August fishing blog…Lanzarote fishing at Costa Teguise
Fishing at Costa Teguise Lanzarote
I haven’t done much writing of late because I came to the point where I found that I was a bore to myself by repeating the same stuff over and over and sometimes over again but I have just returned from the family holiday and found the whole experience rather cathartic to say the least
Before I left the shores of Britain I had landed a fair few barbel but it was all much of a muchness with 2 doubles amongst 50-60 fish in 4 8-10 hour day sessions, I didn’t say much about it because there are other anglers out there catching far more and far larger fish at the moment ( I reckon my fish per minute fished ratio is a bit better though …lol) 
however a single fish related comment I did make on Facebook attracted the attention of a key-board warrior that decided to chastise my inclusion of what brand of bait I had used to land these fish, yes, I named my sponsor as the supplier of the bait used and yes I could have caught my fish on any number of brands and if the mood took me and I was completely switched on I reckon I could catch a fish out of a bucket of cold custard…because I can be that frigging awesome.
And yet the Troll droned on and showed me just how shite Facebook can be, I don’t give a flying toss what people think about what I do, say, use, catch or promote I do however think that on occasion it is better to walk away than smash the backs of their heads in with their highly righteous keyboard leaving them with an open brain injury….Hence no updates for a while.
But I am purged!
I have been cleansed by the crystal clear salty waters that surround the Canary Isles,
Lanzarote in particular. This year it was decided that the family holiday would not be taken in Greece, not because of the situation with the politics and the unrest but because it’s a big world and we need to see a bit more of it plus it is a Spanish province and that would help my daughter Olivia with her Spanish GCSE that she will be taking next year.
I had done some research on the fishing around Lanzarote and found some stunning catches on YouTube posted by various anglers but the Sea Spin stuff stood out head and shoulders above the rest with their catches; catches which I suspected (and still do suspect) were made on the western side of the island as the sea looked to be a little treacherous.
Our holiday was to be taken on the eastern side of the island, the side of Lanzarote that I thought would be tame in comparison…er…No.
The sea around Lanzarote is not tame, Lanzarote is not tame, it’s a volcano….actually its about 300 volcanoes and they are all still active!
What I did seem to pick up on very quickly was the need to procure a fishing licence from the capital Arreciffe or risk the prospect of getting a tug off the local “plod”.
I did the right thing, I got a ticket, it cost me 15Euro and a half day of walking around asking the locals in broken Spanish “ Don day est a Town Hall? ”
The thought of getting a pull off the police, having my tackle taken, getting a 400 Euro fine and then having the piss ripped out of me for fishing without a licence once I got home made the decision an easy one, plus the experience was an interesting one, I also acquired a size and species chart and a list of rules that need to be abided by. Rules such as wind-surfers and swimmers always take precedence over anglers.
Unfortunately…I had a major problem ….Yes, I had my ticket to fish but when I opened up the bazooka to extract my rods to get prepared to fish…all my rods were broken, two of the three I had chosen were ruined beyond repair.
Now these were rods that had been carried in a protective” bombproof” hard plastic case designed for the task at hand so at some point something had gone absolutely catastrophically wrong during the loading/unloading procedure a dent on the spine of the tube at around the point that all the rods were smashed giving hint to what had occurred.
I was gutted.
It was all over, the world had ended and I was in a huff, five minutes later I was in one of Costa Teguise’s Chinese run local shops that sell everything ( And I really do mean everything) and buying a hacksaw, some glue and a roll of tape.
I took out a section of my Diawa Travel rod between its own breaks and fitting that as an internal spigot into the abbreviated butt of my Shimano Ultegra, flooding the whole lot with glue and then wrapping it up in tape.
Yeah it was all a bit Heath Robinson but I reckoned it would work, how well it would work and what other damage would manifest once a fish was on was another matter altogether.
I had wanted to fish a couple of nights for the sharks but what with it being a family holiday that idea soon went down the pan, I fished one late evening session into dark and lost a small stingray in the harbour, I was gutted but when beer is cheaper than water I wasn’t gutted for long!
Anyway I am getting in front of myself; I wasn’t going to be throwing lures all holiday with the size and weight of the Ultegra so I decided on focussing my concentration on bait fishing.
Most bait I used over the two weeks could be easily and cheaply bought from the numerous Spar and Hyper Dino Super markets; I used white bait, squid, baby squid, octopus and prawns I also foraged for whelks, limpets, crabs and urchins so I think I will go through my catches bait by bait.
White Bait
Very cheap but way too soft and too fragile although very effective at getting a few bites, I landed sea bream ( sargo) and comber fish ( cabrilla) as well as scorpion fish ( racasse) 
and all manner of blennies. I got utterly frustrated by it though and lobbed the half used packet of little fishies back into the sea after an hour only to witness a feeding frenzy that eventually attracted the attention of a group of juvenile barracuda. The only ones I saw all holiday. I hope to see them again next year.
