Species Hunting adventures on São Miguel: Part 2.

On day four of our trip Lee and Ross arrived. Lillian and I picked them up from the airport early in the evening and we headed back to the apartment. After they unpacked we all had a meal together and caught up a bit. Our friendship is one of those we just pick up where we left off and it really didn't feel like we hadn't seen each other for over two years! The lads were keen to do some fishing, so we headed out for a couple of hours after dark. We drove along the south coast to the harbour in Vila Franca do Campo, the most productive spot I'd fished so far. Surprisingly, the session was pretty slow, but we all persevered and caught a few small white seabream and some bastard grunt. Lee did hook into something big that stayed deep and started stripping line before heading under a large fishing boat and snapping him off. We could only guess what it was. I also caught a small fish that I initially thought was an Atlantic horse mackerel. It looked a little different though so I kept it so I could examine it further back at the apartment.

A bit of googling when we got back helped me confirm I'd caught my first blue jack mackerel. My forth new species of the trip. We'd see them for sale in the fishmongers the next morning, locally they are called Chicharros.

Apparently they're called bastard grunt from the Dutch word "bastaard" which means "hybrid". At one point biologists incorrectly believed they were not a species in their own right but a mixture of two others.

We headed back to Vila Franca do Campo harbour the next day so that Ross could catch a black faced blenny. I gave him a tanago hook to use and it didn't take him long to catch several, including some females. It was quite a productive session, although I'd caught most of the species already earlier in the trip. 

After a while we went for a drive around the western end of the island. Stopping off at a small pier in Mosteiros, where we caught endless wrasse from the fairly shallow rocky ground around it. This soon became a bit repetitive, so we jumped in the car again and drove east along the north coast to check out Rabo de Peixe harbour. After a quick walk around we decided to fish from a concrete plarform on the right hand side of its entrance. The water here was pretty deep but all we caught was endless wrasse again and the odd Guinean puffer. 

Keen to catch something else I suggested we head back to Ponta Delgada, to fish the slipway behind the fish restaurant. It turned out to be a good decision. Freelining bread and chunks of raw prawn produced plenty of thick lipped mullet, a few salema, the odd specimen rockpool blenny and you can probably guess what else, wrasse! The average size of the fish was a bit bigger though, some of them even bent our rods a little.

Unlike my failed attempts in Crete last year, I actually managed to land a few salema. They're  quite an attractive fish with those bright yellow stripes along their flanks. They're also supposed to be hallucinogenic if eaten. Never tried one myself to confirm this.

Lee and Ross both caught this specimen male blue wrasse within ten minutes of each other. We realised it was the same fish they'd both caught when we looked at their photos later on and noticed the slightly damaged top edge of its tail fin.

That evening after dinner Lee, Ross and I headed down to Praia das Milicias to ledger sardines for stingray with our heavy gear. While we waited for the sun to set I spent half an hour fishing in the surf with my trusty HTO Rock Rover and a piece of Angleworm on a drop shot rig. I only caught three lesser weever, but was happy enough as it was yet another species added to my tally. By the end of the session it also meant I was the only one of us who didn't blank on the beach that night as we had no joy catching anything on the heavy gear at all sadly.

Some fish can adapt their colouration to match their environment so they blend in. Black volcanic sand means a dark fish is harder for a predator to spot. Not sure what fish eats weever mind you as they live under the sand most of the time and are armed with several poisonous spines!

The following day, after popping into town and sorting out freshwater fishing licenses, we drove west to Sete Cidades. It's a small village located in the heart of the crater of an old volcano that also contains several bodies of water. After a nice walk around the side of the main lake we decided to fish from the bridge that crosses it. There were a few carp swimming around but we turned our attention instead to catching some perch on soft plastics. The resident pike had other ideas however and Lee caught two nice ones on his ultra light gear. Ross and I did catch a few small perch and I also caught a roach on a small piece of freelined bread.

Lagoa Verde and Lagoa Azul make up the largest body of water separated by a stone bridge.

The three amigos fishing away.

One of Lee's pike. Great sport on his ultra light rod and almost got under the bridge.

I was quite chuffed to catch this roach. My first one on freelined bread.

The following morning myself, Lee and Ross got up early and drove up to Porto Formoso harbour where I had booked us a four hour boat fishing trip with North Shore Sea Tours. We started off trolling for pelagic species but had no joy with those so we switched to fishing with jigs on the drift. Pretty quickly I caught a nice blacktailed comber close to the bottom. We also caught a few chub mackerel, blue jack mackerel and bonito higher up in the water column. It wasn't that rough, but despite taking some travel sickness pills in the morning just in case, my sea legs failed me, so I was quite glad when we headed back to dry land again. On the way back to port we spotted an angler fishing from a rock mark that looked pretty good so I marked the location on my phone.

The biggest blacktail comber I've ever caught.

