The windy Tenerife

At the middle of the February we flew to Tenerife to celebrate my father’s 60^th birthday. This was not supposed to be a fishing trip but surprisingly I could not control myself. My luggage included few t-shirts, couple of pairs of boxer shorts, maybe some other pieces of clothing and of course five rods, two reels, only one box of lures, some hooks, line, scales, tools, sabiki rigs etc. etc.

Well, cut to the chase my attempt to fish at the first morning was ruined by torrential rain. We spend the rest of the day at the theme park of Loro Parque.

One-two-three-many Sea bass at Loro Parque

Monday was my father’s birthday so we spend almost all day together. Except me and my father sneaked to fish for couple of hours. This day was not a success though I managed to catch one fish and it was a new species. At this point I was excited about it but later this species was gonna be a pain in my ass. It was an Ornate wrasse (Thalassoma pavo). My father also caught couple of wrasse and after he borrowed my ice fishing rod he caught also one Madeira rockfish I was jealous about.

At the end this guys were everywhere. Ornate wrasse (Thalassoma pavo)

My father with his first ever Madeira rockfish.

I started the Tuesday morning before breakfast. I had checked out the area of Playa san Telmo before and wanted to find out what was hiding at those nice looking rock pools. I baited my little mormuska with a Berkley Power Bait worm and started to bounce it between the rocks. I quickly caught few gobies and after I switched to another pool I caught few blennies and a tiny mullet too. The day had started superbly as I had caught three new species and haven’t even had my breakfast yet.

Madeira goby (Mauligobius maderensis).

Rock-pool blenny (Parablennius parvicornis).

A very very small Golden grey mullet (Liza aurata).

After breakfast I headed back to the shore. This time I went to the port of Puerto de la Cruz. My father joined me also and soon we were catching some Ornate wrasse. We both caught also couple of blennies which turned out to be Molly millers. A new species for both of us. I caught another two new species as well. They were both juvenile but species is a species no matter the size. For these fish I was using a four meter whip rod with a small piece of goby as a bait.

Molly miller (Scartella cristata).

Juvenile Zebra seabream (Diplodus cervinus cervinus).

Juvenile White trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex).

As the old swells started to climb over the wall we were fishing behind it was time to change place. At this point my father left back to the hotel and I moved to the other side of the dock. I changed to my ice fishing rod, baited my mormuska with a piece of goby and started to fish right by the harbor wall. Soon I caught couple of Madeira rockfish (another new species) and a small grouper of some kind (it’s still unidentified).

Who are You?

The port of Puerto de la Cruz.

After few more rockfish I changed the place once more. But there was nothing new to come anymore. This was a great day. Six new species and when I get the grouper identified it’s gonna be seventh….

Wednesday was a day off from fishing. We had a rental car and we were trying to drive to the Mount Teide. But surprisingly we found us among dozens of other tourist from the barrier which said the road was closed because there was too much snow on the road. So we headed to the nice little village called Masca.

There was some nice looking places on the way to the Masca.

That's Masca in the middle of the picture.

My alarm clock rang again at 5 am Thursday morning so I was fishing way before dawn. After I had caught couple of gobies for bait I headed once again to the harbor. My first drop of the mormuska brought me a hard hit and up came some kind of crab. After couple of quick pictures I dropped my mormuska back and had another hit immediately. And then it was time to yell again. A Cardinal fish was one of my target species but telling the truth I never believed in catching one.

Nice and creepy bycatch.

Cardinalfish (Apogon imberbis).

When the sun had rose I started my hunt for the Canary damsels I had saw by the wall every time I had visited here. I had tens and tens of bites but either there was bait stolen or I caught an Ornate wrasse. Man they’re fast and I think there were millions of them. Just before I was leaving for breakfast I caught one more wrasse. But this time it was not Ornate-version but Emerald wrasse.

Centrolabrus trutta.

After a nice breakfast our band hopped again to the car and we headed to the capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz. There was some shopping to do. I was trying to find some fish identification books or at least some fishing magazines but my search was all fruitless.

Playa las Teresitas.

Then came the highlight of the day. We drove few kilometres to the beach of Playa las Teresitas. It was really nice looking place not least because the long breakwater at the end of the beach. While the other group headed to the beach me and my father took our fishing gear and walked to the end of the breakwater. First there was only some Ornate wrasse biting. But then I saw a school of grey fish just under the surface. I thought they were mullets and gave them a shot. I got immediate bite to my bread punch and flipped the fish up. Well it was not a mullet, it was a Bermuda sea chub. There was some Canary damsels cruising between the rocks and concentrated to catch one again. I think it took about half an hour to finally hook and land one. I think they are one of the most difficult species to hook up…

Bermuda sea chub (Kyphosus sectatrix).

Finally I caught one! Abudefduf luridus.

For a while I had watched a longish fish cruising on top of the big flat rock just in front of me. I tried to catch it at least fifteen twenty minutes but the constant movement of the waves made my bait presentation very difficult. I saw another fish on the side of the same rock. I dropped my bait blindly under the rock and had a hit right away. Wau, what a fish it was. Some kind of blenny with a huge fangs on it lower jaw. It was a Red lip blenny, one of the coolest species I’ve ever caught. This was a nice way to end the days fishing. With two new species at morning and three new at afternoon this was another successful day.

Red lip blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus).

Like many mornings before I woke early on the two last mornings too. I caught some gobies, blennies, rockfish and couple more cardinalfish but nothing new anymore.

Madeira rockfish (Scorpaena maderensis).

All in all a nice family holiday and with pretty small efforts I managed to catch thirteen new lifers to add to my species list.

There were lot of nice rock-pools at Playa san Telmo.