In my last blog text I promised to get back
soon. So here I am a bit over one and half years later. No excuses I just have
been lazy.
Let’s go back to the July 2015. My girlfriend
and I were on our yearly summer holiday trip. This time we chose to travel to
the Balkans. Our flight landed to Dubrovnik Croatia but we swooped cross the
border to Montenegro as soon as possible. We ended up to the town of Bar at
afternoon.
Like very often on holiday trips my alarm
clock was ringing at four a clock. I walked to the place I had checked last
night and started to fish. It didn’t take too long to catch my first
Montenegrin fish. It was a new species and my all times species number 200!
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| Rock goby (Gobius paganellus). Species number 200. |
Later I caught couple of more Rock gobies, a Bucchich's goby
and one Damselfish. I spent lot of time trying to catch some Morays cruising
literally under my feet. Sadly I didn’t have the right equipments with me this
time. I hooked a moray six times and lost them all.
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| My swim at the town of Bar. |
Bit gutted I headed back to our apartment to pack my stuff. Few hours,
couple of taxi rides and one border crossing later we arrived to our hotel at the
city of Skadar in Albania.
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| Buna River. |
Our hotel had some free bikes to borrow. Next morning I hopped on one
of them and pedaled about two kilometers to the banks of River Buna. I caught a
fish right on my first cast. First I thought it was a European chub but later I
find out it was a new species as it turned out to be Skadar lake chub (Squalius
platyceps). I also caught two more new species in the forms of Gjuca and
Eastern mosquitofish. Few Roach took my bait too. I think they were Rutilus
rutilus but there is several species from the genus Rutilus in the Skadar Lake
area. I still have to find someone who
could help me with these Roach.
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| Squalius
platyceps |
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| Gambusia holbrooki |
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| Alburnus scoranza |
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| Roach no.1 |
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| Roach no.2 |
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| Roach no.3 |
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| Couple of locals fishing at the Buna River. |
On the fourth day of our trip we decided to have a beach day (day
before we visited the capital of Albania, Tirana). For me it means fishing! We
took a furgon (Albanian minibus) to the village of Velipoje at the coast. The
beach didn’t look good for fishing so I took a hike and walked east till I
arrived to the Vilun lagoon. I saw a local fisherman catching some small
Gilthead bream every now and then and
took a place quite close to him. I started with small sabikis baited
with dryed worms. I had several bites right on my first cast and finally I
managed to hook a fish. It was a Gilthead bream not bigger than my palm but it
was a new species for me. After that I made tens and tens of casts and changed
places couple of times too but the fish of the first cast remained the only
fish of the day.
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| I was supposed to get over the bay by this bridge. For some reason I didn't. |
It was time to get back to Montenegro again. We took a bus from Shkodra
to Ulcinj and another one from there to Petrovac. Later in the evening I was
checking the fishing possibilities of the Petrovac harbour for the next morning.
It was a nice little harbour with plenty of fish in it. First I caught several
Bucchich's gobies but then I spotted couple of interesting looking creatures at
the bottom of the dock. The first one took my mormushka right away and turned
out to be Black scorpionfish. Then it was time to catch the other little
critter. I wasn’t hard either and soon I was photographing my second new
species of the day. Not bad for a short morning session like this. It was a
short one night stop at Petrovac and so we headed to the airport of Tivat to
pick up our rental car.
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| Scorpaena porcus |
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| Tompot blenny (Parablennius gattorugine) |
The next destination was at the mountains of Montenegro. We drove with
our small Skoda in the awesome scenery until we found a nice little mountain
village called Kolasin. I did not go fishing there even though the mighty Tara
river was flowing right next the village. Day number seven of our trip dawned
and we turned our car towards a yet new country. Couple of hours and a minor
hassle with the Montenegrin border officials later we crossed the border of the
Republic of Kosovo.
