SD BWE member in Portugal report

[Zfish03]

This is a nice story/report about our kayak fishing community throughout the world. Picture heavy and a Youtube link. Enjoy!


I got a great shot of an octupus in at 2:20 mark.

A quick background, I'm from SD and have been part of BWE community for a few years now. I left SD two years ago for some work in the big sandbox, it sucks but allows me to be closer to many places.
One place I really enjoy is Portugal. I went to Lisbon last year and had a great experience. This country has some of the best beaches in Europe, dramatic coastlines, mosaic tiles on most buildings, great sea food and all type of food, fishing history, sea travel history, medieval history, and some of the nicest people I've ever meet.

So recently, I decided to go back to spend one month in Portugal. I planned to start in Porto, rent a car and drive to the Algarve Coast. I wanted to do some surfing and fishing. Then I remembered there was this guy on here who posted fishing reports from Portugal. I decided to shoot him PM and pick his brain on where/how could I do some kayak fishing on my trip.

His name is Godinho. His response to my PM was more than I expected. He gave me a lot of travel advice and then invited me to meet him and some friends in Peniche, Portugal. One of his friends, named Duarte, owns one of the few kayak fishing shops in Portugal. Godinho and Duarte were able to get me a PA 12 to use! They made an event out of my visit too:

Pretty cool!

When I arrived in Peniche, Duarte meet me and brought me to his shop. It was fun seeing a Hobie dealer/fishing shop in another part of the world. Especially all the different bait and equipment used to fish these waters. One of the best parts was his girlfriend owned a bar next door so naturally we discussed most of our business there. Duarte is a very knowledgeable dude and very passionate about the sport. He really went above and beyond getting me set for this trip.


The next morning I meet with Godinho, Duarte, and the gang at the shop. They set me up with all the bait, fishing poles, gear, and PA 12! The only method of payment accepted for this experience were a few beers and stories after. Great bunch of guys, they taught me a lot about their local waters and fishery. It was a humbling experience.


My ride:

The launch:



It was a similar day to San Diego, started out overcast but then the sun came out and gave us a nice day. We fished the boiler rocks, and the target species were rock fish, safia, choupa, and sea bass. The rock fish had some nice color, check out this little guy.



I nice size trigger fish showed up towards the end of the day.



Some snapper caught

Beers, sangria, and dinner after a fishing.


The next day Godinho invited me to cook our catch with his family.
He pulled out some recently caught cuttlefish too, which was even better than calamari. We finished off the meal with a homemade coffee cookie desert that his wife made.

Deep fried trigger fish

Deep fried cuttlefisheggs





After lunch, Godinho and his family showed me around their home town and a surrounding areas. Beautiful place!





I'm forever grateful for this experience, thank you again to any of my Portugues friends reading this. If any of you BWE guys make it to Portugal please feel free to PM me and I'll give you some contacts and more details. They have just about every fishing you could want there. The big game fish there are the Corvina which are similar and just as big as our white sea bass. Godinho has bagged a few of those.

If you're interested, here are some pictures I took of the country.
Belém Tower

Lisbon



Algarve Coast ( Lagos)





Berlengas Island

Aveiro


Porto


Cheers!

[f'nsabiki]

What a great post!! The shot of that cake is going to haunt me all day.

[Ggiannig89]

I backpacked around Europe when I was 18 and Portugal was my favorite county. Someone is always willing to have a drink, make you dinner, go out or just a have a conversation. Plus everything is so cheap over there.
Thanks for the report, looks like you had an absolute blast.

[Sully1]

Great shots, thanks for sharing!

[DanaPT]

great write up. Few places in the world I'd like to travel too. That place just made the short list!

I appreciate the stoke the locals provided.

[Ro12]

That's awesome

[Reiner]

Fantastic Report

[cris]

Thanks for sharing, what a great trip report.



Have you done any kayak fishing in the big sandbox?

[ceviche eater]

awesome!!

[JJ]

What an awesome post, and what a beautiful country.
Refreshing indeed, and a much needed escape from the monotony of the office.
Thank you for posting this. The pics are fantastic.
So glad you had such an awesome trip.

I recently saw a show on TV (ESPN or one of those channels) that was covering the world high dive competition.
I think the competitors were diving from the top of Belem Tower and doing flips and summersaults etc.
Of course the competition was taking place at high tide, but what a long drop!!
Those dudes definitely have some serious huevos for doing that!

Cheers!

-JJ-

[blazian]

That is pretty fucking sweet! What a way to show hospitality

[JeffB]

Very cool report! Sweet pix as well!

[Aaron&Julie]

Awesome post!!!

[Ramos23]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the words and thank you Zac for the tribute to Portugal
It was indeed a pleasure to receive Zac and show you some of our fishing, cooking and some of my favorite places
I hope to see you again in Portuguese waters

Best Regards

P.S. - You still owe me a fishing rod

[Saba Slayer]

Pretty Cool Report...something different!
Thanks for all the great photos.

[h2ofishfo]

👍🏽

[Geno Machino]

Insane! The history there must be so interesting. Thanks for sharing!!!!

[Zfish03]

Originally Posted by cris

Thanks for sharing, what a great trip report.



Have you done any kayak fishing in the big sandbox?

I've done some boat fishing in the Red Sea, it was pretty rad. Lots of big game here, I caught a nice Jack Trevell on one trip that thing was like a YT on crack. I'm gonna go again at some point, I'll post some pics of it. Great diving here too, visibility has gotta be 100ft most days. Plus you can wear shorts and a t-shirt at 60ft and still be warm

[Zfish03]

Thanks fellas, glad you enjoyed the post! Hopefully some of you can make it out someday.
~Z