THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Then suddenly, out of the blue, line started screaming from one of the outfits baited with a large live
squid. Instinctively, Dave grabbed the rod and started winding, but as he did, the ratchet stopped. The
fish had turned and was running straight back at the boat. Unfortunately, by the time he'd caught up
with the slack line, the culprit had thrown the hook.
The general consensus was that it had to have been a swordfish which are not uncommon in the area,
particularly after dark. But it was gone. And now unfortunately so too is Miguel, who moved his
chartering operation south to Cape Verde shortly afterwards to concentrate on marlin fishing.
CANARY ISLANDS - FUERTEVENTURA
Fuerteventura was never intended as an inclusion here. Ascension Island was supposed to be the final
brick in this particular wall. But within days of getting back, my wife Dawn decided she also wanted a
holiday and booked a last minute fortnight in the Canaries, leaving me no time whatsoever to try to get
anything pre-arranged on the fishing front, meaning that I went in completely cold.
I was fortunate in that we were staying at Caleta de Fuste where down on the sea front in one of the
units under the Geranios Hotel, avid local angler Aram Taholakian runs the tackle shop 'Gone Fishing',
which besides the obvious, also sells bait, offers advice, and can help arrange boat trips. And in addition
to that, Aram also has a very good collection of photographs of fish caught locally, more of which later.
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From my very limited experience of the
fishing here, I would divide the prospects
up under three sub headings, these being
shore fishing, novice & visitor boat
fishing, and serious boat fishing, the first
two of which I dabbled at, while the third,
which I dearly tried to get involved in,
unfortunately eluded me.
From the beaches, it's mainly stingrays
after dark, with the occasional eagle ray
or monkfish. It's the rock marks looking
out over deeper permanent water that are
the main producers of variety and which
can be productive by day. While I was
there, pelamid (bonito) and big garfish
Small inshore Barracuda
were both taken on lures just to the north
of the harbour, along with lots of the
obligatory smaller fish such as breams and wrasses. Needlehounds and barracuda are also a possibility.
Most numerous of all, particularly on small portions of prawn fished under a float, were bogue, followed
very closely by turkish wrasse, though Aram tells me that the lagoons on the other side of town can
produce numerous species of small fish, which might have proved useful here in terms of camera fodder
had I got around to giving that a go.
At the shop I quizzed Aram about the species I particularly needed to put in front of the camera to
complete the fully illustrated version of the book, some of which are not only caught locally, but he
already had shots of on his computer which he was willing to share. Fortunately I had a memory stick
with me and was able to get a download of fish like rays bream, dusky perch, puffer fish and blackfish.
Mixed in amongst the many photographs were also shots of fish which while I didn't need them for the
book, I still none the less wanted to see and if possible catch. One in particular was the seven gilled