Weird days…
Mood:  irritated
Temperature of the water is indeed nice… Almost 20 degrees. Wind goes around the compass everyday – one day it is South, next day North with East and West wind in between. There is no stability of any kind and on top of everything there is a patch of seaweed on Praia da Alagoa which seems to move closer and further away from the shore with the wind. No matter the tide – heigh of low, when the wind is South the grass nestles there in the surf and it is impossible to fish. I think the worst of it that there seems to be NO FISH at all of any kind anywhere !

I have been trying for a few days to find the fish, waking up in the middle of the night, chasing the tide, chasing the Sunrise, changing location, bait, rigs, doing lures… NOPE!!!! NADA! ZERO!

I mean, need I say more – the sand worm stays on the hook for about an hour or so – not even kingfish or crabs to peck it off of the hook.

And so, yesterday after so much disappointment, I broke out the floating bid rigs for needlefish, and fished for them… Needlefish seems the only thing around, but even them will take ONLY a piece of sardine, and only when it is freshly put on the hook. Forget about casting twice with the same piece. I got 10 in about an hour, hour and a half and I honestly thought about going back today for more – that how desperate I am for some action☹.

But, as the wind was South all night long, the only thing I could do is turn around and come back home….

Last night I took a stroll on the Praia da Alagoa, even though I knew there was a lot of grass, I simply had to check. And sure enough, it looked clean, but when I tried my spinning rod a few times, the lure came back full of grass… it was no use. So, this morning, got up at 3:30 an hurried to VRSA beach, heigh tide was around 6, so I was just in time! When I got there, all looked nice, big weaves, clear ocean… I had big hopes… Alas – in three hours of fishing with 2 rods, I got 3 bites, I missed one and caught 2 small sargo… I was not a happy camper – the fish was simply not about. Not even the pesky mucharra would strike far from the shore… It seems as though the fish have moved elsewhere. There was also another guy casting raglou on top of the jetty and for 2 hours also landed a big fat 0… Where to go now!!!??? Alagoa is not an option because of the grass, VRSA has no fish… decisions, decisions…

I went back to the VRSA beach yesterday. Conditions were quite different – this time there was very little current, no big weaves and the ocean was clear and warm. The catch was meagre – I got one mini spotted bass of 15 cm and two more post stamp size sole. Quite disappointing! I had maybe 4 bites in total, which made for a very dull fishing afternoon. No matter, at least it was sunny and I got to make the most of yet another day before June 1^st… After that it is only night time fishing…  

It has been a week since I did any fishing. The weather was pretty bad, very, very heigh winds and worst of all too much seaweed in the ocean, from VRSA all the way to Praia de Cataiana, all you get is seaweed… Yesterday the wind died down, and seeing as how it is around full Moon, the weaves were quite big, the ocean quite strong. I went down to Praia da Alagoa, and there was still too much seaweed. So I dug up quite a few sand worms, and set out to browse the coast in search of a fishable location. I thought I would start with VRSA and drive West – it has to be clean somewhere!

To my surprise, the water at the VRSA beach was clear, not a blade of grass in sight! I set up 2 rods and started casting with sand worms. Again, I casted close, into the surf and had immediate bites… There were loads of small sargo about, and for about an hour I was getting a fish every cast. But all of them were small, around 15cm some even smaller – makes you wonder how can they take size 4 hook!!! At least none of them could swallow it – so there is that…  I also got two spotted bass – again, in the 20cm mark – so all small fry. Naturally, I released all the fish back and just enjoyed the action and the anticipation – there has got to be bigger fish there. Perhaps bigger bait would do the trick. On top of it all, as of 1^st June day time fishing from the beach is prohibited on account of beach goers – tourism in Algarve must take precedent, I get that – so I was merely making the most of the day while I still can. I will do another session this afternoon – the wind is still low and the tide quite heigh… Hope I have as much fun as yesterday…

After the weekend of intense social engagements and my son’s activities (for which I am the designated taxi driver😊), I could hardly wait to hit the water last night. Around 19:00 I rushed down to Praia da Alagoa in front of my house. Water was at the maximum, it all looked simply great from the distance. However, when I got close, to my dismay, I saw that the entire beach was strewn with seaweed, and that there was quite a bit of it in the surf. Perhaps fishing would even have been possible, but I was unwilling to clean the line every 3 minutes. Of course, there was LOADS of mullet in the surf, I could clearly see them in the weaves some 5 – 10m out… God I hope they eat all the seaweed😊…

Quite disappointed, I crawled back to the car without even casting once. But I really needed to do some casting – three days without fishing causes unnecessary stress and tension 😊.

So, I headed towards Guidiana in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. And on my way, I stopped to check out Monte Gordo beach. It is mere 7-8 km away, but the ocean there was crystal clear. There was an occasional seaweed here and there, presumably blown there by the strong wind, but nothing like Praia da Alagoa. The water was receding, so I quickly set up 3 rods. One floating bead rig, one regular 2 hook system and a bottom long line rig. Bait was a piece of squid all around.

