. Angelo suggested we move to another spot so we headed east along the cliffs before climbing down onto some rocks. Two other anglers were already on Angelo's first choice of mark but no sooner than we had scrambled down to his second Angelo was into a fish straight away.

First cast at the new spot and Angelo's rod soon had a nice bend in it.

Lee and I were suitably impressed and a pink dentex was soon landed. Lee then managed to catch a lizardfish on his jig before Angelo then had a blacktail comber and a nice common pandora on his.

Angelo with his common pandora. "Work your jig slowly and close to the bottom." was Angelo's advice.

I tried my best to emulate Angelo's success. My experience of fishing jigs in this manner is pretty limited but I did manage an ornate wrasse much to Angelo and Lee's amusement.

Unfortunately heeding Angelo's advice eventually led me to snagging my lovely little jig on the bottom and I was unable to free it. I was quite disappointed to loose my gift and reverted to fishing a drop shot rig for the last half an hour of the session. This saw me catch a canary damselfish, a few more ornate wrasse and a couple of blacktail comber.

A nice little blacktail comber. My last fish of the trip?

Soon it was time to say goodbye to Angelo as we had to head back and check out of our apartment and Angelo had to go to work. It was a real privilege fishing with him and watching him catch fish on the jigs that he made himself with great skill. It's a pity that we could not have fished together for longer and I was gutted that I lost the jig he gave me. His use of jigs has inspired me to explore this style of fishing more myself though and I'll be trying to do just that in the summer.

Back at the apartment the keys were handed into reception and all our gear packed up and loaded into the car. We had four and a half hours left before we had to be at the airport though so the four of us drove to the north coast to Porto da Cruz for lunch. In the back of my mind was the possibility of perhaps having a few more casts but when we got there the sea was quite coloured so we didn't bother. Instead we just relaxed and enjoyed some very succulent Espetada, marinated beef cooked on skewers, another of the islands tasty dishes.

The north coast is pretty spectacular.

After lunch I popped inside the restaurant to freshen up and spotted these goldfish in a small pool inside.

Lucky they were inside the restaurant otherwise I might have had a go at catching them!

Driving back through the island's interior we still had some time to kill so we decided to drive up to the peak of one of the islands mountains. The drive up was absolutely breathtaking.

The interior of the island is lush and green.

Small villages and allotments seemed to be built on every conceivable flat piece of land.

Heading higher up we passed through the clouds.

Before we knew it we were up above them and the lush green surroundings gave way to a harsher landscape.

The mountain we went up was Pico do Arieiro. It is the third highest mountain on the island at 1818m above sea level.

It was nice to end the trip on a high.

The drive back down towards the south side of the island was just as awe inspiring and before we knew it another great holiday was over. On the fishing front I had caught over two hundred fish and whilst I didn't reach my little species hunting goals of twenty five species including five new ones I had a lot of fun trying. Here's a summary of everything I caught. New species are in bold.

1. Atlantic Lizardfish x 7
2. Bastard Grunt x 12
3. Black Goby x 1
4. Blacktailed Comber x 4
5. Canary Damselfish x 26
6. Cardinalfish x 1
7. Cleaver Wrasse x 1
8. Common Pandora x 1
9. Common Two Banded Seabream x 9
10. Diamond Lizardfish x 6
11. Emerald Wrasse/Atlantic Wrasse x 2
12. Guinean Pufferfish x 4
13. Macronesian Sharpnose Puffer x 1
14. Madeira Rockfish x 8
15. Ornate Wrasse x 114
16. Pink Dentex/Lumphead Seabream x 2
17. Rock Goby x 5
18. Rockpool Blenny x 7
19. Saddled Seabream x 2
20. Striped Red Mullet x 1
21. Striped Seabream x 1
22. White Seabream x 3

The fishing was tough at times and perhaps some larger fish would have been nice but personally I think you have to make the best of what is on offer and I think we did that given the time of year and also the conditions. Barracuda had eluded us once again and it would have been nice to catch our dinner. I believe the ones found around Madeira are the Yellowmouth variety (Sphyraena Viridensis) so it would have been a new species for me had I caught one. It was really nice to meet Angelo and Telma, they were a lovely couple and so passionate about their fishing. I think Lee and I will return to Madeira and if we do I hope we can go fishing with them. Perhaps the summer of 2016 would be a good time to go back? Only one way to find out!

Tight lines, Scott.