Sardinia 2019: rock fly fishing

Premise

In March 2019 with my girlfriend Eleonora we decide that this summer we would return to the sea, since we had been missing for 4 years.
The last time we were in Sardinia, in the north of Olbia,
so in this tour we finally choose to visit the south of the island, an area where over the years we have always heard about it very well.
So we book for July in the Costa Rei area, province of Cagliari, south-east shore of the island.
After booking our flight and apartment, I realize that the second chance in my life as a fly angler is presented to me, to try the sea from the shore (the first time was a couple of years ago, on the Elba Island, where I tried the leerfish and the sea bass in the early morning but without success).
I immediately sent the news of my next trip, to my friend Carlo, a great fan of streamer fishing, both fresh and salt water, and of fly fishing in the sea.
Together we plan equipment, fishes fishables and artificials to tie.
Being my trip between the end of June and the beginning of July, we exclude to try the leerfishes (optimal period mid-August), we exclude any exits in boat (the ideal period for the forage of mackerel, red tuna is the autumn season), and therefore we focus on possible shore hunts of needlefish or sea bass, and on the technique of rock fishing, more exactly than: rock fly fishing.
That is, undermining the same rock fish that spinning friends do with the technique of light rock fishing, but with the fly fishing. Before leaving I did the necessary research on the web about this, but I found very little or nothing about fly fishing in the Mediterranean Sea or the Tyrrhenian Sea from the coast, which is why I decided to write this article. So that it can be of help to those who were to find themselves in the same condition for the first time. I have also seen several videos that I found on YouTube regarding this technique, which spinners consider very trivial, from what it seems to me, but which is not the case of fly fishing.
Even if the baits are quite similar (leaded head with rubber back, and tungsten ball of size 4 with squirmy behind, they differ only in weight, the concept is then that), the fact that they can throw away, 4-6gr baits, and that they have everything in the sensitivity of the thread, it changes everything in facing the same spots with a fly line and a fly rod.

Equipment

I take with me a light streamer rod treated for salt, the Maxia TC 9 #6, with a reel for salt water Alfa Reel 5+ armed with a Cortland WF6 floating line.
As leader and tippet I choose nylon and fluorocarbon of 0.30-0.20-0.18 and I prepare both finals to fish with classic streamer (1,5-2mt) and a long leader about 7-9mt long for “nymph” fishing among the rocks.

Flies

My salt water box is already equipped with clouser minnow, deceiver, gurgler, surf candy, and anchovy imitations.
But always thanks to the tips of friend Carlo I add some artificial ones that I still missed:
Small poppers 4-5 cm long to be used as an actractor for needlefish (or any sea bass), and especially squirmy worms of various colors, tied on sea hooks (size #10, to be precise, Partridge Sea Prince CS52) folded with pliers in order to work jig with less risk of grounding between the rocks.

After all this long and necessary introduction, let's move on to the story.

Story

June 29th arrives, and the plane leaves from Verona towards Cagliari, in the first days we begin to frequent the various coves and beaches, and between a few baths and snorkeling, I begin to dedicate a few hours with the armed and ready fly fishing rod but i don’t seen any hunted, neither at early morning or in the afternoon/evening.
So after the first empty attempts with the squirmy in the depths between the rocks, I try with a classic white/red clouser minnow and at the first shoot in front of a beautiful rock, a beautiful strike comes in fall, recovery, and it is a grouper fish! Photo of the first fly fish at sea from the shore, and immediately released.
Continuing to streamer in shallow waters, despite the perfect and beautiful spots, I get only a few brief chases of very small fish as big as the artificial one, so in the following days I decide to reciprocate the approach and concentrate on rock fly fishing, what who paid so much.
Passing the squirmy between the rocks in shallow water a couple of meters from the shore immediately attacked a goby, and a few stones later, his twin brother.
Well, the understanding of the technique is now and also what kind of spot I need if I want to get the catches: search for the possible burrows and let it pass in front of the artificial moving it slightly.
In the following days it was a lot of fun until the end of the holiday: gobies, red fishes and even a king of mullet (or cardinal fish) have been tricked by my artificial ones.
One thing that I noticed a lot in this brief experience is that red fishes and goby colonize very specific and different areas, and behave differently even in attack:
The goby wants the bait right inside the den (or almost),
while the red fish leaves the burrow, bit the artificial and returns.
Despite the small size of these catches, the technical result was of great importance for learning to read fly fishing at sea from the rocks.

Conclusion

I leave you with some of the best shots, where I managed to photograph all the captured species and where you can also see the most used artificial ones, but also the spots I faced and where I found the fishes.
See you next time!

Matteo Lavezzini