The El Sauzal coast

Cliff coast · Salt water · in Tenerife

Steep cliff and boulder on the north coast between Tacoronte and Santa Úrsula, with small lava platforms at sea level reached by paths down through banana terraces, and deep water very close in.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 5

What these strengths mean

Regular local target: Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Recorded here: At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
How breadth is counted: A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at The El Sauzal coast itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Widely documented on this ground

Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.

From the shore

Bogue — documented at Garachico; Bajamar; Candelaria (+1 more)
Salema porgy — documented at Garachico; Bajamar; Candelaria (+1 more)
Common octopus — documented at Punta del Hidalgo, Tenerife; Garachico; Puerto de la Cruz

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From the shore

Atlantic horse mackerel — documented at El Médano, Tenerife; Candelaria
Common dentex — documented at Punta de Teno, Tenerife
Atlantic bonito — documented at Punta de Teno, Tenerife
European squid — documented at Puerto de la Cruz

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

Ledgering
Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.
Spinning
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.
Jigging
Working a weighted lure with a rising-and-falling motion, usually vertically, so it behaves like a wounded or fleeing baitfish.
Light rock fishing
Ultralight lure fishing from the shore with tackle rated in single grams — a discipline that catches the fish everybody else steps over, and one FishingHQ held every component of and had never named.

The ground and the water

The ground: Steep cliff and boulder on the north coast between Tacoronte and Santa Úrsula, with small lava platforms at sea level reached by paths down through banana terraces, and deep water very close in.
Exposure: Full north-coast exposure with no shelter, on ground named by Canary sources as among the island's most productive and most complicated.
Depth: Deep immediately off the platforms — the reason spinning and jigging are named here rather than distance casting.

Safety

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.

What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause injury needing treatment

The fishing platforms sit at sea level below a cliff, reached by steep unmaintained paths, with deep water at the edge and Atlantic swell arriving on an otherwise calm day.

What reduces it: Treat the swell forecast rather than the wind as the deciding input, watch the platform before stepping onto it, and do not fish this coast alone.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The Canary Islands are an autonomous community licensing their own recreational sea, boat and underwater fishing, separately from mainland Spain, and the archipelago carries marine reserves in which fishing and diving are restricted or prohibited on boundaries a visitor cannot see from the shore. Measures change. Check the current position with the Canarian government's fisheries administration before going.

Who holds the answer:

The Canarian government's fisheries administration, which licenses recreational sea and underwater fishing in the archipelago.
The island council, for local measures and for access to the coast.
The marine reserve administration, where the water is inside a reserve.
The Canary Islands autonomous government's fisheries department, which administers recreational sea fishing licensing and rules in Canarian waters.
The management authority of any marine protected area in which fishing is proposed.
The Spanish national fisheries administration for offshore waters and for matters reserved to it.
The harbour authority of the port used, for berthing, launching and charter arrangements.
International fishery bodies whose measures apply to billfish and large pelagic species taken in Atlantic waters.

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

Bajamar — 10–25 km · Rock platform
Punta del Hidalgo, Tenerife — 10–25 km · Rock platform
Playa de los Patos and El Bollullo, Tenerife — 10–25 km · Beach
Puerto de la Cruz — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
Candelaria — 10–25 km · Rock platform
La Dársena Pesquera, Santa Cruz de Tenerife — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
The Anaga north coast, Tenerife — 10–25 km · Rock platform
Playa de Las Teresitas, Tenerife — 10–25 km · Beach

The El Sauzal coast and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the species presented as ordinary local shore species, the techniques used from rock and mole, and the baits.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which stretches of Canarian coast are publicly described as fished, with the techniques and the species the island guides attach to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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