Giles is off to Morocco Chasing Blue Fin Tuna Again - Sept 2022

[Giles]

It's massively unsettling, as you suddenly go from working your lure in a mostly balanced posture to having the rod being pulled extremely violently away from you and down, whilst this is happening you need to brace yourself against something immovable and attempt to get the butt of the rod between your legs, all the time trying to set the hook and not give any slack, the first 30 seconds are mayhem, the next 60 mind-blowing and the rest of the fight is a brutal tug of war, once the fish is on the surface by the boat, it is nerve-wracking, one wrong move and the fish will be gone.  I lost 2 fish today in the first 30-second period, I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I know I must of…........

[goosehd]

sharp hooks, not a deep enough set, brief moments of line slack, all of the above, or just general shit luck…isn't is why they call it fishing and not catching...glad you're having fun and thanks for the pictures.

Us armchair fishermen are living vicariously...

[Giles]

I think in probability I did not set the hooks well enough, it's quite startling how violent with the hook set you need to be.  Often when a fish takes line at >10kg of drag, you think that there s no way that the hook cant have penetrated….Often we shout set, set, set when a fellow angler hooks uo, to make them remember to do it.

[Giles]

I'll pop a few photos that Sami has taken whilst we are here, he is an amazing fisherman and extraordinary photographer….

[Giles]

Oh shit, the military have turned up 

[bbrtns]

Time for some Sadam Hussein style fishing?

[Giles]

Just hope it ain't Putain coming for conscripts…..

[neph93]

@Giles:

Just hope it ain't Putain coming for conscripts…..

Ugh… that is going to go badly. Also, love the pun.

Whenever Eddie sees Putain’s face on the tv or a newspaper, he gives him two middle fingers [emoji38]

Anyhoo, back to the fishing. As an infrequent fisher of fish, it normally takes me two failed bites to remember to set my hook properly.

[Peter]

Very cool pictures! Totally not jealous..

[Giles]

Just lost one on this. I gave it 2 hrs whacks and dropped the fish 20 seconds later. I got bollocked by Moha for not given it 5

[Giles]

Waiting for the wind……

[Giles]

Unfortunately not to me or Szymon, but one of the locals, 120kg….

[Matt]

Whoa

[Giles]

Emergency repairs….

[Giles]

Today was hard.  No wind and very hot, hardly saw any fish all day.  Szymon had one of about 35Kg, I lost a bigger one 20 or so seconds into the fight.

I had an enlightening chat with a guy who works for the cooperative.  This village and the ones on either side share a total quota of 50 tonnes per year. So our villagers compete, not with each other, but with the other two villages to try and get as much of that 50 tonnes landed as possible.  The fish we catch, count towards that quota.

I love fishing here, it is highly cooperative (funny that), and knowledge and information is shared freely, the guys are not fishing for themselves, but for the village as a whole.  That is not to say there is not any pride in catching a lot or the biggest, the guy who had the 120 kg one today was as proud as punch and the talk of the cafés….

Tomorrow, we get up at 04:00 to go and catch flying fish and then go and try and catch tuna.  Popping rods will be taken, just incase there is surface action when the sun comes up.

[Matt]

Take a shotgun for the flying fish.

Best of luck and be safe.  Within reason of course.

[Giles]

So, the flying fish rest in calm water at night, you shine a torch on the water and the flying fish sort of give off an opalescent light, you stick a hand net in front of them and they swim into the net.

Easy.

Well, I let Szymon do it, and I count how many we have…..

[Matt]

Hopefully there’s alcohol involved.  Is it even fishing without it?

[Giles]

I’m with 3 Poles.

What do you think?

[ROman]

Beer and Vodka???