THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

TUNISIA
While there is the possibly of a few half decent fish left swimming about in the Mediterranean, to all
intents and purposes, the place is an angling desert. Plentiful numbers of fish and lots of potential species
ticks for the list, but quality wise, rarely if ever anything worth bothering with due to the relentless way
the place is, and has for so long been over fished, with anything and everything regardless of size or
species being taken for the pot.
And so it was when I found myself on
the Med's southern shore looking
seaward from Tunisia in north Africa.
Lots of people fishing from virtually
every vantage point with their almost
obligatory plastic buckets containing
tiny dead fish.
A similar story down at the fish market
too where anything over a pound in
weight stood out like a beacon of hope,
its size exaggerated by the swath of
tiny specimens on the counters
surrounding it in every direction.
What I did find unusual about Tunisia,
Assorted small Breams
certainly at Sousse close to where I
was based, was that some of the shops
actually sold ragworm for bait. Tiny
little things in damp moss, but live-bait none the less. Not that it made much difference.
Every evening just before getting showered for dinner, I would nip across the road and have a few casts,
and without fail, every session I would catch the same single species to the total exclusion of all else.
Gilthead bream it seems are the dominant fish in these parts. Certainly from the beaches.
Out in the boat it was a slightly different story. Still hardly any fish and nothing much bigger than half
a pound, but with breams of several species now making the frame on what was advertised as a big
game fishing trip. All in all, a very frustrating waste of time, totally in keeping with Mediterranean
expectation.
484