Catch of the day [Fishing]
-
How was the fight?
Absolutely shattering. Seeing spray being flown off the spool as they rip line off is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. It's now about 04:00 the following day, and I literally ache all over, I'm pulling about 15kg of drag and the fights on the larger ones last about 20 minutes, it's an amazing work out….
-
Not being a fisherman myself, what are the logistics of this? I mean, you're not near home, right? If you were, you could chop that thing up into steaks and freeze them. What do you do with a catch that size when you're on vacation?
3 hour flight if I could get here direct. But limited flights atm.
I actually am in awe and love of this place. It is a small village that until a few years ago was virtually cut off from the rest of Morocco, and Spain is only 12 or so miles away, across the Straits of Gibraltar. They do not speak French, but Spanish instead (and Arabic of course).
the people are beautiful and it is a true community. The fishery here works as a cooperative and everyone joins in to help. When we need to pull the boat up the jetty, 20 or so people appear out of nowhere to help, the village idiot (yes, there is one) is celebrated and loved, not stigmatised and made a fool of, those sort of things make this place so special.
All the fish are killed, put in the communal cold store and sold to the government. It is illegal to sell privately.
There is a quota, and I believe it is a village quota (maybe region).
Word had got around that the old fucker had got a 70kg fish on topwater lure, and I was roundly congratulated even by strangers….
I simply love this place and the people, I will be coming back.
-
This makes me happy and I’m not involved at all.
-
Today, the weather was iffy at best. We thought we were going to lose the day, but eventually managed to get out for 4 hours. Szymon and I managed 2 each. The largest at 48.8kg took 45 minutes to land pulling 15Kg of drag. Here is Szymon giving a smaller one some grief…. - IHJ-97-GRN
Then we had fish, fish and more fish for supper…..
-
Sitting down on the job
:D. This is the fish I mentioned above, which took 45 minutes to land. This photo is about 15 minutes in, I tried to play it with no fighting belt for the first 20 or so, I have the bruises to prove it 
What I learned this week, is that working out how to conserve energy is key to lasting the distance with these guys….
-
Looks absolutely amazing @Giles!!
-
I'm back home. What an amazing trip, it was so much more than I imagined it would be. We got up at about 03:30 most mornings and commercially fished for the cooperative until about 08:00. No other westerners have ever done this, so we felt very privileged and included. There are only 2 boats licenced for just 2 fishermen each, for sports fishing in the whole region, so again, we felt really special that we have managed to secure a spot. We had no idea it was this hard to fish here until halfway through the holiday, when we asked Moha, our guide if we could bring a bunch of people next year. I went, wanting to catch a Blue Fin Tuna, that was all I wanted to do. I ended up catching 6 or 7 (we were so tired, we lost count!) up to 70kg, so I well and truly ticked that box. The people were delightful, one example; we tipped the guy who drove our boat €50 at the end of the week, and I had to have a major argument to make him accept it, in the end, I stuffed it in a pocket and walked way…
We will definitely be back. And we will both be so much better prepared next time around...
-
Really an amazing trip. Cant imagine fighting one of those 70 pounders for 45 minutes.
National Geographic level trip Giles
-
oops–-my bad.
so more than double obviously.
so basically man sized fish
