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.

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Look what’s been caught!

Since getting back from the Canary Islands last month, I’ve not been out fishing that often. One evening session locally with my mate Ryan only produced two fish. Tough going and a reminder of why I don’t fish much here at this time of year. Receiving photos of yet another topknot and also a reticulated dragonet that had been caught by anglers I know in Greenock, inspired me to travel through a couple of times to try my luck. I’ve caught both these species before, but not in Scotland. Fishing over the spot where the reticulated dragonet was caught for a few hours at the start of the first session, produced a single black goby and over a dozen sand goby. 

This black goby was my first fish of the two sesssions. 

Twitching my tiny bait along the bottom, I caught loads of sand goby. 

Turning my attention to targeting topknot as high water approached for the last couple of hours of the first session, I wasn’t overly surprised when I caught a few small wrasse from down in amongst the gaps in the rocks I was dropping my rig into. 

Goldsinny wrasse are plentiful all along the rocky edges of the venue. Over the summer months, they become a bit of a nuisance. 

Corkwing wrasse are also present in great numbers. 

For my second visit, my mate Ryan decided to join me. I spent the entire session targeting a topknot down in the rocks, whilst Ryan fished a bigger bait at the edge of them, hoping to catch his first ever tadpole fish, another species the venue is known to produce. A brisk easterly wind made it a fairly cold day and to make matters worse the fish weren’t really in the mood. A few wrasse were caught between the two of us, and towards the end of the session, I caught a solitary Yarrell’s blenny. 

Yarrell’s blenny are a strange fish. I love catching them. 

Their head in particular is quite odd. I think it looks a little too small for their body!

So, the hunt for my first Scottish topknot will have to continue. Quite a few have been caught there now, so I’m fairly confident that I’ll get one eventually. A Scottish reticulated dragonet would also be most welcome, although I think that may require a massive slice of luck. Also falling into this category are streaked gurnard, lumpsucker and small-headed clingfish, three other species that have also been caught around Greenock that I’ve never caught before. So, I dare say I’ll be fishing there quite a lot this year. 

Tight lines, Scott.