Fishing Jersey Channel Islands

Fishing in Puerto Banus - Marbella

With booking this trip in January I gave myself a fair amount of time to research the shore & boat fishing in Marbella.

I spoke to a few locals with the help of Facebook, to find out a bit more about the area etc. This wasn't ever going to be a fishing holiday as I was going away for the first 5 days with my Girlfriend and her parents, during these 5 very chilled relaxing days I worked out my first fishing spot with the help of Google maps, I set of one early morning to locate some fish.

The Pier with the Red Circle on is where I witnessed Gilthead Bream & caught Mullet, Bream Species & others!

I took two travels rods with me on this holiday one being a 9ft Rovex Lure Rod & the other a 13ft match Shakespeare rod. I got this for light float fishing and touch ledgering as I knew that Thick Lipped Mullet & Bream species would be fairly easy to target & because it is a match rod it will provide me with some decent sport!

First session I set my alarm for 7am, I got out of bed at 7.30 as it was still dark outside and wasn't too keen on the 20-30 minute walk to find the fishing spot whilst dark & I enjoyed the sleep far too much! So i set of in the direction I studied the night before and found it with no problems, a little pier fairly shallow ground but when I arrived was hundreds of small Mullet on the surface! I thought this is going to be easier than I thought, another fisherman was fishing the pier so I introduced myself soon worked out he was targeting Gilthead Bream and with his gear set up I knew that I needed to get a bit friendly with him for more information and tips! (Location was the picture mentioned above)

I set up a float on one Rod fishing 12ft deep and started to ground bait bread shirvy - This is the only bait I took with me on this occasion. I managed a few small fish but I found it very difficult to find any big fish I mean anything over 10oz! The small fish was like piranhas stripping my bread of very quickly! Down sized in my hook size from a size 4 to size 14 and was getting a fish nearly every cast but after a few small ones I did need to change something to improve chances of a bigger fish! Not spotted any mullet over 1lb, so I thought now the 9ft plugging Rod would come in handy, I set up a running ledger 3oz lead and knocked of some limpets and chucked it out as far as I could in the same direction as the other angler. When I picked my lure Rod back up, I saw he was into a fish! A lovely Gilthead bream. I grabbed his tiny short handled net and managed to climb across the rocks quickly to land it for him! Here is the glory shot:

He is now very happy and after he shook my hand he offered to let me some of his bait! What a Gent, I reel in my Rod with limpets still well intact, he sorts me out a new ready made trace, got his baiting needle and put me on a big juicy tough worm! I was made up thinking I am definitely going to catch one now! I casted as far as possible and chilled out under his umbrella with him having a couple of his cool refreshments he had in his cool box, both patiently waiting for a bite it was now 11am and the sun was getting a bit to strong near 40 degree's so I had to make the sweaty walk home I thanked him very much.

Here is a picture I took of the fishing spot :)

After another day or so by the pool I ventured down to the same location, I was too lazy to find a tackle shop I was convinced I could get a few larger mullet feeding and try lure fishing for the first time. No amigo there this time so I had to make do with my own company, after success again with small fish and this cool looking goby species on the lure I was still happy and this time I cut the session short and got a taxi back to the hotel.

12g Conehead weight 1/0 Hook with a 4" blue paddle tail :) 

Our stay in the villa had now come to an end. We got a 10 minute taxi down to the 2nd part of our holiday - H10 Andalucía Plaza Hotel in Puerto Banus. 

This part of the holiday was going to be more drinking alcohol more than anything else as well as chilling and eating by the pool. There were 10 of us in total we are all friends from Jersey. A lot of beer  & Vodka was consumed on the first couple of days but as I don't suffer from hangovers I only need a good 4 hours sleep and I am good to do whatever! I knew exactly where I was going with my rods, Google maps helps a lot. Make sure you do your research before you holiday and you can work out so much! 

I focused on mullet again I was so determined to get a half decent one, they are not even as big as the ones we get in Jersey but once I set myself a challenge it's hard for me to not give up on it! After a few White Bream and other bream species I caught a Spotted European Bass I was made up!

Caught on Bread Flake fished around 10ft Deep under a float!

 I packed up my float rod and decided to have a couple of casts with my weedless lure over some shallow rocky ground! First cast fish on!! Felt like something half decent I was fishing my lure very much like I do in the UK for Ballan Wrasse. Here she is a lovely small Grouper! Few pictures and off to fight another day! Only had one more cast and left it at that again I was happy with my catches and wanted to get back to the hotel so I could spend the day with my girlfriend and friends.