On my first cast, while it was still daylight, I immediately got a spotted bass – a small one, about 25cm. but the bites and activity continued – I had some spectacular misses and forceful strikes – rod would bend all the way down to the water… The baitrunner would roll out 10m of line… and it was active and exciting. I got another 3 spotted bass, a bit bigger but nothing to write home about. But as water kept receding, the activity went down. Some 50m out, there is a sand bank which goes parallel to the beach, and with heigh tide all the activity was this side of the sandbank. With the water going down, I started casting over the sandbank. And for about 40min there was not a peep. I just about decided to pack it up, but as I was fiddling with my gear, one of the rods bowed and started dancing.  I got a very nice seabass! Wow! Finally, a FISH! So, I stayed another 40min and got a big sargo and few more of those forceful misses… On the whole, I am under the impression there is a lot more fish in Monte Gordo, and that terrain is a lot better - water deeper and that sand bank does make a difference. I will have to test my theory this evening though😊

Yesterday I had a double session. Early in the morning I rushed out to try spinning. However, the tide was low and it was extremely shallow. Still, that did not stop me, I persisted with poppers and pencil poppers for about an hour, and did not get a thing!!!

Well, I thought, I better try clam, just to make sure. And so I did, and I still did not get so much as a peep☹. SO, finally I broke out my floating bead rig and put on some sardine to catch at least a needlefish… You guessed it – NADA! It is as though the ocean was empty.

And so, I went back in the evening around 19 – again with low tide, minimum having been around 21. As I was setting up my rods, I was AMAZED at the quantity of fish in the surf – I tell you, it was like a fish pond, everywhere you look there is a fish on the surface, and close to the shore, no matter the low tide. When a big weave would come by, it would lift them above the ocean level and you could clearly see and endless school of fish for a brief moment. I still do not know if it was mullet or spotted bass or something else, but I did get 5 small bass around 30 cm in the shallows, some 5 to 10 meters away from where I was standing… So, naturally, I will try to do another session this evening.

A very uneventful evening… I wanted to try shallow surf again last evening, the same thing I had done the previous session – cast 5 meters into the surf and catch some spotted bass. However, I got there too late! Not only had the Sun already set, but it was getting dark fast. On my first cast I got a spotted bass. But as soon as it got dark completely it all stopped. Unlike the previous evening, there was little to no action – not even mucharra! I did have one rod out with mucharra fillet, but nothing touched it for the whole 5 hours I stayed there. And even weirder was that there was no action with the rising tide – it was as though fish either were not there at all, or would not bite… Who knows?

Today, I will try to finally be at the beach around 19, so I can set up on time and wait for the Sunset. Hope to do better…

After yesterday’s weever madness, I decided to oil up my reels – it was heigh time. And naturally, after having done so, I simply had to go test if I had done a good job😊

Besides, the weather was just too good to stay at home. Calm and very warm. I got to the beach while it was still daylight. By the time I set up 2 rods it was already dusk, I had to use the headlamp to bait the last hook. As soon as I casted, and dreading endless mucharra, I casted very close by, right in the breaking weave, some 10 meters out, I immediately got a ferocious strike and reed up a spotted bass. Recasted with same bait and got another! And another small one which I released, and I though, oh boy, here we go! But then it got completely dark and loads upon loads of small sargo and mucharra stormed the surf and while fishing was extremely active, it as not very fruitful. Admittedly, I was too lazy to set up the third rod with mucharra fillet and try to get something more substantial, but hey… I kept hoping bass will come back😊.

Around 1:00 AM, when the water started to go down, I was too tired to carry on… I may try again this evening if the wind is low.

Day of the Spider!

After such a nice session yesterday, I hurried out this morning 2 hrs before heigh tide. I brought enough squid for 5 fisherman, sardine, white clams… the works.

Of course, when I got there, in spite of very strong wind, the ocean was flat, and clear. Even with heigh tide during this part of the cycle, it was very, very shallow… Casting far was easy, as the wind was in the back. The down side is that apart from weever, there was NOTHING else to catch. I mean it was a weever bonanza. I was catching them 2 at a time, on squid, on clam, sardine – it made no difference at all. 5 minutes after casting, there they were… One of them even swallowed both my hooks of the 2-hook rig… Still, I persisted for about 3 hours. When it got too warm and sunbathers started pilling up behind me, and after I got so completely fed up with handling the poisonous weevers, I called it a day.

I now ordered a plastic fishing grips for future weever exploits…

 

Yesterday was unexpectedly nice fishing… The weather was calm, and temperature heigh, so I expected a flat, clear ocean with heigh tide just in the middle scale, so not optimal at all… I got just two squid, just in case, and had intended to do needlefish session with floating rig and sardine. When I got to the beach. The ocean was quite angry – strong current and big weaves making first 50 or so meters of water completely brown with sand. And sure enough, there was loads of fish about. On my first cast I got a tiny little turbot. Then the bites continued. Every cast I would get a small sargo, mucharra or empty hooks😊… So much so, that I only fished with 2 rods. At one point I got a bit pissed there were only small fish, so I fillet a mucharra and baited one rod with mucharra flash… and carried on having fun with the small stuff… Soon, I realized that casting far made no sense, and started dumping my rig mere 10m from the shore. That produced 2 spotted bass, one sized, and the other one tiny… And so it all went on until the water started going down rapidly, when all activity stopped and I cockle collectors showed up with the dragnets… Still, I had had my fun, and I left.