Shore fishing - holidaying in Madeira

[lubemonkey]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the sea forum - I'm predominantly a coarse angler (mostly pike).

 

I'm lucky enough to be heading to Madeira for a fortnight from next week and will be taking some gear to fish from the rocks/jetties - 12ft 2.75lb Fox Tourist rod and one of my Shimano baitrunners with two spools - 30lb braid and 15lb mono. Hooklinks of 10lb or 15lb depending what's out there.

 

I'm thinking floatfishing would be a good approach but will try on the lead too. Being a piker I also have a load of lures so was going to try some spoons/Tobys and maybe some small rubber jigs.

 

The last time I tried using this sort of gear was on The Algarve and despite catching some mullet on bread (including a 3.5 pounder - my largest sea fish to date!), I got the feeling I wasn't doing myself justice on the bait front when going for non-mullet species. I tried frozen (cooked) prawns and some frozen squid but didn't catch on those - not that I tried that hard to be fair. I shall be "trying" a lot harder this time around.

 

What's good on the bait front that I can easily source? (and keep in an apartment without the wife going mental i.e. nothing still living!)

Is the lure fishing a good idea or am I being a bit optimistic there?

 

I'm open minded on what to fish for and how to do it. I don't eat fish so all species are of interest as they are all caught purely for sport. Am as happy fishing floating crust for mullet in the sunshine, as night fishing for eels.

 

And to cover the slightly larger species I've got a day booked on the charter "Our Mary" for some tuna action hopefully.

 

I know it's a bit of a ramble but any comments/advice on the above would be much appreciated. I leave on Tuesday next week.

 

Thanks in advance!

[fisherman]

You may be lucky on the boat, but it is just about on the cross over point between Tuna going out and the Marlin coming in I think.

As for the shore fishing there is one mark I know of, go to Ribeira Brava, once there look for the road through the cliff,

(left hand side looking out to sea)

Go through there and walk along the sea wall. Some good fishing there off some flat platforms if I remeber rightly, into pretty deep water from the start.

I saw some good Snapper pulled out of there.

There are some good places to fish anywhere south of there, just pull in and have a go.

As for the bait it couldn`t be better.

Get into the market at Funchal, at a stall there get some Frangoo, I don`t know if the spelling is right but that`s how you say it. It is skinned chicken breast, Honest.

Use that on a small hook to catch what look like small Mackerel, (4 to 8 inches long) then go for the bigger stuff with them.

Have fun I did.

By the way although you can see the big Barracuda in the marina there is no fishing in there but you can fish from the wall to the left of it, might be worth a go.

Good luck.

Dave

[lubemonkey]

This is great stuff - thanks!

When you say use the small mackeral type fish as bait for bigger stuff, do you mean live or dead? and either way how did you fish them? float? bottom? wobbled? freelined?

 

I'm assuming a wire trace is needed if there are barracuda around!

 

Cheers!

[Norm B]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the sea forum - I'm predominantly a coarse angler (mostly pike).

 

I'm lucky enough to be heading to Madeira for a fortnight from next week and will be taking some gear to fish from the rocks/jetties - 12ft 2.75lb Fox Tourist rod and one of my Shimano baitrunners with two spools - 30lb braid and 15lb mono. Hooklinks of 10lb or 15lb depending what's out there.

 

I'm thinking floatfishing would be a good approach but will try on the lead too. Being a piker I also have a load of lures so was going to try some spoons/Tobys and maybe some small rubber jigs.

 

The last time I tried using this sort of gear was on The Algarve and despite catching some mullet on bread (including a 3.5 pounder - my largest sea fish to date!), I got the feeling I wasn't doing myself justice on the bait front when going for non-mullet species. I tried frozen (cooked) prawns and some frozen squid but didn't catch on those - not that I tried that hard to be fair. I shall be "trying" a lot harder this time around.

 

What's good on the bait front that I can easily source? (and keep in an apartment without the wife going mental i.e. nothing still living!)

Is the lure fishing a good idea or am I being a bit optimistic there?

 

I'm open minded on what to fish for and how to do it. I don't eat fish so all species are of interest as they are all caught purely for sport. Am as happy fishing floating crust for mullet in the sunshine, as night fishing for eels.

 

And to cover the slightly larger species I've got a day booked on the charter "Our Mary" for some tuna action hopefully.

 

I know it's a bit of a ramble but any comments/advice on the above would be much appreciated. I leave on Tuesday next week.

 

Thanks in advance!

There is some really good fishing from the shore. Mullet and bream from the marina breakwaters are easy to catch and there are marks where you have 100ft of water within casting range, snapper and big skate are a possibility. I've also heard of dorado being caught from the shore on floatfished livebaits. The shore fishing in Madeira is virtually untapped because the locals only want to catch their tea so mullet and bream are all they fish for. Enjoy yourself and let me know how you get on, I hoped to get a group to go out for some serious shore fishing with some big skate from the boat but nobody was interested. I have also heard of 50lb smoothhounds being caught from the boats in the harbour, so catching them from the shore seems pretty realistic.

[fisherman]

I was using them both as dead baits and live. Float fished and on the bottom, never tried free lining, should have now you mention it.

Straight mono was the order of the day. Didn`t` contact any cudas, just as well I think.

Dave

[lubemonkey]

Thanks for the replies chaps - can't wait to get out there!

 

I'll let you know how I get on.