Light game fun on Fuerteventura : Part 1.

On the 24th of February I headed to Fuerteventura with two of my mates, Lee and Nick, for a week's fishing in the sun. We planned on fishing light game most of the time and whilst we had heavier lure gear with us for a bash at barracuda, bluefish and bonito, the strong onshore winds that were forecast and the accompanying swell that would be probably be battering the deep water rock marks on the east coast meant we had realistic expectations about our chances of coming into contact with any of the trio. After arriving at our apartment in Caleta de Fuste we were keen to get fishing and headed down to the harbour just as light began to fade. Of course fishing in the marina itself was out of the question but we clambered onto the rocks at the back of its outer breakwater and started fishing there. Fishing my thoroughly tried and tested Angleworm on a drop shot rig I was soon into the first fish of the trip, a diamond lizardfish. Things were quite slow though as it got dark so we headed around to the other end of the harbour where we fished underneath a crane that was at the end of a small pier. This was a bit naughty perhaps but we fished straight down the outside and out away from the inside of the marina just in case any security guards approached us. After I'd caught a white seabream, a few cardinalfish and a nice couch's seabream Lee was getting frustrated after he had hooked and lost a few nice fish as he tried to lift them up. We weren't sure what they were but soon after I hooked one only to also have it come off on the surface as well. When I hooked a second and Lee climbed down the rocks to land it we found out they were salema. As we were perhaps fishing where we shouldn't have been we didn't take any photos of our fish.

The next day after having a look at the rock marks near Salinas del Carmen we decided to head south to Las Playitas. I thought it would be quite sheltered and my mate Ross who fished on the island last year told me it was a great mark for mini species that could also produce the odd bigger fish. The pier there was a very comfortable mark to fish from and really it was just the kind of place to begin the fishing properly after a lot of travelling the day before. It didn't take long at all for the three of us to start catching fish.

Canary Damselfish were present in good numbers. 

The odd common two banded sea bream was also caught. 

Lee caught his first planehead filefish. These were also present in numbers with small packs of them chasing lures and nipping away at them. 

Ornate wrasse and painted combers were also rather abundant. After a while I ventured off along the rocky shoreline to see what was in the rockpools below some cliffs to the left of the pier.

Las Playitas pier from beneath the cliff to the east. 

I was hopeful that I'd catch my first new species of the trip in the shape of either a hairy blenny or a redlip blenny but the much more common Madeira goby and rockpool blenny were all that I could winkle out. 

Madeira gobies are super aggressive and are very easy to catch. 

The rockpool blennies were a bit more wary. I tempted this one out from a crack down the side of a deeper rockpool. 

Soon the incoming tide forced me to abandon my search and I returned to the pier. Lee and Nick had been catching lots of fish and I soon added a few more species to my own tally.

The ragged tail on this annular seabream had no doubt been nipped by other fish in territorial disputes. 

This would turn out to be the only rainbow wrasse of the trip. 

Hoping to catch perhaps a chub mackerel or a derbio I started fishing a small metal fairly high up in the water. This resulted in a few bottom lurking predators charging up from the sea floor and grabbing it.

My light game metal only drew the attacks of lizardfish and painted combers.

Madeira rockfish are fairly common in the Canaries and also in the Mediterranean. The orange section on their lip is a key distinguishing feature.  

It was turning into a great day's fishing and the wind was keeping us nice and cool in the mid afternoon heat. In hindsight this wasn't a great thing as none of has put any sun protection on. Soon the exposed parts of our skin were beginning to look a bit red but rather foolishly we fished on...

Tight lines, Scott.

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