The best fish is a fresh fish

Adriatic sea is a perfect place for tasting some good quality, fresh fish. While on a boat, there is a good chance you even catch your own meal. When doing this, you should always keep in mind local rules and regulations (e.g. in Croatia you need to purchase a fishing permit).
I have posted a thing or two about fishing before. Since I am no expert in the field of fishing, don't expect too much.


If catching your own food is not your thing, you can always buy fresh fish from local fishermen, but you can trust me that the one you catch yourself always tastes better then any other.
If you do not come across any fishing boats at sea, you can visit fish markets in early mornings. Almost every coast town in Croatia has one. Prices may vary between seasons (demand is rather high in summer months).


During our last sailing trip we also tried catching our own fish and almost got lucky. We sailed right next to a large school of tuna fish. They were jumping out of the water in feeding frenzy. They were obviously engaged in a group fishing activity, probably chasing sardines or some other kind of tuna food. One of them was obviously fascinated by our bait. It swallowed the bait and went on its way. The line twitched hard and then unfortunately - snapped. It was all over in a couple of seconds and our dinner swam off.
As unfortunate as this might seem, I can't imagine what would we have done if we (by some strange miracle) lifted a 10 kilo tuna onto our boat. I am pretty sure at least the whole deck would be bathing in blood if nothing else.

Since that fish took our only hook with it, that was the end of our fishing.


Luckily after a while we saw some fishermen returning from the sea and bought our lunch from them. We opted for two large tuna-like fish. We got them for a really nice price and they turned out to be extra delicious when taken out of the oven a couple of hours later.

We did not complicate with preparation. We simply cut them opened, cleaned them, chopped them in nice thick pieces, seasoned them with some freshly picked local rosemary and put them on a bed of already half baked potatoes. It was delicious!

All there was left were a pair of heads and a pair of tails.


On the photos above you can see phases those two fish went through. Unfortunately the most important phase - dinner served on a plate accompanied with a glass of excellent white wine is not there.
With food like that around, people tend to forget all about photography...

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Mighty fishing fleet of Agadir (Day 18)

Before Agadir was turned into a seaside destination for Moroccan rich&famous and a popular resort for many western tourists, it was a simple fishing village.
Minutes before midnight on February 29, 1960, everything changed for the city of Agadir. A major earthquake destroyed the city to the ground, killing 15.000 people. The remains of the old kasbah can still be seen on a hill overlooking the new city today.


Moroccan king decided to rebuild the city and a year after the disaster, rebuilding actually began. An old fishing village was slowly transformed into a high class seaside destination with fancy hotels and hip bars. Let me just point out, that we saw more trash cans in Agadir than in all other Moroccan cities combined. It really is clean - even by European standards.


Despite all that, a stroll through the city docks reveals a mighty fishing fleet. When we reached the sea, there were countless fishing boats lined up left and right from where we were standing. We couldn't see to either end of the long row. Rusty ships were disappearing into the mist both left and right from us.
With fishing fleets of such size, it is a miracle there are still at least some fish in the ocean today.

Another interesting thing was the shipyard. We curiously observed a group of locals working on a wooden hull of a ship. Not a common sight these days.


Nearby there was an improvised stall, where different sea creatures were displayed. One could buy a whale's rib bone, a giant sea shell, a razor-sharp shark tooth, a whole shark jaw or even a scary looking shark head. We weren't really thinking of buying anything, but we talked to the guy, scrubbing a giant sea shell, for some time just the same.
On our way back to the city center we were both laughing at the idea of us walking through airport customs with a meter long whale rib-bone in one arm and a huge shark head in the other, trying to convince a customs officer that it was all just our usual personal carry-on luggage.


We couldn't resist a mint tea on the way back to the hotel. There we made plans for the next day. We decided that in the morning it was time to move on.
Even though Agadir is not a typical Moroccan city, we enjoyed our stay. We took the opportunity to just relax and power up for the few days of travel we got left.

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What's been going on...

I didn't want to break my Egyptian adventure apart by posting about other stuff. That doesn't mean nothing was going on since we got back to Slovenia.

Actually quite a few things happened that are worth mentioning. Almost immediately after returning home, I went to the seaside for a week together with my girlfriend. You know how it is - we needed some time off after a vacation in Egypt. ;)



No matter how funny it may sound, there is at least some truth in that last statement. I can't remember the last time I went somewhere and just took it so easy. Our destination this time was Mali Lošinj (Croatia). Lošinj is an island in the northern part of Adriatic Sea. This time we went camping and we were hoping for nice weather. We got lucky - it was sunny most of the time.
The only thing bothering us were swarms of very aggressive mosquitoes. The little blood-suckers were bitting even during the day. Quite annoying.


That wasn't our only trip to Croatia recently. In November we also went to the island of Pašman

Like the last time we went to Pašman, this was also a fishing trip. As some of you might know already, we did one such trip during the last Spring. We went to the exactly same location as then and mostly with the same folks.
If you are interested, you can read about our spring fishing trip in this post (with some more clicking around, you should be able to find some more).


