Advice needed for fishing in Greece

[cbr6fs]

Hi all,

Been watching and reading from the wings for a while, thanks to everyone for there great questions and fantastic advice, for us new blokes it is a real help.

So down to business,

Moved to Greece 5 years ago, just started fishing after disability from a bad bike crash,

My understanding of written Greek is, well let’s just say its all Greek to me, so advice frfom magazines and newspapers is no good to me, I am hoping you lot can help.

I have been told that Bass are prominent here, and have had many people telling me they have good catches, so that has been mainly what I have been concentrating on, unfortunately the vast majority of Greeks seem to fish from boats here, I have seen very few shore fishermen.

The usual setup is:
Telescopic rod 2.7m (just under 9ft),
Spinning type reel,
4mm line (45lb),
Some kind of float (usually cork) free running I think you call it, so the lead goes to the bottom,
A swivel and 2 hooks rig type setup,

All sounds great but I am catching diddly squat.
I cannot see how a float that has no limit on the amount of line it allows below it can give an indication of a bite? If it does take the bait surely it’s going to take more line rather than dip the float.
I know it’s along way from blighty and all the conditions are vastly different but if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.
The baits I am experimenting with myself, but I really need a good basic rig and float setup to start from.

Cheers.

(or should it be Efaristo)

[fishypaul]

hi cbr6fs,welcome to the forum,you've picked the right place for advice,
having said that i am not the best one to ask about fishing in greece,i'm sure there are plenty of well travelled friends out there who can help you,
as for your float difficulties,you need to put a stop knot on the line to set the depth at which you intend to fish,you can use a piece of fishing line or even a bit of rubber band on the line,
if you want to fish 6 feet down just tie the stop 6 foot from the hook,problem solved.
hope it works for you.

[cbr6fs]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the welcome mate,

Im not really looking for Greek specific info, just general various float setups i can experiment with.
I understand what you say about the fixed length, that makes sense, the only problems i have with setting a fixed line depth are 2 fold.

Everyone here keeps telling me i have to fish close to the bottom, if i don't know the depth where im casting i cannot set the depth.

Secondly the only floats i can find here, are ones with a hole running the length, so if you can imagine the line is lifted up off the water at the top of the float, so i cannot seem to get the weight correct enough to get the float sitting upright in the water, it either sinks below the surface (too much weight) or lies flat on the surface.

Cheers

[andyg]

Hi CBR6FS

I have done a bit of fishing all over the med, but I've always been able to copy a whole bunch of spanish/greek/other european anglers and they are generally very helpfull in my experience. But if there are few shore anglers maybe there's a reason...

I haven't heard about that many bass but mullet are everywhere around the Greek coastline but are very hard to catch - use a piece of breadflake on a tiny hook (size 8 or 10) float fished at 1 - 6 feet.

In order to get fishing quickly and successfully you may want to ditch the float - Theres no point in float fishing near the bottom unless it is very rough (rocks and/or loads of seaweed) and you are going to loose lots of gear. It will be easier for you to us a fixed paternoster rig and use the rod tip as an indicator rather than a float.

Most feed fish on the bottom, some exclusively. Some fish feed off the bottom and some will come to the surface - but the majority of food is on or near the bottom.

If you are fishing on rough ground and you have to use a float, firstly you have to make your float cock in the water - you do this by adding pieces of shot to the line below the float (make sure you consider the weight of your bait when doing so). If you can't do this with the equipment you have, call a UK tackle dealer and tell him your predicament, he'll sort you out with the right gear). Once you have done this you should cast with an experimental float depth, say 10 feet - if the float cocks your bait is off the bottom so go to 12 feet and so on until your float doesn't cock, then you're on the bottom! so take it up a few inches until your float cocks etc.....

hope this helps, any question pm me.

AG

[Old Smoothound]

Welcome Aboard CBR6FS Best Forum on the Net!!

Was going to give advice but... as out fishing yesterday Andy beat me to it!

Sound advice given, I used to hoilday in Corfu and Greece and most of the fish i had seen either in the water or caught was Mullet, so andy is right.

Hope it all works out for you.

[wellyfish]

how do cbr ,sorry to hear about the bike accident.i used to live in greece myself for a few years on the island of zante (yes,we chefs get everywhere) but strangly never fished there and never saw anyone else fish there ,but did see the locals putting the nets out in the morning and catching some strange fish and if i remember rightly they did catch some type of bass,. the only fishing i did was spear fishing for octopuss, must get out there soon and visit my cousin who has a restaurant out there in Alikanas ....enjoy

[cbr6fs]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delayed response, been out fishing, thanks for all the great advice.
Not good news though I’m afraid, been out to several different locations, all of which proved unsuccessful apart from yesterday, I am using 2 rods,

• 1 setup with 0.4mm line, #4 hooks x3 a pretty hefty lead shot
o Various baits from whole small shrimp, to bit of mussels crabs octopus skinned shrimps, and have got nothing.

• 2nd with 0.2mm #6 hooks x3 again pretty hefty lead shot but smaller than the 0.4mm obviously
o On this I have been using bread, sweet corn a flour olive oil paste mix thing, had 2 catches.



Both by accident, while I was unknotting my 0.4mm line the smaller line was blown into shore, both times I caught this weird looking fish about 16cm long but thick around the head, didn’t look particularly tasty so I put them back again.

There must have been 20 fishing boats off shore at all locations, so it’s looking badly over fished here in Athens, that’s not including the spearfishers, who do not give a monkeys, and just swim straight through your line tangling up around their snorkels, gimps, a few choice words and a few shouts of SHARK sorted them out though.

I’ll keep persevering and let ya know when I eventually catch summet.
If anyone thinks of any more advice then all is welcome.

Cheers Mark.

[fishypaul]

just be careful with some of those weird looking fish,i don't know anything about fish in the med but you may find some of them might pack a nasty sharp fin or even a poisonous sting,
one of the first things you should buy is a local fish identiification book.
treat em with respect and be careful mate.