Ionian - Fishing.

toad_oftoadhall

toad_oftoadhall

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I want to fish for my own supper in the Ionian.

The only fish I've been able to catch and identify so far is the ubiquitous Saddled Seabream (according to a Greek Sailor these are edible but the ones I caught were to small for the BBQ.)

Can someone point to a source identifying edible fish in the Ionian and what should I be using to catch them with? Lure? Bait?
 
you may well find replies to this post as rare as the fish. However in a few years trailing a lure in the Ionian I have caught (BBQ sized) 1 Tuna, on a bit of silver paper and hook and last year, to my utter surprise 2 dolphin (having a senior moment -can't think of the common name!) with an old spinner found in the marina yard. Where about? Ah! - that would cost you many beers
Have fun - Regards
 
Dolphin fish = Dorado or Mahé Mahé. One of the best eating fish.
Should also be able to get some red snapper and in deeper waters, some grouper.

The dorado and the tuna will react to some thing fairly large and shiny being pulled swiftly through the water.

The snapper and the grouper will prefer baitfish being left just off the bottom, around any reef type areas.
 
Don't believe a word of it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif 'jax' convinced us fishing was a good idea so we acquired all the gear.

Nearly 2 weeks on board trailing a lure and the biggest fish we 'caught' were the two sardines that jumped into our tender one night!

There are fish in the Ionian. One evening near Igonomitsa there were some really big ones jumping out of the water, all around the lure my son was casting. I swear they were taunting us.

Blasted fish are way too cany! I reckon the best 'bait' is a hand grenade.

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
The 1-onion, indeed the whole of the Mediterranean is a desert in oceanic terms, so there never were that many fish; in addition it's been intensively fished by 'experts' for 10,000 years, so those few which have survived are the creme-de-la-creme of the fishy gene pool so far too clever for idiots (like me) to catch.
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tied up on the town quay in preveza 2 weeks ago , everyone was stopped in their tracks by the sight of fish / sardine size , leaping out of the water and landing flapping on the quayside ! maybe 50 or more ! before i could get back on the boat for the frying pan a few locals came by and kicked them all back in ! bugger ! no fish in the med ??
 
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The 1-onion, indeed the whole of the Mediterranean is a desert in oceanic terms, so there never were that many fish; in addition it's been intensively fished by 'experts' for 10,000 years,

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My problem's not lack of fish - the places I stop always seem to be teeming with 'em - it's knowing which ones I can eat and how to get the tasty ones out of the water and onto the BBQ.
 
Just a thought for you. If a place is teeming with fish, that means there's a lot of fish food around . . . now, what sort of fish were you seeing? Lots of mullet? You know what their favourite food is . . . which is why they have a certain - er - muddy flavour. Lots of them around small Greek villages - some of whose harbours have a light whiff in slight winds.
 
I cannot really think of any trolling fish that are not edible unless you are allergic to some of them. In my case, the only fish that I cannot digest is the pilot fish (black and white, wide, vertical stripes).

Saddled bream is delicious but you need to bait your trolling lure (white soft feathers, line not thicker than 0.15mm) with something edible. Favourites are the little white snails (messy, but the best) that one finds sealed up on dried weeds all around the mediterranean during the summer months. Another favourite trolling bait is the tip of the longer tentacles from a squid. You can keep on using these for a long time as they do not disintegrate.

Dolphin (Dorado, Lampuka = Coryphaena Hippurus), little tunny, bonito, amberjack are all easy to catch with just a plastic squid lure and no bait. Keep your line L-O-N-G (at least 45 metres) and not too thick (say, 0.30mm at this time of year, going up to 0.6 - 0.7mm towards November). Keep your speed above 5.5 knots and if you see any floating jetsam - like an old pallet, nine times out of ten you will find that there are fish underneath. Pass up-current of them and steer a course such that the line (but not your boat) will pass some 3 metres from the pallet.

These are trolling fish. They are predators and will instinctively attack anything that is shiny or sparling passing within their territory. Do not underestimate their speed. Stop trolling when you have caught all that you can consume or preserve. The sight of a fighting dolphin is one of the most spectacular that one can hope to see. Magnificent fish!
 
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The Poo Eating Mullet thing is an urban myth.

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... commonly propounded by people who are quite content to consume pork - blissfully unaware of what pigs eat! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re mullet: The taste is fabulous IF it is caught in open waters. Do not consume it if caught inside a commercial harbour, not because of the muddy taste but because of the possible accummulation of pollutants.

When cleaning them, do make sure that you remove ALL traces of the black film that covers the surface of the abdominal cavity. This is what imparts the iodine taste. For best results, cut a fresh lemon in half and rub it all over the cavity surfaces. Grill lightly with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of some chopped oregano, fresh if possible. Serve with tomatoes and olives, also some pickled capers if you like them. Bon appetit! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
for dorado & tuna species, you do not need to fish very deep. They are usually out for small baitfish near the surface, so you only need to troll 1 or 2 ft down. You just need to stir their attacking instinct, and they will hit hard.
 
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it's knowing which ones I can eat and how to get the tasty ones out of the water and onto the BBQ.

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Basically you can eat any fish with scales. Species such as leatherjackets are excellent too but if you are unsure, stick to fish with scales.

Some species flavour will depend on their diet. Weed eaters are sometimes not as good as predators. Then again prawns are the underwater cockroaches that feed on dead rotten material.
 
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Keep your speed above 5.5 knots....

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What size weight do you use to keep the lures down at that speed?

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Bejasus is correct. However, there exist little lead weights - around the size of a .22 pellet - that are purposely made so that they fit within the head of the rubber squid lure. To be honest, even if they occasionally skip over the surface, it just makes the lure that much more attractive.

One other hint. These fish have sharp teeth. Therefore, when tying the hook slip a short length of electrical wire insulation over the line, between the squid and the hook. The length of this PVC 'tube' should be such that the bend of the hook is level with the end of the squid's skirt. The fish will not be able to bite through it. You can even use a piece from an empty ball pen refill or even the middle part of a Q-tip. Any soft plastic will do.
 
I fished only once in the Mediterranean - a little north of the Ionian, in the Adriatic. I was cruising off the island of Pag, trailing a line in fairly shallow waters, circa 10m, when I had a bite. I pulled the fish in, it was about 30cm long, brown and ugly. I grasped the body of the fish in the left hand to remove the hook with my right and immediately my hand was streaming blood - the dorsal fin had somehow projected out and injected poison into my hand.

The pain was intense, my hand swelled alarmingly and my thought was to make to a small indentation and pier I could see on the island. Once there and tied to the pier I went below and collapsed on the bunk while my wife ran to some fishermen sitting on a bench and showed the fish, now in a bucket, to them.

Long story short - one of the fishermen drove me right across the island (the journey on a bad road in a rickety van was agony) to the only hospital on the island, in the the town of Pag, where I was injected with an antidote kept especially for this particular poison.

I have never fished again. Oh yes, the fish was a Weever.

Weever.jpg
 
Thanks for that Barnac1e, I do a fair bit of snorkelling and am always a bit careful when grabbing something. Sounds like a right nasty bugger, looks a misserable git too. I shall avoid them.

toad_oftoadhall, you reminded me I was going to look on the internet as I see quite a few fish and often wonder what they are.

I've just spent 20 odd minutes but the only thing I can find apart from recipes are books to buy, nothing free to download.

We got a free pull out with a Sunday magazine a little while ago and although the pictures look very nice, actually matching them up to the real thing is easier said than done.
 
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