Baby squid
For me the number one bait 
and cheap at under 5 Euro a box from the freezer section at Spar, two baby squid on a size 6 double hook rig tied to 15lb line proved to be the most effective rig at getting fish on the hook before the hook was stripped bare by the billions of nuisance fish. Even two squid could be stripped off in a few minutes when the pests were in full force
The ornate wrasse could be a real problem at times
Squid
Almost as effective as baby squid, my second most effective bait over the 2 weeks when looking at fish landed.
I had a nice little moray eel on squid, beware Moray are very well equipped fish with a mean streak a mile wide, they will try to bite you, make sure you have taken some long forceps
Octopus
Tough as boots and able to handle the nibblers but nothing of size really liked it. Not many bites, even fewer fish. Expensive at 8 Euro for 2 and all for little or no return
Prawns ( raw and in shell)
Expensive when bought in bulk compared to 
the same quantity of squid but extremely attractive and likely to not last more than a minute once lobbed into the sea. 
The locals wrap theirs in women’s tights. I will use them again but next year I will have some armour tube like what they use to protect bait from crayfish attack
The prawns howevr were the favoured bait of the Black Sea Perch
Foraged baits
Limpets
Tough as boots
but only effective for a few minutes till the guts have been stripped off also a ball ache to track down and collect in numbers because they are in the “slippy zone”. I had my best sargo on a
limpet combo, the fish went to about 3-4lb and utterly destroyed a size 4 Drennan Super Specialist, I did take a couple of sea bream for lunch and they were superb eating.
Whelks/Winkles
Very easy to find in the slippy zone but a ball 
ache to get on the hook, the larger whelk type snails are as hard as nails to break open and a small hammer would be a bonus. Very effective but easily stripped.
Urchins
A pain to mount and rig
but I did have one take on urchin that was wild, missed the hook up that was comparable to what a 15lb chub on steroids would be able to muster. How I did not get a hook up was beyond me. Only effective till the guts are gone
How I rigged up mine to fish
.
Crabs
There are loads of crabs at Costa Teguise and of several different types , I saw at least four types and landed two on squid strips, the best one being a camouflaged spider crab that I did not gave the heart to use as baits for the parrot fish or vieja
Ultimate bait for parrot 
fish but very hard to collect in numbers but always worth trying to find them and always likely to get a decent fish, I had my second biggest sargo on a crab
. Crabs were best 
mounted in quarters but the locals used a small red crab wholeI never managed to fing wgere they collected these from.
Swims fished
I fished from the rocks between Playa Bastian
and the harbour at Playa des las Cucharas, with the rocks after Playa Jabillo 
being my favourite stretch, this is about a mile and a half maybe a little more and includes a lot of marks, some of them dangerous at certain points of the tide or when the sea is a bit choppy. When walking to the sea wear good footwear, I wore a set of proper strapped back crocks as these allowed me to get my feet wet but gave good grip do not wear flat soled flip-flops as the wet zone that is above the barnacle zone ( barnacles give grip) is like ice, I fell twice bruising both elbows and scraping both knees. Look what you are doing and follow the broken ground avoiding the shiny boulders like the plague, they will have you over on your arse, get to the barnacle zones as fast as possible but watch what you are doing and where you are walking at all times as the ground is littered with holes and trip hazards.
Rigs
Nothing complicated is needed but a bit of lead is handy to stop the baited rig getting washed into snags but as I have said the area is littered with snags and holes so a certain amount of lead loss will occur hence most locals choosing to fish the float or using stuff like spark plugs if they opt to fish the deck.
Leads can be bought from the Chinese run shops along with most other bits of tackle needed but they are a little light, I had more bigger fish when using 4oz Fiskies than when using 2oz local bought, I think the lead acts as a nice point to drive the hook home.
Elastic to mount baits can be bought from the Chinese shops as well, it certainly makes a difference especially when using crabs and urchins that would be pretty much unfishable without.
Anyway that is about all from me for now, I will do another Costa teguise update in a few days….TTFN and play safe!
Great read Lee, enjoyed reading that, love fishing abroad, hes one of mine,
THE MARSH PREDATOR
The canalised irrigation systems of Majorca can be very enticing places for an exiled carp angler trapped on a family holiday. Heavy rain signalled our departure from Manchester’s Ringway Airport and it was in no time at all, and indeed with great relief, which we gazed down from the plane as it crossed the Bay of Alcudia and made its decent into Palma.
Our Paco (my Spanish Brother-in Law) was on time, as usual, to pick us up from the airport and the three quarter hour drive to the villa and the bar passed in no time. Hiding the very minimum of equipment inside the suitcases, the anticipation of three sneaked weeks fishing, between the usual boring day trips, visits to the beach and being stuck on bar duties while Our Paco and Doreen visited the local Menta disco, was too much to suppress.
On this particular visit, I have smuggled a pair of telescopic rods of two pound test curve, a pair of time honoured Mitchell 3oo`s, two optonics, a mini rod pod and an assortment of floating boilies for the mullet, all of which was quickly unpacked and hidden in the villa ready for my escape.
Day one, teatime over and I’m first to get changed, grabbing a quick hour, while the fight goes on for the bathroom. I’m soon sat with baits out on the Lago Canal at the end of the street; two mullet and an eel on floating crust and the wife appears behind me to drag me off down to the bar. Can’t you leave fishing alone for two minutes, she exclaims! Sorry dear.
