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.

Starting the 2014 season

Long time no see.

During the autumn I made several attacks after Pike but nothing worth mentioning happened. Well, I bought a fly fishing rod etc. for Pike fishing. Once I borrowed a belly boat from my friend I was totally hooked. So I was forced (yeah right) to buy a belly boat of my own as well. I caught some Pike  during the autumn but all the big ones got around me from the distance.

Me and my new toys.

Now, after a long and mild autumn the ice fishing season has finally started. I have made few bait fishing trips after a Pike but results have been crappy. After three full days trips I have landed only two smallish Pike.

Viljami with a huge Pike he caught...

At the end of  January we had a meeting of Finnish species hunters. The meeting was at the place where I had a great start for the 2012 season (You'll find the report here).

There was about fifteen of us hunting for Fourhorn sculpin, Baltic herring, Eelpout and what ever will hit our baits. During the day many of our group caught one or more lifers. I caught four new species for my 2014 lists including Smelt, Three-spined stickleback, Baltic Herring and Fourhorn sculpin. The Viviparous eelpout was one species I didn’t caught though everybody else caught at least one.

I was too lazy to take any pics at this trip. But hey, luckily you can find better report (in Finnish) and some pictures at Juha's blog.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m gonna do some serious species hunt at the Finnish waters this year again. I’m now on 10 species so the start has been quite good. Well the time will tell what I will do.

Quite soon I’m travelling to Canary Islands with my family. It’s not gonna be a serious fishing holiday but I’m still quite confident I’ll catch some new species to add to my life list as well….

Carp & surprises

After our last autumns successful carp fishing trip (http://fish-species-hunter.blogspot.fi/2012/10/late-summer-carping.html) to the southeastern Finland we decided to make new attempt this year too. First it was supposed to be only carp fishing trip but it turned out to be something even better….

Just couple of days before our trip I read from a fishing forum that there was some Siberian sturgeon stocked in the pond about a week ago. So besides the boilies, pellets and sweetcorn I packed few boxes of worms and bought couple of bags shrimps.

This time we started fishing at Thursday afternoon and continued straight to Saturday morning. After we had baited the area and set our carp gears up we decided to go to sleep so we could start float fishing early in the morning.

It was a bit chilly night because the temperature dropped all the way to zero degrees. But still we have several line bites until Viljami finally got a decent run at 3.15 am.  After a short fight I scooped a nice five kilos mirror carp to the net.

Rest of the night was much more quiet. I woke up at six thirty when it was still bit hazy. I did some rebaiting and checked my rods cause I had an feeling there would come a run at morning. And it came at half past eight. Well, it was one of Viljamis rods again. I was standing right next to his rod pod so I crabbed his rod and shouted him to continue the fight. This time it was a six kilos common carp.

Fish of the misty morning.

Before noon we baited couple of swims with pellets and some shrimps to attract the sturgeons. I had few cautious bites before I hooked my first fish. It was a strange fight. My 12 foot match rod was bended over for about five minutes and the fish made only one short run during the fight. Finally we managed to slip the fish to the landing net. And there it was, my first ever Siberian sturgeon. It was foul hooked from the anal fin but still I’m counting it as a new species. 

My first ever Sturgeon going back home...

Few hours later the bailiff Marko came to see how were we doing. He dropped some hashed worms to my swim and just ten minutes later I was on again. The fight was different than the first one and first I thought I was fighting a Tench. But soon the fish started to kite from side to side and moments later I had caught second Sturgeon of the day. This time it was hooked properly from the lip. Viljamis swim was dead as a stone so I asked him to try mine. About fifteen minutes later he also caught his first ever Sturgeon.

Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii baerii).

That's a one happy fisherman!

That was it. All we caught later was couple of small Perch.  The second night was warmer than the first one and we were sure there’s gonna be some serious carp action during the night. But how wrong can you think. There was no action at all. No runs, not even line bites. But hey, this is carp fishing. It’s not easy even at well stocked day ticket waters.

I did not catch any Carp but I caught a new species. I think the trip was even better I could imagine.

After that trip I have been fishing for Pike several times. So far my biggest one weighed 6,3 kilos so the really fat ladies have evaded me yet. My friend Ville joined me about a month ago and managed to catch a nice fish of 9,4 kilos.

