Cuttlefish fishing from shore with rod

In most places of the world known by me, there are cuttlefish all year round, but from the beginning of Spring till the end of Summer, they start moving to coastal shallow waters such as estuaries, bays or shallow sandy coves for mating and subsequent spawning. This time frame is set and limited by the equinox of Spring and Fall astronomical event.

Cuttlefish can be caught all year with an offshore technique, usually done by boat and somehow, different from the one we are going to write about in this post.
Please no not confuse both cuttlefish fishing techniques.

The lure used, does not have hooks with the traditional barbs, they are curved spikes, just like squid lures, and the lack of barbs detail force us to keep the line tense all the time while you retrieve the cuttlefish.
The lure looks like a shrimp and have a small lead weight. It is very similar to the 100% floating lures used on the cuttlefish offshore technique that represents a fish.

In the side picture, only the bottom right lure is the one used for shore fishing of cuttlefish. All others are used for cuttlefish offshore technique.

This type of lures or jigs, in Portugal are called by "clowns".

We'll need a good spinning rod with a very low action, because we are talking about a lure that might weigh ~ 6 grams. The reeling/jig is one the the most important detail. If we reel in to fast, the lure will rise to much from the bottom. It's a slow reeling because cuttlefish never rises more then 1 metres from the ground.
Cuttlefish approaches their prey swimming front way to it. It is a slow swimming. Cuttlefish and squid are powerful swimmers backwards when they use their water jet propulsion system, therefore a slow reeling or jig is important to allow the cuttlefish to approach the shrimp lure.

And there you go. All the details to be successful fishing for cuttlefish.

In the beginning of September, cuttlefish slowly start moving to deeper waters turning this fishing technique a pure waste of time.

Eggs are laid in shallows because the sea surf will oxygenate them, but there is a down side. The sea waves very often release cuttlefish eggs from the small boulders or underwater debris where there are laid and attached. Everybody already have found a cluster of this eggs on the beach waterline. After spraw, their are transparent and a week or two later they became caviar black. Next time you find a cluster of eggs, please trow them back in the water. You will never know but you might save 2 or 3 cuttlefish.

Finally, a film to allow you to realize how the lure should jig to allow Clown cuttlefish to catch it.

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A failed fishing weekend

Yes it's true. I had a failed fishing weekend. By weekend, i mean 2 days of failure, but, this Blog is named "Ocean Bounty" for a reason.

Saturday morning, me and my sister decided to give our kids a camping weekend on Murração beach, a remote beach just 40 Km away from home in the west coast of Algarve.

The plan suited me and "Helder", my brother in law, because we could go fishing while the kids have their fun in the beach and the women would be on watch. Suitable plan for the men but not so funny for the women. They made sure we were aware of their feeling.

Since the cars were packed with all the camping gear, both of us had to chose only one fishing rod to take. No need to say which rod Helder took since he is the bream fanatic, and my self, the spinning rod, because on the left side of Murração beach the low tide creates some water inlets ideal for sea bass.  If I do not catch a fish, Helder would and vice versa.

That afternoon, Helder tried his fishing luck in the rocks in the right side of the beach.
Nothing happen. In the evening, at dusk and low tide, I thought to give a try but we started assembling the 3 tents and the kids asking for dinner that i canceled my evening fishery.

Fire was set and the meat was on the grill to feed 5 hungry kids. Good mood all around after the first steaks.

At dawn, with low tide, i thought my chance of getting a seabass was now or never, while Helder mention "Don't know if i'm going fishing or not !!!". I let him with his dilemma, i just could not lose the timing that morning.


The best excuse for my failure was that there was to much seaweeds in the water getting stuck in my lure all the time. My ego was getting damaged but could not get back to camp without a fish. Sad decision, never got a fish.

