Fishing on the Costa Blanca
by Peter Brassey
I must admit, I’m not an
expert angler but I like to have a go. Owning an apartment in La Cala de
Finestrat near Benidorm which is literally a stones throw from the med,
the temptation to buy some tackle was pretty irresistible. I’d been watching
the anglers on the rocks below the apartment for quite a while and decided
to go down so I could take a closer look and get some idea of the bait
and the methods they were using. I decided ledgering was probably going
to be the most successful. Ledgering, for those unfamiliar with angling
terms is fishing on the bottom as opposed to float fishing which is suspending
the bait at a set level. The favoured bait appeared to be squid and ragworm.
Ragworm isn’t a native of the Mediterranean and is only available in fishing
tackle shops; the nearest tackle shop to La Cala is in Villajoyosa about
seven kilometres away. Armed with this information I set off for Villajoyosa
to equip myself with rod, reel and all the associated bits and pieces plus
three boxes of ragworm. I then went to the local Mercadona supermarket
and bought four squid, which I duly cleaned and cut up. The rest of the
afternoon was spent painstakingly assembling half a dozen ledgers with
hooks and weights. Not having a tackle box, I used a zip up cd container
to store all the bits and pieces. I put the assembled ledgers plus extra
hooks and weights neatly in the plastic sleeves.
Everybody I spoke to about
fishing in the med, told me the best time to go was about eight o clock
in the evening just when the sun was going down. At eight, I packed all
my assembled tackle into a supermarket carrier bag into which I included
some extra bags for the catch. When I got down to the rocks, the sun was
disappearing over the mountains in the distance and the light was fading
fast. I assembled my telescopic rod and threaded the line through the loops.
Then with great difficulty in the descending darkness I managed to tie
one of my newly assembled ledgers on to the end of the line. Having eyes
which are about as useful as Mr Magoo’s, the job of threading a ragworm
onto the hook was almost impossible. After ten minutes battling with a
furious squirming ragworm which was in no mood to be sacrificed as fish
food, I managed to impale it in a manner which I thought would be irresistible
to any passing seafood.
The art of casting takes
a while to master and I was pretty confident that I could cast the bait
out a good 20 metres or so. Releasing the pickup on the reel and hooking
my finger around the line I raised the rod above my head at an angle of
about 180 degrees. I swung the rod outwards and released the line. The
cast felt unusually heavy and to my horror, I realised that I’d managed
to hook my carrier bag and cast that out along with the tackle. All those
hours of preparation, my bait ledgers hooks and weights were now 20 metres
out to sea. But wait, the bag was still on the end of the line, I could
feel it. With a sense of relief, I carefully reeled it back to the shore.
Yes it was still there, I could see it as it rose to the surface and it
was heavy, so that meant all my precious tackle was still intact. As I
stooped to retrieve it, my heart sank again as it slowly dawned on me that
the bag only contained water.
Now when I look down at the
fishermen on the rocks, I think maybe I’ll go for a beer.
About the Author:
Peter Brassey - http://www.apartrent.co.uk
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