By Rich Salter
It seems a bit mad to say it, but after nearly 45 years, in early May, I finally ventured past the shores of Britain and found myself in Menorca with my wife, where we’d headed for a short but much needed holiday.

During our 3 days in Menorca, I was fortunate to be able to get a few hours fishing in each day. With Clair insisting she was happy to relax by the waters edge and read a book whilst I fished, who was I to argue! On our first day, after a very early start, we checked in and made the short walk to a spot that species hunting legend Scott Hutchison had kindly told me about. This was a nice deep rock mark that I hoped would provide me with my first ever fish caught from foreign shores. 

I won’t lie, my expectation was that I’d launch a metal out into the deep clear water and I’d quickly be into a selection of colourful, hard fighting fish. My confidence of success was so high, I’d even left the majority of my scented lures back in Devon. It was a little more tricky than I’d anticipated though. My optimistically thrown metals were left untouched and my attempts with soft plastics were also largely unsuccessful. It was only after admitting defeat and digging into the one scented tub (a selection of Ecogearaqua lures) that I had brought, that I began to have some success. My first fish being a lovely little rainbow wrasse that took the tail end of an Ecogearaqua komushi. 

It was the komushi that accounted for most of my fish, particularly the orange variety, although I did manage to tempt a damselfish to take a Magbite Booty Shake.

Another factor I’d not considered was that it’s rather windy around the shores of Menorca, making it quite tricky to present a small soft plastic effectively, the swell around this exposed rock mark adding extra difficulty. These challenges meant that I opted to switch to a dropshot rig on the first day, which did begin to bring more steady results. I had quite a few damselfish and a few rainbow wrasse, along with a cute little dusky grouper, a small annular sea bream and the pick of the bunch for me, a gorgeous male axillary wrasse (thanks to Scott for the ID help), making for a satisfying first foreign fishing foray, even if I did have to work harder than I’d anticipated. With every species being brand new to me, it reminded me of the excitement I felt when catching UK species on LRF species for the first time, but with added colour and fight!

On day 2 we visited another mark kindly given to me by Scott. On arrival, it was very quickly apparent that there were a lot of predators about, which got me very excited. Sadly, despite throwing every bit of metal and hard plastic in my lure bag, I could only muster a couple of follows from what I assume were amberjack and barracuda, it suddenly felt very different to fishing in Devon though! Despite all of these large predators cruising around, the only fish I managed on a bit of metal was a lovely little saddled sea bream, which took a 4g Savage Gear Vib Blade just before I lifted it clear of the water. 

It was bream that provided the best sport on the day, with a nice annular and a better sized saddled both taking a Jackall Amiami worked just over the rough ground in front of me. They went well and it made me wonder what I’d do if I hooked one of those bigger predators on a 7g rated rod!

Along with the bream, I caught a few more rainbow wrasse and another new species to me, a couple of stunning little ornate wrasse, they are apparently plentiful around these shores and really are a beautiful fish.

I could’ve stayed here all day but I had to remind myself I wasn’t actually on a fishing holiday and we had other things to do. I did have a quick go off the rocks near our hotel again in the late afternoon, but the wind had really picked up by this point, making for some rough conditions and I only managed another tiny dusky grouper before we headed back to the hotel for a few sangrias.

On our third and final full day, we headed back to the spot we’d fished the day before, enjoying the two and half mile walk along the coastal path and agreeing that we’d definitely need to come back in the near future.

I had to fish this spot a bit differently this time round as a group of youngsters had picked the concrete jetty as an ideal spot for a bit of jumping/swimming, which was fair enough, it did look ideal for it! Shortly afterwards, a group of local anglers set up on the end of the jetty, so I took to fishing close into the rock face, into what was much rougher ground.

It didn’t work out too badly, I caught lots of rainbow wrasse, which was fine as at times they were all that were showing any interest, the males are beautifully coloured and the bigger ones put up a decent scrap for their size. I had no joy on the metals, although I lost another bream on a vibe lure. Those amberjack are going to have to wait for another day/year!

I did manage a couple more new species though. One was a painted comber, which I didn’t think I’d have to wait so long for, as I’m sure I’ve seen them in every catch report I’ve seen from the Med! It took a little paddle tail bumped around in the rocks in front of me and I was really pleased to get one in the end.

Aside from that, I had a couple of east atlantic peacock wrasse (thanks again to Scott for clearing that one up) and a couple more stunning ornate wrasse. 

The majority of my fish were caught on either Jackall Amiami or NineSeven Tungsten Micro Tails fished on Cheb or jigheads.

Soon, with more sangria calling, it was time to pack away the Abu Garcia Diplomat X travel rod. This was the first time I’ve used this little rod and I’ve been impressed. Its basically done everything I’ve wanted it to do and has been a pleasure to use, either twitching little soft plastics around on chebs or jigheads, or throwing metals around in search of those elusive predators, its definitely earned its place in the suitcase for my next holiday (anyone got any tips for LRF in Cyprus?!).

My final Menorcan species list was:
Damselfish
Rainbow wrasse
Annular sea bream
Dusky grouper
Axiliary wrasse
Banded sea bream
Ornate wrasse
Painted comber
East atlantic peacock wrasse 

Gear used
Rod: Abu Garcia Diplomat X 66UL 1 to 7g
Reel: Abu Garcia Superior 1000S
Braid: Unitika Night Game 0.3pe
Leader: Savage Gear Semi-soft Fluorocarbon LRF 4.10lb