When arriving defeated to camp, 2 couples of friends with their camper trucks were there for a Sunday Pic-nic and Helder with a full bag of Mussels, goose barnacles and some sea snails while our friends had a bag of big limpets that they caught the day before, Saturday, in a neighbor beach.
And me !!! with empty hands.

I admit, was not much of an help, the sea food was cooked and eaten and i did not do i thing. For some reason I'm the King.

The mussels, the goose barnacles and the sea snails are cooked very easily on the fire. Just a 1 or 2 minutes on the fire and thats it, still with sea water flavor.

The limpets are different. They go in the pan with some garlic, coriander and a dash of good olive oil and lemon. It only takes a few minutes to get ready.

We all eat a lot of extremely fresh seafood and i've behaved like a Lord. Beer, red wine, good tidbit of this and that, the company of loved ones and friends with good stories to share, is all a man can ask.
There was no need to cook the meat we took along for lunch, it came back to town for a home Sunday dinner.

What was a forgettable fishing day became a memorable friends reunion day, all thanks to the "Ocean Bounty".

The kids slept like angels that night.... who am i fooling. Everybody slept like stones.

The sea provides and humans just harvest the bounty.

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How to Shark fishing in Algarve

I'm sure that everyone already heard of shark fishing in Algarve. It is a "must do" when you're in holidays in this far away edge of Europe.
Why is it so popular!!?? you may ask. The chances of success are huge. For a long time, sharks are released after be caught maintaining their population levels. Some fishing boats are mandatory to tag some species of sharks such as the Mako shark for scientific research about their migratory paths.
The motive of this post is not to explain shark behavior, but to show you how we must successfully fish for it.

With the boat drifting, no need to go farder then the 5 miles off shore (nautical mile is 1.852 meters).
The chum. Usually we use sardines chopped in medium size pieces, just enough to drop tiny pieces through the net bag. Not pieces that allow any fish to eat, we just want them to get excited. Otherwise they eat the chum and not the bait. Set the chum net/bag hanging from the boat just at water level. With the boat slopes, the chum is all the time banging against the surface of the water and never stop breaking it self and releasing oil/fat.

If there is more then a couple of fishing lines, all of them might get tangled, so it's important to have the boat side drifting. Any skipper knows how to do that. There is a method in the madness.

Shark will eat what ever is available, which doesn't mean you can use hamburguer as bait. A chunk of mackerel is fine but we mostly use squid. It is harder meat and if the shark just nibble the bait, will not rip it off the hook leaving an empty hook. Shark do not do suction to pull the food into their mouth, they needs to bite the bait and if he likes the taste of the squid from the first bite, will turn around for the rest of the bait with full open mouth. Make sure the squid head is locked in the hook leaving just the tentacles hanging, else, the shark will take the head which is attached with the squid guts and you'll have just a empty hook or a non appealing squid body in the hook.

I should have to mention that the line terminal should be of steel with a length between 1,5 to 2 meters, and then a swivel to attach the terminal to the main line.
Drop your hook between 10 and 20 meters and set your balloon in line. You will not need any weight in the line. The steel terminal and the hook are enough.

Follow the drawing to spread the lines in the water and wait for them to bite.

Must comun are the blue shark, followed by the mako. Mako is an excellent trophy due to the way and stamina of his fight.

Also hammerheads and threshers can be caught.
Thresher are a once a year deal and i've only have seen in this waters, what i call small tresher. A small thresher is up to a 1 meter long body (tail are the same size of the body) but they can grow up to 2 meters body.
The thresher is a marlin shark. It jumps out of the water setting a show for the fisherman. Sometimes you can see them jump just for fun.

There are a lot of details that could be exposed in this article about shark fishing in the Algarve, so I'm happy to help you with any doubt.

An important detail: Some days, with clear water, when you look down to the endless of the ocean, I mean in ocean waters trying to have a glimpse of the bottom of the sea, you'll get a black blue color feeling instead of the usual dark blue. If this black blue feeling comes with what we call, a cucumber freshness smell.... Forget shark fishing that day.

