Bond With Your Family by Fishing and Cooking Aboard Your Charter Boat

What Types of Fish Can You Catch and Cook in Croatia?

There are numerous species of fish in the crystal waters of the Adriatic. Here are just a few that might end up on your plate:

• Catfish
• Carp
• Cod
• Sardines
• Tuna

With the help of your onboard chef, you may even be able to prepare the fish you catch into a traditional recipe like salted cod with potatoes.

Tips for Fishing with Children

Depending on how old your kids are, your approach to fishing with them might need to vary, especially if they have never fished before. Fishing with a twelve-year-old is not the same as fishing with a six-year-old.

For one thing, a twelve-year-old obviously is going to be safer than a six-year-old around the sharp hooks that you use for fishing. This does not mean younger children cannot fish, but they do require more supervision. It is also usually best for you to bait the hooks yourself with smaller kids, especially since you are on a boat, and the motion of the waves makes injury more likely. Barbless hooks are a good option in case a child does get a hook stuck in his or her skin (or somebody else’s skin), since they are easier to extract. Also keep in mind that children need smaller rods and reels than adults.

If you have an opportunity, try casting on shore before you do it on the boat. It is always easier to learn a skill without the rocking motion of a boat underfoot.

The other challenge of fishing with younger kids in particular is patience—but older kids and teens can get fidgety as well. It takes time to catch a fish, and the slow pace is something that takes some getting used to.

All of that said, fishing with your children on your Croatian charter holiday can be incredibly rewarding, whether they have some experience or this is their very first time. While sailing in Croatia is exciting all on its own, fishing adds to the sense of adventure and excitement, giving your kids something else to anticipate before the trip and remember fondly (and maybe even boast about) afterward

How to Prepare Your Fresh Catch Onboard Your Croatia Charter Boat

Catching a fish can be exciting for anyone, but for kids, it is often particularly thrilling—especially if it is the first fish they ever caught. You can be sure your child will be showing off the fish to everyone onboard, family and crew alike.

Some kids might prefer to throw back their fish, but others will want to eat them, and that brings me to the next part of your adventure fishing with your family on your Croatia charter vessel—preparing your fresh catch!

Preparing fish while you are on a boat actually poses some challenges. It depends on what you want to do with it, but odds are good that after a long day fishing, you and your family will be up for some delicious grilled or fried fish.

This presents you with a quandary. Your charter yacht in Croatia probably does not have a grill onboard, and you are not allowed to have an open fire on shore (it is against Croatia’s regulations). If you try and use the oven or grill-pan, you’ll be stuck with a fish odor that won’t go away the rest of your trip.

Thankfully there is a simple solution! All you need to do is bring some tin foil or some baking paper with you on the vessel.

Here are the steps to cooking your fish:

1. Clean the fish and prepare it (take this chance to teach your children how to do that as well).

2. Spread out the tin foil.

3. Put the fish in the center of the foil.

4. Pour a little olive oil over it and season with some salt, cut garlic and parsley—stuff the parsley and garlic into the stomach of the fish, but sprinkle the salt on top.

5. Add other herbs if you wish. For some Mediterranean flair, go with rosemary, anise or thyme. If you want, you can also add some olives and onions and a little lemon juice. Other optional ingredients which can go well with your fish are red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. If you’re cooking with your kids’ help, you can even personalize each fish to their tastes.

6. Now you are ready to wrap up the foil around the fish.

7. Put the fish in a baking dish and cook it in the oven for 1 hour.

*Note that you need to cook each fish in its own separate tin foil. Do not try to prepare multiple fish in the same wrapper. Do not unwrap the fish right away. You want to actually place the wrapped fish on the plates at the table and allow each family member to unwrap their own fish themselves. That way all the flavors and aromas are retained until the fish is served. Remind your kids that the foil is very hot.

Have a gas grill you want to use instead of an oven? Set it to medium high and you can prepare your fish a lot more quickly this way, just 10-12 minutes instead of up to an hour in the galley oven (your kids will thank you for this). You can check if your fish is done by seeing whether it is opaque and flakes apart.

Here is also one cool video that will give you ideas on how to put herbs on your fish in a foil:

Catching a fish for the first time and eating it is something that most children will remember for the rest of their lives.It is a priceless memory to add to the treasure trove of experiences you create together as a family on your Croatian sailing vacation. So get your bait and tackle, chart your course, and have fun!