Yesterday I started with low tide around 14:00 at Praia da Alagoa, in front of the Restaurant. Intention was to enjoy the afternoon with three rods. BUT, the weaves and the current were soooo strong that I barely managed 2 rods. As soon as I cast, the rig would drift to the right, in direction of Manta Rota, and be eventually cast out onto the beach... So frequent recasts, and lots of work. Standard 2 hook rigs – one with squid, the other one with sardine. Soon, I had had to switch to 180gr pyramid weight, and even that drifted fair bit.

While the tide was low, I had no action at all – save for the hard physical labour of recasting every 5min.

When the tide started to rise – almost at the very point of it turning – so still very low – I got my first bite on sardine and landed a fair size spotted bass.

But the rig was so heavy that I had no idea if it was on until it started splashing in the shallows. Immediately on the next cast, the rod just bent town and stayed like that for a while – I was 100% sure it was weaves or grass on the line. Then it came back to its regular position and I left it for a while. After a few minutes I wanted to recast and as soon as I lifted the rod from the its stand, I felt that there was something on the other end. With such a big weight, and such strong current, a swimming fish had to be big! And sure enough, after a few minutes of back-and-forth dance, and me walking down the beach a 100m or so as the fish followed the rightward current, I managed to get it to ride the weave onto the shallow bit. As soon as the weave retreated, the fish was beached! And what a fish it was!!!!

 

 

As the water kept rising, I had quite a few bites. As it got dark, hooks were empty all the time. But it was all small fish, and I was using 3/0 hooks with whole sardine on it. so no way I could catch a sargo or a mucharra. As the small fish started pestering me, I packed up and left around 18:00 -I had had my fun for the day.

There were also other people fishing by the other walkway, a few hundred meters in the direction of Manta Rota. A guy was walking pass me on the beach, and he told me they also caught a few spotted bass, and seabass, but in 30cm mark... also a few sargo... so there is fish in the surf.

No fish anywhere in site!

Another compound report about this entire week - was it not for the brilliant photos I made, I probably would not have bothered to do this entry, as there is nothing major to report or note!

It seems in January all the fish disappear from Altura, Praia da Alagoa - they are all GONE! the surf is empty. Several days ago, high tide was perfectly timed around 17, so I went to the Praia da Alagoa with three rods and high hopes. I could catch one hour of dusk before high tide and another hour of dark with outgoing tide - in my mind this spelled fish, and lots of them! Well... All I can say is in 3 hours with 3 rods I did not get so much as a nibble - I had to throw away the bait I had put on the hooks when I arrived and leave! Still... Nice, calm weather, and a nice, evening photo.

So, next day, in the evening, not willing to admit defeat, I went to the Praia da Vila Real de Santo Antonio – and again, the same story. Not a nibble!!!

The following day I had something to sort out in Tavira, so on my way back, I stopped by the Ria Formosa in Tavira, right across from the island ferry boarding platform. Here, there are loads and loads of small seabream. The rod would simply not stop quivering – and the hooks were stripped of bait in no time. Over there the only sensible thing to do is fish with a piece of cuttlefish, or a piece of octopus – everything else is a joke. And indeed, I am gearing up to trying that one evening, for persisting on Praia da Alagoa, makes no sense at all. Anyhow, I did manage to catch one small seabass – not even half kilo… and of course, another lovely photo

The only thing left to do is to try in Altura, Praia da Alagoa at low tide… and so I did that too. I had a great day on the beach with my son and some friends, and I kept casting, and casting… To no avail – again, not a single nibble, despite the fact that there was quite a current in the ocean, weaves were roaring, conditions were perfect for some bass… And yet again, a nice photo for the albbum

 

 

 

First catch of the year…

After somewhat turbulent New Year’s night, I went down to the beach with my family. It was more of a family beach day than a serious fishing session, still, it is not possible for me to go to any body of water and not have at least 1 rod😊. And besides, it is a sort of tradition for me to fish on January first, just to kick off the year!

The weather was simply brilliant! Low wind, lots of Sunshine… But the ocean was much rougher than expected for these conditions, and as we were approaching, I immediately regrated bringing only clams as bait – as I said, not a serious fishing session, plus I expected calm ocean so I did not bother with anything else, even though I had squid and bibi in the fridge… Oh, well…

I had 2 rods out with clam and it was receding tide.

