Rockfish Menorca - Cala Morell to Son Parc

Thursday night we decided to change things tactically as although we were having some fun catching the smaller rockfish, we really had hoped to come across more pelagic species and even some large Horse Mackerel. To be honest I think we set our expectations of the trip a tiny bit too high after all we were fishing without any guides, just relying on basic watercraft and basic technique. Fishing the type   of ground we would be confident with back at home, just didn't seem to yield similar results, i.e. bigger fish.

We therefore decided to head out before breakfast under the cover of darkness and into sunrise to see what this might yield. I had spotted a close enough mark called Cala Morell on Google Earth, it looked ideal featuring a natural bottleneck at the headland after a bay, I figured it would be a good spot for predators ambushing prey leaving and entering the bay. I must admit I am not one for fishing complete darkness much and Scott likes it even less, but we gave it a go.

Initially finding a parking spot was a nightmare and we were both pretty tired out at 6:00am, but soon we found a satisfactory place to park and descended the steps to the bay. On the way down Scott spotted a small Gekko on the stairway wall, which I quickly grabbed. I really like lizards and find them both fascinating and therapeutic somehow.

 I told scott how they can lose their tails and grow them back but I didn't quite expect it to happen, but sure enough it did. I felt half guilty and half fascinated by it, poor little thing, he had a nice tail yet after his encounter with me is now a stumpy.

After observing this little creature and releasing him again, we set off to fish come comfortable ledges on the left side of the bay until some light appeared.
We wasn't there particularly long when I had a thump on my dropshot rig with immediate hook up. A short burst of energy was subdued by yours truly and I drew first blood with a Scorpion Fish;

He was a nicer size than the night before and I avoided being stung by this one!

Scott was next up with a species I had really hoped to get while away, the Dusky Grouper.

 I was a tiny bit jealous of that one although I wanted mine to be larger, never satisfied me! It was good for Scott to get another species to his tally, especially as he'd se himself an ambitious target of thirty species for the duration!

As the light changed we moved to the choke point north of the bay. It was seriously deep water there yet it didn't seem to fish very well at all, I was a bit astounded and would like to fish that place again under varying conditions. We stuck at it for a bit but decided to move back into the bay area.
I fished a snaggy reef, while Scott fished some ground further in.
It wasn't epic and as the morning got brighter the usual suspects came out to play.

 We played around with the small reef fish some more before heading off tired and a tiny bit disappointed on the whole. Can't deny it was a beautiful spot though and again under different conditions, who knows what it could produce.

From there we headed to Son Parc, a fairly exclusive golf resort in the North East. The ground there looked great fairly deep water strewn with reef and broken ground, the kind of place back home you'd expect to find good sized Wrasse and Pollock. Sadly the place was much the same as elsewhere; ridden with Small Wrasse and Comber.
With this and tiredness starting to set in we'd kind of had enough, packed up the gear and went for a swim.

Whilst swimming, Scott had his snorkelling gear on and was carrying out a bit of a recce, occasionally popping up to tell me what was going on. Scott had spotted large shoals of Striped Sea Bream grubbing about on the bottom, small flounder, a small Stingray among other things and we decided to give it a shot after a Squid lunch and more Fanta Lemon.

Fishing this time over the sandy bay, we hoped to get some of these species. I'd hoped to get a Striped Bream as again I had enjoyed them so much in Turkey but it was not to be. Instead we were pestered by Lizardfish with Scott even getting a double hook up on his fancy gulp rig.

I lived up to my holiday nick name "The Comber King" catching another nice looking Common Comber;

 After the sun had set, we returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep, slightly sullen but mot deterred.
With two days left we had started to give up on the hope of encountering any pelagic species, but there was still time right?

Tight lines