Gran Canaria

[sacid]

So, my vacation is over. Unfortunately!

Time to write a little review of my experience in Gran Canaria.

Let us start at the beginning of the trip, or actually, let's go back several months even. I intended to take my Dobyns Rods with me and so I asked the Airline via Facebook Chat about the conditions. I told them that the rods were 7 foot long and the plastic tube was even longer. They told me to check it in as ,,Small Item" and that it would cost 15 Euros per trip. I asked several times regarding the size of the tube and the ,,Small Item" but they kept on reassuring me that the length was not important, as long as it weighed less than 6 Kg.

A couple days before the trip I still had all my rods and all my tackle in the car and went fishing the local rivers here. A day before the trip I finally decided to pack my stuff together. So I wrapped my 3 Dobyns Rods in bubble wrap and added a spinning rod (a 2.7m long Shimano Catana, which one exactly I don't know atm.) and put it all into the tube, sealed it with some duct tape and done.
The Airline told me to just declare the extra package for the rods at the Check-in and so I did try. However, they wanted to be arses there and didn't want to take it as ,,Small Item". Luckily, I had the conversation of the Facebook Chat printed on paper and showed it to them, pointing out the important parts where I repeatedly asked about the size and the ,,Small Item". After about half an hour they agreed but told me it was too late already and I should have declared it online before. Bulls...! Again I pointed out to them what the Airline had told me and finally they accepted it. I paid the 15 Euros and could finally start to relax.

Several hours later we arrived at Las Palmas Airport on Gran Canaria. I picked up my rental car and off to the apartment.

A day later we went to the Capitol Las Palmas in the north of the island. It's less than an hour's drive. I knew already where I had to go to get the fishing license. And even though I knew I could have requested the license online, we decided to pick it up in person anyway and used the day to have a little walk in the city and at the port as well.

My Spanish is very very limited (like saying hello, asking how you are and such phrases). So getting the license wasn't an easy task. But thanks to an article in a German Fishing Forum I knew what I had to tell them and the rest of the communication was done with Google Translate on the Smartphone and somehow we managed to get along :-)

However, at this office I could only get the license for the freshwater lakes (Embalse) and so I asked them where to get the license for the ocean. With the limited language skills and hardly anyone speaking English there, it wasn't that simple to find the other office, but eventually I managed to get both licenses. Except that it had taken several hours, it only had cost a couple Euros (3.50 for 14 days freshwater and 15 Euros for 3 years ocean).

We went to the port then and took a walk on the pier. I had my Dobyns DX 702C FINESSE with me, paired with a Daiwa Alphas SV with 12lb Sunline CastAway line and about 7 foot Sunline Fluorocarbon leader. I tied on a Decoy Nailbomb paired with a 3.5" Keitech Shad Impact and went onto the rocks for some LRF. Second cast and bam. Fish on!

By the action of the fish I thought I got something big, but when I got it out, I saw it was but a small Lizard Fish of about 20-25 cm. Gosh that thing looked nasty, but it was fun anyway. I had no idea if that fish was poisonous or edible, and since it was pretty small anyway, I let it swim again. Some casts later I caught another one about the same size.

My goal, to catch fish in the ocean, was already reached. Even though they were just small fishes, I was happy!

The following days I had been trying on my own around the east and south coast of the island. On one spot I met a local angler who used a floater rig with small live crabs as bait. He caught several fishes that way while I tried with everything I had with me, from small rubber bait on jigs, skirted jigs, T-Rigs, small minnow jerkbaits, vibration baits and what not else . I got not one bite. The local fisherman laughed at me and asked about my setup. He was mainly interested in the price as he never saw such a ,,hitec" setup before. When I told him the approximate price of my combo he laughed again and told me his setup was 30 Euros....damn.

A couple of days later I bought a floater as well as some shrimps (gamba) in the next supermarket. They were fresh and cheap, so I bought a couple fists full and went fishing. Hungry little buggers in the sea! As soon as the shrimp was in the water, large schools of small fish attacked it. The result was, that after a few seconds the bait was already off the hook. On my last two shrimps, however, I managed to catch a small Scorpionfish and a kind of grouper (Mycteroperca fusca) of a relatively small size.

