I hope you are having a good beginning of the week. This will be my first contribution in this community, since my camping, fishing and hunting trips have been limited by a health problem in the psoas muscle that has prevented me from enjoying these activities that I like to do with friends, families and even alone in the case of fishing from cliffs.
This Saturday, like every Saturday, I got up early and did one of the routine tasks that I usually do every Saturday, which is to take my mother to a supermarket so she can do her weekly shopping, since her house is far from the main supermarket in the region.
Being in the supermarket and as I have been days without any discomfort in psoas, I consulted an application to see the state of the tide and height of the waves in an area that I like to go fishing. Seeing that the tide was rising, which is ideal for fishing from the cliffs, and that the rain forecast was from 4 pm, my mind began to improvise a fishing day that I will present below.
Because when I decided to go fishing I had no bait and getting it on the beach nearby would be complicated because the tide was already too high, I decided to go to the town of Navia, which is 8 kilometers from my house, since in this town there is a hunting and fishing store where you can buy fresh bait.
Once I entered the store, I asked the clerk what live bait they had available and they only had some sea worms available, which in my region is called Korean worm. This worm is ideal for fishing on rock and boulder bottoms if the intention is to catch rock fish and spend some entertaining hours, as the wrasse are very voracious with this type of bait.
After getting the fresh bait, I went back home to pick up my fishing rod, my backpack full of fishing weights, hooks, buoys and nylon, my recreational fishing license, groundbait to lure the fish to the fishing spot and something very important when you leave mid-morning to go fishing and don't count on coming back until the afternoon, which is food and drink.
Once I had loaded everything I needed to enjoy a day of fishing in my car, I hesitated about which cliff to go to. First of all, I thought about going to a cliff that is 3 kilometers from my house. However, this cliff has a very steep slope and I was not sure I could go down well with so many items I was carrying and especially because of the latent injury I have in my psoas. Therefore, although it is an area where the catches are smaller, I decided to go to the cliffs that are close to the beach of Arnao about 20 kilometers from my house. These cliffs are the natural boundary between the autonomous community of Asturias, where I live, and the autonomous community of Galicia.
Once I arrived at the selected cliff, I cautiously went down to my favorite fishing spot on the cliff. This place is very easy to access, on the rock there is an area of 1.5 by 2 meters where you can leave all the fishing gear, you can rest a bucket that I usually carry as a seat and in turn when there are still 3 hours to high tide you can safely enjoy a day of fishing even when the sea has swells of 2 to 3 meters. Additionally, from this fishing spot one can see the neighboring city of Ribadeo and the beautiful landscape of the Asturian cliffs.
Once I settled on the cliff, the first step I took on my fishing trip was to throw a few spoonfuls of bait on the nearby rocks where the waves were coming in. The engodo that I used is a mixture of crushed sardines with salt that is sold in the local fishing stores. The purpose of the same is to leave an aroma that can attract the fish of the zones near the fishing area.
Once I had thrown some of the mud into the sea, I set out to prepare my rod for the day's fishing. Since the wind was annoying, I opted to discard the buoy fishing, since with the wind it was very likely that this type of fishing gear would not be good. Therefore, the ideal alternative, and more so with the bait used, was to do some bottom fishing aided by fishing weights. After ballasting my line, the next step was to select a suitable hook size. Due to previous experience on this cliff, I selected a number 4 hook which allows me to place about half a worm on the hook and catch wrasse with sizes between 12 and 20 centimeters with some ease.
After only 10 minutes of waiting, because in the first cast my lack of patience did not allow me to hook the first fish well, the first catch came to my side. The catch in question was one of the most abundant labrids in this fishing area, which is the rock cook.
In a matter of two hours of fishing and helped by the bait, I caught eight additional catches of this type of fish and also a Ballan wrasse, which is a much more delicious fish than the other fish I have caught.
Happy for this day of fishing, before going home and with the aim of enjoying a little more of the views and the always relaxing sound of the sea I took out my picnic consisting of potato omelette, bread, banana, tangerine and a dairy product similar to a yogurt that helps me to control my cholesterol.
After returning home, the first thing I did was to scale all the fish, remove the guts, fins and head and clean it well in order to keep it in the refrigerator until the next day. I like to scale and clean the fish, although I know fishermen who love to fish, but leave the task of cleaning it to other members of the family. I am in favor of doing the whole process, from catching to cooking.
The day after the fishing day, at lunchtime, I fried the fish caught the day before. For its preparation, I only added very little salt and garlic to the fish and fried it well browned with special sunflower oil for frying. Once the oil was well drained with the help of absorbent paper, I placed the fish on the table, and we ate it as a first course in our Sunday family meal.
I hope I have entertained you with my impromptu and productive fishing day.
Until my next story.
Cover created with https://www.canva.com (free version).
Pictures taken with my iPhone SE.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).
