Index
The Greek islands cannot be recommended for a fishing holiday, it is however well worth taking a fishing rod,small weights and a few floats. Large fish can be caught at some locations but the usual catch is likely to be made up of small bream, mullet and an assortment of wrasse like fish.
What to take
I would recommend a decent quality carbon 3m telescopic rod. Fixed spool
reel with 4lb and 10lb line. The line needs to be clear or similar to Maxima
Chameleon. A few weights in the 10 to 40gm range. A good selection of hooks,
I take a couple of 2/0's, 2's, 4's, half a dozen 6's and 8's a packet of
10's and 14's, two packets of 12's. The smaller sizes are hooks to nylon.
A selection of shot to suit the floats. A small landing net with cut down
telescopic handle can be useful. Floats depend on the type of fishing you
prefer and area visited.Take your favorites, I would definitely recommend
a couple of Middy Pikers for fishing deep water. A few spinners and small
Redgills could also be packed.
Don't expect to buy much gear there, tackle is available but quality is generally
poor.
Methods
Most of the Islands provide easy access to very deep water either from rocks or harbours. My favorite method is to use a sliding Middy Piker. The rig is very simple, hook size 8 to 14 depending on fish and bait, pierced bullet with stop shot, float, bead and sliding stop knot. If the sea is calm it is possible to get small bait down to 10m using this method. Bottom fishing in deep water is not as productive as float fishing, dozens of small wrasse soon remove bait. Use lighter floats and baits fished near the surface for mullett. Fish can be attracted in an apparently sea by groundbaiting with old bread (try the bakers for yesterdays leftovers)
Bait
The small fish will eat almost anything and mullett love bread so bait is not a problem for fun fishing. A paste made of flour, cheese and ground sardine make an excellent all round bait. Use a good sized ball (even with small hooks) so there is still something on the hook for the bigger fish to find. A small piece of shrimp or squid on the hook inside the ball can improve catches. I save the legs from my peelers to take in a vacuum flask. You will obviously need a freezer in your accommodation to be able to do this. If the transfer is not too long the crab will be ok at domestic freezer temperature. If the flight is long and transfers include ferrys, they would defrost before the end of the journey, so I freeze them in liquid nitrogen. In a good flask it takes a long time for the temperature to rise from -70 to defrost. Liquid Nitrogen can be obtained from industrial gas suppliers or friendly engineering works. ( They use it for freezing wheels etc to make them shrink into rims). If you try this Make sure all gas has evaporated before putting the flask top on, it will explode if gas is trapped in the flask.
Species
This section to follow, Any help appreciated.
The Islands
Here are a few places that we particularly enjoyed