Not more species hunting adventures on Gran Canaria?!: Part 4.

Keen to catch at least one new species during the holiday, I’d been discussing opportunities with local angler Jesús on Instagram prior to the trip and had arranged to meet up with him to try and locate and then hopefully catch a sailfin blenny. Arriving in Punta de Gáldar in the morning, we met up with Jesús and the three of us made our way along a cliff top path before carefully making our way down a narrow winding path to some rockpools at the bottom of them. While I started fishing away, catching rockpool blenny, Molly Miller and a bright red Madeira rockfish, Jesús focused on looking for the target species. Being almost certainly the first person in the world to catch one on hook and line, I was happy to let him do so. A very small species, growing to a maximum length of only 5.5cm, and just a recent arrival to Gran Canaria, Jesús knew where to look and called me over when he spotted some in a very small rockpool.

I tried to spot a sailfin blenny around the edges of large rockpools, but there were lots of other species around, and I didn’t spot any.

This bright red Madeira rockfish wasn't exactly well camoflagued, so I quickly caught it.

Clambering over some rocks to where Jesús was croutching, I slowly got into position beside him, and he pointed out a male sailfin blenny sitting on the bottom of a small rockpool. It was tiny! Possibly not even 3cm long! Dropping a tanago hook baiting with a miniscule piece of prawn in front of the fish, it didn't show that much interest, but eventually had a couple of half-hearted nibbles. After maybe twenty minutes of hunching over, twitching my tiny bait trying to entice it, and then trying to hook it when it did have a go, I was unsuccessful. At that point, I decided to try a different bait. Using my scissors, I removed a barnacle from the rocks and pulled my hook through its insides. Being very soft, it didn't stay on the hook very well, but it proved to be a good desicion as the tiny fish immediately started attacking it eagerly. Hooking the tiny fish still proved very difficult despite the increased intertest, but eventually I managed to do it somehow and quickly lifted it out, closing my fist around it before carefully unhooking it away from any rockpools and popping it into my acrylic viewing tank. 

This tiny fish is a male sailfin blenny, named due to its tall dorsal fin. My first new species of the trip and possibly only the second ever to be caught on hook and line!

Here he is on my finger. So cute! Probably the smallest blenny I've ever caught!

Whilst I was taking photos of the male I'd caught, Jesús had spotted a female and caught it by hand so that I could get a photo of one too! Note the much smaller first dorsal fin and paler, less colourful colouration.

By this point, the tide was beginning to flood over the rocky platform we were on, so we headed back up the cliffs and along the top of them back to where I'd parked the hire car. On the way, we had a really enjoyable discussion about our shared passion for fishing. I always enjoy meeting up with fellow species hunters and thanked Jesús prefusely for generously giving up his time and knowledge to help me catch a really special little fish. Before we parted company, he gave me some information on the location of guppy in the village of Cruz de Pineda, so Lillian and I headed there next. Sadly, at the spots he told us to check, there were no fish present. We did see another nice butterfly whilst we we were searching though.

This is a Canary speckled wood. It's endemic to the western Canary Islands of La Gomera, La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. The cousin of the speckled wood we have in the UK, it looks very similar but has a darker upperside mainly due to the spots being a red/brown colour.

On the way back to Castillo del Romeral, we visited El Bufadero. The sea had calmed down considerably, so I fished from the rocks for a while. The fishing was, yet again, very slow sadly. All I caught from the deep water out directly in front of the platform were Guinean puffer, Canary damselfish and a couple of bogue. Dropping straight down the side, all I caught were a few ornate wrasse. Before we left I spent a bit of time fishing in a fairly large, deep rockpool. To be honest, I had quite a lot of fun trying to single out a large Madeira rockfish that had some beautiful bright blue markings on it's fins. I didn't manage to get through all of the other fish though, they were much more aggressive, and always got to my bait before the target fish did.

Lillian and I weren't alone on the rocks. We had plenty of company. 

Ornate wrasse are just total pests normally, but I was grateful something was biting!

I caught lots of these rockpool blenny,..

...and plenty of Madeira goby too.

The following day, we went back to Puerto de Mogan and I spent a few hours fishing from rocky breakwater that protects the town's small beach. It was quite overcast when we arrived and the beach was quite quiet. Unfortunately, the fishing was very quiet too. I fished bigger hooks and baits than I normally would, but this didn't pay off. The only real highlight was a nice male parrotfish that tried its best to break me off in the submerged boulders, but I managed to bully it out again a couple of times, and Lillian was ready with my net when it appeared on the surface. 

My only Mediterranean parrotfish of the trip. On my last trip to Gran Canaria I caught loads of them!

The sun then came out for a little while, so despite the fishing being a real struggle, I stubbornly fished on until I ran out of bait, which didn't actually take that long due to it being stripped by small Guinean puffer, a few of which I caught despite my hook being too big for their little mouths!

