Lampuki Season 2012

[bigboy]

illum qbadna 13 ahna u helsilna xeba hut

[benri]

Hrigt ilbierah u qbadna 29 lampuka ta kull qies Torta tal-lampuki tajba gejja Imma it-tunnagg sar idejjaqni wisq - kull darba li naqbad wiehed sirt inqisu lampuka mohlija!

[fisheye]

Il-bierah hrigt bejn is-siegha u s-sebgha , sahha ta hut ma kienx hemm wisq.
Qbadna 12 pero kelnha hafna mess irqiq u ma jehel xejn. Uhud milli qbatt ghadhom veru irqaq, xi 3 kienu iqarbu il-kilo.

[The_Gaffer]

Out this morning with my daughter's husband.  We managed to land about 4 dozen Lampjuki, various sizes, and we hooked so much more and they managed to get away.  Also released ton loads of small tunnag.



We also managed to do a good deed while out today.  We saw a sea turtle caught up in the FAD rope.  We approached it gently, lifted the whole thing onto the bathing platform, cut the rope that was twisted around one of the turtle's flippers, and released it back.  I have a few pics which I'll upload, and a short video of the release.  

here is the link to the video 'tortoise release'

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151070486334900

[aidanxuereb]

Gaffer...were abouts where you though? As this morning we where 12 miles outside Bugibba i caught nothing, when only last Thursday we managed to land 43 :-s Am confused!

[The_Gaffer]

@aidenxuereb: We were further north.

[aidanxuereb]

Further north is always better! But today it seems there were no fish at all. Thursday you could see them jumping out of the water... getting all excited. Boq! Will try again next week again now.
By the way, prosit for saving the turtle.

[The_Gaffer]

@Aidenxuereb:  Sea was full of tunnag and tumbrell.  lampuki were plentiful too, though they were not biting right.  I don't know how many times we lost lampuki...for sure we lost much much more than we caught.

[aidanxuereb]

Not where we where Gaffer! Seems the fish went closer to Comino being the weekend! But re the misses, that happened to us too on Thursday...we lost A LOT...they came, teased a bit, had light bites, and got away. Not to mention those which came inches from the boat and got away in the last few seconds. Strange though, even lures; we used 4 different types, and all seemed to work, least though the traditional squid with feathers strangely enough.

[Blaze]

Well done Gaffer for the healthy catch and more than that for the 'Good Deed'.

[AlSnorro]

Nice catch and rescue! My old friend is visiting me right now. A real fishing fan. We tried a lot of ground fishing but didn't catch anything worth to keep. We would like to try trolling now. I have a trolling rod and some artificial lures.

I heard it's good to troll around the floats/rafts which give shade to the lampuki. Does anyone know where the best spots are? If you say in the north, how far from shore do you mean? What's the best time of the day?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampuki_netting

[AlSnorro]

What do you mean? You think the wikipedia article is crap?

[The_Gaffer]

@alsnorro: yes it is, with a capital P.  whoever wrote that piece for wiki has no idea whatsoever about Lampuki fishing.

[AlSnorro]

What is your strategy then?

[The_Gaffer]

What is your strategy then?

Alsnorro, the operation is simple.  The setup which the article refers to is commonly known as an FAD (Cima in Maltese), or Fish Attracting Device.  The contraption is very simple.  At the surface, a 2'x1' float is attached to a nylon rope which is anchored to the bottom of the sea using a stone slab.  Just one metre below the surface, one or 2 palm tree fronds are attached to the nylon line.  There is absolutely no weaving involved.  These fronds serve a dual purpose.  They provide a false sense of security to the lampuki from bigger predators during the night, and they also provide shade from the scorching sun during the day.  Professional fishermen lay over 100, even 200+ of these FAD's (Cimi) in a straight line from about 8Kmiles from shore, always moving in an outward direction.  The fishermen work these FADs during the night.  They will slowly creep up to an FAD, momentarily flash a strong light to see if there are any lampuki sheltering under the palm frond, if the amount of lampuki sheletering under the FAD is enough to warrent the fisherman to surround the FAD, they  will then proceed to use a purse net and catch whatever is sheltering under the FAD.  They sometimes do use one artifical bait, rigged up, and will pass by the cima.  Once they hook-up, all the other lampuki under the cima follow the one that is hooked up, they then proceed to release the net, surround the lampuki, and haul in.