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That's what I call big game fishing.

HUPPSSS!!!

Did I said "big game fishing". Sorry I meant "big game feeding"

I'm sorry but I cannot avoid sharing this video with you.
They estimate the weight of that beast over ~450 kg (~1000 pounds).
I agree.

Can you imagine the size of the shark that made that Marlin his lunch????

There are a few more videos on Youtube, of Marlins be eaten in the end of the line, but this one sets the record.
And they say "megalodon is extinct", tell that to the Marlin.

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Saturday night fishing with "Wild line"

First of all, let me apologize for the fact that my trophy room to be my kitchen. I went fishing alone and there was nobody to hold the camera.

Yes that's true, it was last saturday, 28 of June, with no plans. Checked the tide table and ..... "wild line fishing" on the spot...
Grab 5 fat smelly frozen sardines, lantern, pliers, knife, hooks, line and a bottle of water. Small fishing kit for conger and moray eel.

Jumped into my 4 wheels, named by my kid as "Buble Bee" just like the transformers, because it is a car, it is all terrain and it's a small monster truck...kids !!! 5 minutes drive and I'm at the beach with a little of sun light, just enough to set my rigs.

Were 2,5 hours well spend that allow me to bring home 2 conger eels. 1 with ~4 kg and a second with ~2,5 Kg.
Lost a couple of hooks and a fish that i can only suspect to be a huge conger or a moray eel.

A medium sized moray, let say 1 to 1,5 Kg, can do so much strength in the end of the line that some time you believe that the hook have been caught in the rocks.
This time was a fish and not the hook stuck in the rock, because at some time I've felt a tremble in the end of the line
After pulling the line to the breaking point, some morays, not this one, come out of the hole. Moray can and will do a knot with their body and they are the fish that i know, with the most stamina and a huge strength in size relation.

There is also the possibility of an 10Kg, or over conger eel. I know they are in the beach, I've spear-fished those big fellows but a big size conger of 10Kg just can not be pulled out of the hole with line. Or you're lucky and pull him before settles in the rocks or it is going to stay with a hook in his mouth for some weeks.

The biggest conger eel i've pull out of the rocks with "wild line", was a 8 Kg buster, some time ago with my pal Pedro, now making life in L.A. with his big family.

A good thing about this fishing is that you are going to do a lot of strength with your legs, jumping from boulder to boulder, rock to rock and even a 2,5 hours fishing will guarantee an excellent night sleep.

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The difference bettwen a blue, white marlin and swordfish

Do you know the difference between a Blue, white marlin and a swordfish ?

Sometimes you need to get the fish close to the boat to recognize the differences and in fact i've met sport fisherman that didn't recognize the fish even when in the boat. The fish behavior in the end of the line can give you a clue, but if you're not trained to recognize that behavior it is natural to make a mistake.

The swordfish or broadbills, even resembling the comum billfish such as the marlins, they are not from the same family. Apparently they are migratory and live in all Oceans of the world. The traditional jumping out of the water when hooked doesn't happen with the swordfish. Or at least I never heard of. On the contrary of the marlins, the swordfish only feed at night and therefore to hook one of these have to be at sunrise or at dusk. Swordfish are dark grey to silver grey in the belly and their body is round.

White marlin can never grow to sizes like the blue marlin and the swordfish.

White Marlin Max:  ????  83Kg
Atlantic Blue Marlin Max: 5 meters  820Kg.
Swordfish Max: 4,5 meters 650Kg
(Max values ever recorded)

But if it's a small blue marlin, approximately the size of an grown white marlin????

The white marlin puts a show of agility almost like the easy recognized sailfish, running on out of the water flapping his tale to suspend the body while the blue marlins just do jumps, not runs. Blue marlin have a stronger body while the the white is slender. Also the side flippers of the white marlin are slightly longer and round while blue are pointy.

