Fun in Greece.

 Recently back from our yearly holiday break in Greece. Typically we arrived in foul weather back in Skye whilst it was a very hot September back there. Back in Greece we spent most of the time with family at my hometown but also went south to the Peloponnese for a wedding. This was a good opportunity for fishing there and I had my usual light game setup ( Crostage CRX-784LG, Stradic ci4 2500f) and a heavier one (Gamakatsu Akilas mobile 80H, Daiwa Ballistic LT 6000). 

In all I used the light gear 95% of the time as I just didn't get the conditions or see signs of good fish. I had some sessions from the inflatable paddle board and a few from shore. I had to work for my fish most of the time but when I encountered 'tasty' conditions ( choppy sea) the fish would switch on. Surprisingly I encountered the most new species ever, managing to catch wee amberjacks, tunny, blue runner, pompano and a dentex! I was thinking that I'd get these species down south but actually my local area was the most productive... I did have a close encounter with a beautiful mahi mahi coming inches of my tiny metal jig but deciding against hitting it in Nafplio. That place had a good variety of predator species but I didn't manage to get anything decent out of it unfortunately.

There were 2 days that stood out for me. A wee shore session on a windy day whilst we were at the beach. I fished a rocky bay and caught some feisty wee amberjacks, a tunny OTT and raised a couple bass but only had one half-hearted hit from them. Cracker of a light game session! The other day that stood out was when we rented a boat for half a day and explored around the nearby little islands. We encountered masses of aggressive garfish that would hit most lures and that's where I also got my first dentex on a Savagear Gravity Pencil! 

Scenery from an ISUP...

Feisty wee Amberjacks! 

They fought well...

...but this guy fought harder!

My first pompano ( litsomelanuro in Greek)

Surprisingly few scad and false scad this time...

A nice bream on a metal 

A tiny wee blue runner!

Masses of garfish!

The queen of the Mediterranean!

I also had a couple freshwater outings where I mainly got chub on topwaters. I had a couple donkey sized chub spit my popper or come unhooked straight away that really got the heart going. These were definite pb fish and I suppose they'll have to wait a year...

The day before our return flights, I took a few topwaters and went down the local canal just to see if any wee jacks or chub would give me a pull. I got much more 'pull' than I expected as I lost a fat chub at my feet (I didn't get the net with me) and proceeded to lose 4 more poppers getting cut-off on jacks or snagged up by good chub! I think I need to get a designated heavy- cover  topwater setup for these situations. Still able to cast small lures but with more backbone for landing fish in these overgrown spots.

Popper engulfed...

Plenty of this size...

Didn't get their grandparents this time unfortunately...

As always the days went by pretty quickly but that's the way it goes when you're having fun. Already I have some ideas of things to try next time I'm over, namely getting the ISUP in the canals and maybe visit an island too. 

Returning to Skye in the current weather was a rude awakening of sorts but I'm hoping to get out as soon as conditions settle for the 'golden' part of the season!

Tight lines 

OTT start to April.

 Went out on the 1st of April hoping to see some more surface action from the coalies that have extended their stay this year. Usually we'd get plenty over winter but then they'd go quiet around March time until we hit May. Not this year though as it appears that they and the pollock are in and in feeding mode. 

Started the day on a shallow mark and sure enough the Autowalker 83S found the coalies. Definitely had a couple pollock swat it too but hooking the fish was another matter. Despite the numerous blow ups, it took some tweaking to get them hooked. Again the slower retrieve whilst connected on the middle ring of the lure gave the most positive bites. Saying that, towards the end of the day the fish became more aggressive and the normal way of rigging had more success. Even made a wee vid for old times sake...

Ravenous skinny coalies!

After changing spot and  having enough of the light game, I switched to the heavy setup looking for some bigger fish. They were very positive towards my soft plastics with red being the preferred colour, though they got even more fired up when the A-rig came out! I love power fishing for them like this around spawning time and this is definitely a presentation that seems to deter the smaller fish.

