Species hunting adventures on Rhodes: Part 3.

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.

First out was an incognito goby. The easiest of the three to catch.

Next out was a small peacock blenny, a little bit trickier as they’re not quite as aggressive and can get spooked.

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!

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.

Yet another spot that looked like it had loads of potential, but was almost entirely devoid of fish!

This Mediterranean rainbow wrasse was scant reward for my efforts!

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.

A strange looking building. The actual fish are displayed down in the basement.

Seeing lionfish was great, they’re beautiful fish, but I really wanted to catch one!

Can you see the wide eyed flounder?

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.

Whilst wandering through a wooded area near the Old Town’s moat, I spotted this large wall brown butterfly.

The old walled city of the Old Town of Rhodes.

There are a few old windmills down by the harbour.

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.

Little annoying buggers! Ocassionaly they would pull their party trick.

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.

Archangelos has several excellent food options. Some less traditional, but still delicious! I had to have my photo taken with the Stifis Bros menu. 

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.

This is a crimson speckled moth. It's not a butterfly!

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!

Brave or stupid? I don’t know, but the praying mantis was actually quite chilled out!

I popped it on to a nearby tree branch and off it went.

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!

This plump parrotfish grabbed my prawn chunk and did its best to get down into the rocks.

The Red Sea goatfish also gave me a decent scrap on my trusty Rock Rover.

Another hard session in the baking sun!

I’m not in any way a religious person, but perhaps Agios Nikolaos could deliver some better fishing!

It’s hard to beat a delicious Greek Salad. We ate lots of them throughout our holiday.

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.

What a simple yet stunning view!

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.

Also known as the false albacore, the little tunny is a small species of tuna.

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!

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!

These yellowtail barracuda are a smaller species that has arrived from the Red Sea.

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.

Click here for the final part…

Not more species hunting adventures on Gran Canaria?!: Part 1.

Last month I flew down to the Canary Islands for the second time this year after Lillian and I decided a couple of months ago to have a holiday on Gran Canaria. I’ve visited the island for fishing trips with my mates three times over the years, but for Lillian it was her first time visiting Gran Canaria. Our accommodation in the small fishing village of Castillo del Romeral was next to the sea and had a small harbour, but was well away from the main tourist areas, so we were really looking forward to a relaxing vacation. When we arrived in the afternoon, we unpacked our bags and then went for a walk around. A strong wind was blowing and a slight swell was eviden with waves crashing on the shore, but thankfully this was forecast to drop off over the coming days. In the evening after dinner we visited the pier in the nearby town of Arinaga. For some reason it's the place I always fish first when I visit Gran Canaria, perhaps because it’s usually close to where I've stayed and is very sheltered from the prevailing wind. I was pleased to see that the statue of the angler located on it has been given a new rod. The last time I visited he only had half of a butt section!

A nice new rod for this local fisherman.

Work was being carried out on the pier, and as a result we couldn’t get along to the end as most of it was fenced off, so I fished from the steps at the side, next to the slipway. The water was slightly coloured up and there was a bit of suspended weed in it, which was a bit of a pain when I tried to cast out into deeper water. Dropping pieces of raw prawn straight down the side over rocky ground, there are no prizes for guessing what species I caught first.

My first fish of the trip was this ornate wrasse.

It was followed by a treble shot of Canary damselfish. Maybe a three hook rig wasn’t a great idea?

A Madeira rockfish was the third species to get to my bait first.

As it got dark, I was expecting a few cardinalfish to start feeding, but the three species I'd already caught weren't giving anything else much of a chance, either getting themselves hooked or stripping the bait in no time. That was until I caught a rather large blenny, which I was pleasantly surprised to discover was a Molly Miller.

The first time I've caught a Molly Miller fishing blind and it was the biggest I've ever caught by a distance.

The next day, we drove around the southern side of the island to the end of the CG-1 and down into the picturesque town of Puerto de Mogan. After a visit to the local Spar supermarket to get a small sliced white loaf, I spent an hour or so fishing in the canal that runs up into the town. The tide was in and there were plenty of mullet swimming around. Fishing from a small bridge over the canal, Lillian fed in a constant supply of free offerings and once the fish were feeding confidently and competing with each other, I soon caught a few freelining bread on my favourite presentation, a two hook rig. 

All the mullet I caught at this first spot turned out to be the thick lipped variety.

Seeing a few salema swimming about underneath the mullet, I added a split shot to get my rig down below most of the mullet where they could get to it. This worked perfectly and I caught a couple before we went for a stroll around the town's streets and marina.

Salema love a bit of bread too!

The area around the marina is very nice, with immaculately painted houses, lots of lush plants and colourful flowers. 

Walking back in the direction of where we had parked the car, I got permission to spend another hour pestering the mullet again, this time at a second spot a little further down the canal. Again Lillian did a great job of getting the resident fish fighting over free offerings and I caught another dozen or so. Most of them were thick lipped mullet, but I also caught a couple of golden grey mullet in amongst them. Sadly, I didn’t spot any flathead mullet in amongst the shoals, a species I caught there for the first time during a trip last year.

