Northern Portugal

I moved to Northern Portugal and live near the river Lima mouth. Here is a pic I took about 500m from the mouth in the river. These fish are pan size at about 400g and are abundant. I walked 4km along the river and there is no end to these fish.
There are not many river, rock and surf fishermen here and the few I encountered did not speak English so I don't know what fish they are. Thought they might be Mullet but they don't jump out the water behind boats.
Now I must find a rubber lure and try my luck.

Ok, I do not know exactly what they are as my knowledge into sea fish species is almost nonexistent except for the more known species targeted by fisherman along our coast.

BUT

My family-in-law lives in Algorta (seaside village) near Bilbao in the Basque country and they call those fish Mojarra. I just googled Mojarra and it came up with the following:

- (lengua) tongue

- (cuchillo) short broad knife

- (pez) type of bream

I actually think that it is some sort of a Mullet...

Now, I have targeted this species before in the old port (el puerto viejo) in Algorta and I had success on white bread. I can also confirm that the fish has a soft mouth so it would be best not to strike too hard and to play it "softly".

I cannot tell you that dropshotting is going to be productive, but I do think that a fly rod would be ideal.

 

Dont make a bread dough. Take a piece of bread and wrap it around the hook and squeze the bread firmly onto the shank of the hook only leaving the break as is by the bend of the hook. This way the hook would either float or sink very slowly. Try targeting the passing fish that way.

Good luck and keep me posted. I too would like to know more about what species it is.

okay...so I surfed google a bit.

I think it is definitely a grey mullet but it seems there are a few to choose from...so maybe you could catch one and enlighten me have a look at the below link


http://britishseafishing.co.uk/mullet-species/

You are correct. They are Mullets. Just got back from walking the river walkway that is about 1.5m above the river.
These fish are all over the show and some are rather big seeming to gather in sizes. The big ones don't seem to eat the tiny ones and they don't scatter with my presence.
Met one fisherman that showed me how he does it.
Four small hooks tied onto the plain gut and twisted around a ball of bread. He just chucks it in and waits for a pull.
He caught 4 in the 30 minutes that I was there.
Apparently they are good eating if you fillet them properly and have no bones after.

Best fishing we had for them in Setubal and Lisboa was with a match Whip and maggots under a 1gr float.

Mash some sardines up into a bucket with water and then ladel a continuous stream of mashed sard and water in and get them feeding and then fish a maggot on a float under it and hold on for some serious light tackle fun.

We used to get a lot of Blacktail and Caranteen (strepies) among the mullet and I got bust up 2 x Badly by Garrick that hit my Mullet on the line.

My best fish I landed fishing like that was a White Stump of almost 2kg.

They obviously have a lot of different names for these fish bit Garrick, Shad, White Stump, Mullet, Goatfish, Garfish and Caranteen are full up in those areas (May of our West Coast fish are found there and off the coast you will also find Corvina (like our Kob) and small Eagle Rays

Just got back from the beach and 4 guys fishing were hauling in what looked like bream at about 1 every 5 minutes.
This place is teeming with fish and I can't wait to climb in.
Must first get to know the fishing laws here.
No fishing after sunset or before sunrise.
No fishing in river mouths.
That sucks as my favourite spots are river mouths before sunrise.
Also must find out how far upriver does sea become fresh water for the licence. Perhaps get both as they are about R90.00 from the ATM's.