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Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote

Harbour wall · Salt water · in Lanzarote

A small sheltered harbour on Lanzarote's south coast with a stone mole, sand in the bay beside it and a volcanic slope immediately outside that drops steeply into deep water within metres of the shore.

Safety: boat traffic and being seen — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply 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 · 27

Also documented from the shore: Atlantic lizardfish · Azores chromis · Black seabream · Bogue · Comber · Derbio · Dusky grouper · Greater weever · Guinean puffer · Macaronesian sharpnose puffer · Madeira goby · Madeira rockfish · Mediterranean moray · Planehead filefish · Rockpool blenny · Saddled seabream · Spotted eagle ray · Two-banded seabream · Wide-eyed flounder

What these strengths mean
Regular local target
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Repeatedly reported
Several independent public accounts. Enough to say it happens more than once; not enough to call it a fishery.
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 Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote 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

  • Mediterranean parrotfish — documented at Órzola; Arrieta and the Jameos coast; The Risco de Famara (+3 more)
  • Salema porgy — documented at Arrieta and the Jameos coast; Órzola; Papagayo and Playa Blanca (+1 more)
  • Red porgy — documented at The Costa Teguise shore, Lanzarote; Órzola; The Risco de Famara (+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, Spearfishing.

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

  • Float fishing

    Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.

  • Shore diving

    Entering and leaving the water from land under your own power — the most accessible spearfishing and the one where the entry and exit are the dangerous part.

  • Kayak fishing

    A platform rather than a technique: quiet, shallow-draught access to water no other craft reaches, bought at the price of exposure, and a discipline where the decision not to launch is part of the skill.

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.

Baits

Lures

The ground and the water

The ground
A small sheltered harbour on Lanzarote's south coast with a stone mole, sand in the bay beside it and a volcanic slope immediately outside that drops steeply into deep water within metres of the shore.
Exposure
Sheltered from the prevailing north-easterly trade wind by the island itself.
Depth
The reason this small bay is used as heavily as it is: a shore entry reaches genuinely deep water within a very short swim, which is unusual anywhere and ordinary in the Canaries.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-25. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
The old harbour and the cove beside it sit at the western end of Puerto del Carmen, in the original fishing settlement of La Tiñosa, reached along the seafront from the Avenida de las Playas. The council states no public car park serving this end of the town, and its own published parking provision is an announced scheme rather than an open one, so none is recorded here.
Mobility
The council states that it has installed a ramp and a stainless-steel safety walkway at the cove, and that amphibious chairs are available in Puerto del Carmen for people with reduced mobility who want to enter the water. It makes no statement about reaching the harbour mole itself, so none is recorded.

Parking

  • No public car park nearby

    The council publishes no public car park serving the western end of Puerto del Carmen. What it does publish is an announced scheme for around 1,200 to 1,400 spaces across four buildings, which is a plan rather than provision.

Where this access information comes from
  • Puerto del Carmen and Playa Chica — the town council's own pages — Ayuntamiento de Tías, Lanzarote (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The ramp, the stainless-steel walkway, the shower and the public toilets at Playa Chica; the availability of amphibious chairs in Puerto del Carmen; and the sports harbour, shops, banks, supermarkets, medical services and restaurants the council lists for the settlement.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Puerto del Carmen and Playa Chica — the town council's own pages — Ayuntamiento de Tías, Lanzarote (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The council's own pages for Puerto del Carmen, which list the town's facilities without a public car park at this end and announce future parking as a scheme yet to be built.States this directlyPassage read and verified

What is there

  • Public toilets

    Public toilets at the cove, with a shower installed by the council alongside the ramp. The council stated in 2018 that the toilets themselves were to be rebuilt, so their condition is what the council says it is on the day rather than what this page says.

  • Harbour facilities

    A sports harbour within the settlement, stated by the council among the town's facilities. The council does not publish a slipway, a crane or a lift for it, so none is recorded.

  • Food or shelter

    The council describes shops, banks, supermarkets, medical services and a wide range of restaurants throughout Puerto del Carmen, along with a civic and cultural centre, a church and a plaza.

Through the year

The months the sources attach to each species here. Where a species carries no season it is listed underneath rather than assumed to run through the year.