Waiting for the action to really kick off...

In the afternoon, we went for a long drive right up into the island's interior. Despite the clouds rolling over again, some of the scenic views were amazing.

Rugged volcanic landscapes as far as the eye can see,..

...and small villages in fertile green valleys.

The last day of our holiday had arrived. Having struggled most of the time to find good fishing, we decided to head up to the capital La Palma for the day. On the way, we visited the mountain town of Agüimes, where we went for a stroll and visited several bronze statues that are located around the centre of the town.

No idea what the book is. Must have been a good read though.

Another painted tile mosaic artwork, this time depicting life in the village many years ago.

Heading to La Palma, we found a place to park the hire car and headed to the Poema del Mar Aquarium. Lillian hadn't seen enough fish during the trip, so I was keen to rectify that. The aquarium was very impressive, well laid out and the interactive screens next to the tanks were excellent, offering detailed information on all the species that were present. It was a relaxing way to spend a few hours, they had some interesting fish on display, and I even managed to take a few nice photos.

Mudskippers are so cool! One of my favourite families of fish.

The Golden Dorado in a tank full of South American species looked amazing.

This electric eel was pretty shocking!

Afterwards, I grabbed my fishing tackle from the car and we went for a walk through the city. It didn't take us long to arrive at Playa de las Canteras, the golden sandy beach on the western side. At the northern end there were many of the local fisherman's colourful boats.

A beautiful beach on a not so beautiful day.

Heading further north along the coast, we stopped for some lunch and then carried on until I found a spot to do some fishing. There was a bit of a swell running and waves were breaking onto the rocks, so I found an elevated position and cast out a two hook rig baited up with raw prawn. I was hoping to perhaps add something new to my tally, but that didn't happen sadly. I did catch plenty of fish though, almost one every cast.

What would I catch?

Lots of Canary damselfish,..

...a few Macaronesian sharpnose puffer,..

...and my third hairy blenny of the trip.

Before too long I had run out of bait, so we headed back to the hire car. On the way I spotted another angler fishing, so we went over to find out what he had been catching. He didn't want to speak to us, so we left him to it.

Using bread this local had filled a bucket with what looked like axillary seabream.

In the evening after dinner, we did the majority of our packing in preperation for our flight home the following morning and then headed down to the harbour for one last short fishing session after dark. With no bait left, I fished small soft plastic lures on jigheads. My main target was a bright glasseye, but before I spotted any of those, I caught a few bastard grunt, Madeira rockfish, island grouper and cardinalfish from the bottom of the harbour and in and around the rocks.

I search for bright glasseye with my headtorch. Their eyes are huge and reflect back the beam making them stand out like a sore thumb.

Cardinalfish on ajing tactics.

Once it got very dark, I spotted a few bright glasseye emerging from their daytime hiding places. They were being very lazy though, not actively hunting, just milling around close to the rocks. Changing lures to see if I could tempt one, I switched from a clear straight lure to a small bright pink ribbed paddletail. Casting that out past two bright glasseye and working it back between the pair resulted in one of them swimming away, but luckily the other one lurched forward and engulfed it. Again, Lillian was ready with the net, and just as well too, because as soon as the fish in it the lure came out of its mouth!

The last species I added to the trip tally was a very cool one indeed. I love bright glasseye! Having tried several times throughout the trip to catch them, I was relieved to finally get one.

So, another trip to the Canary Islands had come to an end, and the fishing on this one had been pretty tough. Possibly the least productive trip fishing wise that I've had down there. The number of fish I caught was pretty low and some species that are normally common, like lizardfish and comber, seemed to be totally absent. I'm not sure what the cause was, but if I had to speculate, I'd probably attribute it to Storm Therese, which battered the islands with enournmous amounts of rain and very strong winds just a few weeks before we visited. I think things were still settling down again, evidenced by the relatively poor water clarity. Despite the challenging fishing, I'd somehow managed to catch twenty six species in total including one new one. There's no way I would have caught the sailfin blenny without the help of Jesús, so again I'd like to thank him for meeting up with me. Check out his instagram acount here.

Here's a summary of species I caught with the new one in bold...

1. Bastard Grunt
2. Bogue
3. Bright Glasseye
4. Canary Damselfish
5. Cardinalfish
6. Cleaver Wrasse/Pearly Razorfish
7. Common Two Banded Seabream
8. Dusky Grouper
9. Golden Grey Mullet
10. Guinean Puffer
11. Hairy Blenny
12. Island Grouper
13. Macaronesian Sharpnose Puffer
14. Madeira Goby
15. Madeira Rockfish
16. Molly Millar
17. Mozambique Tilapia
18. Ornate Wrasse
19. Parrotfish
20. Redlip Blenny
21. Rockpool Blenny
22. Sailfin Blenny
23. Salema
24. Striped Seabream
25. Thick Lipped Mullet
26. Wide Eyed Flounder

Fishing aside, and despite the lack of sun due to the overcast conditions and the dust storm, Lillian and I enjoyed our trip to Gran Canaria. It's always nice to get away together, just the two of us. With what's going on in the world at the moment, we currently don't have any more trips booked. This doesn't mean we don't have a long list of places that we'd like to visit and hopefully we'll get another holiday organised soon.

