Having managed to catch a cold on only the second day of my recent trip to Chalkadiki I decided that while the family enjoyed a swim I would take the opportunity to have a couple of hours fishing.

We set up camp on the beach around 100 yards from the concrete boat jetty in Pefkochori, the idea being that I would start from the beach and venture to the jetty later. It was a beautiful day, around 28 degrees centigrade with no wind. For this session I would be using the short telescopic rod I use when traveling together with a basic course fishing rig of a 1.0 gram wind beater float, size 18 hook to 1 Lb 8oz bottom. My chosen bait for the day was small pieces of luncheon meat fished over soaked bread.

I am by no means a sea angler; I enjoy the opportunity to fish for species I don't usually encounter but its more trial and error than expert approach. With this in mind there was very little that could be recognized as being scientific about my chosen tactics, my logic at the start was to cast as far as I could and see what happens.

Wading in just a few feet I was able to get reasonable distance on my cast but over a short time realized that the bites would come regardless of how far I fished from the shore and soon settled into a spot around 10 to 15 feet out.

Something that quickly became apparent is that hitting bites in the sea is much harder then when sitting on the bank of a river or lake, I am not sure why this would be, perhaps the rod I was using, the action of the waves, the difficulties involved in keeping the line between the tip of the rod and the rig tight, the species in the 'swim' or maybe a combination of all these things and more. What is certain is that had I have managed to connect with even 75% of the bites I encountered I would have ended the day in three figures.

That said, it didn't take long to bring my first fish to hand, a small, quite round specimen, striped with a rather odd shaped mouth. I believe this species to be 'Striped Bream' although I am still waiting for 'expert' confirmation.

Despite missing dozens of bites, fish came at regular intervals with up to 8 different species, the most interesting of which was actually caught by my girlfriend while I was taking a break. I knew the instant it left the water that the fish was a Weever, I had seen them before and knew them to have a nasty sting in their dorsal so unhooking was a slightly worrying process in which I perhaps approached the problem in a slightly girly manner… but hey, I already had a cold, I didn't want to add the pain of a sting from a Weever to my problems. I think the fish was actually a Greater Weever but again am still awaiting 'expert' confirmation.

Toward the end of the session I moved to the jetty where pipe fish and mullet could be seen on the surface attacking bread thrown in by other anglers. The thing that quickly dawns on you about Mullet is that they will attack any bait thrown in provided it isn't attached to a line and after a while I settled for catching a few more Striped Bream.

In total 17 fish in around 2 hours, it could and for an expert surely would have been far more but it was a very enjoyable experience and I will certainly want to try again on my next visit.