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| Nice little roads |
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| And some moderate scenery |
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| A small tributary of the Tara River |
I jump right to the moment we were about to cross the border again. I
had almost given up that I could add a new country also to my fishing lists
when I saw a nice place by the lake shore just about one kilometer before the
Albanian border. Actually it was not a
lake it was a wider part of the Drin river. Saddly my worms had made a mass
suicide day before and the only baits I had was few slices of bread and some
Power Bait worms. There was tens and tens of small minnow like fishes cruising
near the shoreline but they totally ignored my offerings . I also saw couple of
Bleaks but failed to catch them too. So Kosovo became the first and hopefully
the last country I’ve been fishing at without catching a single fish. After
that we took a ride back to the Montenegro and ended to the very busy town
called Buljarica.
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| I left this place without catching a single fish.... |
Because the shoreline of Buljarica is nothing than sandy beach I
decided to take a ride back to the first mornings spot at Bar. This time I was
prepared to take a rematch with the Morays. I saw a tiny little fish on the
rock and gave it a try with my tanago hook. Seconds later I had what I think is
a Mystery blenny on my hand.
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| Parablennius incognitus |
Like on the first try one week earlier the Morays gave me six tries
again. This time I had tied a strong number 8 hook straight to the end of
0,35mm fluorocarbon line and was hand lining with it every time I spotted a
Moray between the rocks in front of me. And finally the sixth time’s a charm.
After a furious fight I landed my first ever Moray species. It was a nice fish
over a half a meter long but saddly it escaped before I managed to get a
picture of it. Oh well, that only means I’ll have to catch another one someday.
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| From between these rocks I hooked all the morays (at least three different individuals) |
Later on the same day we had drove back to the city of Tivat. We had
one more day and night to spend before we had to drop our rental car back to
the airport. So at the afternoon I dropped my girlfriend to the beach and went
fishing again. I found a school of ferocious little fish and after a strike
number 47 or something I finally hook a fish. That was a Five-spotted Wrasse
and a new species. After couple of more wrasse and seabream I decided to take a
look what was swimming at my spot. By snorkeling I saw some Peacock blennies,
Giant gobies and couple of more species I’ve never caught by hook and line.
Bugger, they’re there and I can’t catch them….
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| Symphodus roissali |
After a good nights sleep we took our Skoda back to the Tivat airport
and headed to the bus station. Couple of hours later we arrived back to
Croatia. From Dubrovnik we took a local bus to a nice little village called
Cavtat.
Cavtat is founded on the small rocky peninsula and has nice shoreline
to fish from. But make sure you are there early in the morning before the
sunbathers conquer all the places. And so I did. I was at the shore while it
was still dark. Loyal to my style I took my microfishing gears and started to
light the water with my head torch. Soon I spotted a tiny little fish which was
easy to lure up. It was my second Mystery blenny of the trip. Some fifteen
minutes later I saw something very interesting. Happily this fish was also very
cooperative and I managed to catch it. Red-black triplefin was the english name
of the fish. I caught two more tiny blennies. The first one was what I think
another Mystery blenny but the second one was yet a new species. One Bucchich's
goby and one Madeira rockfish later it was time to head back to our apartment.
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| Tripterygion tripteronotum |
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| Zvonimir's blenny (Parablennius zvonimiri) |
Later on the morning I made the last fishing session of the holiday. I
caught three tiny gobies which still needs to be identified and also one blenny
which is unsure by its species too. And of course I had to tease myself by
snorkeling a bit. Once again there was few Peacock blennies, one Giant goby, a
school of small barracudas and some other irritating creatures lurking right at
my swim.
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| Who are you? |
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| This blenny still needs to be confirmed |
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| Some random picture from Cavtat. |
At the end it was awesome holiday in the great countries. I added two
more countries to my fishing lists. Kosovo was the first country I’ve been
fishing at without catching even one single fish. Therefore I can’t add it to
my list. What it comes to specieshunting I caught twelve new species and there
is still few species to be identified….
