Playa de los Cancajos and La Caleta de la Ballena - La Palma - Canary Islands

After a day of catching mediocre fish, I decided to nightfish at beach again. Instead of using a running ledger like I did on the previous night session, this time I used a two-up paternoster, to keep the hooks off the rocks. Since the last trip, I'd snorkelled the beach, so I know the geography of the beach. After a little while, had a few taps of the rod and I was in. After a quick scrap, I had a nice little silver fish in my hand. I had no idea what it was, my first thoughts was that it was a little bream, possibly an Axillary bream (Pagellus acarne) as I had previously taken photos of these guys in a fish market in Lyon, France. When I got back to the apartment and examined the photographs, I relised that the dorsal fin was wrong for a bream, and thought that it was some sort of bass or serranid. In a bream the spines and rays are roughly the same length for the entire length of the fin, but in this fish, where the spines get shorter and shorter but when the meet the soft rays the rays start of large again, making a little notch in the fin. This fin kind of reminds me of estuary perch back home. Found out that the fish was a fish called a Bastard Grunt.


Bastard Grunt - Pomadasys incisus #98


Bastard Grunt - Pomadasys incisus - check out the dorsal fin

On the 11th, fished the Caleta again because of its short distance away hoping to finially catch something different. Again I couldn't get away from the Canary Damsels and Ornate Wrasse. I did get a few really nice looking males wrasses though and managed to get another single Hairy Blenny. I even riggged a whole prawn on a pennel rig on number 1 hooks but still managed hook a tiny canary damsel on it. After a while I did manage to hooked into something different. It was a nice looking puffer that i had seen snorkelling the previous day called a Guinean Puffer which is commonly mistaken for the Band-tailed Puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri) which occurs in the West Atlantic. It has what looks like spikes when seen in the water, but I dont think I felt them when I was handling this one. Towards the end of the session and as I was getting bored, I found a nice red rock crab. (a species recently split from Grapsus grapsus sometimes called the Sally Lightfoot.) I found that it really liked my prawn bait as well and chased it when I casted towards it and managed to catch it. Its a splendid looking beast when holding it infront of you.


Ornate Wrasse - Thalassoma pavo - this one is a male.


Guinean Puffer - Sphoeroides marmoratus #99


Guinean Puffer - Sphoeroides marmoratus


Red Rock Crab - Grapsus adscensionis

So after a week of fishing, I decided to pack up and clean all of my gear that night so that it was clean and dry when it had to go into the luggage but I did leave out my fly rod, line and flies so that I could have a quick flick in the morning, and thats exactly what I did. I had gotten a nice #8 6ips (inches per second) sinking line specifically for this purpose. I went straight to the Caleta in the morning to test this out. Tied on a clouser and found that I was able to cast quite well. I was actully casting as far as I could cast a 3oz lead. The line that I was stripping out got caught on the very sharp rocks at my feet a few times and since I didn't have a bucket, I had to keep very large loops in my hand but it was really good to be able to cast the amount of line I was casting out, even though I didn't hook into anything. I tried about 5 different types of flies but got tried. I then tried to cast tiny flies into the rockpools. The larger 4" blennies followed each time but would turn away at the last possible moment. I did try a few flies but wasn't able to hook into any. Time to called it the day. It was great fun to be able to fly fish in the sea as I don't really ever get a chance back in England.

In the end, I caught 11 species of fish, 9 of those lifers and a new species of crab. Not bad at all. I'd also like to mention that I didn't eat any of the fish and they all went back into the sea!

So I'm one species away from catching 100 species.

Grand Total:
2010: 36 species, 18 new species
Life: 99 species, 81 with photos

La Caleta de la Ballena - La Palma - Canary Islands

After a days hiking on the previous day and catching the Gilthead bream at night, I decided to fish closer to home around a bay called La Caleta de la Ballena which was less than 10 minutes walk down from the apartment. The name translates to the Bay of the Whale. Was too tired to walk to the other side of the town. Continued to use prawn but wasn't able to hookup because the hooks were too big (size 1) and lost the bait within minutes due to small fish. Reduced the hooks down to size 4s but was only able to get a few ornate wrasse. Then a new fish straight down the side. My thoughts were that it was either a bullhead or a blenny, but although it had blenny like pelvic fins and 'horns', it did have largish scales and a notched dorsal fin with quite prominent spines. It turned out to be neither although its common name is a Hairy Blenny, its in a seperate family, most species occuring around the Americas. Again, I did some rockpool fishing with my coarse fishing hooks and managed a few more larger Madeira Gobies and a new species of blenny. The only common name I've found for it is the Rockpool Blenny, but I dont really like the sound of it as other blennies occur in rockpools as well. There was a school of 'silver' fish in the rock pools which had quite a large flat head around 6cm long, but I was not able to hook up on them as their mouths were quite small. The seem to be slightly yellowish tinted with an indistinct lengthwise stripe, but I think it may have been a species of Mullet.

The only full day I didn't fish on the trip was on the 10th. Had done another tiring hike, but this time on along the Cumbre Vieja ridge of volcanoes. It really took it all out of me.

