Species Hunting Adventures On Sardinia: Part 1.

A trip to Sardinia had been on my to do list for a few years, so when my mate Lee suggested we go, I obviously said I’d love to. Lillian was also keen to come too, so last month we made the long drive down to Lee’s and then very early the next morning, the three of us flew down there from London Gatwick. Lee organised everything and it was nice not to have all the hassle that goes with booking flights, accommodation and a hire car for a change! After landing in Olbia we drove west to Isola Rossa, where we’d be staying for the duration of our holiday. After unpacking our cases, we went for a walk. A strong wind was blowing onshore from the northwest, and the sea was crashing onto the rocks at the back of the town’s large marina, but inside it was nice and sheltered. 

The red rock a few hundred meters offshore that the town is named after.

We decided the inside of the marina’s breakwater would be our first fishing spot, but we were quite hungry so headed back into town for some pizza and beer. 

After our late lunch, we were all feeling pretty tired, so we headed back to the apartment for a much needed nap. When we got up, we headed down to the marina to see what fish we could catch. We decided not to set any kind of fishing targets for the trip. In fact, neither of us had done any pre trip planning, we were happy just to wing it, do some fishing and target whatever species were present. Trying various spots around the marina, it quickly became apparent that we might actually struggle to catch anything! It strangely seemed to be devoid of fish!

Lee fishing away, waiting for bites. 

Eventually I caught a couple of fish. This being the second of two saddled seabream I caught. 

The next day we drove west to Castelsardo, officially one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. From the end of its port’s outer breakwater we got a great view of the ancient fortifications and the colourful buildings on the steep slopes surrounding them. 

The ancient town of Castelsardo.

To begin with, we fished inside the port and were quickly getting lots of little nibbles. Lee was fishing with soft plastics on a jighead whilst I fished small pieces of squid just above the bottom. I had to scale down to a smaller hook to find out what was biting. 

It turned out to be black goby, and they were present in large numbers.

After catching several black goby, and nothing else, we moved along to a gap in the wall of the outer breakwater and fished from the rocks there into the sea. It was quite windy and the resulting swell made fishing tricky. I caught a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse further out, whilst Lee pulled out a beautiful East Atlantic peacock wrasse from much closer in amongst the boulders.

Mediterranean rainbow wrasse would turn out to be by far the most prevalent wrasse species of the trip for me. 

Lee’s stunning East Atlantic peacock wrasse. Easily the most colourful example I’ve ever seen. 

After a while we hadn’t caught anything else, so we decided to head back to the car and drove south to the large port city of Alghero. At the first spot we fished in the city’s expansive harbour, there was a large shoal of juvenile annular seabream.

Catching these small annular seabream soon became quite repetitive.

Moving to fish along the outside of the northern breakwater of the port, I spotted a few blenny sitting on some submerged rocks. I had an idea which species they were, but there was an element of doubt in my mind, so I spent ten minutes or so trying to catch one, just to be sure. 

My suspicions were correct, they were rusty blenny. This particular specimen was rather plump!

A bit further along the rocks we found some deeper water and focused our efforts fishing over a cleaner area. Again, I fished small baits just above the bottom whilst Lee fished with lures. There were a few fish around and we were fairly sheltered away from the wind. 

I caught a solitary painted comber,..

…a couple of common two banded seabream,..

… and also my first East Atlantic peacock wrasse of the trip. 

Annular seabream were also around in good numbers. 

Lee wasn’t catching as many fish on soft plastics, so he went off to try his luck at another spot on the inside of the breakwater. When I went over to join him, he told me there were lots of damselfish in a corner next to where he was fishing. I switched to a split shot rig with a very small hook and quickly caught a few of them. 

Although we didn’t have a target, I just couldn’t help myself and added a damselfish to my tally. 

I also caught a few small seabream and wrasse by letting my split shot rig fall all the way to the bottom. Just before we left, I also caught a goby. Swinging it up to my hand, I quickly recognised what it was and realised that I had caught a new species! 

My first ever red-mouthed goby! I had no expectation of catching anything new on Sardinia, so this was a very welcome surprise indeed!

After a while, we walked back to the car, put our tackle in the boot, and went for a stroll around the older walled part of the city. Many medieval features remain, most notably its high sea walls. As well as some sections of the city’s fortified walls, there were several pieces of wooden artillery on display that would have been used to attack the ships of unwanted visitors. 

Quite an impressive catapult and some hefty stone projectiles on display. I’m not sure if this is an original weapon or a reproduction. 

The following day the wind had picked up again, so we drove west to Stintino. Being located on the eastern side of a peninsula we figured it would be fairly sheltered. It was, but when we arrived at the first spot it was raining heavily. When it stopped, and we started fishing, we were quickly approached and politely told we were not allowed to fish in that area. At the next spot the bottom was very snaggy, and the fishing was very slow. Apart from a few juvenile Mediterranean rainbow wrasse, I struggled to catch much else. 

More spots that looked very fishy turned out to be pretty much devoid of any fish. 

With a lot of perseverance, and by moving constantly and trying a lot of different spots, I did manage to add one sharpsnout seabream and a five spotted wrasse to my tally, but it was really, really tough going. 

Only my second ever sharpsnout seabream. 

I pulled this tiny five spotted wrasse out from a deep hole in the rocks.

By this point, it was becoming quite clear that the fishing was going to be very challenging. Most of the areas we visited looked like they should hold plenty of fish, but the lack of any was quite startling. After some seafood for lunch in a small restaurant, we headed back to Isola Rossa. In the evening we fished around the marina again. It was another tough session, but Lee’s persistence with soft plastics was rewarded when he caught the biggest fish of the trip so far.

A cracking black scorpionfish, a nice reward for his efforts. 

The following day, we drove all the way over to the northeast coast. The first two places we visited, we didn’t stay long because it turned out fishing was not allowed. We ended up driving into Olbia where we fished for a couple of hours over an almost featureless silty seabed. We quickly discovered there was a very healthy population of black goby in the area.

All we caught was black goby. The bottom was carpeted with them. I must have caught about fifty of them by the time we gave up trying to catch anything else!

Sardinian goby fest 2025 in full flow.

I did spot a blenny down the side at one point, but it swam off into a crack and refused to come out again. Feeling pretty deflated at this point, we again put our tackle away in the car and spent a few hours wandering around Olbia, Lee treated himself to a pair of hand made loafers, and then we went for some pizza and pasta before driving back to Isola Rossa.

Passing this fountain in Olbia, I was tempted to toss a coin into it and wish for better fishing!

Our first few days on the island had not been kind as far as the weather or the fishing had been concerned. Lee’s East Atlantic peacock wrasse and black scorpionfish, as well as my first red-mouthed goby aside, the fishing had been very disappointing. To make matters worse, much stronger winds were forecast for the coming days, with gusts in excess of 50mph. Before those arrived, we decided to have another evening session in Isola Rossa’s marina.

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the second part...