Barracuda Fishing, Puerto de Vueltas, La Gomera

Holiday Species Hunt Continues

Puerto de Vueltas, Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera, Canary Islands

View Of Vueltas From The Sea Wall

During a weeks break in the sun on the beautiful Canary Island of La Gomera I had planned to do a day or two of big game fishing, for many reasons things didn't go to plan. My location was very remote and would have required getting to the other side of the island to the bigger port of San Sebastian, which would of added almost 120 euros to the all ready expensive cost of chartering a boat. I Also had to bear in mind that this was a break for me and the misses, and due to the very rough sea and high winds during the week of my visit It could of been disaster for both of us, as we both suffer from sea sickness. As I realised that going big game fishing wasn't on the agenda this holiday, I very happily settled for some Lure fishing for Barracuda, during my stay I had been chatting to other fisherman who were all telling me stories of Barracuda being caught on lures off the harbour wall, I had tried during the day without success until a German fisherman called Khosro, Informed me that if I wanted to catch a Barracuda That I needed to be fishing at dusk or dawn. Now, I'm not the best lure fisherman, and to my memory, despite weeks trying I have never caught a fish on a plug, only a few small pike on spinners and a lucky Pollock on a soft sand eel, So to catch a Barracuda on a plug would be dream.

Alluring Attraction! Lets Hope So!

I set my alarm for 4.30am and planned to be fishing by 5.30am, but as this was the first time I had even looked at the clock whilst on holiday, And I failed to realise that the time on my alarm clock application on my phone was confused and was 2 hours out, resulting in me eating breakfast having a coffee and ready to leave at 3.00am with 2 hours to wait DOH!!!. It didn't happen!  I feel back asleep and woke up way to late with the dawn well and truly over, double DOH!!!. I had missed the morning session, but nothing would stop me missing the evening one. I arrived about 1 hour before dusk, I was totally set up for this type of fishing, an ultra light fast action "Snowbee, Sea Bass Special, 10gm - 50gm" a superb 4 piece spinning rod matched with a "Shimano, Stradic FJ 5000" spooled with "PowerPro,  9kg braid", a brilliant outfit, and one that I'm definitely going to put to use back home for Bass, Pike and Perch. Rather than using a wire trace, I opted for a 40lb fluorocarbon trace to help increase takes, and I made this 7' long, because if I did hook a fish I would be able to lift it by the 40lb trace up the sea wall. which was a concern as I could not pack a nets in my suitcases. There was a another few options that I had considered If I was to hook a really big fish, firstly of climbing down a  wall ladder to the sea level and use a fish gripper, which would of been very dangerous and left me with one arm to climb back up the vertical ladder with a angry flapping fish and lure hanging off the other arm, or the more plausible second option of playing the fish 100m back to the beginning of the wall, where a ramp dropped down towards the sea getting closer to the water, but this would involve playing a fish for longer and getting it around approximately 8 very large tyres used as buffers for ships dotted along the sea wall. But the main thing was to get a fish hooked first!

Light! Camera! Action! Garfish Is Pure Entertainment

Well my first session was exactly like all my other lure fishing trips, not a bite and no fish, I had slowly worked my way from the beginning of the wall and back down over the two hours, I had tried all of my lures at one point and my only success was to learn how to make my red head popper pop across the surface like they're designed to, as I had never used one before. It was dark and raining! I had given up, I sat on the ramp looking out towards the water, wondering if I was doing something wrong, or if the strong winds had forced the fish to move elsewhere, and then reflecting off the harbour wall lights I saw glimmers of silver flashing across the surface about 60m out. I rubbed my eyes and again I watched at least 10 fish come clear out of the water. a shoal of Garfish!! I grabbed my rod, I knew straight away that the "Yo-Zuri, Floating Crystal Minnow Lure" would not reach the shoal as it was too light, and in less than 5 seconds with the quick link attachment I had switched the my lure to a "Tronix, Blue Casting Lure", which is designed for distance casting, I cast out to the spot, and as the lure hit the water it exploded! maybe a hundred fish, bait fish and Garfish instantaneously startled by the lure. And immediately I was was on, The hooked Garfish spectacularly tail walked across the surface of the water for at least 10 meters at a ferocious speed. It even jumped a few times, What a show! This was exciting! This is what lure fishing is about! although the fighting fish put on a magnificent display during the fight, it wasn't long before I had landed my first ever Garfish! A skinny torpedo, with a reptilian beak, It made my night!

