28

sports

Herald & Lantern 7 December,'83

outdoors * with Lou ROdia Spanish Wishing So-so, But Oh, the Scenery

Fishermen are fishermen wherever you meet them Fish stories cross languages barriers,

Fishing is always better tomorrow and yesterday. A jetty is a jetty. Tackle and techniques change and the fish varieties change as you move from place to place.

Even though the distance is measured in thousands of miles, fishing in foreign countries has some similarities. European fishing is almost totally foreign to me. My first visit

to Europe was financed by the U.S. Government vietroopship and Army transport through seven countries in Europe during a brief World War’ll visit which ended in Germany. The activities of the moment left no time to fish and little iime to think about it. My second trip cam? almost 40 years later when I had occasion to visit the Costa Del Sol (The Sunny Coast) on the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Spain. Haying decided to go, I checked the literature and saw several jetties in front of the beachfront motel where we would be staying. Water and jetties mean fishing, so I packed a suitcase-sized spinning rod, a small spinning reel and an assortment of lures, just in case. THE SHORTNESS of the visit,language barriers and a whirlwind of sightseeing activity precluded using the things I brought with me, but I did learn something about Spanish fishing. t The Mediterranean Sea has been the source of seafood for thousands of years. While most of the fishing has been with nets and by commercial fishermen, there is a sports fishery. However, the Costa Del Sol is also sub-

oceans and strange waters. Big fish always get away no matter where you fish.

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ject to seasonal pressures and the sports and charter fleets were not readily available. They had shut down operations after the high season summer months when the big tourist influxes had departed. Their season is not unlike that on the Jersey Coast, with July and August the boom months. Since boat fishing was ruled out because of a lack of convenient facilities, I passed up the chance to fish for dolphin, swordfish, tuna and sharks, all of which are considered sport fish as well as commercial fish there. I turned instead to the jetties, where I observed the loc^l fishermen in action. ONE OF THE first things I learned about surf and jetty fishing in Spain is that it requires tremendous amounts of concentration to fish the Costa Del Sol. First, the beaches there are topless bathing beaches. This creates problems when one tries to cast. Obviously, you cannot cast where you are looking. It is extremely difficult to look where you normally would be looking when you cast. Second, none of the fish we would normally catch around the jetties are present in Spanish waters. We communicated with some of the Spanish localities in sign language, scattered Spanish and English and found out that they do catch big fish around the jetties sometimes. Not now while we were there (naturally). We also found out that most of the big ones get away. (Sounds like Home). Tackle used on the jetties we observed was of two basic types. One was a very long spinning rod and reel combination which was easily 15 to 16 feet long. This outfit was used to cast two to four ounce sinkers well out into the sea. Small hooks were baited with bits of clam or cut fish which

looked like sardines. The other type of equipment reminded us of cane pole fishing in which long fiberglassJods were outfit-, ted with a shot of mono line about as long as the rod. They too measured 15 to 16 feet. Small bobbers were placed a few inches to several feet above the small hook which was tied directly to the end of the line. Bait was clams or cut fish of one kind or another. THE CLAMS we saw were not like our hard clams or surf clams. They had a beautiful brown shell which had a shiny finish which almost looked as if it had been coated with plastic. The clam, when opened, had a brilliant red color on the flesh in the areas which Would look yellow in our clams. These clams had a ‘foot’ about two inches long which was cut off and used for bait. The rest of the clam was the part which was sferyed on the half shell after'the clams was opened up and the interior was taken out. Incidentally, the clams had a milder flavor than ours when served with lemon or lime on the half shell. We saw two kinds of fish caught. At best; we were able to determine that one kind was called a Herrara. which resembled our spot, and the other was a Zorba, which looked like our porgy. While the fish were small, they were all kept by the fishermen for use on the table. Some of the surfsters used several hooks on short leaders tied just above the sinker while others used one or -two hooks tied to a fish finder rig, generally an egg sinker with the line passed through the hole. THERE WAS another group of fishermen who spent large amounts of time fishing for a small fish resembled an anchovy. They were called bo-(Page-29 Please)

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