Tight lines, Scott.

Not more species hunting adventures on Gran Canaria?!: Part 3.

The following day, we visited Palmitos Park where we watched a bird of prey show, then spent a few hours seeing various other birds, animals, butterflies and fish. I felt the entrance price was a little on the expensive side, but overall we enjoyed the time we spent there.

Who doesn't love a meerkat?

This green aracari, with it massive bill, was very cool.

In the afternoon, we headed to the easten breakwater of the incredibly popular Playa de Amadores, where I spend an hour or so struggling to catch any fish from the rocks on the outside of it! Apart from a few Guinean puffer nothing at all was interested in a piece of raw prawn in the deep water further out. In close, all I caught were a few ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish. It was easily the most disappointing session I'd had of the trip at that point.

The first Guinean puffer of the trip. Quite strange given I caught hundreds of them on Tenerife in February. Where we all the fish?

Waiting patiently for something else to bite...

Feeling slightly frustrated,I didn't bother fishing that evening. In the morning, we drove north to visit several small towns up in the mountains. In the village of Cruz de Pineda, we spent some time trying to locate a population of guppy in the roadside irrigation ditches, but failed to find them. We did see a monarch butterfly, the first one I've ever seen in the wild and it landed so I could take some photos of it. 

A very large butterfly, it was really nice to see one!

In the afternoon, we drove further up into the mountains to visit Arugas, Firgas and Teror, where we spent some time wandering around each of the three towns. There seemed to be a music festival taking place in all three with several bands performing in the streets and there were also market stalls set up selling a variety of traditional products too. 

The neo-Gothic stone cathedral in Arucas was quite impressive.

The Paseo de Canarias in Firgas is home to a series of seven artworks depicting all seven of the Canary Islands. Each has a photo depicting the typical features of that island along with a scale model and its coat of arms. Can you name all seven of main Canary Islands?

Later that afternoon, we drove to Sardina, where I spent some time fishing from its small pier. A bit of a swell was running and not much was biting other than ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish at close range, but casting out onto a sandy area I did finally catch a couple of pearly razorfish. One of my favourite European wrasse species, they are incredibly flexible and can be tricky to unhook, actively tryng to contort themselves into a position to bite you with their strangely articulated jaws and sharp little teeth! I now unhook them in my net and use foreceps the shake them from my hook if possible.

The first one I caught was this small red female.

It was followed by a larger green male.

The pastel colours on them, particularly around the eye, are stunning.

The next day, we spent the morning wandering around Maspalomas. The tide was out, so I did a spot of fishing in some shallow rockpools to the west of the town’s incredibly tall lighthouse. It didn’t take me long to add two more species to my tally. 

You can almost guarantee to catch two species from rockpools in the Canary Islands…

The Madeira goby, which usually sits on the bottom in plain sight. Normally they are very aggressive and will swim straight over and gobble a bait no problem. 

The rockpool blenny is a little bit more skittish in shallower water and will disappear under rocks and into cracks when they detect your presence. A bait placed close to their hiding place can usually tempt them to come out and grab it though.

Walking along past the lighthouse, we soon arrived at the side of La Charca, a large pond of brackish water that is full of Mozambique tilapia. This body of water is inside the area’s protected nature reserve, which is mainly made up of the expansive sand dunes to the east of the pond. There are multiple no fishing signs around La Charca, so we carried on walking up past it. We carried on, wandering up towards the north west corner of the reserve, so we could then explore the dunes along one of its designated paths. Just before we reached the start of this, we crossed a bridge over the town’s large drainage canal where I spotted a few Mozambique tilapia in a pool in the small amount of water that was flowing down it. A piece of prawn flicked out in their vicinity quickly resulted in a few being caught.

A Mozambique tilapia. My first freshwater species of the year. 

Packing my gear away into my rucksack, we then went walking along the paths in the dunes before doubling back and making our way back to where we had parked the hire car.

The dunes of Maspalomas. Look at all those footprints! You’re supposed to stay on the designated paths!

Heading back to Castillo del Romeral, I spend some time later that afternoon fishing at the end of the harbour’s breakwater. When I fished there last year with my mate Gordon, we caught lots of Atlantic lizardfish and greater weever, so I was surprised when I didn’t catch either. In fact, I only caught a single wide eyed flounder!

