Yesterday morning I woke up quite early as I had a boat trip scheduled with a friend. However, as I woke up, I could clearly hear the ocean from my house, meaning the weaves were up and slamming against the beach. The problem was I did not go on a boat for more than 10 days, plus there was no wind to speak of; it was absolutely calm and the forecast said it will remain that way all day. So, we decided to give it a go. We went down to the Vila Real de Santo Antonio Marina, which is where my friend’s boat was anchored and boarded around 8:20. As we made our way down The Guadiana River, everything was perfect – beautiful Sunrise, smooth sailing, and high expectations. BUT, as we reached the estuary we had to slow down as the weaves were quite close to each other and the boat was rocking quite a bit. This should have been our clue to turn around, but nooooooooo – we hoped that it will be better when we exited the estuary so we pushed on to 15m deep in front of Monte Gordo. Weaves were quite high, but there was almost no current, and so it was fishable. Almost immediately, we caught a decent red seabream and a very nice cuttlefish, which is what made us only more determined to carry on. However, there were loads of traps and nets placed by the local professionals here and after getting stuck a few times we decided to go to 25m – bigger depth meant more work and the locals do not place nets and traps there unless they have a really big vessel and a strong electric motor to retrieve it.
To cut the long story short – fishing was very uneventful! We got a few more cuttlefish, and were pestered by small bream until 15:00 when we decided to pack it up. Lesson of the day – when you can hear the ocean and the weaves, hit the beach, forget the boat…
Given my recent beach experience with rough sea, I can not help but wander what did I miss !!! A rare day with big weaves and no wind…
