Jigging in the Canaries

[PanamaJack]

Reading the threads about the Canaries most members are looking for information regarding shore fishing. The islands are volcanic though and from some of the marinas they run bottom fishing trips - deep water - for things like Congers, Stingray and assorted bottom fish. And more recently some have targeted the big bottom feeding Six Gilled Sharks. Then of course there's the specialised Big Game trolling essentially for Marlin and Tuna.

 

But a few anglers are starting to experiment with jigging over the deepwater reefs. Here's one of their catches - a near 135lb Amberjack. A BIG fish! A different challenge for your summer holidays?

 

At the moment I'm trying to find out which of the islands it was taken from. I think though from a personal point of view I'd prefer to fish from a slightly larger boat that Jose's 'Queen Mary'!

Dave

[Snatcher]

Could not get onto the site Dave as not a member. A tremendous fish though Thanks for all that info on lures for Kenya as well. Looks like I will have to tie up a variety to cover all possible aspects

[PanamaJack]

My apologies. Some sites do allow unregistered guests to view but not post....patently not that one! It was an incredible fish, but the angler mentioned that when they're there in the winter months they're caught in relatively shallow waters and spear fisherman had taken them to nearly 160lbs. This was his reply:

 

Greater amberjack is a classic seasonal target fish for local fishermen in some parts of Tenerife, fished bare hand with a strong ropes or old nylon threads and squid as livebait. Big Greater amberjacks are fished too by speargun fishermen (World Record here in Tenerife, 72 kg). In both cases this fishing takes place in not so deep water (40-70 mt).

 

2006 was the first year since jigging was introduced in the Canaries that this fish showed in relatively important number and in big weights in Gran Canaria (where Jose catched his monster), and in the same spots where my friends have been fishing lots of snappers and lesser amberjacks but none greater amberjack. They did not do anything special or used different jig or line, simply the fish where there those days. In my island, Tenerife, I have news of some big amberjacks this past year, but not many as in Gran Canaria. In El Hierro (the island of the Six Gilled Shark) they have landed several greater amberjacks jigging (one of 68 kg) but you can find more lesser and almaco jack than greater amberjack. Migratory fish? You can rarely find juvenile or fishes under 20 kg...

 

Sure there are more greater amberjacks than we thought till today and we don't know the behaviour of this fish to improve the number of catches, there're many thing to discover, but till now I would not bring a group for an specific amberjack jigging trip here as they do in Austrlia for sambo.

 

I did try searching on a Spanish forum which I believe has 'guest viewing rights' but couldn't find the pictures. There were some though of the big Dentex Bream that they catch jigging - here and here. Also, amidst some 'chatter' about Rodriques (near Mauritius) Jason Pipe who runs a game boat from La Gomera was talking about catching big Amberjack. I guess internationally with the advent of the super-braids and Shimano Stellas more and more anglers are targeting deepwater jigging opportunities with those 'butterfly' jigs.

Dave

PS My Spanish isn't quite up to it - what a wonderful crutch Babelfish on altavista is - but there're some threads on that site relating to the Mediterranean coast of Spain that may be of interest with your forthcoming trip.

Edited January 18, 2007 by PanamaJack