Not more species hunting adventures on Gran Canaria?!: Part 2.

On day three of our holiday, we visited a few spots up the east coast to the north of where we were staying. Our first stop was the pier at the northern end of Playa de Melanura, to see the statue of Neptune that is located on a submerged rock out in the sea. I also planned on doing some fishing there, but it was completely closed off for repairs unfortuntately. April must be small pier repair month on Gran Canaria.

The Roman god Neptune emerging from the sea.

Heading south, we eventually found a spot at the end of Playa de Salinetas where I could have a few casts. I was expecting to catch a few sand dwelling species, but much to my surprise nothing was biting at all further out. Stupidly winding my rig in to some rocks at the water’s edge immediately remedied that problem, but only in the most predictable way possible!

A treble shot of ornate wrasse! Time to head somewhere else!

Driving up the coast to El Bufdero, I wasn't too shocked to find that the swell was too big and fishing from the rocks there was pretty much out of the question. Going for a stroll along the coastal path we quickly discovered that the area was home to a large population of Cran Canaria giant lizard, which we spent some time observing as they lazed in the sun, and scrambled around the boulders, dissapearing down in between them when we got too close. At one point two large individuals had a stand off and a brief fight which was quite a sight!

With the sea breaking over the rocks, I'd just have to return when the swell died down.

There were lots of these Gran Canaria giant lizard around. They can grow to 80cm long, although we didn't see any that big.

Driving north, we visited the small fishing town of San Critóbal. I fished for an hour or so from the sea defence cubes at the end of the harbour's breakwater. There was a fair amount of weed in the water, but the fishing was quite productive and I caught a steady stream of fish from a sandy area.

There were lots of bastard grunt around.

I also caught a few small bogue,...

...and a solitary striped seabream.

Casting further out, I found a few rockier patches. This initially produced a few Canary damselfish and ornate wrasse, but in amongst them, I caught two other species in the shape of a couple of hairy blenny and a nice common two banded seabream.

I normally catch hairy blenny from down in the rocks. This was the first time I've caught them at range from the open sea.

This common two banded seabream had a deep golden colour to it and put up a good scrap.

Just before we left, a spear fisherman swam by with a few parrotfish attached to his belt.

In the afternoon we drove inland to visit Cuatro Puertas, a complex of caves at the top of a mountain in the south of the municipality of Telde. There was a road most of the way up and then an easy footpath led up a few different sets of caves around the peak of the mountain.

Cuatro Puertas means four doors in English. All of them lead to the same large cave inside.

Gran Canaria Airport and the coast off in the distance.

More caves can be found on the southern side of the mountain along a narrow path.

In the evening after dinner, we popped down to the harbour in Castello del Romeral. Yet again, there weren't many fish biting, but I did manage to add two more species to my tally. Firstly, I annoyed a large redlip blenny enough by aggressively twitching a small lure on a jighead right in front of its face to enduce an aggresive reactionary attack. Striking quickly, I managed to hook the fish in its fleshy top lip and quickly hoisted him out. Shortly afterwards, the light from my headtorch was reflected back towards me by the large eyes of a couple of bright glasseye. A very cool species, I spent a bit of time fishing around the three large submerged rocks where they were lurking to try and tempt one, but wasn't successful. I was however rewarded with couple of island grouper.

Algae eating fish like redlip blenny usually need to be annoyed if you're gong to get one to "bite".

A couple of these small island smashed my small straight lures as I worked them close to some large boulders.

Before we left, we had the priveldge of watching a couple of large stingray swim into and then back out of the harbour a few times. Speaking to a local, we learned that at least eight different individuals have been regularly visiting the harbour for several years.

The stingray were huge and fairly easy to see despite the relatively poor water clarity.

Another half a dozen species added to my tally wasn't too bad a result given the conditions. The wind was due to drop off over the next few days, so I was looking forward to visiting some places that would become safe to fish. Hopefully the fishing would pick up as well!

Tight lines, Scott.