Before breakfast I rose to explore a new fishing venue. In front of the hotel, lay a small rocky jetty. A handful of small fishing boats bobbed in the water on their mooring ropes. A larger boat was propped up on the jetty itself whilst the fishermen applied a new coat of paint. I squeezed around this boat walked to the end of the rocks. In the clear water I could see fish of a number of fish dart in and out of the rocks. A young lad was already fishing off to one side, apparently without much success.
I baited up with small pieces of Isome worm and dangled the line out as far as my arm could reach. With my first drop a small annular seabream took the isome bait. “First fish of the day”! I exclaimed to the boy. He looked distinctly unimpressed.
A quiet patch followed. Occasionally, a couple of bass would swim past.
I had to wait a while before the next fish: a painted comber. A species I’d seen whilst snorkeling near some rocks off the beach.
***
After breakfast I returned to the jetty. Once again, the first cast proved most productive. A small yellowish fish took the bait. It grunted in my palm as I removed the size 22 hook. I didn’t immediately recognise the species. It closely resembled an amberjack that I caught in Costa Rica some years ago – but was less than 1% of its size. With a bit of research, I found it was from the Caranx genus (jacks, trevallies). I was initially leaning towards a crevalle jack, but the position of the curve on the lateral line suggests the blue runner.
The fisherman took a break from painting his boat and wandered over for a look at my tackle and chat about fishing. A task made complicated by me not speaking Greek and him not speaking a word of English.
***
After lunch, I returned to Sami harbour fifteen minutes walk away, and caught some more annular seabream and damselfish. A few larger wrasse crash dived and snapped the fine line on a couple of occasions.
The small fish fest reached the height of absurdity when I pulled in a fish barely two inches long. It is the smallest fish I’ve ever caught by a wide margin; so small the camera couldn’t focus on it. (Workman blames tools) I’m embarrassed to post such an out-of-focus image. I didn’t think much of the fish at the time, but subsequently I’ve identified it as a Comber. The first I’d caught. If i knew this at the time I’d have reviewed the photo a bit more thoroughly.
***
I visited a nearby taverna specialising in fish. Macabre remnants of swordfish and tuna were nailed to the trees as decoration.
I ordered the grilled shrimp and kept a couple of tail-ends for bait.
Total Catch:
- 2 Annular Sea Bream
- 1 Painted Comber
- 1 Blue Runner
- 4 Damselfish
- 1 Comber
A Fishing Diary 