Holiday Fishing in Porto
Santo
Last year we visited Madeira
and took a ferry to Porto Santo for a couple of days. We had a lovely time on
an interesting and relatively underdeveloped island and so returned this year
for a package holiday at Pestana Porto Santo.
We were fortunate to have a very good holiday representative
who managed to organise a fishing trip for me out of the quay on a rib. I
didn’t expect much as a rib wouldn’t be my ideal type of boat for sea fishing,
but it turned out to be an enjoyable day.
We were picked up from the hotel by the crew of the boat and
taken to the quay where we boarded the rib. The tackle was all set up, ready
and waiting and was good quality being made by Daiwa. The rib came into its own
then taking about 10 minutes to cross the bay which is the southern area of the
island and sheltered from the wind, where we fished off Limestone Island.
The water was clear as we bait fished in 25m of water using
a small lead and two hooks, one baited with prawn, the other with squid.
The skipper said it would be a good area for mixed fishing,
and we would probably catch two-banded bream which are very light takers and
very difficult to hook. I found the fish very keen to take prawn but these were
easily stripped from the hook. This highlighted one area where improvements
could be made as braid would give much better bite indication, and as we hooked
probably 20% of the takes, I am sure the catch rate could have been better (and
also with better anglers as the skipper put us to shame).
My first fish was a lizardfish which was really aggressive
and appeared to be widespread. We also
caught red snapper, atlantic damsel fish, trigger fish, white bream, saddle
bream, even a puffer fish; in fact a host of species which steadily came to the
boat.
Just before we finished we had a couple of passes trolling
in front of the island. Even though this
was only for a short time we managed a couple of lizardfish and a nice
bluefish. As we returned to shore the tails of the fish had to be clipped
as the local fisherman are not allowed
to sell the fish to the local restaurants under EU law so any that you don’t
want for your own barbecue go to the skipper friends and relatives.
We were then ferried back to our hotel, having spent an
enjoyable day in good company and even fed with a sandwich and a cool beer for
refreshment.
There were no massive fish, but this was not helped by the weather
seeming to be a month late (as in the UK) so the water temperature was lower
than normal, even the dolphins were further out to sea then normal, but don’t
let this put you off. There are large snapper, barracuda, almaco jack and
several other large species that could be fished for from the north of the
island.
Shore based fishing
If you don’t fancy the boat fishing, you can always shore
fish. I always take a travel rod in my suitcase plus an assortment of bits and
pieces. If you forget something, there is a well equipped tackle shop in the
centre of the island. The proprietor doesn’t speak English but we managed to
converse by drawings and hand signals as fishermen and their methods are
similar across the world.
I chose to fish from the end of the pier, with a sliding
float being the preferred option of the locals, fishing some 3-4 metres deep.
You could see an assortment of very small fish off the end such as two-banded
bream, blue finned damsel fish, ornate wrasse plus the odd parrot fish and
small jack. I used prawns and squid as
bait and was quickly into my first fish which I swung in to my hand.
A word of
warning here, greater weaver fish are present in those waters. The locals call them spider fish or logarto
da costa and they have poisonous black spines so unhook with great care using
pliers. Do not do as I did; I was spiked and was taken to the local health
centre where the remedy to the pain was to immerse my hand in very hot water
for nearly an hour. I wouldn't have
known about this fish but a local boy spotted what had happened and escorted me
to the medical centre. I left Sandy taking care of my
fishing tackle as I wanted to carry on but when I hadn't returned to the quay,
she arrived at the medical centre loaded with my tackle to see what had
happened to me. The hot water method
eased the pain but over a week later, the swelling has only just eased.
Back to fishing; later that day after I had recouperated I
also caught lizardfish and saw a local catch flatfish. I was told that the fishing is mixed during
the day but comes into its own at night when lure fishing. However, I found
setting the hooks with prawn when touch legering was much better than float
fishing as the extra time seemed to allow the fish to take the bait in better.
I was shown pictures of bream and barracuda which were
caught from the quay area where fishing is allowed as another venue
At the far end of the beach between the main island and
limestone island, I watched locals fishing for parrotfish using a floatfished
crab, so fish seem to be present wherever there is a feature to attract them in
many areas.
All in all, the Porto Santo experience had been a good one
which included eating out at two very good restaurants, a fascinating excursion
to see some of the geology of this charming island, and plenty of sightings of
the hoopoe, a bird rarely seen in the UK. A great location for the family where
you can enjoy some fishing.
Keith Armishaw
www.riverreads.co.uk