Lanzoarote 2011

Last year my partner and I booked a trip to Lanzarote. The holiday was to be a family one but I knew I could fit some fishing in and after looking on the Internet at what could be caught I packed a travel rod. I also packed some lures, large hooks and reel with 25lb sea line loaded on the spool.

The hotel was located around 200 yards from the beach which had two breakwaters extending 100 yards into the sea (perfect to fish from). Target fish were barracuda, mullet and anything that took my bait!!. I am not to familiar with sea fishing especially tropical sea fishing but I gave it a go. I must have fished most of the ten days we stayed there. I started my sessions by float fishing bread for some mullet and ended up catching an orange striped fish which I was not will to touch. I also landed a type of sea bream (pictured) that put up an excellent fight on my small flimsy travel rod. I estimate the weight at around a couple of pounds.

My partners brother Jamie and I decided to do come Marlin fishing as after all we were in one of the best places in the world to do so. The boat trip cost 80 euro and ended up being a bit disappointing. I believed we may catch some king mackerel, Wahoo or maybe a Dorado on trolled lures but unfortunately we caught nothing. We were shown a book before we went out with pictures of 300lb + Tune and Blue Marlin up to 1000lb. There were ten people on the boat and each had a trolled rod which I thought was too many. We stopped of to do some deep sea fishing and were given rubbish rods with small rusty hooks. We were fishing for fish up to 2lb in weight and I was disappointed. One man hooked a massive fish which which snapped his line after a strong fight. As soon as this fish was lost they told us to reel in and we moved locations. I was like they didn't want us to catch. I did however manage a small puffer fish and a Small red snapper. Jamie caught a fish they was extremely poisonous which the boat crew advised "if you touch it you sleep". Although we caught nothing it was still an enjoyable day and the views of the islands as we trolled was beautiful. I am glad we did the trip as I may have missed out on what could have been an amazing opportunity for the elusive Blue Marlin.

I decided to do another small session during mid day when the tide was coming in. I rigged up a size 2 Korda carp hooked and baited it with a large slice of peperoni which was cast of the other side of the breakwater. As we sat enjoying the sun the rod pulled hard and I caught it just before it would have vanished into the sea. The fish pulled extremely hard bending my small travel rod over double. With 20 seconds or so the line went slack and the fish had won the battle. I came to the conclusion I was cut of by some sharp teeth, not rocks as I felt no grating etc. My 25lb line was sliced through clean. With this I got a taxi up to the town and went to a fishing shop. I purchased some extra strong Tuna traces complete with hooks and some 30lb line. If I was to hook another fish like this again I would be tackled up to deal with job. Unfortunately this didn't happen and I hooked no more monster fish of the breakwater. 

On a trip down to the local harbour at Play Blanca I noticed a large amount of good size Mullet swimming in the crystal clear water averaging around 3lb but going up to 6lb. The water was so clear you could see every rock on the bottom at 40ft deep. We spotted puffer fish, Barracuda (which we actually witnessed taking a fish with lightning speed) and some other colourful tropical fish. I wanted a go at the Mullet and so asked the an English man running the ferry tours if I could fish the harbour. His reply was "just fish it mate and if security asked you to leave tell them to piss off. I wasn't going to do that but this was enough reassurance I needed to walk down and wet a line. Jamie and I headed down to the harbour armed with a loaf of bread and our travel rods. Within two casts my floated bread crust vanished and I was into a Mullet. After an immense fight I landed a beautiful fish of around 3lb. Jamie soon followed with a fish slightly bigger . Just as we were about to cast out again security arrived and asked us to move on. Web moved to some rocks and fished out into the open ocean but didn't have any more fish that day apart from a sardine of around 2oz.

It was decided we would take a ferry journey to Feutventura for the day and so I packed my rod and reel in case we had some time to fish. Once we had arrived I had a look in the harbour to see if I could spot any large mullet. I said to my partners sister whilst throwing in bread that the smaller fish would pick at it at first and then the larger fish will move in. I stopped throwing the bread and turned around to talk to somone and when I turned back I was amazed at what I saw. A long fish around 5ft was cruzing up and down the harbour. It must have weighed 80lb and Im not sure what species of fish it was but it was an amazing site. We manage to get a picture shown below.