Fortunately I also has some in my checked in luggage.Arrived in Lanzarote on evening of Saturday 20th and drank too much.
Sunday 21st - Feeling very hungover, went to the harbour in Puerto del Carmen and looked at the fish - fishing was not allowed in the harbour - there were lots of mullet - some really big ones, a few of at least 6 lb. I fed them some bread which they readily took - pity fishing was banned as it would probably have been easy to catch them. Then I saw a big ray -at least 20 lb I would guess - gliding by.
Monday 22nd - hired a car, went into a supermarked and bought squid, prawns and mussels for bait and drove to the NE coast towards Orzola. There were quite a few locals fishing from the rocks along the coast. I stopped at one place - probably Punta Prieta, there were about 4 guys fishing along the rocks there so I presumed it was a good mark. The bait was only in the water less than a minute when I could feel bites but nothing hook - just the bait gone
I stayed there for about an hour and a half and that was the story the whole time - when I cast in close to the shore I could see swarms of tiny fish decending on the bait and devour it in a few minutes, but my hooks were too big to hook them. If there was anything bigger out there the little feckers would have the bait gone before there was a chance.
I headed to Orzola at the north end of the island and had lunch (Tiger fish!!). After lunch I tried fishing the mouth of the small harbour - again the same thing - swarms of small fish, but I did succeed in catching one of them, a very colourful little guy, an Ornate Wrasse, with a size 4 hook baited with a sliver of squid.
Tuesday 23rd - drove to the northwest of the island and fished the rocks to the west of Playa del Famara. Again I had the same problem with little fish - but this time caught four or five blennies, there were two different species some with vertical stripes and other with lots of speckles. After a couple of hours we went for lunch in Famara village (I had parrot fish which looked like a wrasse to me - and tasted how I would imagine a wrasse to taste). After lunch I decided to do a bit of beach fishing. The water was warm so no need of waders there. I had a few bites on two hook flappers baited with squid and prawn but nothing hooked. Headed back to the village at dusk - but decided to dry a bit of night time fishing off the rocks before having dinner. All I got was a sea cucumber - very strange looking.
Wednesday 24th - I decided that I would have to get some smaller hooks, the smallest I had were size 4. The tackle shop in Puerto del Carmen had closed down, there was supposed to be one at the hypermarket near the airport but that was gone too. I was told there was a good tackle shop in Puerto Calero, the next town down from Puerto del Carmen but that had shut down too. I found a hardware store in Tias to the north that had a very limited supply of tackle, but no small hooks. After that I found a small bay a little further down the coast, had lunch there and afterwards did a little fishing off the rocks - the same thing - lots of small fish eating the bait but no hook ups - it was damn hot too so didn't stay at that too long and got back to the car and did some sightseeing with the air conditioning on full. Had a look at the volcanoes in Timanfaya National Park. Afterwards I drove to the northwest coast but the wind had picked up and some big waves were crashing onto the rocks - didn't find a safe place to fish.
Thursday 25th - Drove to the west coast - had a look at the bay at El Golfo, stopped for a coffee. There was a couple of locals fishing from the rocks so I went over for a chat - the were using these tiny crabs that I had heard about but hadn't seen in any shop. But they were only catching tiny fish - and keeping them
Afterwards I found a likely looking spot further south at Los Hervideros, a small embayment with deep water, but again I was plagued with small fish. After about an hour and a half I gave up on that and headed further south towards Playa Blanca. I spotted another hardward store so decided to give it a try - they had a better selection of tackle and I got some size 8 and 10 hooks. Stopped at Punta Pechiguera (which sounded a fishy type of name) and tried out my new hooks, sure enough I started hauling them in - I got three or four ornate wrasse, a damsel fish, another blenny with the space of 30 minutes. Unfortunately herself was impatient to go so I packed up.
Later that evening we had dinner in the old town in Puerto del Carmen. I still had the rod in the car so though I might try to a sneak a mullet from the town side of the harbour - it was outside the official harbour entrance so I thought I might get away with that - but after a few minutes a security guard moved me on, just when I had got the mullet feeding on my bread. There was a pier to the east of the main harbour so I decided to try that. There were a couple of locals fishing there using small sardine-like fish for bait - they are called Bogue I subsequently discovered (thanks Kieran). I decided to use the size 8 hooks first - and caught a Bogue. I hooked him onto a 3/0 hook and cast out. I didn't get anything with it and it eventually came off the hook. I then baited a size 4 hook with squid and cast it out a short distance from the pier - shortly afterwards there was a strong knock on the rod and there was something big on the line which was putting up a bit of a fight - I eventually hauled in an Eagle Ray.
Friday 26th - Now that I had a bunch of small hooks I decided to head back to the northeast coast and get some of the little guys that had been stealing my bait the first day. I found a good spot close to where I had fished previously. I threaded squid tenticle onto the size 8 hooks and dropped it into a deepish pool. As soon as the bait was in the water they were onto it. I got two Ornate Wrasse, followed by two small silver coloured fish Derbio (thanks for the ID Eric) followed by a Zebra Bream.
After that I went to Orzola for lunch. After lunch I tried the harbour for a while but nothing biting so decided to return to my earlier mark. The tide had dropped quite a bit by then and I was able to get out further along a rock ledge. There was a deep crevasse beside the ledge so I thought there might be something big down there. I put on a 3/0 hook on a wire trace, baited with prawn wrapped in squid and dropped it down. After about 15 minutes I got a massive hit - something big was down there - it was putting up a hell of a fight - eventually I got it to the surface and onto the rocks - it was a moray eel - dark brown with a yellow pattern along its sides. Unfortunately I landed it right beside my camera - it was snapping at the line and at me and managed to get itself off the hook and came slithering across the rocks right towards me
I jumped back onto a higher rock and he slithering into a shallow rock pool then found a deeper crevase and disappeared into it so I never got a photo of it.The light was beginning to fade at that stage so I packed up. But that was a good end to my Lanzarote fishing experience - which had been frustrating at times due to the little fish stealing the bait, but at least it was better than lying on a beach all day.