Three bottles of hazelnut schnapps, a few lagaros and a couple of whiskeys and I’m a quivering mess on the dance floor at the Menta (hic!) Disco. Should have left you at the canal, you ruin every holiday! My beloved exclaims, yes dear!
Monday arrived, thank god, and the girls are off to the market at Manacor, Paco was on bar duty (bless him) and little ole me was off into the darkest reaches of the S, Albufera marshland. The large panniers on Doreen’s bike were indeed ample storage space for carrying my array of fishing tackle and baits, the pedalling however was hard going and I guess carp fishing isn’t the most athletic of sports. Once off the main Alcudia to Can’t Picafort road, I negotiated the dirt tracks where the going really got tough. Buckets of sweat pored from me as I travelled down the scorpion-infested track towards La Puebla and the middle of the marsh.
Let me explain how the Spanish day works, we don’t usually closed the bar until 5 am in the small hours, so early morning rising usually occurs around noon the next day. Today had been no exception. I arrived at my chosen swim as the Spanish sun gently made its decent towards the distant mountains, where indeed Chopin and Sands shared this tranquil and timeless land. It made me feel good to be alive.
It was a quiet spot that I had chosen, well set back from the beaten tracks. Indeed, it was very rare to see another soul, often for days on end. A long forgotten saltwater feeder system with scrum covered banks to hide amongst, while behind the pool lay probably some two kilometres of dense weed bed with what appeared to be small and isolated expanses of water in between, this in turn reached out to the now defunked rail head at the village of La Puebla. The wildlife was a sight to behold, with many the islands purple herons being in domination.
Baits were cast out to the edge of the reed beds, one on leeches (a sort of Spanish worm) and the other on squid section. Buzzers and indicators at the ready and I lay back to watch the Spanish sun gently kiss the distant mountains and soon drifted into an undisturbed slumber….
A sudden chill awakened me. The banks were well lit with a full and radiant Mediterranean moon; its radioactive glow was illuminating the adjacent marshlands. It was as I was gazing across the marsh, that my eyes became transfixed on what appeared to be a large disturbance beneath the rushes. Whatever creature was responsible for this was very slowly edging its way towards me (gulp!), parting the rushes in its wake.
It eventually came to a halt directly behind a thin layer of stems between the pool and me. Indeed it was only a matter of feet away from my squid rod. I could sense that the creature knew of my presence, this made me feel nervous, to such an extent that I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing erect. The situation had an unnatural feel about it. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality would have been minutes, the rushes opposite began to tremble, violently quiver and then slowly part. The creature, whatever it was, must surely have seen the bait by now.
The squid rod diode flashed once, heart in mouth, I was on the rod. A slow jerky type run followed. I wound down and hit the beastie with all my might…and all hell broke loose! I had latched onto one very angry animal that, surprisingly, instead of heading back into the marsh, decided to bolt headlong down the main channel level with the bank. I applied full side strain, but to no avail, tightening the clutch down in the process.
The fifteen-pound maxima was vanishing rapidly, unstoppable I decided to follow the creature down the bank. Flattening numerous varieties of cacti, my progress was eventually curtailed by a huge flourishing of nasty prickly thingies. The beast didn’t stop once and the line from the spool was eventually stripped clean- the lot gone!
I sat down despairingly, all was now quiet and the sun was beginning to rise over the marsh as I made my way back to the villa. Discussing events with Paco the next evening in the bar, he suggested that the creature may have been a fish the locals call a “Yop”, which is apparently a large catfish type specie that inhabits marshlands and brackish waters in the region, but I’m not really sure? Apart from the mullet, the eels, a few carp and numerous Spanish species, I have never experienced anything with the same raw fighting power since my encounters with the Marsh Predator, it was indeed a fish at all, sweet dreams.
Nice to meet you Lee, it was hard going with me banking none of the previous landed stingrays or dogfish. I will be back next August to give a stronger go with guaranteed success. If there is a such thing in fishing, either way a good learning curve. Must have had it easy / beginners luck all them years ago. Steve
And you Steve, seeing those shots of the Stingray really fired me on….We will have them next year!! Fancy a kayak day again?
Might be worth fishing from a kayak, least I couldn’t be rumbled by the wife and kids. I was speaking to a local the last day and he said he’d had an estimated 55kg sting ray from the end of the pier the previous night. If I remember rightly when I had the success previously, I think it was later in the year. I’m thinking that the sea further north could drop by a degree or so, which doesn’t sound much but could make a considerable difference (France / Portugal). This in turn could boost the numbers further south around the canaries, unless I have my book of excuses out..again..
Well we have booked for next year, if you get on facebook add me and we can hatch a plan to bag a stingray and barra!
Amazing article, thank you very much!
Many people consider Lanzarote to be the best fishing area of the Canary Islands ans we totally agree with them. In contrast to the other Canary Islands, fishing in Lanzarote is characterized by its unique and peculiar marine geography, a result of the island emerging from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by emissions of lava millions of years ago!