Mmmmmm Tuna.

 

 Not every day you go away on a family holiday 3500 miles away, seemingly going with no intention to fish only to be contacted by friends saying someone has seen you at the airport at Gatwick and he's on my flight....couple of days later a chap called Adam Bass contacted me to see if it was me for sure, of course, it was! Adam and I have trodden the same paths over the years but had never met nor spoke via social media platforms beforehand.

 This world is a strange place and noticeably how small it is...he was staying in Makadi, just a few miles from where my family and I were holidaying, soaking up the delights of the Egyptian climate. The conversation we had was great and a really nice chap, then proceeded to ask me if I fancied joining him on his charter out of Makadi Marina, after a very short waffle with the mrs the deal was done, I was going on a boat in the Red Sea for game fish, LAVERLY!

 A few days passed until the morning arrived that I was due to go and by 6am we were nearly ready to rock and we were afloat and gone by 7am. A number of fish were possible but I was just happy to get out on a boat, my sea legs needed an outing :) 

 Adam very kindly suggested as the guest I should have first run...I did try to say no but he wasn't having any of it, so when the freespool was sent into meltdown I was up! 10mins later a nice SkipJack tuna was aboard and dispatched quickly as it was approaching mid morning, stuff your normal elevenesses, sashimi skipjack is where its at, bloody lovely and the chef done a brilliant job with it later on with a light batter, brown rice and fresh salad. 

First blood, athletic SkipJack

 Adam then had a skipjack and then I hooked something that was a lot better than the skipjack and it played me hard, this fish didn't want to come up as we fished over nearly 100m of water just off the coast, after about 15mins she was nearly done and with a steady battle alongside the boat the captain reached out with the gaff and 20kg+ Yellowfin Tuna was boated! what a fish and what a battle. 

Readying a YF!

Mega!!!!

Ditto

Ditto

 If I thought skipjack carved off a 10min old fish was great then this yellowfin was in a different league, my god it was incredible !!!!

SkipJack sashimi

Nom Nom!!!

Yellowfin Sashimi

I am certainly a conservationist with my angling but when you are abroad the rules are different! Plus they are life experiences and one that one must enjoy during your lifetime. Great company, great fishing and great food on the deep blue sea in wonderful coastal scenery. 

Adam battling a spirited SkipJack

 After that yellowfin Adam lost a good fish so it was back to me, the next take was something you could only dream of, the sheer speed and power that this fish went at had the reel screaming! Atef the captain was 100% sure it was a DogTooth Tuna, the characteristics of the fight were to him made it undoubtably so. I just couldn't do much with it, in the end the flourocarbon leader must have cut across its teeth and she was gone, I was gutted but looking back just to experience that type of sustained power is a first for me. 

 Adam, if you ever read this, cheers brother!! It was a blast.

Foreign Adventures 2019.

 Back on Dutch soil for the first time in a year and it felt good! The last time I was over it was exactly the same time last year, uncanny that the dates and times almost matched exactly. Not necessarily an interesting fact for most but I found it spooky. Meeting with my good friend Yannick once again we spoke at length to work out what would be our best plan of action and given the battering the Netherlands had just received prior to my arrival last minute provisions had to be made.

The rain didn't hold off when it came!

 In a year a lot has happened, my fiancee went from being six months pregnant to us being parents for the last 9 months, a house that we hadn't even seen before now within our grasp of owning, giving up the flat we have called home for nearly three years all seems crazy, amazing what can happen in such a short space of time. All I know is that time is tight and my yearly trip to Holland was in serious doubt for a few reasons, regardless of those reasons I managed to make it happen. Yannick and I met up on the friday afternoon and headed straight over to the Waal in search of Ide and Asp.

 Both of the species I have been successful in catching previously but had desires to better both
personal bests. For Ide we wanted bright sunshine and light winds to get them on the top and feeding avidly, problem for us was that there was very little sunlight as the Netherlands was suffering with some pretty poor weather and with rain forecasted for all four days I was over it cast doubt over whether I'd get the chance and I think it was safe to say that blanks were inevitable, our first two days were a massive struggle and we managed one Asp between us and two Zander, all of which were below our target sizes, although for Yannick those two Zander represented the first of the species for him so he was delighted to have finally got that monkey off his back. Mind you, he doesn't target them much.

A small backwater where Ide were present.

 On Sunday however and conditions did improve a little beyond our expectations and by 10am the sun was out and stalking the Ide became a viable option. Half an hour of loading up crust finally got the fish rising and amongst the average size of 2/3lb the odd much larger shape broke the surface as they gained confidence. Within twenty minutes of the first rise we had scores of big Ide slurping crust off the top and then it was a case of having a bait in the right place!

A 2.5kg specimen, over 5lb and a new personal best!!

  Right place and right time accounted for this peach of an Ide, in the water it didn't look massive at all, but I guess looking down a 10ft embankment to a fish in cloudy water played a part in that! in the net and lifting it out clearly suggested otherwise and boy was I happy! Not quite in the 3kg club but I can save that for another visit.

 Conditions between the sunny spells were fairly brutal as we were hammered by winds between 45 and 55 mph and at times we had to stop fishing as I couldn't cast a lure further than five feet into the wind, plus it made for traversing the cribs even more difficult than it normally is.