One of two golden grey mullet. 

In the evening after dinner, I headed down to the harbour in Castllo del Romeral for a quick session after dark. Poking around in the rocks I caught a few fish, but again the water was slightly coloured up and as a result the bites were strangely few and far between. 

I caught this small dusky grouper down in a dark hole. 

Pufferfish normally switch off after dark. I guess this Macaronesian sharpnose puffer fancied a bedtime snack. 

Cardinalfish normally switch on after dark. Hiding down in dark areas down in rocks during the day. 

Ten species in just over twenty four hours wasn’t a bad start to my species hunt, especially given I hadn’t been fishing all the time like I would on a dedicated fishing trip. I was a little bit concerned about the wind and also reports that a Calima, a large dust storm from the Sahara Desert, was on its way. It was also obvious that the water clarity wasnt as good as it usually is in the Canary Islands and seemed to be effecting amount of fish that were present and biting. I didn’t have a target in mind for the number of species I'd like to catch during the trip though, and really, I just wanted to enjoy whatever short sessions I could do as the holiday progressed. That said, a new species or two would have been nice, but my options on that front were quite limited.

Tight lines, Scott.

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More species hunting adventures on Tenerife: Part 3.

Keen to catch some different species, we decided to visit the small concrete pier located at the northern end of Playa de Fañabé, a long artificial beach in Costa Adeje made from golden sand imported from Africa. Armed with a few loaves of bread, a couple of cans of sardines and a mop bucket and a large metal spoon borrowed from our accommodation, the plan was to freeline and float fish bread to catch whatever species we could attract and get feeding. Making up a bucket of groundbait and spooning some into the sea soon drew the attention of some small mullet and derbio. Freelining tiny pieces of bread flake on #20 hooks, I soon caught a couple of mullet, a derbio and bogue.

The small mullet turned out to be golden grey.

A bit more cautious, a small group of derbio sat further out and were eating the groundbait much lower in the water column. Adding a small split shot helped get my bait down past the mullet intact.

A few small bogue were also in amongst the shoal of golden grey mullet.

After a while, I turned my attention to catching one of several redlip blenny that Nick had spotted straight down the side of the pier, sitting on the submerged rocks. They are fussy eaters, possessing a specialised mouth that is adapted to scraping food from the surface of the rocks they live on. Usually, it takes a bit of patience to catch one, and even that doesn’t guarantee success. Much to my delight, one of them lashed out aggressively, hit my small prawn chunk almost straight away and was hooked.

This redlip blenny was acting aggressively, in my opinion, not feeding. Possibly this was purely territorial behaviour.

By this point Ryan had given up trying to catch a golden grey mullet, having hooked one but failed to land it. He had switched to fishing pieces of prawn on the sand further out and was rewarded with a nice striped seabream that put a nice bend in his ultralight setup.

Seeing Ryan catch this nice striped seabream, I wanted to catch one too.

Switching to similar tactics soon saw me catch a few, but none were as big as Ryan’s fish.

Next, I spent some time fishing with soft plastics close in, slowly bouncing them through the boulders there in an attempt to tempt an island grouper. I didn’t manage to locate any sadly, so before the end of the session, I spent some time casting a split shot rig baited with prawn out into the open sea. The bottom there was rocky, so this unsurprisingly produced a few Canary damselfish, ornate wrasse and puffers. Eventually, my persistence paid off when I finally caught something else.

This ended up being the only planehead filefish of the trip. Note the damaged tail. Probably the result of living with hundreds of pufferfish.

The following day, we fished from a comfortable rock mark at the back of Los Abrigos Harbour. Nick and Ryan fished heavy gear to see if they could catch some stingrays or sharks. I fished out over the sandy bottom. This produced lots of wide eyed flounder, some Atlantic lizardfish, a couple of greater weever, lots of puffer and a couple of stunning pearly razorfish.

Despite the fact they don't grow very big, wide eyed flounder really give a good account of themselves from deep water. Not as colourful, but its floral markings are very pretty.

Puffer were again a bit of a pain, but the less common of the two species, the Macaronesian sharpnose puffer, are undeniably beautiful.

The beautiful pastel shades of the pearly razorfish. Easily my favourite species of wrasse from this part of the world. Very tricky to handle as they are quite flexible and will try to bite as well!

Towards the end of the session, I spent some time fishing with some light metal jigs and a sinking hard plug, but my efforts went unrewarded. After packing up, we headed off to get some bait from the supermarket so that we could have a second evening session out with the heavy gear. Unfortunately, after spending a fair bit of time driving around to multiple supermarkets, none of them had any fresh mackerel, sardines or scad in stock. Rather than go out with inferior bait from the frozen section, we decided to visit the breakwater of Playa de San Juan’s harbour with lighter tackle to see what smaller nocturnal species we could catch. It was quite a productive session, and we managed to add a few more species to our trip’s tally.