 "Great Barracuda" Released To Become A Monster

With the excitement of the night before, I returned the following evening to continue my pursuit of a Barracuda, I found Khosro fishing the wall, he had given me advise earlier on in the week about catching Barracuda, and as we passed on the wall we compared lures, tactics and wished each other good luck, If there were any Barracuda about, surly one of us would get one! I had been fishing for about an hour and the sun was setting now, and it was prime time for a fish, I decided to try my "Rapala, X-Rap Saltwater Lure, 14cm, Silver". I hadn't used it as of yet, believing it to be to big. But Khosro with good advise convinced me that it wasn't, just how big are the Barracuda here I thought? I hadn't even asked that question! With the third cast with the X-Rap, I had my first hit, I didn't hook up, but it was action! and proved by the teeth marks left in the lure! It then went quite for a bit and I needed a rest, so I gave the rod to Sarah who continued to fish, she even had a hit bringing the fish to the surface before losing it! Like an excited school boy I took the rod back, and cast out. Straight away a hit, I stopped reeling in, nothing! I gave the lure a twitch, and again bang the fish hit it, but I still didn't hook up. I let it float to the surface and nothing, I twitched and nothing then I started to reel in and Bang the fish hit the lure again, but third time lucky! it was hooked! It didn't put up too much of a fight due to its size, but its speed and angry ferocity was amazing, just like most of the fish I had caught here, when it surfaced I thought for a split second that it was a Garfish, But It wasn't, no long beak, This was my Barracuda! And fowl hoked! I worried that the hook would pull, but maybe luckily for me, the fish was quite small and it lifted straight out the sea and up the wall easily.

Fish Hooked Only Condones Celebratory Good Quality Cigars!

I didn't catch anything else that night, I packed up whilst smoking a celebration cigar that Sarah had given me for catching my Barracuda, but to be honest it was the Garfish that left more of an impression with its fighting acrobatic display, god knows whats it like to have 1000lb Marlin jumping about on the end of your line! The Barracuda wasn't a big fish, but a new species for me! and the fact that I had caught in on a hard lure, especially with my poor track record of lure fishing, has given me a bit of faith to go more often, being mobile, hunting the fish, spotting them and then trying to trick them into taking the lure, and then watching the water explode as a fish takes the lure on or just below the surface is magical, its a visual thing you just don't get with bait fishing, and it's what makes lure fishing so exciting!

Bait Fishing, Puerto de Vueltas, La Gomera

 

10 Species And A Holy S**T!!

Puerto de Vueltas, Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera, Canary Islands

View From Harbour Wall Facing Vueltas

A winter holiday in the sun, with not a lot to do except relax, and if your like me, that means fishing! The beaches at Valle Gran Rey are Rocky, large black round boulders broken with jagged rock pinnacles rising from the bottom like mountain ranges, not impossible to fish on a clam day, but during my stay at Valle Gran Rey, the wind got stronger with each passing day, the 3m surf hitting the beach was breaking about 70m from the beach, good for the surfers, but made fishing for me near impossible, considering the light travel rod capable of casting 3oz leads, that I had with me. But even with the high winds and crazy surf, the almost unused Port at Vueltas provided shelter, calm deep water and a flat comfortable platform to fish from, ideal for some lazy holiday fishing!

Perfect Light Fishing Outfit

My first trip to the harbour wall, was exciting as the sea was calm and clear, with my polarised glasses I could see many shoals of small fish as I walked along the apparently deserted sea defence, I pondered at what could be lurking down in the depths. As I reached the end of the wall I was surprised to find a hidden group of four fishermen with spectators hidden behind the last piece of wall structure. they were fishing straight off the end of the wall, I was relieved to find some others fishing, as now I could see how they were fishing to get me started, as I had no experience of fishing in these waters for these species. Conversations soon started with the other fisherman, tactics, advise and fishing tales all on the agenda, Luckily for me the 3 Germans and Belgium fisherman knew enough English for us to understand each other, and when a word eluded us, my German partner Sarah helped translate so the conversations could continue. I unpacked my tackle, my brand new pride and joy, a 4 piece Snowbee Sea Bass Special, 10 to 50gram light rod designed for spinning, this rod is ultra light with a very fast action, I matched it with a Shimano Stadic 5000SJ Spinning reel with the larger ball type spinning handle which I had to import from the USA, loaded with 250 yards of 9kg Power Pro braid, this was a beautiful set up, in fact, easily the best I've ever had the pleasure to fish with.

Smoke Me A Kipper, I'll Be Back For Breakfast

Following the other fisherman's lead, I set up a sliding float rig, with a 1/2oz ball lead to cock the float and sink the bait, I used a 3' long trace made from 10lb fluorocarbon and a Sakuma 450 Chinu hook size 8, I only had tiny 2" long squid as bait, but just the head of these tidy squid nipped on the end of the size 8 hook was perfect. I set my depth with the stop knot at about 3 meters and dropped my rig straight down the side of the wall into the middle of a large swirling eddy the was created as the current pushed around the end of the wall. In less than 30 seconds the float plunged down, diving about 1 meter, It took me by surprise, I missed the strike, it rose to the surface again, I could see the white squid head quite clearly flickering in the current below the float, then bang it dived down again, I struck, and hooked into a fish, it darted back and forth at lighting speed, the power of the eddy added to the little fight, and up popped my first fish, a plucky little Herring!

Bogue, Boga, Or Boops Boops? Your Call!

As the sun reached its peek, one by one the other fishermen had left, all with the fine excuse  "It's beer hour", leaving me and Sarah alone on the wall, enjoying total peace and quite, and being burnt by the first bit of sun we had seen in many many months. Getting bites wasn't too difficult, but hooking the tricky little buggers was a different story, although I did manage to hook and land a Bogue and a Parrot Fish before calling it a day.

