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The Risco de Famara

Cliff coast · Salt water · in Lanzarote

A six-hundred-metre wall of cliff running along Lanzarote's north-west coast, with a boulder and platform shore at its foot reached by the few paths down it, and deep water immediately off the rock.

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 · 4

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 Risco de Famara 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

  • Atlantic mackerel — documented at Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote; Playa Quemada, Lanzarote; Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (+1 more)
  • Atlantic horse mackerel — documented at Arrecife and Playa Honda; Arrieta and the Jameos coast; Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote (+5 more)
  • Salema porgy — documented at Arrieta and the Jameos coast; Órzola; Papagayo and Playa Blanca (+1 more)
  • Common octopus — documented at Los Hervideros, Lanzarote; Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote; The Costa Teguise shore, Lanzarote
  • Ornate wrasse — documented at The cliff coast between Puerto del Carmen and Puerto Calero; Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote; Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (+1 more)
  • Bogue — documented at Puerto Calero, Lanzarote; Los Hervideros, Lanzarote; Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote (+3 more)
  • Comber — documented at Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote; Órzola; Arrieta and the Jameos coast (+2 more)
  • Dusky grouper — documented at Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote; The Costa Teguise shore, Lanzarote; Arrieta and the Jameos coast (+1 more)

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

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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Baits and lures for these fish

The baits and lures each of the fish above is commonly taken on, from that fish’s own page. This is what works for the fish, not a report of what people use on this particular water — local knowledge and the conditions on the day still decide.

Lures

The ground and the water

The ground
A six-hundred-metre wall of cliff running along Lanzarote's north-west coast, with a boulder and platform shore at its foot reached by the few paths down it, and deep water immediately off the rock.
Exposure
The most exposed coast on the island: open north-west to the full Atlantic with the cliff funnelling the wind down onto the shore.
Depth
Deep straight off the rock, which is why the sources name it for spinning rather than for bait.

Through the year

Fished through the year; the winter north-westerly swell is the limiting condition.

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 serious injury or death

The fishing ground is a boulder shore at the foot of a six-hundred-metre cliff, reached by steep unmaintained descents, exposed to Atlantic swell, with no way out of the water and no way to be reached quickly by anybody.

What reduces it: Treat the Atlantic swell forecast rather than the wind as the deciding input, do not go alone, tell somebody the plan, and accept that the climb out is the harder half of the trip.

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 the marine reserve around the northern islets and La Graciosa, for zoning and permitted activity within it.
  • The Spanish national fisheries administration for offshore waters and for matters reserved to it.
  • The local island council and harbour authorities for shore and harbour access arrangements.

Nearby fishing

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

The Risco de FamaraPlaya de Famara, LanzaroteArrieta and the Jameos coastCaleta de Sebo, La GraciosaLa GraciosaLa Santa, LanzaroteÓrzolaThe Costa Teguise shore, LanzaroteArrecife and Playa Honda
The Risco de Famara 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
  • 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
  • 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

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

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