vlad

You've got me worried now! I've just ordered trough the e-bay a Humminbird Matrix 47 3D fishfinder from the USA for $532. How much import duty I'll have to pay?

Check here: http://www.sunnyrhyl.co.uk/kayak.htm

This is what you need John: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12V-2Ah-Sealed-Lead-...1QQcmdZViewItem Light, cheep and will last you 24hrs.

I've checked the eTrex on the e-bay. They are talking about navigation on land with UK maps. Are there charts of the UK shoreline included or it will be useless out at sea?

I am glad you enjoyed your stay in Fuerte Phil! Well done for the catch! I just come back from Lanzarote. I managed to catch only sea bream and boga. Fuerte is much better for fishing. I am going there in October. Can't wait!

Hi Phil! The "gone fishing" shop is at the taxi plaza 15 min walk from the Elba hotel. I hope this map will help you: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...r/caletamap.jpg This is Aram's website: http://www.sunnyfuerteventura.com/gonefishing/index.html Enjoy yourself! Don't forget to ask Aram for the special hooks for catching the parrot fish - "Vieja". He will tell you the method of catching it. If you have nice quiet seas without big waves - go for it! The best fish to eat! Tight Lines! Don't forget to write a report when you are back!

Thanks for the info!

Hi David! I wander, what make are the rod and the reel on the picture?

The last report on this page makes an interesting reading - Big Game, Jun 23, 2006 reviewer: Buj from Australia http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/review/in....php?item_id=69

hi Chris! My e-mail is vgtrans@blueyonder.co.uk I've sent you an e-mal to your address. Vlad.

Hi Gus! I am a Bulgarian and I know everything about fishing in the Black sea. It is very different from the sea fishing as we know it in the UK, because the tackle you need is very light. More like for fresh water fishing. In June you can fish for mullet and gobies. That's about it. For this you need a telescopic rod 3.60 - 4 meters with action 60-80 grams. For the mullet use the three flapper rigs they sell in the tackle shops in Burgas. They have red and white foam floating cylindrical beads to keep the hooks up and away from the crabs. They are made with thin line and hooks No - 6-7. Fish on the bottom with 40 - 60 grams led. Use medium size reel like Shimano exage 4000 with main line 0.25 - 0.30 diameters. The locals don't understand the line strength in lb. For bait use the harbor rag worms sold in the local tackle shops. You can fish from the beach in Duni early in the morning, casting 50-80 yards out but, the beach is too crowded and the water shallow. You'll be better off fishing in Sozopol (6 km north) and Promorsko (12 km south) harbors. Fishing for gobies is done with simple 1 hook paternoster. Line 0.30, hook size 4 or 6, 20 - 30 grams led. Fish by the harbor wall or at the base of rocks with deep water. For bate prawn, mussel, and small peace of fish fillet. The gobies are good eating. You will see the locals fishing for mullet with "Bombarda" or "Sbirulino". My impression is that nobody in the UK has heard of this method. It is very high level sport. Requires a lot of skill and special gear. The rod is 3.30 - 3.60 special bombarda rod made by Italian companies or a feeder rod with action up to 50 grams. Small spinning reel - shimano exage 1000 - 2500. Main line 0.20 - 0.25. On the main line are inserted free running "bombarda", a bid and triple swivel connecting the main line to 5 -6 foot trace 0.12 with hook size 12 - 8. For bate 1 or two harbor rag worms. The Bombarda could be floating, slowly-sinking and fast-sinking. With these you can fish at different depths. You can cast this set-up a 100 yards out and start retrieving slowly. When the mullet hits you feel powerful pull. Strike and retrieve. Exquisite sport! This is a bombarda set up: http://www.forellensee-angeln.de/pics/tack...biromontage.jpg Here are different models of bombardas: http://www.forellenteichangeln.de/Angelaus.../sbirolino.html Before you go to Bulgaria, send me an e - mail. I can put you in contact with local anglers that will be happy to show you the ropes so you do not waste any time trying to catch fish with lures or other useless methods over there. I hope this helps. If you have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them. Vlad.

