When its winter in the UK it still feels like summer in the Canary Islands. I know that when its winter in UK it can feel like summer in a lot of places. The key point to make here is that while they are situated off the north west coast of Africa, the Canary Islands are still less than 4 hours flying time from the UK, and unlike many other winter sunshine venues, you can pick up some very good late deals along the high street, from the Internet, and on teletext. I thought I had done well in the run up to Christmas getting two weeks at Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria for £239. Then the couple in the next apartment told me they had paid £40 less for two weeks more. A month in the sun for under £200. That's less than £50 per week for accommodation, flights and transfers. You would struggle to get 2 nights B&B even in the winter for £50 over here. The next logical question then has to be is the winter fishing any good.

Previous bad experiences had left me feeling that fishing the Canaries was a rip off. Having said that, I had only fished during the summer months, had possibly picked the wrong day to go afloat, and had certainly not chosen wisely in terms of the boats I had booked. I know a number of other people who have gone down that particular route. Equally I know others who had big fish and enjoyed good summer fishing, all of which adds to the enigma of the islands. Gran Canaria promotes itself as a premier big game fishing centre, which in European terms it undoubtedly is. Marlin and tuna are caught there every year. But when you pin people down to numbers, the seasonal boat average for marlin is around 12 fish. They do get some good runs of tuna. Spearfish can be quite plentiful at times, as are dorado, bonito and some of the other smaller pelagic game species. Unfortunately, with no holding areas, timing can be critical. In the winter down on the bottom, the fishing has much more predictability about it.

Several boats based at Puerto Rico to the south of Gran Canaria offer this seasonal mix or even the choice between trolling and bottom fishing during the summer. Of these only two boats, Katfish and Blue Marlin III berthed next to each other in the marina, are in my opinion worthy of mention. You will see the other boats showing off piles of small spurdogs from the deeper water everyday. To be fair to them, I also saw them bring in good amberjack, hake, snappers and long nosed skate on occasions too. Their sales pitch is that Katfish and Blue Marlin III catch very little because you rarely see any fish brought ashore. I would argue this lack of dead fish on display is their strength. Both operate a strict policy of catch and release unless a fish is edible and you want to keep it. If piles of small spurdogs were the main stay of the other boats business then I would rather catch nothing. I have fished on both Katfish and Blue Marlin III and know what they are capable of catching as my pictures will show.

Always a big dilemma when travelling abroad is what, if anything, to take in the way of tackle. Invariably you end up taking the wrong stuff. On the other hand, relying on the tackle provided, however good, to the experienced angler can bring problems of its own. Katfish is an excellent boat with tackle to match. The boat itself is a catamaran of 56 feet long by 16 feet wide. Never I have I seen so much open fishing space. Norberto Aleman her owner limits the number of anglers on board to 10. Everything except for food and drink is supplied. The problem with using the boats tackle is that the skipper and crew understandably treat everyone on board as a novice continually telling you what to do, or more to the point, what not to do. At least with your own gear you can exercise some measure of control over how you fish and what you fish for. This said, it is always wise to take advice when offered. Catching bottom feeding rays is straight forward enough. The techniques for some of the other fish, as I would find out, were a little more novel.

I took along a 50 pound class standup rod paired to a Daiwa 450H reel loaded with 50 pounds mono. For some of the fishing this was a little over the top. But looking back, for some of the fish on the cards down there, it was the right combination. The tendency on board Katfish was to give everyone 20 pound class rods with Daiwa GS 100 fixed spool reels loaded with heavy mono. How often do you hear it said that fixed spool reels are okay for free swimming fish, but a waste of time for large dead weight species such as rays. Try telling that one to Danny Cove from Hampshire who beat a stingray in excess of 200 pounds on a fixed spool outfit. The 20 pound class outfits were fine, and there was plenty of quality heavier gear on board. As I said earlier, taking your own gear simply gives you that element of control. Don't bother with terminal tackle, they will supply all of that. And if you feel unhappy about the way you are fishing or want to try for something else, have a word with Norberto. He is a very accommodating and helpful person who's English is good.

Most of the rods were rigged to fish the same way we would fish for rays over here. Traces were heavy mono and the baits either mackerel or sardines. The crew aboard Katfish work hard taking a lot of trouble to anchor the boat precisely. Too much trouble I thought at first watching them position the boat using two anchors. Then one day a commercial boat was fishing close to Norberto's mark when we arrived, so he anchored the boat using just the one anchor. We started fishing but didn't catch much. When commercial boat cleared off the crew set about adjusting our position. Katfish has buoyed permanent anchorages over small areas of reef in 70 to 80 metres of water over a bottom, which is otherwise predominantly soft. Depending on wind and tide, the boat is positioned along the edge of the rough using a second anchor. Quite a long complicated process at times, made even harder by the fact that someone cut the buoy to the permanent anchor prior to our first trip. As soon as the boat was in its new position along side the rough we started catching fish.

