I’m maybe not the best person to be writing this – given the results I’ve had since taking up fishing again but here goes…One of the things about Lanzarote is that, if you don’t keep yourself busy, you can end up with a lot of time on your hands. Yes, the lifestyle is fantastic, the weather is great, and we wouldn’t swap it for the world, but if you want to do more with your leisure time than eat and drink, and sit around watching television, it’s time to look for a hobby or two…

With this in mind I took the bit between my teeth and went out and bought a fishing rod, not having been fishing since I was a teenager (I was also working on an fishing website at the time – so could justify it as ‘research’ :-)). It’s not that expensive to get started – and the local shops do some excellent starter kits – probably much cheaper than you’d find in the UK. Don’t splash out straight off and you can get yourself started for under €50! Not bad for days and weeks of entertainment. You can always buy the fancy stuff later if you get the bug.

Having only done course fishing in the past, sea fishing was a bit of a mystery to me, so I decided to delve around a few fishing forums to see what I could learn and found the best information seemed to be available on a website called – strangely enough – World Sea Fishing. It helped me find out about the techniques and methods used in the area, and I also got to know a couple of people on the forum, one of whom a doctor from the UK was coming on holiday to Lanzarote and offered to come to Playa Blanca for an afternoon and show me some of the basics. We went down to the harbour – and he showed me how to set up a sliding float rig and gave me a few tips. He and a friend came down from Costa Teguise whilst their wives went off to explore Playa Blanca with Elle for the afternoon. He was a really nice guy, a total fishing fanatic, and happy to pass on some of his knowledge – I even caught a couple of small fish.

I’ve since been out a number of times, not really catching an awful lot. Perhaps my best fish so far was a Sea Bream of just about edible proportions! I got even more disheartened when my son spent a month over here in the summer and we went fishing together, he was pulling them out of the water like they were going out of fashion! Me: nothing or very little… For someone with my competitive nature (which I refuse to admit to normally) it was a bit of a knock! Anyway, he’s coming back at the end of this month – so perhaps its time for a re-match!

I’ve only been fishing in Playa Blanca so far, from the harbour wall at the port, at Playa Flamingo, Playa Dorada and the beach at Los Colorados, so there are still a few more spots to try. Be aware though in Playa Blanca you are not allowed to fish within the Rubicon Marina, or inside any of the harbour walls.

Mostly I’ve been using a sliding float with either squid or prawns for bait. I’ve also tried a little spinning too, but without success. I’ve been told that small crabs are the bait of choice for Parrot Fish (you can get these in jars at Casa Salvador’s in Playa Blanca), and recently I was given some fresh Mullet caught on just a floating chunk of bread. Very nice it tasted too!

In Spain you are supposed to have a fishing licence which I have been told is available from the Cabildo in Arrecife. Although, to be honest – apart from one person I have yet to meet anyone, local or ex-pat who has one. Apparently the Guardia on the mainland are very keen on enforcing the licences – but as so often is the case with some things their attitude in Lanzarote is a bit more ‘relaxed’ on the matter.

Like I said – I don’t catch much – but catching is only half of the fun of fishing. For me, it’s a much about getting out for an afternoon, clearing my head of work, and enjoying the fact that I live over here and have the opportunity to do it whenever the fancy takes me! Hell, it beats sitting by the Leeds-Liverpool canal in the rain like I used to as a teenager!

If you would like to apply for your fishing license - follow the link below - and happy angling!

Lanzarote Fishing License

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Lanzarote, Lanzarote Forms and Downloads, Things to do in Lanzarote, Wildlife in Lanzarote. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.