Lucky lure strikes again!!! Lost it the cast after lol!

After like 3 days of no fishing I had the craving again, I spent an hour researching a boat trip with everything being quite expensive I phoned a skipper moored in Puerto Banus Marina - Red Tide Fishing Charter. I just booked on a 2 hour trip €60 Euros I thought it was expensive but it saves me getting a taxi to another Marina just to find one €20 euro cheaper. I took my lure Rod with me I just wanted some sport, set myself up a 2 hook paternoster with some bream hooks and he had the bait so sorted. I love chatting to slippers and crew; I worked crewing on a charter in Jersey for 2 years so good to share each other's thoughts etc. He knocked off some money for me anyway and even said he would take me out again for a discount, I caught my first red snapper and a few of them as well as bream species and grouper species a couple of hours well spent here is a couple of photos I did record the first 40 minutes of the trip before the action started really but I shall add the link on here once I have edited the video! 

Red Tide Charter Boat - Very nice skipper! 

My view - Cant beat that!

Biggest Snapper I caught :) 

Biggest White Bream on the Boat! 

Last full day in Marbella now and I need to make the most of it after drinking till gone 3am I set my alarm nice and early and once again woke up with a fresh head - How do I do it all my friends ask, but I just don't know. This time I had bought tinned razor fish and sardines from the shop, unfortunately I had opened the tin a couple days before to check the condition of the razor fish and they looked good but now they was just too bad to use on my hook oh well but of shirvy this time I was very patient and kept ground baiting (little and often) it was an overcast morning so didn't even need sun cream I could bare the heat a lot more! I was focused and the fish was coming in one after the other! My confidence was again boosted after having a couple of local fisherman asking me how I am catching so many white bream! They was all small though they was asking to keep them and wasn't impressed when I kept chucking them back saying to small! 

My float snapped off somehow and I changed over to touch ledgering the hole I was shirvying and my Rod bent over!!! Fish on after a cracking short but very good fight I landed my biggest shore fish of the trip! Didn't weigh it but you can see around the 1.8lb mark, and here is the best shore fighting fish of my trip!

I only wanted to fish for another hour now I was happy once again with that fish, so I thought I would go all out and set up a running ledger rig 3/0 circle hook 25lb trace line and a whole small fish for bait, just a decent lob past the boulders so it was on the sand, was just hoping if I left that out for 30 minutes something would take it. 20 minutes later I had packed away my float Rod completely, and in the corner of my eye I noticed my Rod bent double! I ran over picked up my Rod and waited for another strong pull down, it happened I reeled into the fish pulling away & striked it very hard. When using a short rod you have got to make sure your line is very tight and heavy before the strike! Fish on!! Oh my god it's huge....How am I going to land this??.....What is this?? Oh god it's a sting ray how am I ever going to land this on my own using on a plugging Rod are the thoughts going through my head. The swell was pumping which made everything just the bit more difficult also.

This is the fish I used for bait of which the Octopus got hold of!

After a 10 min pump and wind trying my hardest to keep it out of the rough ground it surfaced! It's only a huge Octopus!!! Never seen anything like it, imagine a squid pulling on your line but make that a squid weighing over 20lb! With a few other weird movements during the fight, anyway even more so how the hell am I going to land this! I know that timing it with the swell and some sort of beaching onto the slippery jaggered boulders was my best option! I was wearing new shoes and I wasn't too keen on getting them all salty & wet, well that soon went out of the window when the octopus was beached up onto one of the rocks it started going mad and it somehow worked its way into a hole between the boulders! It was still visible so I tried lifting it out but it had somehow squeezed half its body through a hole in the rocks and the other half I could still see! It became a dead weight I got my phone out and videoed but can barely see anything maybe a tentacle if I pause it on a certain time. After me and a guy tried a few things to get it out without getting to wet I thought i would just go for a really strong pull – it might come out or might snap! Well it snapped never to be seen again. I left on that note as everything was packed away and it was a great thing to experience & see, I left my last session on a high note!

Basically I wrote this short report as there is not much information on shore fishing in Marbella – Puerto Banus on the net, so I am also going to attach a few pictures of maps of where I fished and what I would recommend trying if you get the chance to fish there.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Busy time for fishing in jersey now with competitions coming up and the Alderney Festival around the corner I will keep you all updated!

Chow for now!!!