Rubby dubby is another feature of the Katfish approach. Sardines are put through a mincer then crammed into a plastic bottle with its bottom removed. This is then attached to a weighted line from the bow using a release clip and allowed to sink to the bottom where the contents slowly escape. This is repeated over the day and all the bottles retrieved when the weighted line comes back at close of play. Individual swim feeders came in the form of small mesh peanut bags stuffed with minched sardines attached to individual lines. In addition to this, the crew constantly fed small pieces of fish into the water over the stern. Norberto calculated their rate of drop through the water table. He would then instruct a couple of people fishing off the stern to put their baits over without leads and pull a fixed measure of line slowly from the reel - usually between 70 and 100 metres. This allowed the bait to travel and sink at the same rate as the loose feed.

The reason for this was that good numbers of round fish would sometimes gather over the reef which could clearly be seen on the sounder marking their feeding depth. Also, other free ranging species such as skipjacks and bonito would sometimes be attracted by the chum in numbers big enough to give everyone a go. We picked up sierra tuna, barracuda, snappers and breams doing this. We also had some violent takes and a few hooked fish on live cuttlefish under a float. Katfish has extensive live bait wells stocked with all sorts of goodies. Other people on other trips caught yellow tail jacks and amberjacks. And if nothing touched the free lined bait during its decent, Norberto would clip a lead to the line allowing it to slide down to the trace swivel pinning the bait to the bottom for the rays.

They get a wide variety of ray species off Puerto Rico over the clean ground within 5 or 6 miles of the shore, some of which would be familiar to UK anglers. These regularly include thornbacks, long nosed skate, butterfly rays, stingrays and eagle rays. Stingrays are fairly well known in UK waters. But not the species they catch out there. The average angler would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the UK stingray Dasyatis pastinaca and the Canarian version Dasyatis centroura, unless that is you hook a very big one, which unfortunately is what we did. From an angling point of view, the main difference between the two stingray species is size. According to fish expert Alwyne Wheeler, centroura can grow to over 700 pounds. The world all tackle rod caught record is 405 pounds. The biggest specimen aboard Katfish weighed in at over 300 pounds taken on 130 pound class gear. Bigger fish are hooked but cannot be landed, the reason being that you simply cannot break their suction without parting the line.

As I said earlier, Danny Cove had taken a 200 pound plus stinger a couple of days previously, and two similar fish had been caught and released aboard Blue Marlin III. We had had a great time catching all sorts of round fish, angel sharks (monkfish) to 55 pounds and lots of stingrays and eagle rays. I was at the point where I was trying to plug a few gaps in the selection of pictures I had taken. Often when cut free, stingrays and eagle rays swim along the surface away from the boat. So when a fish of around 50 pounds came up at the bow, I decided to grab a few free swimming shots. But just at the crucial moment, a cry came from the stern that my rod had a take. I shouted back to Dawn to take the fish and continued photographing. When I went back to see what was going on, she was obviously struggling with a better fish. Perhaps even a 200 pound fish I secretly hoped. Half and hour into the fight she was obviously coming under pressure herself, so Norberto got her a harness and standup but pad.

This obviously helped, but only to an extent. Another half hour ticked by, and then another. Quite obviously this was a very big fish and a stalemate situation was developing. When Dawn took a breather the fish did the same. Occasionally it would break its seal on the bottom and move off a little. Then, realizing the pressure was still there, would clamp itself back down again. In an effort to break the stalemate, Norberto suggested easing back on the drag to get it moving again. Move it most certainly did. With line suddenly pouring from the reel, he jokingly suggested it was heading for Africa. Things became a little more serious when line continued leaving the spool. So serious in fact that the drag had to be wound back up again, the anchor released, and we were off after the fish. Fortunately it had come to the heaviest outfit. Unfortunately it was Dawn on the end who by this stage was showing distinct signs of distress. It wouldn't have mattered who was on the fish. A stronger person could have pulled harder, but that simply would have parted the line sooner.

I don't speak Spanish, but two words I can understand are Choo Choo which means stingray, and monstrosa which is self explanatory. Norberto turned to one of the crew and mumbled "Choo Choo monstrosa". This was one of those stingers which nobody was ever going to shift. Eventually we got the boat directly over the fish to exert some direct pull. Slowly the elasticity came out of the monofilament line. Then the real work started. Between them they managed to exert maximum pressure on the fish trying to get it into open water and on its way up. But its suction was greater than the breaking strain of the brand new 50 pounds bs line, and inevitably it parted. Nobody said anything. Dawn was obviously disappointed. But if she is honest, it was probably a relief to be shut of the thing. Staying attached was only prolonging the agony. When quizzed later about the possible size of the fish, Norberto shrugged his shoulders and said 200 to 250 Kgs (440 to 550 pounds). Comparing this to the comparative ease with which Danny Cove had boated his 200 pounder, who knows. The only certain thing is that there are big fish waiting to be caught off Puerto Rico, and plenty of lesser fish to go with them.