Spearfishing in Portugal

[MCerieiro]

Originally Posted by nickever

Hi guys,

I am on holiday in Portugal (Albufeira region) at the end of May for a week and would like to take my speargun along for the ride. From reading your posts (and elsewhere on the net) I understand that you need a license to spearfish in Portugal? I have also read that you can get them from an ATM - but the instructions are all in Portuguese (of which I speak none!) Is there any truth in this, and if so does anybody know how to do it or can translate the process for me?

Finally, what sort of fish am I most likely to see in this area at this time of year?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out! Cheers!

Hi Nick, well i know that a foreign citizen (in tourism) cannot take the license at an ATM machine.
In our old legislation you has a foreign citizen on vacations dont need a license, however i think that has changed. I´ve seent an email to our "Port Authority" today asking that and will get back to you soon as i have an answer from them.

In Algarve you can get all sorts of fish from Sargos, bass, conger, moray, if you get lucky orata or snapper, cuttlefish, octopus and some "sand" fish.

Send a PM to our member Catman i believe he lives in Albufeira!

Originally Posted by Pastor

Hey Marco

Bummer about the boat, well bugger him, it's a buyers market so you will find another one soon enough

Healthy haul of crabs! I love crab, it's the king of shellfish as far as I'm concerned, we are seeing fewer and fewer edible crabs here but more and more spider crabs.

The sea temperature is 10ºC here so stop moaning

I hope you are catching those spider crabs...they are also delicious...were are you coming to Portugal mate? Simon is almost arriving we will be diving together for a few days

Cheers,
Marco

[nickever]

Ok thanks a lot for doing that, I will wait with baited breath.....

Cheers!!

[settingsteel]

WTG M, nice cuddles...good to see you back!

[MCerieiro]

Originally Posted by nickever

Ok thanks a lot for doing that, I will wait with baited breath.....

Cheers!!

Hi there mate, well i´ve already have a reply and the thing is...for a foreign citizen in vacations there are 2 possible licences.

1 - Taken with a touristic operator (dive / fishing / spearfishing charters) 3€/day.
For this you can try to contact one of this guys:

Reefcat Fishing - Sportfishing charters in the Algarve, Portugal
Boat-Charter-Algarve.com - Boat Charter Algarve Boat Charters Portugal * Boat Yacht Charters Algarve Information * Algarve Boating Sailing Holidays * Yacht Boat Charters Algarve Portugal
POLVO Watersports * Algarve Yacht Charters * Marina Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal

Or try to go to the Albufeira Harbour and find a fishing charter and ask if they can sell you a licence.

2 - The other way is to go directly to the DGPA in Algarve with your passport or other ID, the adress is in the link bellow:

Direcção Regional de Agricultura e Pescas do Algarve - Contacto

Have a nice stay mate!

[nickever]

Thank you so much for taking the time to find all that out for me! I will look into it and decide which would be best for me. I will let you know how I got on after the holiday!

Thanks again!

[MCerieiro]

Hello!

Difficult conditions for diving over here this weekend...rain, rough sea, cold water and poor visibility...but...what can i say...i went to the sea anyway

However spring is a hard time for us spearos in my area, almost no fish to be honest almost no life underwater

I've started the day visiting one of my favorite spots right after the Cascais Marina...2 hours diving from -4 to -12 mts and nothing...only bait fish and small sargos tried everything from indien to wait with no results!

After this i decided to move to my "winter backyard" a place i only dive during winter and when the sea doesn't let me dive anywhere else...at my first dive i saw a nice octopus laying on a rock at the bottom...i got it by hand.
And in the next 4 hours i got another octopus and 4 cuttles, one of them with a really nice size...so at the end it wasn't that bad!

Cheers,
Marco

P.S. - Sorry for the bad pic but i was diving alone so i just taken the picture at home

[MaxKuper]

Hi Marco,

we are planning to go to the Azores and we heard that this is one of the best places in the world for BW hunting especially for bluefin tuna spearfishing.

