Fuerteventura - report.

[Vlad]

From 8 to 13 of December visited Fuerteventura in the Canaries for second time this year.

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On arrival on the island, I was met by strong 15-20 miles pre hour winds and cloudy weather. The sea was very choppy with 7-8 foot waves:

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I stayed at one of Tony Tree's apartments in Costa Antigua, Golf1 complex. This gave me easy access to the rocks along the costal path between Nuevo Horizonte (Costa Antigua) and Caleta de Fuste:

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Unfortunately, due to the strong North-Easterly winds and high waves, all of these excellent fishing spots were inaccessible:

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...2006/waves.jpg

In this situation there was only one solution - to pay a visit to Aram, the owner of the "Gone fishing" tackle shop in Caleta de Fuste:

Gone Fishing Fuerteventura. Fishing tackle in Caleta de Fuste and deep sea fishing trips in Fuerteventura.

My advice to all British fishermen visiting the island is - First of all pay a visit to Aram! He is exceptionally knowledgeable about the local fishing and very friendly and approachable guy! He will save you a lot of pointless wandering around and frustration. He'll give you the best advice on the local fishing - methods and bate for the conditions at the moment, the most suitable places to fish and the most appropriate tackle for the job.
Everything in his shop was half of the UK prices.
Thanks to his advice I managed to catch mach more quantity and many more species of fish in comparison to my previous trip there last March, despite of the significantly worse conditions for fishing this time.

On Aram's advice I fished three places:

- The rocks in front of the "Elba Hotel" in Caleta de Fuste:

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- A small bay 200 yards north of the first place. Due to the NE winds, the sheltered rocks were on the south side of the "prominence" situated just before the Caleta de Fuste's first houses. The costal pat starts there:

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- The laguna around the restaurant on the manmade island behind the Atlantico center:

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It is very useful if you could speak a bit of Spanish. The local fishermen can give you very useful advice also. They don't speak any English though. In order to be able to benefit from their advice, I've studied Spanish for two months prior to my visit and it paid off handsomely. I've got some very useful tips on the local fishing from some locals like this friendly chap I met at the Caleta de Fuste harbor wall:

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The fishing in the harbor itself was prohibited:

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But it was possible to fish from the boulders on the outside of the harbor wall.

From Aram's and the local fishermen's advise it became clear that due to the strong winds and high waves fishing with lures for barracuda, bluefish, bass, tuna and other big predators was no good. It was pointless to fish for parrotfish as well. It required calm sea to be fished successfully near the rocks.
I was left with the option to fish three methods:

- Float fishing with long 6 meters telescopic rod. Mine was only 3.90 m but did the job. The float was 10-20 grams, fixed, with all the weight on the float itself. The locals used self-made loaded cork floats. After the float with a swivel was attached one (the locals used two) 10-15 foot long hooklenght, 8-10lb fluorocarbon line, with no weight on it. At the end - hook No7. For bait - peace of prawn or baby squid was used. The locals had 10 liters buckets full of mashed bread, with which they loosefed regularly the swim. With this method they were catching mainly different species of sea bream.

- The second method was fishing the bottom with a beach caster rod, three flapper rig, size 2 hooks and 130 grams led. For bait again prawn or baby squid.
I found the simply made (without crimps, bids and swivels) three flapper rigs Aram was selling in his shop to be more effective than the ones I brought from the UK.
He was selling them like 3 for a pound. I bought 12 and used mainly them with excellent results.

- The third option was to fish live bate - "bogue" or "boga" in Spanish (caught on the light float road) with a big 40-60 grams loaded float. Attached to it with a swivel was 6-7 foot of 20-30lb fluorocarbon line with a metal trace at the end. The hook was No-4/0-6/0. I used my beach caster road with 20lb line for this setup.
One of the locals allegedly managed to land a big bluefish with this setup. I did not see the fish though, but saw the setup.
I’ve tried it as well during the last two days when the wind and the sea calmed down a bit, but did not have any takes this time:

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Armed with the wright information and gear I was ready for action:

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Here are the photos of some of the fish I managed to catch with these methods:

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White sea bream - Diplodus sargus sargus. Sargo in Spanish.
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Saddled sea bream- Oblada melanura. Sama in Spanish.
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Salema - Sarpa salpa (the fish beneath the Saddled sea bream)
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Common sea bream - Pagrus pagrus
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Striped sea bream - Lithognathus mormyrus
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Derbio - Trachinotus ovatus
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Dusky grouper - Epinephelus marginatus
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Painted comber - Serranus scriba (the top fish)
and Common Comber - Serranus cabrilla (the bottom fish)
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Valentinni's sharpnose puffer - Canthigaster valentini
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1120060226.jpg


Diamond lizardfish (Synodus synodus)
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Some more pics of my catch:
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The mullet on the above photo was caught in the quieter water of the laguna behind the Atlantico centre. I loosefeed mashed bread a lot. Got the big fish to feed confidently. Then used a rig with 2grams crystal wagler(all the weight on the wagler), fixed on 6lb mainline, 6 foot hooklenght of 4lb fluorocarbon line with no weight on it and size12 hook. For bate I used well kneaded bread paste with a can of tuna and water.

I hired a Seat Cordoba for £111 for the week. The petrol was very cheap - 38p per liter. I managed to visit almost all interesting places on the island. Recommend it to everyone. It looks out of this world, like a teraformed planet Mars!
Here are some photos of the fishing spots I checked up:

The harbor in Corralejo:
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Stoian-421.jpg

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The harbor in El Cotillo:
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The bay at the Salt Museum - Las Salinas. Fished at low water:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Stoian-193.jpg

The deeps at the rocks between the salt museum and the Atlantico center:
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The rocks north of Nuevo Horizonte. They are good tuna fishing spot in calm weather. They are also very steep and dangerous:
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Here are some of the photos from my trips around the island:

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Stoian-503.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1120060118.jpg

Aram told me the best time for fishing on the island is in October because during this month it is least windy. Wait for my next report in October 2007. I cannot wait to go back there!

[MRG2000]

Super report Vlad ,lots of cracking photos and great variety of fish.........welcome back to the forum.....

[fishypaul]

welcome home vlad
super report and pics well done mate

[Rob M]

Wow! AMAZING report and pictures Vlad. Fab report mate

Rob

[pingu]

brilliant report
father in law tried to get us to buy venue in first place

next time he persuades us to visit the rods are going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

WOW what a report

[gullyworm]

One of the most factual reports ive ever read,neads more photos though
Well done Vlad,bet them bream were good eating

[Ben]

nice 1 dude, reminds me of my trip to lanzarote

[andyg]

Mate, that lizard fish is ugly.

Fantastic report - love to see someone putting in the effort both for the fishing and the report. You look very proud displaying your catch and rightly so. I know how tough fishing out there can be.

Well done

[Vlad]

Thanks for reading my report, and for the kind comments guys!
gullyworm, yes all the fish I caught but the pufferfish were delicious!
The puffer fish is poisones.
Ben, I am going to Lanzarote in March. Never fished there. Hope it's as good as Fuerte. Watch the space.Report to folow!