Next day, relaxed and snorkelled the Playa de los Cancajos. (Photos in another blog [coming soon]). In the afternoon attempted to fish the La Caleta de la Ballena again hoping for some decent fish, but no luck. Started off catching a few Canary Damselfish, the first for the trip, but not a lifer. Then another Diamond Lizardfish and ended the day with another lifer, the Madeira Scorpionfish.

So with the total of 9 species with 7 of those new, I'm one species short of my target.


Rock-pool Blenny - Parablennius parvicornis #95


Hairy Blenny - Labrisomus nuchipinnis #96


Canary Damsel - Abudefduf luridus


Madeira Scorpionfish - Scorpaena maderensis #97

Los Cancajos - La Palma - Canary Islands

I went to La Palma in the Canary Islands to do one hiking, birdwatching, snorkelling and fishing. My goal was that if I caught 10 species, it would make it a good trip and if I caught 20, it would have been excellent.

The initial idea for the first day was to fish off the rocks on a headland called Punta de la Caleta Grande at the north-east end of Playa de los Cancajos, into the swimming beach with lures. I had an arsenal of several Rapalas, Chrome Slices, Minnows and Feathers. The first fish of the trip was caught on a Flashmer 40gm lure, a Diamond Lizard fish. A few minutes later, the lifeguard came, and was told that I was only allowed to fish on the other side of the point where there were much rougher seas in a bay called Caleta Grande. Tried a few different things and caught another Diamond Lizardfish on feathers. They were silver tinsel feathers with red plastic. The same set of feathers that I had caught several dozens of Mackerel on.

Tried a few other chrome slice type lures and noticed a schoal large fish following the lure. Managed to hook up to one and landed my first Grey Triggerfish to a Tsunami Stinger lure. Caught another 3 on that lure and lost about the same number before retiring to fish a small rockpool in the me of the rocky headland for a break.


Diamond Lizardfish - Synodus synodus #91


Grey Triggerfish - Balistes carolinensis #92

There were a few gobies of various sizes, ornate wrasse and a few silver fish of about 3cm, which were either mullet or sand smelt. Was able to only hook into some of the gobies on bread and a 18 hook, which were later identified as Madeira Gobies. The mullet/smelt were too small. Dropped the line back into the calm bay as well and got a few ornate wrasse but couldn't hook into any of the Canary Damsels I could see swimming about, until I got told off by the life guard again.

So fished back into the rough surf, this time with the flashmer lure and hooked into something really heavy and took a lot of line, but it dropped off the line and retrieved a fishless lure. I then started hooking into a few triggers again only landing one. I decided to call it the day, catching three new species, out of four.



Madeira Goby - Mauligobius maderensis #93


Ornate Wrasse - Thalassoma pavo


Grey Triggerfish - Balistes carolinensis

The next night, the night of the Spain vs Germany Semi-final, decided to fish the beach at Playa de los Cancajos after the game. I used prawn bought from the local SPAR and after a few casted, hooked up good into a fish, but the baitrunner on my reel over ran causing a birdsnest, so I had to handline the fish in fly-fishing style and ended up landing and releasing a nice Gilthead Bream. This was interesting because the Gilthead Bream is meant to be quite rare in the Canary Islands, and although I saw at least 5 other species snorkelling in the same waters, I didn't end up catching any of these but caught this species instead. Although I released this fish, I'm sure it would have made better eating the other other bream species there.

This make it 4 new species out of 5 after two days fishing.


Gilthead Seabream - Sparus auratus #94

Waggler Coaching

My first ever fishing coaching session in the UK. Decided to fish an Essex commercial fishery knowing that it would be a great place to learn as I had caught several carp and a some decent fish on previous session this year. The plan was to teach my trainee how to fish the waggler, the easiest and most enjoyable way to coarse fish. I got to the fishery a little earlier, and had bought a little 4m whip the night before, so I rigged it up and had a few small roach and roach and then a good bream before before my guest arrived and I had to get down to business. The weather was on and off showers and a little windy.

Knowing that my guest had only ever caught tiddlers with his bare hands many years ago, I knew that I had start from basics, this is a rod, a reel, a waggler, a hook... 2 BBs is the same as a AAA ... etc.

With this new found knowlege, we plumbed up and were ready to bait up and cast. The float went down several times, but he couldn't connect to the fish. Finally got it spot on, but the strike was a little too hard and the poor little roach became a flying fish. Finally success, we had a nice little 2oz roach in the net. After a few more roach we decided to use corn and he hooked into a nice roach, which weighed in at 12oz. Next fish was a beauty, hooking into a nice little Crucian carp. Now able to waggler fish, I was determined to catch some fish but only managed to get a nice roach of about 10oz. I missed a take which was almost definely a good bream. The next cast, hooked into a good fish, and a bream of about 5lb breached clear out of the water and the impact of the fish on the water put so much strain on the line that it broke my favourite waggler in half. It was the first waggler I had ever bought in the UK and have caught hundreds of fish on it. I was not able to recover the tip to reglue it. You always feel some sort of attachment to some of your fishing equipment, but I did break it on a good fish, and would probably have been the biggest bream I had ever hooked. The weather got worse and my guest had to leave. I persevered but only managed another good roach.