Back at the apartment the lads had an afternoon nap and Lillian and I went down to the coast for a walk along Praia das Milicias, then carried on further along to Praia de São Roque. This spot looked like a potentially good stingray mark. The rocks to the right of it had deeper water in front of them and any large fish hooked could be landed over on the beach. When we got back I told Lee and Ross about the spot and later that evening we dropped the lads off there. Lillian and I went away and had dinner together and then met up with them again afterwards. Just after we arrived Lee caught a small stingray, which was the only one caught of the session.

Lee's stingray turned out to be the only one of the trip.

The following day in the afternoon we headed to the north coast again. This time we headed to Maia where we parked the car. Following the clifftop coastal path west, we then found steps leading down to the rocks where I'd marked the fishing spot the previous day. It turned out to be a great little session and the area was lovely too.

The view westward from the clifftop path was stunning.

The paths were lined with beautiful flowers.

Fenced paths and steps leading down to the sea made accessing the rocks down below very straight forward.

In no time at all the three of us were freelining chunks of raw prawn with a bit of split shot on the line to counter the wind and swell. 

It proved very effective and we had a lot of fun catching several of these hard fighting white seabream.

Ross caught the biggest one of the session.

Heading back to the car we decided to try our luck in freshwater again and drove south from Maia to Lagoa de São Brás, where we would try to catch some largemouth bass. The fishing was tough but eventually we caught a few small specimens.

Eyes bigger than its stomach.

In the evening we headed out locally and fished inside Ponta Delgada's huge harbour. Spotted rockling were the target species but we had no joy catching one. Instead we all managed to catch at least one greater forkbeard each, a new species for all of us and my fifth of the trip.

The greater forkbeard has elongated pelvic fins and a single barbule on its chin. It is the cousin of the tadpole fish, which is also known as the lesser forkbeard.

The next day we headed north yet again to the rocky shoreline to the east of Rabo de Peixe harbour where we spent an hour or so hunting in rockpools for spotted rockling. A few small crabs were found and used for bait on a split shot rig that was lowered into dark holes and in front of potential hiding places. A few dozen rockpool blennies later, we decided that trying to catch rockling during the day was a futile exercise and headed back to the south coast to fish the harbour in Villa Franca de Campo again. We tried a different area but the fishing was incredibly slow. I did catch my sixth new species of the trip though so that was a unexpected bonus.

A small red seabream. Also known as the blackspot seabream due to the small dark mark at the start of its lateral line.

The following day was our last together. Lillian and I were leaving a day before Lee and Ross and had to be at the airport in the afternoon. As we didn't have long before heading off we spent an hour or two fishing in the morning. Fishing in between the fishing boats in the working part of Ponta Delgada's harbour, the fishing was pretty poor sadly, but one species in particular was actively feeding. It was one I hadn't caught yet so I added one last species to my tally, taking my total to thirty one, before it started to rain and we headed back to the apartment.

We caught dozens of black gobies. My last fish of the trip was one.

Soon afterwards Lee and Ross dropped us off at the airport and we said our goodbyes. Lillian and I flew to Lisbon where we stayed for four nights before returning home to Edinburgh. Given the amount of fishing I was allowed to do on São Miguel I thought it might be a good idea if I didn't push my luck on that front whilst we were in the Portuguese capital, so there will be no species hunting adventures in Lisbon catch report to follow.

Anyway, despite the fishing being hit and miss, I was happy with my tally for the ten days and about catching a few new species too. Here's what I caught with new species in bold.

1. Atlantic Chub Mackerel
2. Axillary Seabream
3. Ballan Wrasse
4. Bastard Grunt
5. Black Faced Blenny
6. Black Goby
7. Blacktail Comber
8. Blacktail Rainbow Wrasse*
9. Blue Jack Mackerel
10. Blue Wrasse
11. Bogue
12. Common Two Banded Seabream
13. Damselfish
14. Derbio
15. Emerald Wrasse
    
16. Greater Forkbeard
17. Guinean Puffer
18. Largemouth Bass
19. Lesser Weever
20. Montagu’s Blenny
21. Ornate Wrasse
22. Parrotfish
23. Perch
24. Red Seabream/Blackspot Seabream
25. Roach
26. Rock Goby
27. Rockpool Blenny
28. Salema
29. Striped Red Mullet
30. Thick Lipped Mullet
31. White Seabream

*Unknowingly I'd already caught this species on previous trips to Madeira so not truly a new one.

Lillian and I really enjoyed São Miguel and we'd like to return to the Azores again, perhaps to explore some of the other islands there. I think a visit late in the summer might be better in terms of the weather and the fishing might be better then too, with some pelagic species coming in shore that time of year. It was great to catch up with and also to catch a few fish with Lee and Ross again. It always is, and on that subject, we all agreed that two years without a fishing holiday together was way too long, and we will be fishing abroad together at some point in 2023 hopefully. We haven't decided where yet but all agreed we need to do something special next time. I can't wait!

Tight lines, Scott.