Hello to whoever is interested!
I spent 3 weeks on the island of Santa Maria, Azores.
Was living in a small hotel (3 rooms, 2-3 person each, private bathrooms).
The owner is a taxi driver, so he would give me the ride to/from the shore.
I paid 30 Euro/day for my room and gave him some extra money for the transportation. An alternative would be to rent a car which would easily be 30-40 Euro/day plus diesel. Living in the hotel and walking to the water while carrying the gear would be impossible.
I did mostly shore hunting which was not very exciting (possibly due to the wrong wind direction and lots of rain). My most notable catches were a 6-kilo barracuda, two 3-kilo amberjacks and various other fish between 2 kilo and less (mullet, salpa, sargo, etc.). I am very picky so I would not shoot parrot fish (saw thousands) and trigger fish (also in abundance) or in general any fish that hides under the rocks.
Saw very big rays, murenas, octopuses, turtles. Water visibility was good, especially far from the shore. Water temperature - above 20 with little thermocline, some places had strong currents around remote rocks.
Saw some groupers but they can not be taken. Never dove below 12 meters since most fish could be taken shallow and to go deep you need a boat since good places are far from the shore. Barracuda was killed at 4 meters, good amberjacks were seen in 1 meter of water.
So best strategy would be to either rent or hire a boat, go to pinnacles and hope for the larger pelagic fishes. If I go there next time, I would try to execute this plan since shore hunting is not very rewarding. So I would need pinnacle information. Also there are some small towns from where one can go spearfishing on foot but I was not able to locate anybody with rental places there.
I was never bothered by police while hunting but had a float with a flag with me at all times.
Also I was told that this particular July was not very good fishing-wise in general.
Aside from fishing there is very little to do on this island (96 sq. km.). There are some parks in the mountains, close to the water it is barren, water access by foot is mostly difficult/impossible. Spearfishing license for a month costs 10 Euros.
People are extremely friendly, some speak perfect English since lots of families have US connections.
That's about it!
I spent 3 weeks on the island of Santa Maria, Azores.
Was living in a small hotel (3 rooms, 2-3 person each, private bathrooms).
The owner is a taxi driver, so he would give me the ride to/from the shore.
I paid 30 Euro/day for my room and gave him some extra money for the transportation. An alternative would be to rent a car which would easily be 30-40 Euro/day plus diesel. Living in the hotel and walking to the water while carrying the gear would be impossible.
I did mostly shore hunting which was not very exciting (possibly due to the wrong wind direction and lots of rain). My most notable catches were a 6-kilo barracuda, two 3-kilo amberjacks and various other fish between 2 kilo and less (mullet, salpa, sargo, etc.). I am very picky so I would not shoot parrot fish (saw thousands) and trigger fish (also in abundance) or in general any fish that hides under the rocks.
Saw very big rays, murenas, octopuses, turtles. Water visibility was good, especially far from the shore. Water temperature - above 20 with little thermocline, some places had strong currents around remote rocks.
Saw some groupers but they can not be taken. Never dove below 12 meters since most fish could be taken shallow and to go deep you need a boat since good places are far from the shore. Barracuda was killed at 4 meters, good amberjacks were seen in 1 meter of water.
So best strategy would be to either rent or hire a boat, go to pinnacles and hope for the larger pelagic fishes. If I go there next time, I would try to execute this plan since shore hunting is not very rewarding. So I would need pinnacle information. Also there are some small towns from where one can go spearfishing on foot but I was not able to locate anybody with rental places there.
I was never bothered by police while hunting but had a float with a flag with me at all times.
Also I was told that this particular July was not very good fishing-wise in general.
Aside from fishing there is very little to do on this island (96 sq. km.). There are some parks in the mountains, close to the water it is barren, water access by foot is mostly difficult/impossible. Spearfishing license for a month costs 10 Euros.
People are extremely friendly, some speak perfect English since lots of families have US connections.
That's about it!