Overall a good day with my guest out fishing me.


First fish, a bream.


Guest's first decent fish, a Roach


Guest's first Crucian Carp


My first good Roach


Final Roach


A Rudd

Brighton Marina

I'm trying to blog all of my fishing trips from now on.

Got to the marina about 1pm, fished the East Arm bay 28. 2 Rods. Started with one baited with rag/squid cocktail and the other with feathers. Caught loads of mackerel and got tired of it, so decided to go for mini-species down the wall using very small hooks and rag. First foul hooked a Pouting or Poorcod, cant tell at that size. Then got a Ballan, then Bullhead, several shannys and a Corkwing. Decided to try baited size 6 Hokkais to get something different, but got more mackerel. Left at about 6pm. Nothing wanted my rag/squid at range all day.

Species count for the 2010 is now 25.
See them all here


My first mackerel for the year.


First Ballan Wrasse for 2010


First Corkwing Wrasse for 2010


First Shanny for 2010. (Black form)


Another Shanny (Standard form)


First Bullhead for the year.

Grey Viking - Brighton

I booked a chartboat trip to fish off brighton for Smoothounds and after a few cancellations, finally managed to go out.

Got to the Marina a few hours early so I had a stroll around the marina and found a few nice grey mullet feeding as well as a whole lot of Plumose Anemone.



Thicklip Grey Mullet - Chelon labrosus



Plumose Anemone - Metridium senile

Once we sailed out of port and settled down to fish, people started to hook into some fish, a few dabs and mackerel and then a Starry Smooth-hound came aboard. They looked very much like Gummy Sharks back in Austraia. They are actually just a difference species from the same genus.



Starry Smooth-hound - Mustelus asterias



Starry Smooth-hound - Mustelus asterias

A total of 4 Smoothhounds were caught, none to me though. I only managed to hook into 3 Lesser Spotted Dogfish [#90], I even got grazed by their sandpaper-like skin, which stung like a ....



Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canicula #90



Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canicula

On the way back home, we I photographed this nice Gannet:



Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus

Fishing in Hong Kong

19th -23rd March 2010 - Fishing in Hong Kong

I fished the Avenue of Stars on the first couple of nights and days using just bread (with bacon or ham) from the many bakeries around Kowloon or Hong Kong and only managed to catch a several Broad-banded Cardinalfish which was a new species for me. My only other Cardinalfish was the Southern Cardinalfish which I dont have a photo of. There are several species of Cardinalfish that occur in Hong Kong, which have two dark strips above the lateral line which extend into the tail. This species is positively identified by its tiny first dorsal fin which is lacking in the other species.


Broad-banded Cardinalfish - Apogon fasciatus - #82

While planning for this holiday, I found a nice little hiking path on Lamma Island. Halfway down the track there was a nice beach and I decided to fish here, hoping to find something different but only caught a few Grass Puffers, using the same baits I used on the previous days. I species I previously caught in Japan.


Grass Puffer - Takifugu niphobles

On the final day, I decided to buy proper bait from one of the many street fishmongers around the city, it was a bowl of fresh prawns for $15HK, and went straight to the Macau Ferry Terminal to fish. Straight away, I caught some White-spotted Rabbitfish. Fish of this family, closely related to Surgeonfish, but have venomous spines. I managed to get stung half a dozen times by them. They are extremely painful and the pain lasts about 10 minutes, but it does eventually ease off. The throbing pain didn't deter me from fishing, but caught no other species except for more Cardinalfish.


White-spotted Rabbitfish - Siganus canaliculatus #83


Chinese Demoiselle - Neopomacentrus bankieri #84

Later in the afternoon, I decided to fish in Kowloon again to finish off the remaining prawns. This proved successful and got me a further 3 new species. Earlier on, I kept losing my bait but I downsized to no16s and landed a few Chinese Demoiselle. This were nicely coloured small damselfish which looked like they belong in a reef aquarium. Next new species was a Marbled Rockfish. A close relative to the Scorpionfishes, they do have venomous spines but look more like Groupers or Perches, luckily I managed to avoid being stung. The next new species was the Striped Catfish. I had previously seen these in public aquarium around the world but never thought I'd ever catch one. This is most possibily the most venomous catfish in the world and there have even been reported deaths involving this species. I didn't know this at the time, although I knew that all catfish have venomous spines, so I was quite careful holding it up for a photo, but I droped in and had a spine in my hand and another one in the thigh. Fortunately, I don't think I got stung deep enough so I wasn't really affected by the venom and it was not very painful. It had been a successful days fishing, so I thought I would call it the day there. 4 new species is not a bad result.

The end result for the trip was 6 species in total of which 5 were new species, bringing my species total to 86.



Marbled Rockfish - Sebastiscus marmoratus #85


Striped Catfish - Plotosus lineatus #86