Yes, if you fish close to the rocks they'll pest you.

Excellent report geetimuk! It looks like your daughter is holding a cracking Gilthead Sea bream on the photo. Well done!

Hi Vagabond! I think you are absolutely correct about the puffer fish. Thanks for taking the time to find it out!

[admin note: Until you reach your 16th post, the account is limited in that PM is not functional and all posts require approval. If you make a post and it takes a while to appear, none of the mods had seen it yet. I deleted the other two copies since they were pretty well identical to this one. Newt] Hi Phil! Sorry to heir about your leg. It wasn't much of a holiday, I guess. I haven't fished Costa Calma yet. I visited the place though. I found all the species of fish one can catch with a rod from the shore in the Canaries on this site: http://www.fishbase.org/search.php Scroll down to the window with the geographic places. Choose the Canaries and click marine species. I found it easier if I sort them by family name - left top on the page. This way all similar fish is grouped together. Hope this helps. By the way, the best time to go fishing in Fuerte is October. That's when I'm going next year. If you go there in October give me a shout. I now the cheapest but still excellent accommodation in Caleta and Antigua (this are the best places to stay - the same distance from everywhere).

Thanks for the comments guys! All the fish I took was edable size. The small ones I've returned. The fish was delicious. Steve. I drove to the reck. There is the proof:

