Fuerteventura - report

[vlad]

From 8 to 13 of December visited Fuerteventura in the Canaries for second time this year.

 

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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:

 

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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:

 

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Unfortunately, due to the strong North-Easterly winds and high waves, all of these excellent fishing spots were inaccessible:

 

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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:

 

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- 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:

 

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- The laguna around the restaurant on the manmade island behind the Atlantico center:

 

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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:

 

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The fishing in the harbor itself was prohibited:

 

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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:

 

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Armed with the wright information and gear I was ready for action:

 

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Here are the photos of some of the fish I managed to catch with these methods:

 

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White sea bream - Diplodus sargus sargus. Sargo in Spanish.

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Saddled sea bream- Oblada melanura. Sama in Spanish.

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Salema - Sarpa salpa (the fish beneath the Saddled sea bream)

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Common sea bream - Pagrus pagrus

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Striped sea bream - Lithognathus mormyrus

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Derbio - Trachinotus ovatus

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Har...06/SSL21489.jpg

 

Dusky grouper - Epinephelus marginatus

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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)

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Some more pics of my catch:

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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:

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The harbor in El Cotillo:

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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:

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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

 

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Here are some of the photos from my trips around the island:

 

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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!

[Snatcher]

Great report Vlad and some cracking photos.Did you take a cameraman with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Its a pity that the weather stopped you from targeting the larger fish on lures.Looks like a nice resort though.An interesting variety of fish you caught as well

 

I had better warn you though because you will get some flack from the chaps for keeping small fish A lot of us are practicing catch and release as much as possible these days. Just a thought Vlad.

 

Having said that a cracking report and pleased you enjoyed your holiday

[steve pitts]

Hi Vlad

 

Thanks for the comprehensive report on your visit to F'ventura.

I have found it difficult to get much info. on the fishing and it certainly looks like you caught plenty of bream and other exotic stuff.

 

We were out there in September and the weather was somewhat different - scorching hot with a 5mph breeze most of the tme.

 

I have fished the island three times now (only with lures - never tried with bait) and have caught very little.

True - spinning is likely to be selective for the bluefish and barracuda, with the outside chance of a spotted bass, but I prefer to fish short sessions and fishing the lure is ideal for this.

 

I see that you got to see the wreck of the American Star. Did you get there in your hire car? I thought that a 4x4 was essential for that trip.

 

If you ever fancy staying up at El Cotillo, I have details of a very nice appartment for £275 per week. I have no connection with owner, but very pleased with our accomodation on our last visit and it is a stone's throw away from the harbour.

 

Thanks again for the report - maybe I'll try bait next time we go over.

 

Cheers

Steve

[conger conger]

Great report there Vlad. looks like an excellent trip!

 

Well done on the different species too. great variety!

 

Like snatcher says some guys might give you some stick on keepting the smaller fish, but I'm guessing these were kept for the locals to cook, as is the norm in the canaries!

 

 

Again well done!

 

 

Wonder where I'll go on next years hols?????????????????

[vlad]

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:

[phil dean]

I fished costa calma for a couple of days (before I broke my leg) earlier this year, did you do any beach fishing, I had some reasonable mullet and various bream, i had a few on fly bu the water was quite calm (hence the name)

 

thanks for the advice re the shop, I'm trying to get back there as the broken leg ruined the last trip.

 

by theway, where did you get the fish IDs from, very helpful, i was going to rely on steve pitts telling me what fish were what, but if you have a link or the name of a good book, I'd be greatful.

 

most of the books I've found just show the reef fish.

[dan01]

Great report, but im sure you could have got some more pics.

[vlad]

[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]

I fished costa calma for a couple of days (before I broke my leg) earlier this year, did you do any beach fishing, I had some reasonable mullet and various bream, i had a few on fly bu the water was quite calm (hence the name)

 

thanks for the advice re the shop, I'm trying to get back there as the broken leg ruined the last trip.

 

by theway, where did you get the fish IDs from, very helpful, i was going to rely on steve pitts telling me what fish were what, but if you have a link or the name of a good book, I'd be greatful.

 

most of the books I've found just show the reef fish.

 

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).

[phil dean]

thanks vlad, much appreciated

[Lid]

Great report vlad - thanks. Mind you personally I wouldn't go to Fuerteventura if you paid me!