Because my girlfriend was still at Spain I
didn’t have any plans for midsummer. No barbecuing with friends, no summer
cottages nor rock festivals. So surprisingly I decided to go fishing. At
Thursday night I packed my car, picked up a my trailer and boat and got ready
to early morning start.
I was at the shore at seven am at morning. I
dropped down my boat and headed to the place I had checked earlier from the sea
chart. I trolled all the way there and a bit before I came to those islets I
had a strike but I missed that fish. When I got to the islet I changed my
tactics to spinning. I had tuned my lures for Garfish (I had been reading that
it’s better if the treble hook is rigged to the lure by a short piece of line)
but I still was quite amazed when I saw an Garfish following my lure to the
boat. That gave me lot more trust for what I was doing. They really were there,
it was truly possible to catch one!
After a several hours spinning and few shy
bites I drove to nearby island and took a little nap at the cliff. When I woke
up I tried to find some Black gobys but all I could caught was some Three-spined sticklebacks.
At night the wind calmed down, it was almost
still and the scenery was really beautiful. I left my “home bay” where I had
decided to mount my tent and spent my night and drove back to that very same
islet. It was my third cast when I had a bite. The strike came straight from my
spine and the fish was on. When the fish came to the surface for first time I
saw that it was a Garfish. When it was quite close to the boat it took a tail
dance I have saw never before. At this point I was 100 percent sure that the
fish will get loose. But no, soon I had my first ever Garfish at my landing
net. That was a great moment. After weighing and photographing the fish I
fished a while more and had another bite from the same place. But another Garfish
would be too much and I couldn’t set the hook.
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| Here it is, my first ever Garfish (Belone belone). |
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| And the same fish with a lure it fell to. |
It was almost dark now and I tried to find
some small critters from the bay with a tiny hook in the light of my head lamp.
I caught couple of Sand gobys (species number 37 for the year, Garfish was 36th),
Three- and Ninespine sticklebacks before my head lamp died. I had forget to
chance the batteries before my trip. So it was time to get some sleep.
 |
| Couple of Sand gobys in the jar. |
After breakfast I took another try with the
small fishes. I caught another Sand goby in seconds and soon after that I
hooked a small fish that turn out to be a Eurasian minnow. Wohoo, another new
species. Then I decided to go after Garfish again. But it was completely
different day today. Not even a hint from the fishes. And what was more it
started to rain and the wind got worse again. I had planned to stay for two
nights but the weather forecast told that it will be raining the whole day and whole
night.
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| Minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). |
So I unpacked my camp and left back home. I
had caught three new species for the year from which one was totally new for
me. So I was more than happy for the result.
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| A Three-spined stickleback that I caught with a landing net. The creature just next to it is a normal sized maggot. |