Canary Damsel Fish, Wonderful Blue Colours

As the week progressed, the waves got bigger as the wind got stronger,the plentiful shoals that had been about on the first day had dispersed, probably hiding away from the wall in deeper water, afraid of getting slammed against it. but this did not stop me finding the fish. I continued to try and float fish, suspending my bait just off the bottom, but with plumbing the depth at about 13 meters, made fishing with this rod was very difficult as the rings on the rod are very small, similar size to a fresh water float rod, which made reeling in the stop knot through the small rings very difficult as it kept getting caught on them. So I tried a single flapper rig with a 2oz lead, I soon discovered that the bottom was surprisingly snag free, possibly sand at 10m away from the wall, but the flapper rig posed another problem I hadn't dealt with before, the sheer depth of the water, the lead took up to 10 seconds to reach the bottom, and this left the snod wrapped upwards around the leader past the swivel and up the main line, ruining bait presentation and forcing me to untangle the rig every cast. I though back to deep water boat fishing that I had done back in the UK, as it seemed similar that I was fishing vertically down a long way, I adopted to try a running leger with long flowing snod, by casting out far and slowly reeling in as the lead sank to the bottom, kept the hook and bait from twisting around the main line. and now tangle free and an almost invisible long flowing trace fished tight on the bottom, the bites start to come, yes a lot were tiny fish stripping the bait from the hook, but like fishing through the small fish a bigger fish would bite eventually. They had too, I didn't have smaller hooks

Ornate Wrasse Or Bait Stealer?

I was using prawns now, peeled and cut into a few sections, then wrapped on to the hook with elastic, believe me, it didn't stop the small fish from stripping the bait off the hook, but it just lasted a bit longer lol, they even ate the elastic, which I didn't mind as trying to remove bait elastic from a hook with a half chewed bait is very difficult and messy at the best of times. I would also advise not placing your bait above the hook shank as when I done this with larger baits as we do in the UK I found the fish were just biting sideways straight through the line. I now felt comfortable with my method of fishing, bait and presentation. I was getting regular bites and hooking and landing the bigger fish and smaller fish that took my bait. With the light rod and braid I was using, In the relatively calmer waters of the harbour, I could see every touch and nibble from the smallest of fish, it felt like I was quiver tipping the sea as my rod was resting horizontally along the wall with a large iron cross as a rod rest, which the ships use to moor onto.

White Sea Bream, But "Sargo" Sounds Better

As I was comfortable in my fishing, It was time to fish the night, most of the smaller fish hide away in holes between rocks from the night time predators, I had success during the night lure fishing for Barracuda and Garfish, which I will be doing a separate blog post on, but I really wanted to catch a White Sea Bream, called Sargo in Spanish. And as darkness fell, the constant little rattles of bait strippers stopped. I stepped up my tackle, still bottom fishing but now with a size 4 hook and 20lb fluorocarbon trace, just in case something bigger was lurking in the depths. It didn't take long before the biggest bite so far, bending the light rod tip right round, I struck! and knew I was into something bigger! The fight was fantastic on the light gear, I could feel every twist and turn from deep down below from the darting fish, which put up a mighty fine account of itself considering its size. And gratefully the first fish I landed was what I wanted to catch. 

Venomous Red Scorpion Fish, Who Would Of Guessed?

I managed to land 3 more White Sea Bream in the next hour fishing, but then things started to turn strange, and got worst! It started with a Puffer Fish, hmmm......are these poisonous?, using a cloth wrapped around the puffed up grunting fish, by the time I had unhooked the fish using a disgorger, it had managed to squirt water all over my chest and was now normal sized when I released it. The next cast, was a surprise as the bite was tiny, and I didn't even realise the I had a fish on until it surfaced. "what is this?" Red and spiky, that generally means I'm dangerous. It was a Red Scorpion Fish! a beautiful version of the scorpion fish you can catch in the UK. Again I gave it due care whilst unhooking it, Wrapping it in a damp cloth to protect myself from any spines. But the next thing I caught was never ever going to be touched, well not until we realised that it wasn't what we though it was!!!!

Holy S**T!.......NO! Don't Panic! It's Moving!

Yes!, I know it looks like what you wave goodbye to whilst in the little boys room, but when it started slowly moving a bit like a slug I got suspicious that this wasn't actually a turd. To be honest I was relieved is wasn't! and couldn't stop laughing about the sheer disgust me and especially Sarah had just experienced. Anyhow, I unhooked it and returned it to the sea where it belongs, I'm not sure what it is, maybe some kind of sea cucumber?, if anyone knows please leave a comment.

I have to say, I thoughly enjoyed fishing the harbour wall at Veultas,  the first nine fish I caught were all different species, 10 if you include our disgusing friend. the magic and excitment of not knowing what you were reeling in made this a trip to remember for me. Yes they wern't the biggest of fish, and fishing off the harbour wall felt a bit like fishing a fish nursery, I would of loved to fish the beaches or open water for bigger species, but the weather this holiday dictated otherwise, but I will sometime soon, I'm sure,  and that will be another story!