Brighton Marina

This was the first trip to the Brighton Marina of the year. I hadn’t fished here since October last year when I caught mainly whiting. Now, about 8 months on, I’d be expecting to catch the summer species of Mackerel and Bream.




European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus #128

As with most occasions, I started fished around peg 40 on the Eastern Arm of the Marina. The seas where pretty rough and there was quite a lot of weed about, but I decided to fish two rods on the bottom with rag. Nothing much was happening, so I decided to fish down the side and got my self a few little shannies.




Shanny - Lipophrys pholis



Looking around, a few of the nearby anglers started getting some mackerel on feathers, so I feathered up some of my rods and started some fluff chucking. On the first cast, I got myself a nice mackerel and got a few of them during the day. On one cast, I looked up right up near the surface, but it wasn’t kicking as much as a mackerel would and as I got it in, I had a little silver fish hanging off one of my feathers. I knew it was something in the herring family, i.e., a herring, sprat or pilchard but didn’t know couldn’t tell which. I was only able to identify it when I got home though examination of the photographs, and it was a Pilchard [#128]. You quite easily identify a pilchard because it is the only species in Britain that has radiating grooves on its gill plate. It is smooth in the sprat and herring.



Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus



European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus

It got a little rough later one, so I fished in the one of first few pegs. I always seem to loses quite a bit of tackle here as there is a mussel bed about 20 metres out. This is actually a good spot for ballan wrasse and I managed to get a few of them out of the water. I also got a bullhead has well.






Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta




Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis

Galata Brige - Istanbul

Do a little image search on Galata Bridge and you will find hundreds of photos of a bridge jammed packed with anglers fishing. This is a bridge in Istanbul that crosses the Golden Horn. The bridge has two levels. The bottom lines with stores and restaurants an top is used for cars, trams and of course fishing.

I hadn't brought any fishing equipment on this trip as I was I travelling light across Eastern Europe. Hooks or any other sharp object can't be brought onto carry on luggage and I didn't want to be weighed down with cargo lugguge. Thankfully there were are few shops on the Galata end of the bridge which sold fishing gear and managed to get a small telescopic rod and a set of feathers for about £5.

I hopped right back on the bridge, I lined myself up next the the very first angler and dropped my feathers into the deep. It was quite deep but after a few minutes, I had my first İstavrit [#127] on the line. İstavrit or Mediterranean Horse Mackerel seem to be the most common fish being caught here, although I did see a few mullet in some of the buckets on the bridge. I did manage to catch quite a few and even came back the next day to catch some more. None of them were of a decent size, but it was still a new species.






Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus #127






Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus







Mediterranean Horse Mackerel - Trachurus mediterraneus





There is a little fish market just near where I bought my fishing gear. I really love going to fish markets as it gives me a chance to see what's around nearby. Here is a little sample:







Little Tuna - Euthynnus alletteratus







Meagre - Argyrosomus regius







Goldblotch Grouper - Epinephelus costae







Largescaled Scorpionfish - Scorpaena scrofa









European Anchovy - Engraulis encrasicolus







Wels Catfish - Silurus glanis







Mediterranean Sand Smelt - Atherina hepsetus

Belopoptsi Dam - Sofia - Bulgaria

I had prebooked a fishing guide in Bulgaria before I started travelling about a month earlier. After travelling few almost 2 weeks, I was itching to catch some fish. My guide arrived at my Hostel and we drove up to a little lake outside of Sofia called Belopoptsi Dam (Язовир Белопопци).

We fished a sliding float to get the bait down to about 15ft. After about 15 minutes. The guide caught the first (and only) fish of the day. It was a Prussian or Gibel Carp. These are the same species as Goldfish but a different subspecies/form. They are very silver compared to the Brown Goldfish we get in England. They are very simiar to the Crucian Carp but have a concaved instead of convexed dorsal fin. They are also a little bulkier.



Prussian Carp - Carassius gibelio



Prussian Carp - Carassius gibelio

I wasn't catching fish, but was still enjoying the wildlife. There we frogs an tolds everywhere, storks soaring around as well.


White Stork - Ciconia ciconia



White Stork - Ciconia ciconia




Common Toad - Bufo bufo



Marsh Frog - Pelophylax ridibundus


We had some traditional food for lunch. Boza and a BBQ.



Боза

Belgrade

I'd been travelling around Eastern Europe for just under a week now, and didn't even realise that it was ANZAC day. This was the closest I'd been to Galipoli during ANZAC day. The weather had been good to us and for some reason, Belgrade felt very much like home. There were streets full of cafes selling a vast varierty of coffees and chocolate drinks, something that you don't really get in London. Just like Melbourne there was a River flanked by parks and gardens. The Serbian Open was on as well, and we were able watch a few matches free of charge.

The River here was the Sava, which flows down from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, through each of their capitals, and joins to Danube few hundred metres downstream.

