Report from Fuerteventura, The Canary Islands.

**Vlad** · 02-04-2006, 02:00

I visited Caleta del Fueste between 18 and 25 of March.
My stay there was very pleasant mainly due to the excellent accommodation at Casa Kerisa, the Jane & Kevin's villa:

http://www.fuerteventuravilla.info/

Big thanks to them.
The weather was lovely. What a change from the cold and rainy Kidderminster

I made a big effort to arrive at Caleta well prepared with tackle and information.
I've printed a catalogue of all species of fish ( more than 200 of them ) that can be caught from the shore in Fuerteventura.
I had a full set of surface and sinking lures, as well as a bag full of plastic worms of all kind.
I brought with me FIVE rods and reels for all type of fishing conditions I may encounter.
And despite of all this, the results of 6 day fishing for up to 16 hours a day were pitiful.
I don't know what I did wrong because I did everything in the fishing books without much to show for it
The situation was as follows, small fish like 7-8 inches bogues, 3-4 types of small sea bream ant 5-6 inches mackerels could be caught easily in big quantities all day long on bred and shrimp.
Any other fish was a rarity.
The mullet was much more difficult to catch than I expected. The method with the float and treble hooks in French bread was not very successful, most probably because there was no French bread in the supermarket until the last day of my stay, and the ordinary bread was snatched form the hooks by the crafty mullet without any hook-ups. I managed to hook only one fish with this method.
From the reports in the forum I was led to believe that there is a lot of gar fish and barracuda close to the shore. I've used any lure imaginable for 6 days and I also had a float with a live small mackerel or mackerel filet for 10-12 hours in the water for 6 days and I didn't have a bite!
That was real puzzle to me as there was supposed to be sea bass, tuna and blue fish around.
The most puzzling fact to me was that for 6 nights I did not have a single bite on the rod with live small mackerel on the hook. There were supposed to be a lot of night predators like sharks, rays and other bottom fish. Very strange. Bay the way I haven't seen any of the locals to fish at night. They most probably knew that it's a waste of time. The only fish I was catching at night was the infamous bogue.
The squid proved to be not very effective. Apart from bogues I managed to catch only a baby sand tiger shark on it. If you happened to catch one - eat it. It was absolutely delicious!
Every day between 4 pm and 7 pm a dozen of local angles arrived to fish with lures. The used mainly 13 cm rapala deep diving plugs. The result of all this effort was two bonitos, of 10 lb each, caught for the period of 6 days.
I used the same plugs as the locals but didn't have a touch, like most of them.
The only success I registered was hooking into a huge ( over 80 lb ) Bull ray - the locals called it Manta in Spanish. It took a live mackerel on the bottom in the middle of the day. After a very exiting battle that lasted more than an hour, with the help of the local fishing expert Pepe, who was pooling directly on the line while I was retrieving it on the reel ( it was impossible to shift the huge fish off the bottom only with the power of the rod ), we managed to bring the fish within 5-6 feet from the surface. It looked enormous, like a dinner table. Pepe tried to hook it, with a gaff (he fetched from his car), while holding the line. The fish suddenly turned and the wire of the snap link on the swivel of the metal trace - SNAPPED!

Never mind, I had the most exciting fight with the biggest fish I ever hooked in my live!
This thrill alone was worth coming to Fuerte!

My second success was the fact that with the help of Pepe, I've learned the secret how to catch Parrot fish ( Vieja in Spanish ).
This is very prestigious and highly desired fish by the local anglers. It is one of the most delicious fish from the island.

I will share my secret knowledge with you

The parrot fish has a very strong bonny beak (like a parrot's beak ) with which it crushes trough the shells of the crabs and molluscs.
It reaches up to 50 cm in length and leaves by vertical rock faces at depth between 20 and 50 metres.
The best time to fish for it is early in the morning during the months of March and April.
It is not active at night!
It is fished with a 8 - 12 g sliding float, with at least 10 lb fluorocarbon hooklenght on a 14lb mainline.
The heavy lines are necessary because after the fish is hooked, it immediately rushes to a hole in the rock and once in there it cannot be moved. A lot like an eel. So you need the strong line to bully it away from the rock immediately after it is hooked. It is not easy, when you have to drag it up from at least 20 metres of depth.

