Whilst it's still quite a while away and my mate Martin and I are visiting the River Ebro primarily to target freshwater predators I was curious about what other fish live in the massive Spanish river. All you ever really hear about from an angling perspective is that the Ebro holds huge carp and catfish. When conditions recently have been a bit too miserable to go fishing I've been doing some research into what other freshwater species are found in the river and it turns out that there are lots! Whilst putting together a list of the forty plus species that are found in it I got a pleasant surprise when I discovered that one of them is the freshwater blenny!
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| Blennies are one of my favourite fish families so I just had to add this one to my "Most Wanted" list. |
To be honest I wasn't aware that there were any blenny species that lived exclusively in freshwater but this one does, hence its name! It has a fairly wide distribution too being found throughout southern Europe and northern Africa. It is also a popular fish that is kept in aquariums too. Normally found in fairly shallow water I'll be packing a few floats to fish maggots for them. I was already looking forward to the trip immensely but now I'm even more excited!
Tight lines, Scott.
PS: This isn't an April Fools.
You're ill mate, don't think they will be too much angling pressure on those, you catch them and I'll rig them for a large mouth
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know. Can't help it. :-D
DeleteHi Scott. I think the float methods are not the best for blennies. Try to lurk between and under the shore rocks with a small hook and with a maggot or small piece of worm as a bait. I and think this might be more succesful at the dark with the help of head torch etc. Here's my blog post about fishing them and some other species at Italy last autumn: http://fish-species-hunter.blogspot.fi/2015/01/alpine-cyprinids.html
ReplyDeleteHi Jani. A friend of mine has caught them on a float whilst targeting silvers in the Ebro and I have caught common blennies on float fished bread whilst targeting mullet but no doubt other rigs will work as well and I'm happy to try different approaches to catch my target. Really like your blog. I'm off to Tenerife in December so your report will help me greatly. Also loving your Thailand reports. :-D
DeleteThanks Scott! Hope You'll find your blenny at Ebro. I've been visited Ebro at 2007 but was too focused to Wels and Carp and didn't try any smaller species that time....
DeleteBy the way, would be nice to see you at Specieshunters.com too.