Fishing for Salema 'Xilep'
The fishing technique for Salema ‘Xilep’ is not one of the easiest but could be very satisfying , due to when it goes for the bait & manage to hook one it is a good fight which will take the best out of your fishing tackle & gear you are using.
​
The best time to fish for Salema ‘Xilep’ is when there is a light/moderate swell & quite murky although you can catch this species whilst fishing for Mullet , which proves very difficult as we are normally rigged with light tackle for Mullet & the Salema ‘Xilep’ can just cut through the line with its sharp teeth. We do manage to land one sometimes as either the fine fishing line gets in between the teeth or not actually swallowed the hook so it would be biting on the hook instead of the line. When fishing for Salema ‘Xilep’ in light/moderate swell we need a not so light rod preferably quite a thick rod this is to enable you to control the fish better as it is a very strong fighter & not to take long before we land it to avoid it from scaring of the others that might be around the ground bait. The length of the hand pole all depends on how deep the fishing spot is; best to use a descent line between 0.25 & 0.30 & hook sizes a little big between 4 & 7.
For the ground-bait we would need on that is specifically made for this species same as you can see in the picture, this one is called ‘Salema’ which is made from the actual weed the Salema ‘Xilep’ feeds on in its habitat.
​
With regards to bait for this fish we use either bread in form of dough or use the ground-bait itself & same again work it into like dough.
Need to remember if we are fishing with a harder pole to rig up the line a little shorter than the length of the rod to enable us to lift the fish out of the water. If you prefer to be more sportive & fish on lighter rod & tackle we would need the line to be the same length as the rod & then we can net the fish when it gets close enough. Rig up would be your pole , line a hook on the end & about a foot up the line we crimp lead size depending on the float, important if the fishing ground is not too deep I suggest not to put any lead on.
If you need any more information you can easily find me on Facebook
​
Tight Lines
Peter Paul Azzopardi
