fly fishing the mediterranean

[fly_mike]

Hi, I'm going to greece for two weeks and will be lucky enough to spend sometime with my uncle who will be taking me on to the med to see if anything is out there (if anything is left).

if there is anyone out there that has fished the med any advice would be welcome.

with regards to flies (im only taking a 9wt so targeting bonnies and similar ) what should I tie up? and colours?

many thanks

[JadeDsantos]

Hi, I'm going to greece for two weeks and will be lucky enough to spend sometime with my uncle who will be taking me on to the med to see if anything is out there (if anything is left).

if there is anyone out there that has fished the med any advice would be welcome.

with regards to flies (im only taking a 9wt so targeting bonnies and similar ) what should I tie up? and colours?

many thanks

I'm heading to the med off Italy for 10 days now - Been told not to worry about taking a rod - Pls can someone persuade me otherwise?!

[gkieser]

I would take a rod.

I was in Turkey last year september and i took a rod but had no luck with fly. We were in a small town called Kalkan on the med coast, and did some snorkelling and it is amazing how desolate the sea is, with mainly blacktail and some other small boring looking fish. There is nothing with pretty colours or anything like that. While snorkelling i did however see a couple of schools of Bonito swiming quite close to the shore, but they were few and far between. This was an area where the mountains are right up against the sea so the water gets deep really really fast. so the bonito can come in really close. They move along the coastline very fast so you'd have to get lucky to have a school going past.

I did have a red squid type thing chase my fly but i pulled it out of the water as I didn't really want to deal with it out the water.

We also did a sightseeing trip on a yacht, and the skipper said he will bring some fishing tackle as they do catch fish. So we arrived at the boat and he had hand lines, with treble hooks on the end and a piece of candy striped drinking straw over the treble hook. I was flabergasted but he said that is how they catch the bonito - they just trawl with it out the back and the bubbles coming out the back of the straw make it look like a bait fish. So we trawled around for ages with nothing on his straw lure, and i eventually got him to put on some dropshot power minnows that i brought along, and we immediately started going vas. We caught a whole bunch of Bonito with these minnows trawled behind the boat, with the biggest being still less than a kilogram, but i reckon they would be good fun on a fly. We also saw a whole bunch of Smashes on the surface which were bonito chasing smaller baitfish.

So there are fly worthy fish there, but i would try and get a local fisherman to take you out to where the schools are thicker and you could possibly then have some decent fishing.

I am not sure if it is the same everywhere in the med, but that particular area was not great, and it's pretty close to greece.

[fly_mike]

Thanks for the reply.

I am going to be a little more west of athens, so furhter from Turkey (not sure whether that is a good or a bad thing).

Think I might just pack the rod anyway. Would suck to not have it and run into a perfect scenario for some FF. Going to be on a boat at sea when fishing so maybe a bait ball or something will materialize.

Regular bait fish patterns should be the order of the day right?

[beefybovril]

I have been exploring the med for the past week, equipped with my tackle and a serious interest in casting a fly. Well, all I can say is don't even bother!!! I didn't even get a rod out of its tube. Apart from the odd mullet and the harbour - 'no fishing allowed,' the largest fish I saw couldn't have measured more than 5 cm. We were on Milos, and hired an ATV to take us to the more remote beaches for romance......and fishing of cos recces. Nothing, Nadda, Zilch and zero are the words I would use to describe the life in the water. We looked everywhere and saw nothing.

Would love to hear otherwise because the water just looks so fishy, but seems this place is really a desert sea.

Oh, and the same experience in Turkey 2 years back.....

[fly_mike]

Thats terrible, but echos what my uncle has said. He said they do pick up small tuna offshore (primary targets) but the big boys are all gone (for all practical purposes).

Just shows we need to protect SA's water to prevent those same people coming here, as well as our own commercial fishers, and raping our seas!

[firephish]

Would love to hear otherwise because the water just looks so fishy, but seems this place is really a desert sea.

I was on the med coast of spain, just north of tarragona, a few years ago and saw a guy spinning get a fairly serious leerie. Also saw people getting shad off the pier in Barcelona.

[Korrie]

There are still fish in the Med. Maybe not as much as there use to be.
Most of the towns and villages have a fishing fleet, with fish markets in all the towns. If there were nothing, there would be no fisherman going out everday.

There are leervis, dorado, tuna in fairly good numbers.
If my memory serves me correct, the world record leervis came from the harbour wall at Nice or Cannes in France.
In one of my overseas mags, there is a lovely article about dorado off the coast of Sicily. The problem is that the water in the Med can be so clean, that the fish tend to be skitish.

NB VERY IMPORTANT.
You cannot take rod tubes into any cabin fly to Europe. (even had the odd problem with local flights)
Up to about 18 months, it was possible, but NO MORE.
The most of the airports wont let you book it in seperatly as well. If it does not fit into your luggage, dont take it.
You might be still get away flying SA to Europe, but when there, YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS!!!!!!

[beefybovril]

I have been thinking quite a lot about what Korrie and Phirefish have said about fish being caught off the Spanish and French coastlines, and have also been researching fishing in the med in general. I kept a very close eye on the nets coming off the fishing boats in the harbours of the Greek islands, and saw nothing exciting or substantial. Also, I have dived off both the Greek and Turkish coasts and seen nothing each time, bar some seaweed on the ground. The visibility is great but there is nothing to see....

My theory.....let me know what you think of it:
Remember that the coastline off Greece, Turkey, Syria....all the way round to Egypt has been harvested for the longest period of time on Earth, due to the ancient civilizations living here. The technology and development on this part of the Med has been far more intensive compared to other coastlines and I am sure this must have played a part. Also, being further away from the straits of Gibraltar and the productive currents bringing in blue fin etc., maybe these parts of the Med fish very differently to the med further West towards Spain and France. My thoughts, and would be interested to hear what you think???

[fishlover1]

Hey there,
I go to Cyprus 2-3 times a year, and to be honest, dont even bother taking a rod of any sort. Whilst snorkelling along a nature reserve the largest fish i saw was not much bigger than 10cm. I have yet to catch anything there, but have mainly given up, as now it seems hopeless.
sorry to burst the bubble, but to see such a lifless see is very dissapointing, as the waters there seem to be the perfect home for exotic fish, but its dead.

Nick.