My only reward in a couple of hours. 

With three days left, I’d caught twenty three species despite the fishing, on the whole, being quite challenging. I’d not caught anything new, but had arranged to meet up with a local angler the following morning to try and remedy that!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the final part...

More species hunting adventures on Tenerife: Part 1.

At the end of last year, I booked a trip to the Canary Island of Tenerife for myself and two mates, Nick and Ryan. It's always good to get some winter sun and the weather conditions here in the UK over the last couple of months have been absolutely dreadful, so when we headed to Edinburgh Airport earlier this month we were really looking forward to getting away! Also, it had been just over ten years since I last visited Tenerife, and that was a family holiday, so I was keen to return to see what I could catch on a dedicated fishing trip. We had plenty of tackle packed, from ultra light all the way to very heavy beachcasters, and we planned to target a wide variety of species. I was hopeful I’d catch some species for the first time too and had researched a list of potential targets, some more likely than others!

It was an early morning flight, so we arrived just before noon. As soon as we'd picked up our hire car and dropped off our luggage at our apartment, we drove down to San Juan Harbour and went fishing at the end of its outer breakwater. Fishing in Spanish harbours and marinas is normally forbidden, but there's an area at the end of San Juan's large port where fishing is authorized and it’s popular with locals and tourists alike. Fishing with light tackle, using small pieces of raw prawn, it didn't take us long at all to catch a few fish. To begin with, I focused on the submerged rocks straight down the end of the breakwater. We were all expecting ornate wrasse to be the first species to be caught, but surprisingly, a few others grabbed our bait before they did.

My first fish of the trip was this small Madeira rockfish. These have poisonous spines, so handle carefully!

It was followed by a few Canary damselfish,...

...and a solitary parrotfish.

At one point my rig must have dropped into a gap in the boulders and up came a cardinalfish. They hide in dark places during the day and come out after dark.

Eventually we all caught ornate wrasse. Ryan somehow managed to avoid them for a lot longer than Nick and I did, but eventually, this one took his bait.

After a while, I began casting my rig out as far as I could to see if I could catch a few different species from the deep water out from the end of the breakwater. The bottom was mostly clean, with the odd rocky area. I caught a wide eyed flounder, a few more ornate wrasse and Canary damselfish, and then my first puffers of the trip. They wouldn't be my last!

Wide eyed flounder are fairly common over sand in the Canary Islands, but they don't get that big and have relatively small mouths.

Puffer are a pain, but at least the Macaronesian sharpnose puffer has some beautiful markings.

The following day, we headed to the outskirts of Los Cristianos, where we fished from a small concrete platform. Ornate wrasse, Canary damselfish and puffers were all we caught to begin with. The venue was pretty busy, with most anglers float fishing, so we were restricted to fishing in the gaps between them initially, but in the afternoon a group of them packed up and left, so we then had a bit more freedom to cast our baits into some new areas. Eventually, I found a small sandy patch diagonally out from the corner of the structure, and this produced a couple of Atlantic lizardfish, and a solitary greater weever.

Like the wide eyed flounder, the Atlantic lizardfish is commonly found over sandy areas.

As is the greater weever! Both similar in colouration, with browns and electric blues, confirm what you’ve caught before you grab to unhook!

In an attempt to catch a needlefish, I then switched to fishing a small bait under a float. There are two species of needlefish present in the Canary Islands that I have never caught before, so I was hopeful that at least one of those would be in the vicinity. Nick also switched to fishing with a float, although he opted for a heavy spinning rod so he could fish a larger bait under a much bigger float. I didn’t have any luck with my target species sadly, but after a while Nick’s rig drifted over a shallow reef and his float disappeared. He got a bit of a surprise when he wound in an eight legged culprit. 

Probably not what Nick was hoping would grab his big fish bait. 

Having no luck adding anything else to our trip’s species tally from the open sea, I decided to wander over to the nearby rocks where I was confident I could quickly pull out a couple of species from the small rockpools.

Intertidal rockpools should not be ignored on a species hunt! I wasn’t expecting anything unusual and only caught the two species I suspected I would. 

There were lots of super aggressive rockpool blenny and I caught one almost immediately.

In their midst were a few Madeira goby. Still aggressive but not as fast to attack my bait as their rockpool companion, it took me a little bit longer to catch one of them.

Our trip had gotten off to a fairly productive start, but having only visited spots that I had fished the last time I was on the island, I was keen to explore some new spots. There was one slight problem however. We may have left the cold and rain behind in the UK, but the wind was blowing strongly from the north east and this could perhaps throw a spanner in the works. We decided to go for a drive around the island the following day to find out how bad the swell was on the eastern and northern coasts. I was hopeful we’d be able to wet a line somewhere, but if not we could just drive back to the south west and find some shelter there. 

Tight lines, Scott.

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