The three most important factors for successful fishing of the parrot fish are:
- strong, size 5- 6/0 hook, straight with very short shank.
- the sea mast be very calm, because the led is 20 metres below the float and even the small waves make the float to go under with each wave. This makes detecting the bites very difficult.
- the bait is a small crab with the size of 5p coin (dead), the locals gather at low tide from beneath the rocks at the shallow beach between the Atlantico centre and the Salinas ( the salt museum ).

The bait should be about 3 feet off the bottom. Te crab is impaled on the tip of the hook. with the point just showing trough ( just one small crab ).
Before start fishing, gather two dozen of sea urchins. Crash them slightly - just to brake them to 2-3 peaces, 4-5 at a time ant throw them in the swim as loosefeed.
Fish close to the rockface, no more than 2-3 yards out.
The bite is short and sharp. You have to be ready to strike into it as fast as possible. The fish attacks the bait from above. If you don't strike immediately, the small crab is inevitably gone. If you miss a bite, retrieve the hook to re-bait. There is no point to wait for a second bite. The crab is gone.
It took me three days to work out why the locals are catching the parrot fish and I cannot.
Following this strategy I managed to land one Parrot fish at 10 am on the third day.

The next morning armed with my new knowlege I was at the rocks at sunrise, just to discover to my disappointment that the sea was quite choppy and it was impossible to float-fish close to the rocks.
I tried ledgering with braid, but all I could feel was a short gentle nock and the crab was gone. It was impossible to strike into this nocks quick enough.

Now a few more tips I picked up.
The small mackerels are excellent bait. To catch them fish with a float of 4 g and hook №12. They take everything - bred paste. small peace of shrimp even small filet of other mackerel. They are very tasty fried too.

The best bait on the island was shrimp. In the supermarket they don't sell fresh shrimps, so you buy the freshly frozen green ones - not the boiled red ones. When you arrive at the fishing spot, first peel off two dozens of shrimps and leave them to dry on the sun. They become rubbery and though. Small peaces of them stay much longer on the hook.

To catch tuna use 13 cm very deep diving plugs. At least 6-8 feet.

Beware small yellow dragon fish with black dot on the dorsal fin. It is very venomous. I caught at least two dozens of them.
Always have your arterial forceps with you to unhook it without touching it.
Basically, don't touch any fish you don't know. I had my catalogue with the venomous fishes in my bag for quick reference

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...r/bullray4.jpg

**PanamaJack** · 02-04-2006, 11:30

Hi Vlad
Wow! That's certainly a comprehensive report.

But as you say, disappointing results apart from that struggle with the big Ray. Did you get any runs out of it? They can be blindingly fast over relatively short distances, but then they stick to the bottom like glue. Then there were the description of techniques for the Parrot Fish - great eating!

Way, way back in the late 70s, early 80s we used to catch Bluefish light tackle trolling from Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria. Some of them were world record sizes. But they do appear to be sensitive to any form of pollution - they used to dump untreated sewage into the sea - and I haven't heard of them being caught, certainly in any numbers for some time.

From other venues - places like the Azores and Madeira - we used to catch them regularly from around freshwater outflows - streams and waterfalls. But that was alwas from boats. Or shallow offshore reefs. European Barracuda also show up around the reefs. And for both species either sinking lures or small freelined livebaits work will work well.
Dave

**bigads** · 02-04-2006, 20:10

Thats a really brilliant report.......

The pictures are fab aswell........your parrot fish dinner is making me hungry.

At least you got to see what you'd been fighting for an hour....well done.

**Vlad** · 02-04-2006, 21:14

Thanks PanamaJack and bigads!