The months in which each species is recorded as caught at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Canary damselfish — repeatedly reported, recorded in May.
Ornate wrasse — repeatedly reported, recorded in May.
Atlantic chub mackerel — recorded here, recorded in May.
Atlantic horse mackerel — recorded here, recorded in May.
Atlantic lizardfish — recorded here, recorded in May.
Azores chromis — recorded here, recorded in May.
Black seabream — recorded here, recorded in May.
Bogue — recorded here, recorded in September.
Comber — recorded here, recorded in May.
Derbio — recorded here, recorded in September.
Greater weever — recorded here, recorded in May.
Guinean puffer — recorded here, recorded in May.
Macaronesian sharpnose puffer — recorded here, recorded in May.
Madeira goby — recorded here, recorded in May.
Madeira rockfish — recorded here, recorded in May.
Mediterranean moray — recorded here, recorded in September.
Planehead filefish — recorded here, recorded in May.
Rockpool blenny — recorded here, recorded in May.
Saddled seabream — recorded here, recorded in May.
Spotted eagle ray — recorded here, recorded in September.
Two-banded seabream — recorded here, recorded in September.
Wide-eyed flounder — recorded here, recorded in May.

Recorded here with no season stated: Atlantic mackerel, Common octopus, White seabream, Greater amberjack, Dusky grouper.

Safety

Boat traffic and being seen — Can cause serious injury or death

Summer small-craft traffic on this coast is heavy and fast, and a swimmer, breath-hold diver or small float is nearly invisible from a planing hull until it is too close to alter course.

What reduces it: Carry a surface marker buoy with a dive flag and keep it directly above the diver, work inside marked zones where they exist, and leave water where traffic is heavy rather than trying to be seen in it.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Atlantic swell reaches the northern and western coasts with little energy lost, because there is no shelf to dissipate it. Waves at exposed lava platforms are larger and less predictable than the wind suggests, and people are washed off regularly.

What reduces it: Check swell rather than wind. Watch any platform for a sustained period before committing to it. Never fish a position you could not leave immediately, and treat undercut and blowhole ground as unsafe regardless of conditions.

Sun, dehydration and fatigue — Can cause injury needing treatment

Long summer sessions on shadeless rock produce dehydration and heat exhaustion, and both degrade judgement and coordination well before they produce collapse, on ground where both are what keep somebody safe.

What reduces it: Carry substantially more water than the session appears to need, fish the ends of the day rather than the middle of it in high summer, and treat shade and a stopping time as part of the plan.

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.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice. Underwater fishing is licensed and regulated separately from rod fishing throughout this jurisdiction, with its own age, equipment and distance requirements, and holding a rod licence is not permission to spearfish.

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.

Puerto del Carmen harbour, LanzaroteThe cliff coast between Puerto del Carmen and Puerto CaleroPuerto Calero, LanzarotePlaya Quemada, LanzaroteArrecife and Playa HondaPapagayo and Playa BlancaThe Playa Dorada breakwater, Playa BlancaEl Golfo and JanubioThe Costa Teguise shore, Lanzarote
Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote 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

  • EMODnet — the European Marine Observation and Data Network — The European Commission, assembled from the national hydrographic offices, geological surveys and marine institutes of the member states (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Charted bathymetry, seabed substrate and seabed habitat for European sea areas, assembled from the national hydrographic and geological surveys, at the resolution the product publishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • The European Environment Agency's assessments of Europe's waters, seas and coasts — European Environment Agency, Copenhagen (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment of Europe's coasts and regional seas, including the condition of coastal water bodies, the pressures recorded on them and the coverage of designated sites.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of European sea angling practice by region, ground type and destination, including the continental marks British anglers travel to.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 continental European 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
  • Puerto del Carmen and Playa Chica — the town council's own pages — Ayuntamiento de Tías, Lanzarote (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: That this cove is the principal diving destination on Lanzarote, and the facilities and access works the council states it has carried out there.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Kayak Fishing Lanzarote — trip and contact pages — Kayak Fishing Lanzarote (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: That the named location is one of the points a Lanzarote kayak fishing guide gives as ground it runs guided kayak and shore fishing trips from.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysPassage read and verified
  • Pesca deportiva en Lanzarote — the island's own guide to sport fishing — Turismo Lanzarote (Cabildo de Lanzarote) (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The species Lanzarote's own authority gives for each fishing modality, and the areas of the island it names for each modality.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Fishing in Lanzarote — a shore angler's trip report, September — Sea Angling Ireland, forum thread (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A dated September shore session at the Puerto del Carmen pier and the species landed there on squid and prawn.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A counted week of light-tackle shore fishing at named Lanzarote marks in May, with the species taken at each and the rigs, lures, baits and hook sizes used.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-18.

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