 As the conditions didn't look to abate any time soon we headed inland and south to a canal system where we have had previous successes and this time was no different. A few Asp were taken off the top and a new personal best for me of 2.5/2.6kg was caught among quite a few other specimens averaging 1.75/2.25kg plus a stunning 16lb Grass Carp that managed to charge out of my hands as we prepared to photograph her in the water. Can't have it all :)

 It is very safe to say I will back!

Grass Carp heaven.

Dutch Successes.

 It's been nearly two years already since I last met up with friend Yannick over in the Netherlands, we had threatened to do a few trips in between, but the closest we got was a failed attempt last April due to the ridiculously poor weather. This time around everything looked good and we both got a few days off at the same time.

Beautiful place to spend a couple of days.

 After a relatively quick journey to Stanstead Airport and then a 40 min flight to Eindhoven it was time to get started. Yannick met me at the airport and we drove about an hour south in search of our first target, Grass Carp. I had a desire to catch a 20lb specimen and by the end of the evening I had the pleasure of banking a 22.00 personal best, this was backed up with another at 16.02 which also was a PB as it was caught prior to the "twenty".

16.2

22.00

One towing me around.

All hell braking loose as another is hooked.

Yannick with a mint Dutch specimen.

The smallest of the visit.

22.14 and a new PB for not very long.

 What a start that was!. We had another 3 days, so the grass carp specialist decided that we should give them another go to see if we could get something even bigger and it was to be an inspired decision as I landed another five Grass Carp weighing: 14lb, 16lb, 20.3, 22.14 and 23.4, the sport was brilliant. We were however made to work hard for them as the dense pads which lined most of the waterways made capturing and landing a very difficult challenge. As dusk approached the showing fish became almost constant which was quite awesome, so many big fish and not enough hours in the day to catch them all. We left around sunset and got back Yannick's house around midnight or so.

My Personal Best at 23lb 4oz.

Awesome feeling!

 The clock was set for 4am as we then decided to head out and search a load of drains, lakes and other small waterways in Rotterdam and I was met with an incredible amount of choices, we could only work at it logically and that was to basically do a portion of the waters in an arc that would see us finish back on a lake close to where we parked up. Apart from the odd shape ghosting around we actually struggled to get close to anything apart from a large common between 30-34lb which I stalked for a good couple of hours, I simply couldn't get my presentation right, it really let me down.

 In the evening we decided to leave the carp and head over the Waal river which is a very busy
tideway which is primarily used to allow freight liners and fuel barges to connect between Holland and Germany. To think in all of that our target was an Ide, a species I have never had the pleasure of catching or seeing. Just as dusk was settling in that all changed as I was in contact with a fairly powerful fish which stripped a few yards of braid on numerous occasions before the net slipped under my prize. Quite an awesome fish to be fair, the surrounding environment isn't what I'd call safe for them, clearly this isn't a problem. 3lb 9oz new and only PB for the specimen. There was to be no happy ending for Yannick as his valiant effort to woo an Ide ultimately was cut short by the lack of light, at gone 11pm !

Very happy with that!

 On the last day we knew that I had to be back at Eindhoven for 745-8pm roughly so that gave us a decent amount of fishing time still where one of my hosts friends also joined us for a days carp fishing (none of us had fished here) so it was all new to us.

 The first part of the morning yielded very little apart from the odd fish bubbling. By around 10am we decided to come away from Rotterdam and head back toward Yannick's village where we continued to stalk carp and two out of three were successful, for me, my first ever Dutch king carp.

 We spent the rest of the day under no pressure and proceeded to knock a few beers back and a BBQ! The Dutch way. Great successes for me certainty! Many thanks go out to the main man for making it happen and in October there will be some British species which will be targeted, like the Barbel and Grayling.

Away Day for Marlin! And Whale-watching.

 Last week I was away with the missus in Tenerife for a little break in the sun. It was much needed and both of us couldn't wait to just do nothing and soak up some sun, so thats exactly what we did for 5 days. The other two days we spent out on the Atlantic Ocean.

 The first day we headed out on a sailing boat for a days cruising on the deep blue sea. On our day trip we were told that it's possible we could see Whales and Dolphins as they patrol the deep ridge that surrounds the island of Tenerife. Depths slope away at a consistent rate 20-80 metres, then out of nowhere the ocean floor vanishes as you are quickly over 1200-1500 metres of water, ideal depths for squid and other sources of food for deep sea specialists like Whales.

 We really hoped to see some as they are one of the only major class of animal I have not had the pleasure of seeing. That changed pretty quickly though as we came across a pod of possibly 20 just ambling seamlessly across the slightly choppy surface. This species of Whale is the Pilot Whale and it was a joy to witness their presence. Our captain didn't get any closer than approx 150m to allow them space and not pressure them which I thought was very responsible, so I had to rely on my long lens to get some half decent images.

 Having enjoyed that excursion I was looking forward to getting back on the water, so naturally we planned to go out fishing! Not just any fishing either. For a few years now I have really wanted to go out in search of a Marlin but to name a few. Well that time came but myself and the mrs decided to book an afternoon session, hoping the bright high sunny conditions would have passed and then the predators begin to go on the hunt.

 For a good four hours we trawled 7 rods armed with various imitations behind the boat, all the time my attentions were divided up between watching the broken water behind the lures and the fish finder/echo sounder. Unfortunately I learnt fairly early on that the Marlin and Darado haven't made it into the "shallower" waters yet and still out in the deep Atlantic.

 For me it was a good experience and apart from not catching it has certainly cemented a return visit when the chances are better to cut my teeth and something a little bigger than Carp!