With lionfish in mind, one of my target new species for the trip, we headed to Ladiko Bay, a spot where many swimmers have seen them whilst snorkelling. After parking the car and making our way over the rocks, I spotted a few fish in a large rockpool and set about catching them using tanago hooks baited with tiny pieces of prawn. This quickly produced three species.
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First out was an incognito goby. The easiest of the three to catch.
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Next out was a small peacock blenny, a little bit trickier as they’re not quite as aggressive and can get spooked.
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Lastly, the smallest golden grey mullet I’ve ever caught. I’m not sure how I caught it to be honest. Tanago hooks are pretty awesome!
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Making our way to the rocks, I spent some time fishing at close range hoping to tempt a lionfish from the ledge below. To my surprise, absolutely nothing was biting, so I tried further out. This produced a few yellow spotted puffer and a solitary Mediterranean rainbow wrasse.
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Yet another spot that looked like it had loads of potential, but was almost entirely devoid of fish!
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This Mediterranean rainbow wrasse was scant reward for my efforts!
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Once again, Lillian gave me the “You’re wasting your time you idiot!” glance, so we headed off to visit somewhere that I’d at least be guaranteed to see a lionfish. A short drive later we arrived in Rhodes Town and our first stop was its aquarium.
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A strange looking building. The actual fish are displayed down in the basement.
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Seeing lionfish was great, they’re beautiful fish, but I really wanted to catch one!
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Can you see the wide eyed flounder?
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We spent the rest of the day wandering around Rhodes Town, exploring the moat of the old walled city, having some lunch and then walking around the harbours.
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Whilst wandering through a wooded area near the Old Town’s moat, I spotted this large wall brown butterfly.
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The old walled city of the Old Town of Rhodes.
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There are a few old windmills down by the harbour.
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In the evening, we visited Stegna again to see if we could spot a moray eel, but there was no sign of any. The fishing was pretty disappointing, with puffers being right in the mood and biting off my hooks repeatedly.
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Little annoying buggers! Ocassionaly they would pull their party trick.
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I was feeling even more frustrated that my efforts seemed to have gone unrewarded for a couple of days. Lillian was also disappointed too, having only had to deploy my net once! Calling it a night, we headed back to Archangelos and treated ourselves to some smash burgers before heading back to our accomodation.
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Archangelos has several excellent food options. Some less traditional, but still delicious! I had to have my photo taken with the Stifis Bros menu.
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The next day, we had a late start and decided to walk down into town to visit the bakey again and then up the hill to the old fortress. Whilst inside the its ruins we had a break and as we were eating our Spanakopita, a traditional Greek savory pie made with layers of crispy phyllo pastry filled with spinach, feta cheese, and fresh herbs, I noticed a moth landing in the dried out vegetation nearby and took a photo.
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This is a crimson speckled moth. It's not a butterfly!
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Walking back to our accomodation, a large insect flew across from our left and landed on Lillian’s leg. In a very calm and controlled fashion, and without shrieking at all, she quietly asked me to remove it, so I used her hat to do just that. It was a small praying mantis! We’ve encountered a few over the years during our travels, but this time
I wanted to try to handle it. Offering up my hand, much to my surprise,
and Lillian’s horror, it climbed straight onto me!
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Brave or stupid? I don’t know, but the praying mantis was actually quite chilled out!
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I popped it on to a nearby tree branch and off it went.
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In the afternoon we drove to Kolymbia, where I spent some time fishing around the town’s harbour. The fishing was once again tough, with bites few and far between, but by that point I had sort of just accepted the fact that I simply wasn’t going to catch a lot of fish, and I’d have to keep working hard for those that I did. Any frustration from the previous few days had gone, and somehow I just felt more relaxed. I did manage to catch a nice parrotfish and a big Red Sea goatfish as well as a few ornate wrasse and some yellow spotted puffer. Before heading off to get out of the sun and to have some lunch, we passed a small shrine dedicated to Agios Nikolaos, the patron saint of sailors, fisherman and travellers. I decided to say a quick prayer!
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This plump parrotfish grabbed my prawn chunk and did its best to get down into the rocks.
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The Red Sea goatfish also gave me a decent scrap on my trusty Rock Rover.
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Another hard session in the baking sun!
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I’m not in any way a religious person, but perhaps Agios Nikolaos could deliver some better fishing!
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It’s hard to beat a delicious Greek Salad. We ate lots of them throughout our holiday.
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Afterwards, we drove north to fish on Paralia Afantou. We managed to find a spot next to an old military installation that provided us with a bit of respite from the sun. It was a beautiful spot and there were plenty of fish biting from my first cast. Just past the drop off, there were plenty of small striped seabream and I soon caught a few of them.
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What a simple yet stunning view!
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It seemed as if my prayer for more fish had been answered, but perhaps I should have asked for bigger fish too? After a while I decided to spend some time casting a metal jig and then a small hard lure around. I had a couple of follows from small lizardfish, but they didn’t commit. I was just about to give up when something stronger hit my lure further out and charged off, taking line. I had no idea what it was, but after a decent fight my first ever little tunny was netted by Lillian.
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Also known as the false albacore, the little tunny is a small species of tuna.
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This little lure has been in my collection for a few years now. A fast sinker, it weighs 8g and as a result casts brilliantly for its size. I think I might treat myself to a few more!
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I was over the moon to catch my forth new species of the trip, and hopeful there might be more around, so I carried on fishing for a little while longer. Nothing else hit my lure however, so we jumped into the car again and drove south to fish dusk from some rocks near Paralia Vlicha.
Making our way onto the flat rocky platform, I still had my plug tied on, so I gave that a few casts. Nothing was biting, but as I retrieved it at various speeds and gave it different actions to try and entice a take, Lillian and I were both surveying the submerged ledge directly in front of us. We were hoping to spot a lionfish, but instead it was a moray eel that appeared from underneath a rock. I had used up all my bait earlier in the day, so I decided to offer the fish an isome crab rigged on a cheburashka weight. This worked a treat, and after taking it into its mouth, the eel reversed back under the rock. When I struck though, I pulled the hook out of its mouth. How frustrating! For a while, I tried to tempt it out again, but there was no sign of it. Light was beginning to fade, so I switched back to fishing with my sardine patterned lure. As it gradually got dark I told Lillian that it was “cuda o’clock” and a few casts later I was proved right when I caught one!
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These yellowtail barracuda are a smaller species that has arrived from the Red Sea.
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I fished on for a while longer, but with a return to the same spot planned for dawn the following day, we headed off to get some food to have back at the hotel and had an early night.
Tight lines, Scott.