Few days later I decided to take on a guide, so I contacted Haramis Kalfar (https://www.facebook.com/DER.Raubfischer/). A German who lives on Gran Canaria for about 6 years now and offers guiding for shore fishing. We arranged a date and a couple of days later he picked me up and took me fishing. He knows the good spots, but unfortunately I was too much a coward to move around these huge stones on the mole like he did, so I couldn't reach the best spots. It wasn't his fault though, my head just didn't play along and told me ,,you won't make that jump, you won't!" even though he had shown me how easy it was to move around on these stones. But alas, you can't do what your head won't allow you. And thus I didn't catch a fish (he did get a nice blue fish, however)

His knowledge was huge and he showed me how to work the bait through the water, taught me a couple knots I didn't know yet. I have to admit, it was my first guiding ever, but I was impressed. And next vacation I might book him again (but before I will practice some climbing first to get my head prepared for that )

A few times I did try to fish at the beach in the evening hours. I went into the water up to my chest so I could cast in all directions in hope for a stripper or sea bass. It is an awesome experience to fish this way, with waves washing over you, throwing you off, pulling your water shoes off even. I loved it. But an hour of fishing this way is more exhausting than a day on a boat or the shore even.
Wading through shallow water (below the knees), I stepped on a fish even. I noticed something glitchy under my feet and slipped off it. It didn't feel like algae or something and I was sure it was a fish when it suddenly splashed next to me. I could only imagine it to have been a Ray, but I don't know for sure and I couldn't see it.

I tried a couple more times on the shore by myself but didn't catch anything. One spot looked promising, but it was a tad too dangerous for my taste. It was so windy, that I had troubles standing still. Shutting the trunk of the car required to hang on with my entire weight. At the spot the wind was blowing from behind and the ocean waves washing over me from the front. Standing on a lava cliff inside a pool of water that reached between my ankles and my knees. I am not sure how dangerous it really was, but after about half an hour my head kept telling me ,,one blow from behind and you fall in, one big wave and you're washed away". So I packed together.

Of course I went fishing in the mountain lakes as well and what can I say? My Skills in freshwater fishing are much better! Locals told me that at this time of day the Bass are standing deep.
I nodded it off and knew I couldn't fish Jigs or Texas from the shore there without losing a lot of rigs in the stones. It would turn out though, that a couple nice ones were standing shallow even. Very shallow as the bites came always at around 2-3 meters off the shore. I fished all my hardbaits, from minnow style jerks over topwaters or vibration baits. Every bait produced fish. But the best ones and the hardest attacks came on the smallest baits I used, the Berkley Power Blade. That bait brought me the most fish this year here in Germany already and it kept going on Gran Canaria too.

I did quite a few other recreational things as well, of course. Like jetskiing on the ocean or just being lazy at the beach or partying at night. But since this ought to be about fishing I will end here.
Anyway, remember what I wrote about the Check-in and the trouble I had at the German airport? I was worried I might have more trouble at the spanish airport and won't be able to sort things out due tot he language barrier. But it came different than I thought. We checked in our cases first and even though we had a bit of overweight (3 Kg more than we were allowed to) they didn't say anything. Then I told the Lady at the Check-in that I wanted to declare the tube as an extra item and she instantly asked ,,As Small Item, right?" I couldn't stop grinning and nodded to her, she gave me a bill and told me to go over to the cashier right behind me and pay the 15 Euros and come back :-)

[Bud Kennedy]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time on your vacation.  Now is the time to begin saving for a trip to the United States for some Bass Fishing with some Ultimate Bass members.

[Lipripper]

Looks like you had a great vacation after you got over that airport thing. Next time be sure to be up on your rock jumping 

[sacid]

When I get to it, I will upload some photos.

[Pferox]

Sounds like a blast!  I bet you impressed the locals with your high tech gear, even though they didn't admit it. 

[sacid]

Hey guys. I promised some pictures. But what can I say? I'm an idiot at times!

While I was trying to ROOT one of my old smart phones to get a newer android version on it I forgot to uncheck the "data" partition when wiping it. The data partition was the SD Card! So all my stuff is gone. All music - gone
All videos - gone
All downloads - gone
All Photos - gone

The good thing is, the downloads can be replaced easily. the videos too and the music I have on CD and can just put it on the phone again. Most of the photos I had in cloud storages as well, just the more recent stuff is gone bye bye. Including all the photos I took on Gran Canaria.

I might be able to dig out some pics through whatsapp, but probably no fishing pictures

[Lipripper]

That's a bummer