The sea temperature at that time was around 17 degrees Celsius, but that didn't stop us from jumping in. That's what I call an invigorating experience!

This time I didn't catch so many fish as the one time before, but luckily I could count on others. After a while I once again had a chance to eat as many fish I could. Delicious!

Here are some photos from both of the trips mentioned above. Enjoy!



Oh, and by the way... I'm going to Trevalli later today. That's somewhere in Italian Dolomites. It's gonna be my first taste of skiing this winter. More about it next week, when I get back.

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Passive night fishing

After (not very successful) few hours of night fishing some of the eager fishermen also tried passive fishing. Results were expected. :)

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A typical fishing day on Pašman, Croatia

I have finally found time to share our daily routine during the five day vacation.

Most of the time we took it easy. Our only goals were to catch enough fish for everyday lunch and to have a good time in the process.


Usually our day started with a late breakfast and some sunbathing. Twice I even managed to summon up enough courage to go for a swim before lunch. Water was about 18°C, which is quite warm for this time of year, but still not warm enough to enjoy soaking in the sea for a long time. It was invigorating.


As hours went by, hunger was creeping in. One of our everyday routines was making fire and grilling fish. After that, lunch took place. We ate like it was our last time. I think it's safe to say that I ate about a kilo of fish a day. And it was delicious!


After lunch we started preparing for fishing. We had to attach some fishhooks to pieces of fishing line. Before I was able to do that I had to learn a few basic knots.

Most of the fishing we did was night fishing. Every time after sunset and again just before sunrise fish were biting like crazy. So most of the nights were spent by the sea holding a fishing stick. We were using live fish bait and silicon ones. Both kinds of bait worked fine, but live ones were still a bit better.
We caught 15 to 25 fish each night. 90 percent of those were sea-bass (brancin). Some were more than half a meter long and weighing over a kilo.


Usually we went to bed at daylight. Once we also managed to clean the catch but on other occasions the non fishing part of our party did the cleaning.

This kind of working hours completely messed up my biorhythm. As a consequence my first day at work was not too productive.

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Fishing photo collage

I just got back from a fishing trip. Weather was nice, fish were biting like crazy and as expected we had a wonderful time.

I am posting a photo collage made by Google Picasa. It will have to do for now.

I'll write a proper post or two on the subject in the following days.

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Gone fishing

I already mentioned in one of the previous posts that I am going fishing. The departure time is approaching fast.

I still have things to pack and hit the road in the early morning. The plan is to get up before 5AM and head for Croatia.

I'll be gone for five days. After I come back I hope there will be many beautiful photos and interesting stories to share with you.

Enjoy! I know I will. ;)

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A fishing story

Once upon a time on a sailing boat not so far away, seven eager Sunday sailors were getting bored due to a lack of wind. They have dropped anchor in a lonely bay on island of Vis, Croatia and were relaxing in the sun.

One of them finally decided to put an end to that and grabbed his fishing stick. He dipped various bates into the water, but with no success whatsoever. One of his mates decided to go take a look if there are any fish swimming around. He put on his diving gear and jumped in. It was not long before he came to the surface and announced that there are fish below, but aren't even remotely interested in his hook.
After that he slowly swam to the other side of the bay.

After a while loud cursing interrupted the peaceful atmosphere. It was our fisherman ranting about his hook, which apparently got stuck on the bottom. Luckily for him there had to be a diver somewhere nearby. We signaled him to swim over and soon he went bellow to save the hook. In a couple of seconds he was back on the surface again, shouting "Quick! Fetch a strainer or a pot of some kind!"

For a couple of moments we just stood still and looked at him. Then I ran inside to get a strainer and passed it to him. He dove back into the water and soon came back up again – holding a strainer with an octopus inside, attached to the fishing line. The poor thing accidentally got caught on the hook and couldn't get away.


This catch was clearly more a product of luck then fishing skills and sadly the only one on that trip. Nevertheless it made a great octopus salad. Yummy!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...
And they sailed happily ever after.

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Going fishing

I finally made plans for a short vacation starting at the end of this week. I have decided to go on a five day fishing trip together with my girlfriend. We will be joining a friend of mine on an island of Pašman (Croatia). Probably there will be nine of us. I don't know most of other guys, but I am pretty sure it is going to be a blast.

I have never been on a fishing trip before, so I don't know what exactly to expect. If nothing else, I am counting on at least one seafood meal a day. Regarding that I love fish and other seafood dishes this surely is something to look forward to.

Some of my other friends are going sailing at the same time and there is a strong possibility that they will be sailing just by our rented house on Pašman island.

Last time I went with them we also tried to catch some fish from the sailing boat. We tried various kinds of bait but nothing worked. Then one of my mates thought of a new approach – he kneaded some dough and put it on his fishing hook. I don't know what it was, but the fish went wild. This was followed by a delicious dinner.

Next day we tried the same thing in another bay. Strangely none of the fish seemed interested in our dinner plans.

Both of the photos were taken on that sailing trip.

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