As Morski writes, there are many different types of fish in the Croatian Adriatic sea that are very, very rarely caught, or are not present all over the Adriatic, and so they confuse fishermen with their colours, weight or appearance. Such was the case with the catch of Andrej Andrija Vajdic, whose catch, when placed on social media, resulted in many attempts at determining just what this fish was. Most of those guesses were unfortunately completely wrong.
”After just a few minutes, I got a bite on the line and the fish started pulling down very hard. After a short fight with it, I took it out, and saw a fish I wasn’t sure about. I learned that the locals call it an arrow, and it does have that sort of face…”
Here is what Andrej said about his unusual catch in the Northern Adriatic sea:
”As I live in inland Croatia, I’m not often given the opportunity to go sea fishing. I mostly fish only when on holiday, which was the case this year as well. A colleague from work was on holiday in southern Dalmatia at the same time, which was a great opportunity for a little competition – who would catch better fish.
As I was on holiday in Praputnjak, I went fishing in Bakar every day. During the first few days the catch was reduced to standard fish, but on the last day it shifted a bit. At the end of that day, I decided to just go for a short evening and try fishing until the next opportunity came,” says Andrej.
”I re-set the rod and on the same principle caught three more of the same weird sort of fish. I also learned that the ”arrow” is usually harder to catch because of its fast movement, which is why this holiday will remain in my special memory. Of course, my colleague undoubtedly lost in our small competition,” Andrej said.
The fish that Andrej caught is a blue arrow (Trachinotus ovatus, Linnaeus, 1758), a fish from the same family, Carangidae, to which somr of the most famous faces among sea fish belong. It is most numerous in the Southern Adriatic, but due to global warming it is more numerous in the Northern Adriatic sea. Otherwise the blue arrow may grow to a maximum of 70 inches in length.
The first time this species of fish was found was at Zlatni rat on the island of Brac, far from Northern Adriatic sea waters.
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