THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

ottom. It was all bait fishing with good strong hooks on
short heavy monofilament droppers above the lead.
Good, solid, hard fighting fish too. Probably nothing
making double figures, though quite a few would come
close to that weight. But snappers, groupers and coral cod
in that sort of weight range are still incredible scrappers.
Incredible eating too as Mr. Pong and his crew cooked some
up for lunch which was served on a table with a cloth and
cutlery. All very civilized, and a bit surreal on the deck of a
pitching boat sat under a cover to shield us from the rain.
They tasted much better at Shelly's restaurant that evening
where she put on a good spread of coral cod and red
snapper. All top notch quality eating fish, and the primary
reason for the Philippine fishermen dynamiting the reefs.
Beautiful fish to look at too.
Phill Williams. Snapper & Coral Cod
The red snappers I don't think were the same species as I'd
caught previously in other parts of the world, and nor were
they all the same species there. But the coral cod I'd seen
and caught before. Incredible fish, which for some reason,
at least one other similar looking fish had gone to great
pains to mimic.
BULGARIA
Not I suspect the first name on the list when laying down plans for a fishing holiday, Bulgaria is an ex-
Soviet bloc eastern European country with a short stretch of coastline on the Black Sea.
If I'm honest, I wasn't impressed with the place at all. The resort was terrible and the fishing there wasn't
up to much either. There were a few fliers pinned up around the place offering both sea and freshwater
fishing trips to holiday makers, all of which need to be avoided like the plague.
For my part, I had contacted a chap in Sofia before I flew out who offered a guiding service, and we
had arranged to meet up to fish the River Danube. I'm not an out and out freshwater fan really, but the
prospects of a new species in the form of an asp kind-of caught my imagination, so we decided to give
that a go.
Andrey Parvanov and Pavel Pavlov picked me up at my Hotel for a three day look at the real Bulgaria,
with its pot holed roads, ram-shackle Dickensian looking industrial complexes, and mighty River
Danube which commercial ships use as an arterial trade route to adjacent cities and countries. And what
an eye opener that turned out to be.
The International Union For The Conservation Of Nature (IUCN) record the asp Aspius aspius as a red
list endangered species. It is also protected by the Bern Convention on endangered species and habitats.
But judging by the number of times I've been asked what an asp is, my guess is that not a lot of people
know that.
For those who think that an asp is the snake used by Cleopatra to kill herself, let me say that it is in fact
a predatory member of the cyprinid family that includes the roach and the chub, which in terms of
general appearance it rather looks like a hybrid of. Until that is you get to the mouth. This is huge,
slightly up pointing, and interestingly for such an aggressive predator, totally devoid of teeth.
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