From 8 to 13 of December visited Fuerteventura in the Canaries for second time this year. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/RosarioS.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...mber2006/05.jpg On arrival on the island, I was met by strong 15-20 miles pre hour winds and cloudy weather. The sea was very choppy with 7-8 foot waves: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060089.jpg I stayed at one of Tony Tree's apartments in Costa Antigua, Golf1 complex. This gave me easy access to the rocks along the costal path between Nuevo Horizonte (Costa Antigua) and Caleta de Fuste: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/ssl21663.jpg Unfortunately, due to the strong North-Easterly winds and high waves, all of these excellent fishing spots were inaccessible: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...mber2006/18.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...r2006/waves.jpg In this situation there was only one solution - to pay a visit to Aram, the owner of the "Gone fishing" tackle shop in Caleta de Fuste: http://www.sunnyfuerteventura.com/gonefishing/ My advice to all British fishermen visiting the island is - First of all pay a visit to Aram! He is exceptionally knowledgeable about the local fishing and very friendly and approachable guy! He will save you a lot of pointless wandering around and frustration. He'll give you the best advice on the local fishing - methods and bate for the conditions at the moment, the most suitable places to fish and the most appropriate tackle for the job. Everything in his shop was half of the UK prices. Thanks to his advice I managed to catch mach more quantity and many more species of fish in comparison to my previous trip there last March, despite of the significantly worse conditions for fishing this time. On Aram's advice I fished three places: - The rocks in front of the "Elba Hotel" in Caleta de Fuste: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21540.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21597.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21553.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21647.jpg - A small bay 200 yards north of the first place. Due to the NE winds, the sheltered rocks were on the south side of the "prominence" situated just before the Caleta de Fuste's first houses. The costal pat starts there: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2006/zaliv1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...006/zaliv1a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21685.jpg - The laguna around the restaurant on the manmade island behind the Atlantico center: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2006/laguna.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...006/laguna3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...006/laguna4.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...6/laguna2-1.jpg It is very useful if you could speak a bit of Spanish. The local fishermen can give you very useful advice also. They don't speak any English though. In order to be able to benefit from their advice, I've studied Spanish for two months prior to my visit and it paid off handsomely. I've got some very useful tips on the local fishing from some locals like this friendly chap I met at the Caleta de Fuste harbor wall: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...6/SSL21611b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060015.jpg The fishing in the harbor itself was prohibited: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21639.jpg But it was possible to fish from the boulders on the outside of the harbor wall. From Aram's and the local fishermen's advise it became clear that due to the strong winds and high waves fishing with lures for barracuda, bluefish, bass, tuna and other big predators was no good. It was pointless to fish for parrotfish as well. It required calm sea to be fished successfully near the rocks. I was left with the option to fish three methods: - Float fishing with long 6 meters telescopic rod. Mine was only 3.90 m but did the job. The float was 10-20 grams, fixed, with all the weight on the float itself. The locals used self-made loaded cork floats. After the float with a swivel was attached one (the locals used two) 10-15 foot long hooklenght, 8-10lb fluorocarbon line, with no weight on it. At the end - hook No7. For bait - peace of prawn or baby squid was used. The locals had 10 liters buckets full of mashed bread, with which they loosefed regularly the swim. With this method they were catching mainly different species of sea bream. - The second method was fishing the bottom with a beach caster rod, three flapper rig, size 2 hooks and 130 grams led. For bait again prawn or baby squid. I found the simply made (without crimps, bids and swivels) three flapper rigs Aram was selling in his shop to be more effective than the ones I brought from the UK. He was selling them like 3 for a pound. I bought 12 and used mainly them with excellent results. - The third option was to fish live bate - "bogue" or "boga" in Spanish (caught on the light float road) with a big 40-60 grams loaded float. Attached to it with a swivel was 6-7 foot of 20-30lb fluorocarbon line with a metal trace at the end. The hook was No-4/0-6/0. I used my beach caster road with 20lb line for this setup. One of the locals allegedly managed to land a big bluefish with this setup. I did not see the fish though, but saw the setup. I’ve tried it as well during the last two days when the wind and the sea calmed down a bit, but did not have any takes this time: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21605.jpg Armed with the wright information and gear I was ready for action: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21609.jpg Here are the photos of some of the fish I managed to catch with these methods: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21552.jpg White sea bream - Diplodus sargus sargus. Sargo in Spanish. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21686.jpg Saddled sea bream- Oblada melanura. Sama in Spanish. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21711.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...6/SSL21611a.jpg Salema - Sarpa salpa (the fish beneath the Saddled sea bream) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060033.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21714.jpg Common sea bream - Pagrus pagrus http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21491.jpg Striped sea bream - Lithognathus mormyrus http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060219.jpg Derbio - Trachinotus ovatus http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21489.jpg Dusky grouper - Epinephelus marginatus http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060111.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21851.jpg Painted comber - Serranus scriba (the top fish) and Common Comber - Serranus cabrilla (the bottom fish) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060267.jpg Valentinni's sharpnose puffer - Canthigaster valentini http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060226.jpg Diamond lizardfish (Synodus synodus) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060217.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060222.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060223.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060224.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060225.jpg Some more pics of my catch: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21715.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060031.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21492.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060109.jpg The mullet on the above photo was caught in the quieter water of the laguna behind the Atlantico centre. I loosefeed mashed bread a lot. Got the big fish to feed confidently. Then used a rig with 2grams crystal wagler(all the weight on the wagler), fixed on 6lb mainline, 6 foot hooklenght of 4lb fluorocarbon line with no weight on it and size12 hook. For bate I used well kneaded bread paste with a can of tuna and water. I hired a Seat Cordoba for £111 for the week. The petrol was very cheap - 38p per liter. I managed to visit almost all interesting places on the island. Recommend it to everyone. It looks out of this world, like a teraformed planet Mars! Here are some photos of the fishing spots I checked up: The harbor in Corralejo: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060080.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-421.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-414.jpg The harbor in El Cotillo: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21815.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21825.jpg The bay at the Salt Museum - Las Salinas. Fished at low water: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-193.jpg The deeps at the rocks between the salt museum and the Atlantico center: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/salinas7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/salinas8.jpg The rocks north of Nuevo Horizonte. They are good tuna fishing spot in calm weather. They are also very steep and dangerous: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-364.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-360.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-357.jpg Here are some of the photos from my trips around the island: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...r2006/carad.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...mber2006/19.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-503.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-133.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-113.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...2Stoian-187.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...61120060118.jpg Aram told me the best time for fishing on the island is in October because during this month it is least windy. Wait for my next report in October 2007. I cannot wait to go back there!