Gone fishing

Thursday 1 August 2013

Pylos - another harbour, another fishing tackle shop, another attempt at catching our tea. 

At least the guy was brutally honest in this shop when Dave went in for yet more hooks and a new weight to replace the last lot snagged on the harbour rocks. Gazing longingly at the trophy fish photos on the wall of the shop Dave announced he wanted to catch some fish, to which the guy replied saying ‘You won’t catch any fish!’. They both had a laugh then Dave rephrased his statement ‘I want to spend a couple of hours and not too much money trying to catch a fish’. So another €1 was spent on 2 small hooks and a weight and he’s off trying his luck again.

In Greece we have parked up on a few harbour car parks and have spent many hours watching the fishing activities of the locals. Men, women and children armed with all manner of equipment from a simple line to rows of rods on rests. Sometimes they attach little bells to the line then sit back with a cold drink, watch and wait and hope for a bite.

Dave’s not alone in failing to feed his family though and in all the weeks we’ve only seen one fish being landed. I think we were as surprised as the young lad with a line out in Nafpoli as he had no idea what to do with the big fish he caught once it was out of the water. After floundering around on the quayside for a while they decided to put it in a plastic bag. A few minutes later fish and bag started bouncing off down the harbour wall as it made a last gasp attempt to get back to the sea.

We been told of tales of  fish being dynamited although we haven’t heard that going on. The guy in the photo below though seemed armed and very dangerous with two huge spear guns and massive flippers. He had a unfair advantage and we were secretly hoping that the lovely fish Dave had seen whilst snorkeling in the bay saw him coming and hid.

I guess it is something best left to the professionals and there are plenty of fishermen out there in boats big and small trying to make a living at it. The traditional Greek fishing boats are very colourful with the white hulls and vivid topsides and together with the nets, lights, floats and flags make for some great photos.