Walking upstream towards the station, I found large shoals of Bleak swimming along the surface, and their seemed to be a few fisherman targeting them on float fishing gear. There were also a lot of anglers fishing little spinner, perhaps targeting perch, zander or pike. And their were other just ledgering.

I passed an angler reeling in his line, and he had a little fish on the end. With a little bit of gesturing and waving of arms, I mananaged to get a hold of the fish to photograph it. It was a little Round Goby. A fairly large goby which lives in the freshwaters for the Danube as well in the Black Sea. I found that he was also using these as bait. I guess it would be for one of the predatory fish mentioned above, or maybe even a Wels.



Round Goby - Neogobius melanostomus



Round Goby - Neogobius melanostomus



Bleak - Alburnus alburnus



Bleak - Alburnus alburnus



European Roe Deer - Capreolus capreolus - photographed on the train between Budapest and Belgrade

First fishing trip of the year

Well, the first fishing trip in England for the year, since I did a whole lot of fishing in Penang a little earlier. Had to dig around and find all my coarse fishing gear and set off to a little fishery in Surrey by train and foot.

It had been a clear sky overnight and although the forecast was for a sunny day, it meant that it was still going to be well below 10 degrees. I was hoping for some nice tench or crucians but only caught a single fish for the entire day and it was a little rudd. First british and coarse fish for the year and number 13 overall for the year.



Rudd - Scardinius erythrophthalmus

Even though the fish weren't on the feed, it was early spring and there was wildlife everywhere, waking up from the winter.



Egyptian Goose - Alopochen aegyptiacus



Egyptian Goose - Alopochen aegyptiacus



Common Toad - Bufo bufo



Common Toad - Bufo bufo

Teluk Bahang Again

After coming off the boat (read the previous post), I still felt quite unwell, but still really wanted to fish the jetty again, so I found a shop for refreshments but the real task was to find some bait. I asked around and after several attempts, was directed towards the town when I found a fish market and luckily was able to buy some fresh prawns to fish. The fishmonger gave me some tips but also showed me a nice grouper he had caught the night before.

Although I only had a single rod with me, I wanted to maximise my chances, so I tied a hand line with a spool of mono which I dropped straight down the pylons and casted my rod out as far as I could with the drag set really low using the fighting drag setting on my reel. As I was chatting to some british tourists, the line starts to run and after a brief tussle, I had a Croaker in my hand. I quickly realised that it was a different species than the one I had caught a few days earlier as this one had a little barbel on its chin. It was a Goatee Croaker [#125]. As well as the barb on its chin, it also as two dark stripes seperated by a light one on its nape, just visible on my photos.



Goatee Croaker - Dendrophysa russelii #125



Goatee Croaker - Dendrophysa russelii



Goatee Croaker - Dendrophysa russelii



Goatee Croaker - Dendrophysa russelii

While catching several croakers in the same way, I noticed that my handline was taut, so I brought the line in. Although I could feel that it was a small fish, it did put up quite a good fight and when I brought it in, I was quite impressed with what it was even though it was a tiddler. I had seen these in fish markets in Hong Kong, it was a Javelin Grunter [#126].



Javelin Grunter - Pomadasys kaakan #126



Javelin Grunter - Pomadasys kaakan

Well, to make up for the small size of the first Grunter, the next fish I caught on the handline was another grunter, but this one was a better size. Not of bragging or even of eating size, It was good enough for me.



Javelin Grunter - Pomadasys kaakan



Javelin Grunter - Pomadasys kaakan



Javelin Grunter - Pomadasys kaakan

I did catch a few more Croakers but nothing else except or another Puffer.



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris

Every now and again, I noticed a small shoal of Gars (Needlefish) and tried to catch them by dropping my bait near them. Towards the end of the day, I realised that instead of going for my bait, they would chase my lead as the came down. This sounded ideal for feathering, so I packed up my handline and the rest of my gear and decided to chase them up and down the jetty. I used a chrome slice/pirk as a sinker with 6 feathers about it. I did have a few good takes and a single good hookup which broke a feather of the line, but wasn't able to land any. I think if I had another hour, I would have been able to get them, but it was time to go home.



Spot-tailed Needlefish - Strongylura strongylura



Spot-tailed Needlefish - Strongylura strongylura



Spot-tailed Needlefish - Strongylura strongylura

Gurney Drive

I did have another small fishing trip on my final day in Penang. I had seen fishermen at Gurney Drive on previous trips there but wondered if I could catch something. There were a lot of hermit crabs about but I wanted fish. I casted a handline out and waited. As I waited I saw a school of tiny black fish that I had seen several times on this trip and I really wanted to catch one to see what they where. Well I grabbed my little aquarium net and scooped one out. To my surprise, it was a Spotted Scat, I fish that I had seen many times in Aquariums but didn't know they looked like this when they were young.



Spotted Scat - Scatophagus argus

I did catch my final fish for the trip, it was a tiny puffer.



Green Rough-backed Pufferfish - Lagocephalus lunaris