As you would expect, we caught quite a lot of cardinalfish.

I caught this very large Madeira rockfish. When it came to the surface I thought it was a black scorpionfish because it was so big!

I caught the only axillary seabream of the trip.

We also caught a few bastard grunt, another species that's commonly caught after dark.

Nick caught the best fish of the session. A small Moroccan white seabream.

Before we left, Ryan was fishing with a small paddletail on a jighead down the inside of the harbour wall when a barracuda appeared from the shadows, grabbed it and charged off, taking him completely by surprise. Fishing with ultra light tackle, with only a 6lb fluorocarbon leader, the fish bit him off instantly. The three of us spent a while trying to catch using heavier tackle but had no luck. Every so often we heard a splash as a barracuda hit the small baitfish that they were hunting from just below the surface. Just before we left we also spotted a solitary and fairly large bright glasseye also taking a small baitfish right at the end of the breakwater. We switched to small straight lures on 2g jigheads to try and catch one of those, but again we had no luck, so we called it a night.

On our last full day on Tenerife, we headed to fish from the rocks to the left of Playa de la Arena. The fishing was pretty slow. Casting out onto a sandy area, I was hoping to add a lesser weever to our tally but the only sand dwelling species that I caught was a pearly razorfish. Closer in only produced a few Canary damselfish, too little reward to be balanced precariously on the uneven rocks we were perched on, so we made the decision to head to the breakwater at Playa de San Juan for the rest of the day.

Playa de la Arena is a popular black volcanic sand beach.

Ryan found an elevated position to fish from.

A female pearly razorfish exhibiting silver scales on the sides of its stomach.

 We quickly decided that it wasn't worth persisting with the mark just to catch even more Canary damselfish!

Arriving back at the end of the breakwater, thinking about it, I realised that it was the place where we’d probably caught the best variety of species during the trip. It was also a safe, comfortable venue making it easy to fish. I was hopeful that a few hours spent fishing there might throw up something we hadn’t caught during the trip, or perhaps even a new species for me. I saw an Atlantic trumpetfish there back in 2015 and African sergeant have also been caught there recently, so we knew that it could produce all sorts of species. We caught plenty of fish as we enjoyed fishing in the warmth of the afternoon sun one last time, but I didn’t catch any new species and none of the three of us caught anything that was a new addition to our trip tally.

I caught this deep red cardinalfish with black accents on its fin tips.

We also caught lots of Guinean puffer. Over the duration of the trip, we must have caught well over a hundred of these between us!

All too soon, our time on Tenerife was coming to an end, and as is sometimes the case, the best conditions of the trip were forecast to arrive as we were about to fly home! We went out for something to eat on the last night of the trip and packed our bags ready to fly home the following afternoon. None of us were particularly looking forward to arriving back in a freezing cold Edinburgh, where a nasty cold snap had plunged the temperatures to below zero. With a few hours to kill the next day before we had to be at the airport, we drove up to the north of the island, up into the hills to Mirador De Jardina where we enjoyed some amazing views.

The mountains of Gran Canaria poke up above the clouds in the distance.

One last look at the magnificent Mount Teide.

It had been great to get away with Nick and Ryan again, we'd all enjoyed the trip, and we had caught a lot of fish. The windy conditions had limited our choice of fishing venues a bit, and the heavy presence of four particular species had been very frustrating too.

Here’s a summary of the species I caught, with the three new ones highlighted by bold text…

1. Atlantic Lizardfish
2. Axillary Seabream
3. Azores Chromis
4. Bastard Grunt
5. Bogue
6. Canary Damselfish
7. Cardinalfish
8. Common Stingray
9. Derbio
10. Emerald Wrasse
11. Golden Grey Mullet
12. Greater Weever
13. Guinean Puffer
14. Keeltail Needlefish
15. Macaronesian Sharpnose Puffer
16. Madeira Goby
17. Madeira Rockfish
18. Ornate Wrasse
19. Parrotfish
20. Pearly Razorfish
21. Planehead Filefish
22. Redlip Blenny
23. Rockpool Blenny
24. Spiny Butterfly Ray
25. Striped Seabream
26. Wide Eyed Flounder

Nick also caught...

27. Moroccan White Seabream

It was nice to visit Tenerife again, it’s a beautiful place, but being honest, I think it’s perhaps my least favourite of the Canary Islands. A little bit too overdeveloped and the parking was a bit of a pain at times. The amount of Canary damselfish, ornate wrasse and puffer we encountered whilst fishing on Tenerife was ridiculous. It felt like there were much more there than I've encountered on any of the other main islands. I'd also like to visit the inhabited islands I haven't been to yet, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro. That being said, plans are already under discussion for a fishing trip to Fuerteventura at the tail end of the year, so that'll most likely be where I visit next.

Tight lines, Scott.