Offshore fishing
We were in Brest about to commence the one week passage to Madeira and wanted to do some offshore fishing (no, not the email scam). We asked our friend Paul who came to do the passage with us to help because he is an experienced fisherman.
First we went to a chandlery. They only had a few things that we needed. Then we came back to the boat and went to a bigger chandlery. What they had was not ideal so we got the name of another place and ended up taking an Uber. We needed to get a lot of gear but we didn’t know what was good in the area so we asked the sales person for help. We got most of the gear that we needed but we still needed a gaff, so we went to a store called Cabesto and got the gaff there. It was a little bit too short, but it should work.
The gear that we bought was thick woven line, lures (two squid for Dorado, three fish for Tuna), swivels, leaders, split ring pliers, gloves, a fileting knife, split rings, bungees, a tacklebox to put it all into, and a gaff.
The steps to set up the trolling lines are listed here. Attach the lures to the fishing lines and let them out, then attach them to the cleats. Then you have to wait. Then you have to wait more. If you do catch a fish, you then have to stop the boat, pull in the lines (make sure you use gloves) then you have to hook the fish with the gaff and get it on board.
This is kind of like a man overboard but instead of a life sling and a halyard you use lures and the gaff(a gaff is a pole with a BIG (fist big) sharp hook on the end A.K.A. The feisty fish stick).
After we set up our gear, we started trolling and sadly we have not caught any fish yet. Hopefully we will on the next passage.
Paul and I setting up the lines.
Adeus ( bye in portuguese (madeira is a portuguese))
PS we didn’t actually catch any fish, but a flying fish did land on deck on the last day so I guess you could say we did catch a fish (but not really) too bad we can’t eat it Special thanks to Paul for proofreading this blog.
I love your detailed description and drawings of fishing gear! Though I think “feisty fish stick” is hands down my favorite. Keep writing and tells about the the things you are learning and seeing.