Quite a few of our friends were out as well and there was a lot of laughing an talking…

The line on one of the rods went slack, I did not even see the bait, and I reeled in my first fish of the year 2022!! Happy New Year everyone!!!

 

After everyone had left, in the first hour of dark, I caught another 4 spotted bass, and bigger – but this one got the photo moment😊. Anyhow, it appears there is not quite a few spotted bass in the surf, and I will do a serious session soon…

Seabass in the surf

Tuesday, 14^th December I could hear the ocean at night. Meaning the currents and weaves were strong. It was the beginning of the full Moon phase and the high tide was at almost its maximum. I generally do not like it when the ocean is that rough, but the day was sunny and warm, and I was getting restless around the house. My wife, God bless her, encouraged me to go and so I picked up a few frozen squid and my rods and headed to Praia da Alagoa, my usual spot in front of the restaurant.

This time I was lazy enough to use one rod only – quite unusual for me, but in my defence, the tide was rolling like crazy, I needed 140-gram pyramid weight to keep the usual 2 hook system in place. And so, I was more resting and talking to other fisherman than fishing… There were 3 of us on the beach that day. The first bass around a kilo mark was caught by my fellow sufferer to the left of me, and I had no interest whatsoever. After about an hour, I realized that all of us were trying to cast as far as we possibly could, and that yielded no results. I tried not 20m from the shore and almost immediately got one small spotted bass, not even 20cm... I released it and continued casting short distance. For almost an hour there was no action whatsoever – I would only occasionally check the bait as there was quite a lot of seaweed. The tide started receding, and it became quite shallow… I believe it was more than half way down, and we everyone had given up on fishing, we were all getting ready to leave when I finally got a bite! I ran to the rod, picked it up and started reeling in – the water was so shallow that I could immediately see the back of a big fish in the surf. And getting it in entailed more navigating the weaves to close the distance rather than tiring the fish as it was so shallow it did not have the depth to swim. After a minute or two I beached quite a nice bass, around 2 kilo… Needless to say, I was quite content with the catch.

 

 

Encouraged with my success, the following day, 15^th December, I went back. This time I used 2 rods. On the first cast I got a seabass of about 800gr, and had quite a few weak bites – in contrast to the previous day, there was quite a lot of small fish around, probably sargo or mucharra. The session went on with constant bait changing and recasting until the tide got low. Again, in shallow water I got another seabass, but this one was a real baby bass – it could not have been more than 300gr… One thing is clear – there is currently seabass in the surf!

Good old Praia da Alagoa

After having returned from The Netherlands, there was again loads to do around the house – it is autumn after all and leaves are all over the yard, lawn needs tending to, etc, etc… Again, in the evening I would rather fish than write about it so here comes another compound report.

I hit the beach in the evening of the first day I was back – NATURALLY!!!!:😊😊😊

The weather was calm, ocean to. I did not expect much in terms of catch, I just wanted to have some fun – standard setup, 3 roods, squid, white clam and white worm for bait. I was also thinking I can fillet the first mucharra I catch and wait a bit… Started around 4 and went on until 8 in the evening. To my dismay I did not get A SINGLE NIBBLE!!!! It was as though the ocean was empty! Even after it got dark there was absolutely no life, which is not natural, of course… Oh, well, off I went home, a bit rested and understandably confused. But hay! I had not been here for more than 6 weeks, so I had no idea of how things developed…

So next day, I hopped on a boat from Vila Real de Santo Antonio with a friend to check what was happening in deeper water.

 

We stayed around about 20m deep and tried fishing and jigging for squid. And even there the fish were completely inactive! Almost not a nibble. But squid jigging got quite interesting. I got octopus, big squid, big cuttlefish and quite regularly so, every few minutes there would be commotion on the boat… Some of the bigger squid and the cuttlefish were quite difficult to bring up in strong current, and would swim around… it was a nice change.

Now Playing: 6 weeks in Holland

 

It has again been ages since I posted – the thing is, I did g fishing, only I was sooooo busy with everything else that I had no time to write about it.

