So me and the misses were off on a well-earned holiday break to Tunisia. After all, it would be our first holiday for nearly 6 years. The last place we went on holiday was to Egypt, Hurghada. Yes, I did take my lure fishing gear out there but never got to chuck a lure. There just didn’t seem anywhere close to the hotel good or safe enough to fish. Yes, I could have gone out on a boat trip but didn’t have my sea legs with me. So now we were abroad again only this time in Tunisia. I was determined to at least give lure fishing a go.
Fishing Gear Lure Fishing in Tunisia
So as for lure fishing gear, all I took was my travel rod, a ‘Shimano Exage’ My ‘Kastking’ reel a pair of fishing pliers and a box of about 10 lures. The Shimano travel rod is a great little rod that breaks down into 5 sections, so easily fits in my suitcase. This rod also comes with a travel case that is a zip-up tube. So no risk of any baggage handlers doing any damage. They do throw those cases around.
Band Days
Previously, I had my left-handed guitar, a ‘Gibson Les Paul Custom’ that had been broken before, back in my band day. The headstock had snapped and was irreparable at that short notice, and we were due to play. ironically, the plane had been delayed for about 10 hours so they ended up cancelling the show altogether anyway. Long way to go for nothing, and worse still…no money.
Where To Fish? Lure fishing in Tunisia
My for my next mission (now we were all settled in the hotel) was to venture out and see if there would be anywhere I could try lure fishing. So the following morning me and the misses took a long walk along the beach. Now my misses just hates fishing and would never come with me, not for love nor money.
The Water Was Like A Bath
The water was crystal clear as we made our way along the beach to this man-made groin. The groin went quite a way out to sea. Realistically, this would probably be a good place to fish. But it was a long plod to get to the end of it. The other thing was if I had slipped walking over those jagged boulders, there would be no one to rescue me. Especially out there. So I didn’t fancy it.
Later that day (after hiding from the blistering sun under an umbrella) I went and had a look to see if I could see any fish swimming around where people were sun bathing on the beach. I could see fish in the water (although nothing of any size) which had me thinking that maybe the bigger fish were further out.
You see I have found in the UK that fishing is not always that great when the sun has been out. As I came in from the water I looked to the opposite end of the beach and noticed a couple of people fishing off an easier set of boulders,.This was going to be where I would fish.
I noticed in Monastir that the wind was always changing. And just like the UK the water seemed to go murky with an onshore wind. On this day I hadn’t seen anyone else fishing. I still was yet to cast a lure, time was running out already.
Spoke To The Locals About Lure Fishing in Tunisia
One bloke who worked at the hotel seemed to have some knowledge about fishing in Monastir. His name is Bassem (Ironically). Bassem was a henna tattooist who we got talking to after drawing his artwork on my misses. He said he had a friend with a boat who would take me out fishing. But I only wanted to lure fish and didn’t fancy getting seasick. I’m not the greatest in the boat I’m afraid.
The First Day Fishing Was Not What I Expected
Right! off I went on my first attempt at fishing my mark. I managed to scale the boulder to get to where I was going to fish. To my amazement, it looked absolutely amazing. I put my rod together, threaded the line through the eyes then opened my lure box. Hmmm? What should I use? The first lure that I picked out looked a goodun. It’s a copy of an IMA Sasuke 120mm. I couldn’t wait to sling it out there to see what would rear its ugly head and take my lure.
Weed, Weed And More Weed!
To my utter horror, my first retrieve of that lure was a string of weed dangling from the treble hooks. The weed was nothing like the weed in the UK. It was more like some long type of grass. I carried on casting out but found that the weed was almost instantaneous. The very second you started reeling in the weed was back on. This was rather disappointing, to say the least.
What Has Worked Before Wasn’t Going To Work Here
Previously, and back in the UK, we had a tactic to deal with this weed problem. We would just switch to soft plastics. So why not Tunisia? Because there wasn’t any tide run. We found with an extremely slow retrieve just letting that lure drift in the tide worked back home, but no tide run here.
Another problem was I didn’t have those soft plastics with me. I tried the Storm Shad but the same thing, weed. I even tried on the surface with an IMA Salt Skimmer and the IMA Pugachev Cobra but to no avail. So basically headed back to the pool to cool off then get a beer. I needed one.
Down But Not Out
My fishing expedition had disaster written all over it but I had a brain wave. The only lure I never used was the Savage Gear ISP Seeker. In fact, that’s a lie, I had used the seeker to retrieve a pair of my boxer shorts that had blown off our balcony of the hotel room. They had landed two stories down onto someone else’s balcony. So at first light (so no one saw us) the misses and I fished them up from our balcony using my rod, reel and the Seeker. You can watch this for real on YouTube click here: https://youtu.be/OqxMgDFQbT8
So I found myself back at the mark for the second time, only this time there was no wind whatsoever. This seemed odd for Tunisia. Like Egypt, it always seemed windy. But I was determined to give it one last shot. I was only going to use the Seeker because It casts an absolute mile. I suspected that if there was any bigger fish out there then this would find them surely.
I had a strangely good feeling about today even though I was still bringing in the weed. But not every cast. Then something jumped out of the water that was not a tiddler. Then a couple of casts later bang! I was in. But as soon as I was about to scream with joy the unknown fish shook the hook and was gone. Gggrrr!!
The Heat Had One The Day
That was it, a couple more casts and the heat had got the better of me. Strangely, it felt just like a bass take but I will never know. In hindsight, I should have fished at first light or late at night but at the end of the day, I was on holiday.
Apparently, according to other people who have fished the med and Tunisia, was that the weed is all over the place. We are already looking at going back to Tunisia next year. But next time I will be better prepared. The tactics will be metals with single hooks. With that being said I will still take some hard lures and even some weights and hooks for bait fishing.
You can watch the fishing on our Youtube channel theses are the links: Lure Fishing in Tunisia Part 2: https://youtu.be/V5ea4pcT8f8
Lure Fishing In Tunisia Part 3: https://youtu.be/PiZ-bspW6tQ