Love how they get a subtle purple colour this time of year.

A-rig doing the damage.

The action only seemed to be getting better as the day got on but I felt very satisfied with the fishing and decided to call it a day. I'm fairly sure that I have now had a fish on topwaters every month of the year! Who needs tropical predators when you have coalies... Hopefully we'll get some more settled weather and the fishing continues like this, water temperature has risen half a degree in the past couple weeks to 8.5C so I suppose it's only gonna get warmer now. Its amazing to see that even with all that snow and ice, it barely got below 8C this year and already rising...

Tight lines.

A whiff of Summer and time for Light Game!

The temperature has been slowly but steadily rising lately and yesterday I got the chance for an afternoon session on the rocks. Felt like a good opportunity to try out my new Light Game travel rod, the MajorCraft Crostage CRX-784LG. I have been looking for ages into something that could cover a larger variety and weights of light lures than the usual 7ft 0.5-5gr LRF rods as from my experience when holiday fishing you need to be more flexible.
Was on the rocks by about 16:00 and had another hour till high tide. The place was alive with birdlife and I was sure I'd find plenty of coalies to have fun with.
As I was expecting fish to be slightly deeper still, I put on a 13gr Breaden Metalmaru, a prawn imitating lure that casts well and works well with slow retrieve and light jerks. Also, it has a nice fall due to the little spinner at the tail.
Within the first couple casts, I got hit OTD near the bottom! The fish felt heavy and it clearly wasn't the intended target. I seemed to have located a group of medium-sized pollack that would intercept my metal lures (lost the metalmaru on the third fish 😭).  For some reason, fish tend to hit better OTD early on in the season and I find that the fall rate is a very important factor...

A handy little lure for finicky fish.

Seeing that there were larger fish in the area I took out the heavier gear and put on a 30g pink slow jig. I thought that it was still a small profile yet it was a slimmer model and sunk faster than the usual wide slow jigs. I suppose that the faster slow rate along with the pink colour might have put off the fish as I didn't get a single bite after 20mins of covering the same area!
I decided to switch to a more natural coloured (blue) jig, yet heavier (50g) but with a slower fall due to the wide shape. Also, this jig had more action during the retrieve. I was thinking that the most important factor was the slow fall and natural look of the lure and after a few casts over already-covered ground, I got a hit and soon after landed a decent fish.

It's a jungle down there...

After another one on the heavier gear, I decided to switch back to the light rod as its just so much more fun and I was sure that the coalies wouldn't be too far..
After a few more pollock landed and lost I started to get hits up in the water column and towards the end of the retrieve... Finally, the coalies were in and I managed to get a few nice ones!

Note the light lip hook..

Decent sized pollock..

And decent sized coalies...

The rod was made for fish like this one!

Cant wait for surface action!

What surprised me was that most of the fish were neatly hooked on the lips and at times only from one hook of the treble... Most missed hits didn't follow up and also a few fish got unhooked during the fight... Also, plenty of fish still with lice and worms on them...This leads me to believe that the fish though relatively well grouped, weren't actually feeding very aggressively and the 'attractiveness' of the light presentation was what made them commit. Reckon a few more weeks and they will be in proper form!
I have to say that I was very impressed with the rod... Its medium actioned and bends nicely into those better fish while still having a very sensitive tip that lets you know what a 4g blade is doing 20m down. It was more comfortable with metals up to 13g and even though its rated to 15g, its a much slimmer rod and definitely Light Game oriented than for example my KGS-832st.
Can't wait to get it for some adventures back home and elsewhere!
Ill be uploading a video of the day soon where the rod's action can be clearly seen.

Tight Lines!

Gear used
Rod: MajorCraft Crostage travel CRX-784LG
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000Fc
Mainline: Duel Hardcore x4 PE0.6
Leader: Toray Excellent fluorocarbon 6.8lbs
Lures: Breaden Metalmaru 13g and various metals under 10g.