First, I had to go to The Netherlands to sort quite a few things out – loads of work, stress and awful weather did get my spirits down. I did sneak out for a few evenings when the wind was tolerable – I mean three layers f woollen clothes plus the winter jacket – I do wander how dd I survive in Holland for all those years. And then, when I was finally at the water, it all came into focus – I did manage to survive it precisely because of fishing – as cold and as comfortable as it gets, the catch is what kept me focused. Ok, so I did flat fishing with rug worm as it was seabass migration season – they were around in huge numbers, mostly small ones but also a few I took home and enjoyed with my family and a glass of wine… Location – good old Scheveningen pier m- the stones and snags of which I still know by heart. I do not deny I had my fun with whiting, flatfish and bass all in shallows and using a 2lb carp rod for my 12gr float, but to be perfectly honest, I do not miss it at all! It was just a necessary evil to feed my addiction under the given circumstances!

 

Back to the beach!

Finally started surfcasting last week in Praia da Alagoa. Since end of June, I was merely doing a few odd spinning sessions here and there early in the morning, for an hour or two without much success, and it simply was not something I wanted to write about. Plus, there was LOADS of tourists and grass, so surfcasting was pretty much a bust!

Last week I noticed that with high tide the belt of seaweed stays in the same place, which effectively meant one could fish 1 hour before heigh tide and another hour after – just what I needed😊

So, on Tuesday I tried very, very hard to get there on time but I was too late – I only got there as the tide was already receding – still, I got a small seabream, spotted bass and a small sargo – not bad I thought for the first session in 3 months.

And so, on Thursday, I set out again, this time I left house around 21:00. The high tide was just after 11, and I was in time to set up and cast out. My usual set up – 3 rods, two with double hook surf systems and one with a single long line hook, as set up for seabream… For bait I had squid, sardine and clams… This time it was a bit different, there was strong current with big weaves, which effectively meant that the seaweed belt was pushed closer to the shore – to be able to fish at all, I had to cast only very short distance, not more than 20m… If I tried going beyond that, all I would get is piles and piles of seaweed…

I stayed there for about 2 hours casting literally in the surf without much success. I got so lazy that I stopped putting the sardine or clam, I cast out all 3 rods with squid… And small hooks too, as I was expecting seabream. The water came up, and finally started receding – it is only then that I had a bite – one of the rods bent down forcefully and would not come back!!! I struck, but there was nothing on the hook… Oh, well, at least there was life in the ocean.

Shortly after, I got a small seabass – maybe half kilo, and was starting to get excited about the prospects of a catch!

Well, you know how passionate fishermen go to the water waiting for the moment they would strike and the time would stand still??? When all would become irrelevant save for the excitement of a big fish pulling from the other side… One of my rods just started quivering, not bending, just quivering back and forth – I ran to it and struck! The rig just stopped in place for just a split second, as though I hit a rock, and then it started moving forcefully away… My drag was wound up tight, as I did not expect a fish of this size, but I was out on the beach and I had space to run into the ocean, while loosening the drag. Thinking back, it is amazing how quickly I adopted and reacted – all modesty aside, not many people would be able to do this! Anyhow, the main line I had on the spool was 0,20 – with something like 4 kilo breaking strain, so there was no forcing this fish out. And so started our dance on the beach – even with the low power drag, more than a few times I had to follow the fish into the surf as it tried to swim away riding an outgoing weave – back and forth, back and forth we went for a good while. It took me, what it seemed to me, forever to close the distance of these 20-30m, all the while I was stressed about whether the main line will hold, or if the darn size 4 hook would fall out… I got quite a lot of fish in my life but I still could not tell what this was – I honestly expected a 10 kilo seabass – one of the trophies you see in fishing magazines…

When finally I was able to strand it on the beach, using a big weave to literally push it out – I saw this magnificent white shine and there it was - my first CORVINA!!!!

After that I even got a decent spotted bass of about a kilo, but next to corvina it really looks like a teadpole😊… All I can say is: ME HAPPY!