Yes, the Bullray did three runs but when it was way out. My Daywa Emcast Plus has 10 ballbearings and a fantastic drag control and coped with the sudden runs of the giant brilliantly.
When I managed to bring it close to the rocks it found a deep rocky platform and lied on it for 20 min.
We managed to drag it up pooling directly on the line.

I didn't mention in the report the fact that Mr BLUEFISH ( my favourite fish of all times ) made an appearance on the fourth and the fifth days.
In the afternoon on the fourth day, suddenly the local anglers started shouting very exited - "Pehherrey, Pehherrey!". Pejerey is Spanish for Blue fish.
They were pointing at a chap who was holding his rod up an He had a bogue caught on his bottom hook. The bogue was all chewed up horribly.
This was the work of a blue fish. A shoal of them had entered the bay. The small bate fish was boiling on the surface. Quickly all local anglers fixed bottom rigs with metal hooktraces an put a live bogue on hook size 4/0 - 5/0 and cast them out.
I did the same. After an hour I had two quick nocks on the rod with the live fish. I quickly stroke into it and when I pulled out the rig There was only the head and the spine of the bogue left. When the locals saw it they started shouting again - "Pehherrey, Pehherrey!".
That day nobody had any more bites from the blue fish.
The next day in the afternoon two more fisherman pooled out chewed up bogues and immediately 8 live fish on metal traces went in the water.
But no bluefish was caught that day either.
Pepe told me, they still catch blue fish at Fuerteventura throughout the year.
Back in my native country - Bulgaria, I catch small bluefish every autumn.
I too catch them on deep diving rapala plugs and freelined small sqad.
It is my favourite fish to catch and eat grilled :-)))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...er/lefer02.jpg

**garyagreen** · 03-04-2006, 20:46

thats a stunning report mate welldone

tight lines gary

**andy dee** · 07-04-2006, 20:44

Well done Vlad m8 , you certainly done a lot better than i did when i fished it at xmas , all i got were small wrasse type fish and like a form of blenny all about 6 inches , though what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers .
I put it down to the time of year as none of the locals seemed to be catching anything of any size .
Did you see the mullet around the harbour in Caleta de fuste ?
Big no fishing signs everywhere what a bummer

Agree with you about the bread being a nightmare to keep on the hook we ended up using sweetcorn , got the same amount of bites but the sweetcorn stayed on the hook a bit longer .
We only found out the day before coming home there is a fish counter at the supermarket at Atlantico were you could get fresh fish bait

Anyway you live and learn .

Andy

**Vlad** · 08-04-2006, 00:55

Thanks Andy!
I had a lot of info in advance from the fuerte forum:
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/carnagecrew/

I think the most important thing is to have a car, so you can go around different marks. Next time I will hire a car - I mast not forget my driving license at home again :-)))

**gusangus** · 13-04-2006, 19:57

And I mean deep! 1300ft to be exact don't laugh at electric reels they were the only way to fish that depth, the weights were 1kilo and the rig a three hook paternoster rig made from wire booms (My own HD Booms) with wire traces, the bait was small octopus legs, calimari, and whole tiger prawns, braid is used straight through and the use of Fishtek glow grubs is reccomended, you just don't know what will take your bait and my first drop yielded a 20lb 7 gill shark a Bocanegra of 2.5 kilos and a small snapper, I thanked the lord for electric reels, subsequent drops saw a total of 10 different species coming to the boat the majority being returned only good fish for the barbie being kept. all this and we were only 1.5 nautical miles off shore, Interesting information:- there is no trawling in Fuerteventura waters, and the law states that only three hooks can be used by one angler ( Civil Guardia boats do board angling boats to check), you have to have a licence it costs 13 euros 55cents and lasts three years, there is a total ban on collecting mussels and winkles (two chinese were caught and fined 6500 euros, this ban was reccomended by the fishermen themselves as stocks were getting low. I can't imagine that happening here. Going back? too damn right I am, for the 9th time in September to fish in the island wahoo competition.