We can recognise the differences when have them side by side, but at the distance we can not see this differences.

"The back flipper!".

If you look carefully, there is no possible mistake with swordfish which have a back flipper similar to the blue marlin but much longer. White marlin back flipper is not pointy like the others, it is cut/round.

The images are self explanatory

For those who do not have an eye ready, yet, start looking for these clues.

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"Wild line fishing" for conger and moray eel

Night shore fishing with hand line for conger and moray eel

We call this technique "wild line", it might be called something else in other places.

For this fishing technic, there are a few variables to consider.
Remember, I am in Southwestern part of Europe where the tide amplitude varies from 3 to 3,5 meters.

To guarantee a good fishery the stars have to be aligned. Usually the fishing window is of a couple of hours so you'll need:

(1) Low tide at dusk to enjoy ~1 hour of dead tide and 1 hour tide coming up already at night
(2) Low tide 1 to 1,5 hours before dawn and end your fishing, half to one hour after sunrise.

The fishing time can be longer then the 2 hours but your chances decrease too much to be worth  the trouble.

Moon is very important.
Avoid full and new moon nights. With the lack of light in new moon nights, the phenomenon of "burning water" as we call it, happens. This phenomenon is due to bioluminescence caused by a chemical process in some kinds of zooplankton. It looks like minusculus "firefly" flashing in the water. When you step in a wet rock, you'll see your footprint clearly in green dots. In the new moon nights, as the night before and after, your chances decrease dramatically. Fish don't bite, just play around with the bait.
At full moon, as the night before and after, fish just don't eat, no fish eats with full moon. They do it during the day but not at night.

It's a perfect night, let's go fishing !!! On the beaches that expose slabs, big boulders or make some pools in the low tide, are going to be our hunting ground. Conger and moray eels are exclusive night predators and do not waste a free meal. Down in the south we use sardines but in the north arenque is the best bait.
Note: If half sardine is used as bait, remember that it is going to be eaten by the wound/cut, if a entire sardine is going to used as bait it is going to be eaten by it's head. This is important to set the hook. Since we're fishing in stirred water, it is silly to set the bait as a filet. Half or full sardine with the hook well hidden inside it's what we need.

Expect to lose a few hooks, big hooks, tie them as shown in image below to avoid max lost of hooks. The line should be around 1 mm (millimeter) because it is going to rub against rocks and loose some strength, so redundancy is essential in the line. Use lines from 1,5 to 3 meters, all depends of the holes deep you'll be fishing and in the opposite end of the hook use an anchor. It could be a 30 cm strong stick, a stone or just tie it to the rock your standing, whatever allows the line to old strong pulls.
Set one line, anchor it, go looking for a nice second hole and repeat the process and then a third. After the third, get back to the first and repeat all process. There is no point in leaving the line more then 15/20 minutes in the water, because the crabs and the shrimps will devour the bait. Even if the line have some slack, pull it out because probably you do not have any bait there.

To choose a nice fishing gap in the rock or slab to set your hook, just think like a conger "this would be a nice place to look for food".

You'll be amazed with the good size conger and moray eels you'll take out of the water, where you swim during the day.

If you live in sandy areas where beaches do not have slabs or big boulders to expose in low tide, you also can do this in stone piers or breakwaters

Remember you are going to walk during night in slippery boulders fetching of top predators that can rip you a finger with a single bite.
Conger and moray eels act like alligators, they bite and do an endless twist till they pull out a huge chunk of meat.
A small mistake can mean a lifetime of regret, or a simple slip and you can fall between a boulder and game over. 
Don't do it like i do. Do it with a partner and don't be cocky, you'll need to be physically fit. The reward, believe me, are enormous, as well as the danger.

If you hesitate or have the smallest doubt you're able to do this fishing, don't go ahead, it's not a deal for you.
Other land conger and moray fishing techniques are described in this blog.

Wishes of good "wild line" fisheries.........

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