 

 

 

 

There goes the lure…

After having this disappointing evening with soooooo much fish around and the colossal score of 0 (zero/null/empty), I went back for the seconds… This time I started in front of the former factory in VRSA, just next to the ship yard… There are always loads of mullet swimming around the few boats anchored there... I walked about casting my trusty Xrap XR08 GGH without any result… At one point I noticed there was a fish about 50cm swimming lethargically on the surface, thick black back, very similar to a big mullet. However, every time it would approach small mullet, small fish would start fleeing away, and jumping out of the water. Cut there was no energy, no usual speed, it was all like slow motion camera – I am now sorry I did not make a video of it. I cast the lure in front of it and before I closed the bail, it was on the hook. I did not even feel the strike, it was just on. Still, I was pulling it up quite uneventfully, like a cod, quite lethargic dead weight, until it woke up and started swimming away – the drill on my Twinpower started giving line and then there was this damned pop sound and it all stopped…

It took me a second to realize it did not throw the hook, the braid line broke, the fish was gone as was my favourite lure…

When I examined the line, I was so pissed to discover the main line, so not the leader, the freaking braid, had been frayed and severely damaged, presumably while it was in the car… who knows! All I know is I still think it was a small corvina… It was to slow and lethargic for a bass, and once it did start swimming, it was too strong for its size… this is definitively NOT my month!!! Talk about bad luck!!!! I am going to start checking not only the moon phases and tide charts before heading out, but also the bloody horoscope!!!!

Bad streak continues...

It has been a while since I had a session – let alone, a successful one… First I had some things to do in the North of Portugal, visited Coimbra for a week, after I returned there was extremely strong wind… And so on, and so forth…

Yesterday morning I got up eager and ready for battle, went down to Praia da Alagoa and discovered HUGE weaves slamming against the shore – grass being thrown left and right – meaning there could be no fishing done…

I returned to the car and drove to the Vila Real de Santo Antonio pier – there the weaves were equally rough, but after the half of the pier I was far enough from the shore so that it was possible to fish. I had my spinning rod on me, and tried all sorts of lures left and right without success… As always, there were quite a few other fishermen there and I think there were close to 50 rods in the water. No fish to be seen anywhere – that is, until this guy came along with a float and started casting next to the blocks – he was getting regular bites and was pulling sargos out regularly. There were quite a few big ones, 40cm and more, one of the bigger ones broke his line… It was quite enjoyable to watch him have fun on light tackle, so much so, that I decided to try the same drill in the evening…

After a nice day of rest, I headed out around 20:00 in the evening, but when I got there the wind was very high, weaves even bigger. Still, I persisted for about an hour or so, and caught 1 tiny sargo and 1 tiny mucharra – obviously not what I was bargaining for.

On my was back I decided to try and catch some mullet by the restaurant to lift my spirits, but as I was fiddling around, water started going down, and some predators moved in among the mullet. Naturally, I switch back to lures and nearly tore my arm out casting without any luck. Oh, I did foul hook a mullet with my trusty BayRuf – but that does not count.

An hour into casting another fellow noticed me and the hubbub on the surface and brought down his surfcaster… And so, we stayed there until 3 in the morning, casting, experimenting, talking and eying the jumping mullet with anticipation. Finally, I decided to give up and started packing my tackle. I had 3 squid leftover from my float experiment and I gave them to my new friend. He put one of them on – the whole thing of course – and before I was able to get my lures back into the box, his surfcaster bowed down and he pulled out a very nice corvina – digital scale showed 2,25kg!

He stayed behind – I will ask if he caught anything else this evening when I see him – 100% he will be there again😊.

As for myself – well, enough said – off to try free floating sardine, and the rest of the tricks – I got to be able to catch something – that is, if they decide to show up again tonite!

Zero streak continues… it has been good 10 days since the ocean at Praia da Alagoa is empty… well, not empty per say, but it yields no catch whatsoever! This morning the heigh tide was at dawn, but I overslept and went there around 7. The wind was North and in the mid-range, around 10 to 12 knots, but it was quite, quite cold for this time of year.

When I got to the beach the water had started receding, and as I was setting up my spin rod, I saw a friend of mine already getting ready to go. Sure enough, I went over and spoke to him – he had been there since before the dawn, and did not get a single touch in more than an hour – he was getting cold and was about to leave. Eventually we both stayed for about an hour more – he did not fish, he merely observed and we talked a bit… Around 7:30 we saw a delphine not 150m from the beach, it went by quite close! At one point it was clearly hunting for something, swimming in circles before moving off towards Vila Real de Santo Antonio.

And just before we gave up, I got a strike on my kastmaster 21gr. I immediately knew it was not a bass by the way it swam… About a minute later there comes a weever up on the shore – luckily as it hit the sand it threw the hook, so I did not need to handle it, and I just shoved it back into the ocean with the butt of my rod… For the rest – NADA!