That's another happy fisherman.

So far this autumn has been quite mild so I hope the Pike season will be long and fruitful….

Danube gobies

At the start of the August I flew with my girlfriend to the Central Europe for one weeks summer holiday. We started our trip from Budapest and travelled from there by train to the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava.

I set my phone to alarm at 4.15 of our second morning at Bratislava. After a quick breakfast I left from our apartment and headed to the Danube river. When I got to the shore I realized the current of the river was way too fast to fish from the bottom with my light gear. So I decided to try if I could find any new species between the rocks at the shore line. The only bait I had was a can of sweetcorn I had bought from the supermarket the day before. Well, sweetcorn is useless when playing with small hooks and hunting for gobies, bullheads etc. So I started to turn around the rocks and finally managed to find some small worms to use as a bait. After that it didn’t take too long to catch my first Danubian fish and it was also my first fish from the Slovakian waters. There is several different species of gobies at the Danube river and of course I caught the only one I had caught before. The Round goby has conquered also the Europe’s second longest river. Soon I caught another Round goby. 

Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus). Bratislava castle on the background.

At one point I was bouncing my mormuska outside of the big rocks at the shore. Suddenly something much bigger dashed from the depths of the river and hit my bait. Luckily the fish did not make any sudden moves and after a quick fight I landed a Chub of almost one kilo. Not a bad fish with two meter long whip rod and a 0,14mm line! After that I had to leave back to our apartment because we had a bus to catch. Our next destination was another capital and after a one hours bus ride we reached Vienna, Austria. 

The Europen chub.

Sadly I had not time to fish at Vienna because we spend only one night there. Next day we travelled back to Budapest by bus, rented a car and headed to the biggest lake of the Central Europe, Lake Balaton. When we finally got to the south end of the lake I had a strange feeling at my right ankle. It was aching and swollen. When we looked it more closely we found two small holes from it. A snake bite! Now I remembered that I had felt some twinge and found out my ankle was bleeding when I was fishing at Bratislava. Well, we managed to find a local doctor who prescribed some antibiotics for me.

Was it one of these that bite me?

That small episode pretty much ruined my plans to go fishing to the lake Balaton or some of the canals and small rivers flowing to it. Well maybe next time. Instead we went to have some bath time to the town of Heviz. There’s a spa which is build by and on a thermal lake. The lake has a good population of fish too. I managed to catch couple of Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) with my bare hands but as you know I’m only counting the species I’ve caught with a hook and line.

Couple of nights later my ankle felt much better (by the time we had returned back to Budapest) and my alarm clock was ringing again at 4.15 am. It was time to fish at the Danube river again. I chose to fish right under the Margit bridge right in the center of Budapest. I set up my bottom rig ready for a later use but started to find out if there was any life between the shore rocks. And I got an answer right away when a fish hit my mormuska from the second hole I tried. This was it. It was a goby of some kind but definitely NOT a Round goby. When I carried on I managed to catch two more of this new kind of gobies and of course few Round gobies too.

The scenery from my Budapest swim.

I also tried to fish with my bottom rig but it felt almost like a waste of time. When I used a sweetcorn as a bait I couldn’t get any bites and when I used a worm the rig barely hit the bottom before there was a Round goby hanging around at my hook.

These guys were everywhere.....

Afterwards I got a confirmation from Dr. Akos Harka from the Hungarian Ichthyological Society that all the three new gobies were Big head gobies (Ponticola kessleri) which is native species in the Danube river system. Big head goby was my species number 132. You can find my all time species list from here.

Big head goby (Ponticola kessleri).

Well, this was not a super species hunting fishing trip (and it was not supposed to be in the first place) but at least I caught one new species. The Danube river has a huge potential as a species hunting region and I’m pretty sure I will be back there some day.

Tench, finally

Last night I made a few hours session after Tench. It has gone about five years since I've caught a Tench over 20 centimeters.

I started to fish at seven pm. and about one and half hour later I finally felt some tenchy movement at the end of my line. It was not a huge fish. It was not even a big fish. But it was a Tench, a species that has been laughed at my face for years......I caught You, now it's time to find some bigger ones.