Fishing

La Gomera is one of the top destinations to catch a giant Bluefin tuna. These giants migrate to La Gomera in February but the real prime time is around March and April where you have a very good chance to find huge shoals of Bluefin tuna. The average size of these fish is approximately 200-400kg. During a full day of fishing we catch on average one per day but with some luck you can catch 2 or 3 during one day of fishing. The boat record for one day of fishing is a remarkable 8 fish, which is kind of insane to be honest since fighting one of these giants normally takes around 45-60 min.

The fish is normally fought from a fighting chair in order to efficiently put pressure on these fish but if you are experienced from fighting big fish on stand-up, this is also possible to do.

Each day normally starts around 07.00 in the morning. Before heading out, it’s normally spent around one hour catching bait, the most effective way to catch the Bluefin Tunas.
It’s also possible to catch them on artificial lures but baitfish is the most common method of practise down here. Each fishing day lasts around 8-10 hours.

The season for Blue Marlin is between May-October with the peak season in July-August. The biggest fish are generally caught in the early and late season but then there are fewer fish around but greater in size. When fishing for Blue Marlin, two methods are used down there, either trolling with conaheads or bait & switch.

Bait & Switch is a very exciting and fun way to target Blue Marlin where you are more active as an angler in cooperation with the skipper and the mate. So called “Teasers” which are hook-less lures are being trolling in the spread and when a marlin comes up to grab these, they are being switch over to a bait with a hook, which the marlin is tricked into grabbing instead. This type of fishing is very intense and comes with a lot of adrenaline for you as an angler when presenting the bait to a fired up marlin in the spread. The crew on board is there to assist you when the action is on.

When trolling the conaheads, you cover more water during the day and you can lean back and relax while waiting for a fish to bite. The captain on board will give his thoughts on which method is best for the current situation with weather and sea conditions, all in order to put you on a fish. La Gomera is well known for having a high average size of Blue Marlins and several granders, fish over 1000 lbs have been caught here over the years. Nowadays there is a strict catch&release policy so the fish will be estimated by the captain before being released again.

A day of fishing for Blue Marlin starts a bit later in the morning, normally around 09.00-10.00 and lasts around 8 hours.

No matter what fish you are aiming for, there are commonly bonus fish being caught such as yellowfin tunas, big eye tunas, dorado, albacore, skipjacks and wahoo, caught both on baitfish and while trolling. These fish can be kept if you wish to enjoy a dinner with fresh fish. It’s very uncommon for a day being cancelled at La Gomera due to rough weather as the fishing generally takes place on the southwest side of the island. The most common wind direction is from the northeast, which means that the fishing spots are protected from the wind.