Do you know local spearos who we may get in touch with to arrange the boat, weights, float systems and other gear and who would be able to give tips in terms of hunting conditions what we should keep in mind etc. In other words we would like to get onshore and offshore support from experienced spearos. Thank you in advance for your help!

cheers,
Max

[MCerieiro]

Hi Max,

Well i just have this contact for the Azores island:

Blue Water Expeditions
Paulo Reis
Flor Da Rosa Baixa, 53
9580-477 Vila do Porto
Santa Maria
Açores-Portugal
Telefone +(351) 296 883 545 Celular +(351) 914 201 281
+(351) 963 184 786 email : bwe@bwexpeditions.com




Hope it helps.



Cheers

[MaxKuper]

Marco, Thank you very much!!! I'll try to get in touch with these guys and then if interesting I will let you know how the things are. By the way, as soon as we identify the date of the trip we will let you know, you are more than welcome to join.

Cheers,

Max

[BritinBrooklyn]

Originally Posted by catman

Hi there im from the southern part Algarve, if you do come here avoid the last 15 days of july and August, try to come in the begining of july.

If you need accomodation pls let me know, i'l see what i can arrange.

hey Catman & Marco,
I'm coming to Portugal for the first time, and will be staying at Quinta Do Largo, how is the diving near there?
I'm really interested in learning about spearfishing, are there places to rent spearguns and people who can teach me some skills?
I'll be there from 15-29th june 08.

Thanks in advance.
cheers

[Kelpfish]

Good to see a thread about spearfishing in Portugal!!! Really nice photos of the cuttles. As Pastor said, please stop moaning about the cold water as we get a bit jealous over here...
About those spiders, they are huge and they are good!!

[fleshy]

Using a 7mm suit in portugal! Lmfao! Its hot there isnt it?

[MCerieiro]

Originally Posted by MaxKuper

Marco, Thank you very much!!! I'll try to get in touch with these guys and then if interesting I will let you know how the things are. By the way, as soon as we identify the date of the trip we will let you know, you are more than welcome to join.

Cheers,

Max

Hi Max,
Do you already know in wich island you are going to stay? Thanks for the invite, but the Azores are a bit far from the Portuguese mainland and I have a trip already scheduled so to be honest I cant spend any more money in spearfishing trips this year...but I really appreciate the invite mate.

Originally Posted by BritinBrooklyn

hey Catman & Marco,
I'm coming to Portugal for the first time, and will be staying at Quinta Do Largo, how is the diving near there?
I'm really interested in learning about spearfishing, are there places to rent spearguns and people who can teach me some skills?
I'll be there from 15-29th june 08.

Thanks in advance.
cheers

Hi mate, are you staying in “Quinta do Lago” Quinta do Lago ?? If this is the place I used to stay there a couple of times, my familly spends all August there, but in Summer its not a good time for diving in that area, my advice is rent a car and go to Sagres, ofcourse you can allways try to dive in places like Albufeira or Armação de Pera, but the results wont be too good...check out google earth for this places.

Originally Posted by fleshy

Using a 7mm suit in portugal! Lmfao! Its hot there isnt it?

Well during winter we have water at 14ºC lot’s of times...i suppose it could be hot for some guys...i get cold if I spend 4/5 hours diving in a 5 mm jacket...so for winter I use a 7 mm jacket and a 5.5 mm trousers, and I must say I know lots of Med spearos who use 7 mm suits all year...

Cheers,
Marco

[Kelpfish]

Marco,

I've been stuck in London for way longer than i would have liked to . I was about to do something stupid like jumping in on the Thames with the speargun when i changed my mind and decided to head to Lisbon!!!
I'll be in Portugal for almost a week and should be diving on the West coast, from Ericeira to Peniche, as often as humanly possible. If the conditions look promising I might drive down to Sines or to some other place off the South West coast.

Let me know if you are up for a dip and a few blonde ones at some point.

Kelpfish

[MCerieiro]

When are you arriving mate?