bookhound21

The ONE thing that my husband has asked to do on our trip is to be able to fish in the Mediterranean. That's it. No other requests. The rest is mine.

I have been searching high and low and I can find NO information on fishing charters from Italy. None. Zip.

I'm stressing out.

Any advice on how to find this very specific request.

nukesafe

I don't know about now, as it has been many years since I cruised the Med., but there simply are not many fish in that body of water. We dragged all sorts of lures behind our sailboat, from Spain to Lebanon, and snagged one fish.

I saw them spearing sailfish north of Sicily, and saw a whale breach off Toulon, but that was it. Watching the commercial boats come into port each night with tiny little boxes holding their catch made me shake my head in sorrow. If anyone has more recent knowledge, please tell me things have changed for the better, but my impression was that the whole sea has been fished out.

StCirq

I don't think the whole region has been fished out. A google search revealed all kinds of information about the average catches in the Med off Italy. But I do think the OP ought to stop stressing out and let the husband do his own research if this is so important.

ellenem

Here's a website all about sport fishing (pesca sportiva) in Italy.

http://www.hobbypesca.com/sommario/home.asp

Looks likes sport fishing is a possibility near Venice from the port of Chioggia.

http://www.turismovenezia.it/chioggi...asp?PAGINA=750

http://www.sottomarina.net/motonaveisabella/index.htm

http://www.sampei.info/intro.htm

zeppole

Here's one for the Mediterranean, off the Tuscan coast

http://www.borgocontessa.it/en/fishing-tuscany.php

If you try google searches for "tourist fishing amalfi" or "tourist fishing Capri" or "tourist fishing Liguria" you might find others. Try a search for "Elba" too.

The Mediterranean has a lot of coast line with fishing harbors, and you haven't said where you are going. Sicily, Sardegna, islands like Elba, or boats leaving from Porto Santo Stefano (not all that far from Rome) might be where you should be looking, depending on your overall Italian itinerary.

Be aware that much of the fishing waters in the Mediterranean are commercially fished according to strict regulations, so double check before deciding to just cast a line.

yorkshire

Have you tried contacting the tourist office of the place you are visiting?

nukesafe

The strict regulations, and the availability of fishing charters sounds encouraging, Zepole. The site you provided mentions catching some pretty big fish. Hopefully this indicates that the Med is not the dead sea I remember from 38 years ago.

The waters were truly messed up then. One navigation trick I heard from a number of yachtsmen was, "The way to find your way into an Italian port is to follow the trail of empty cooking oil bottles". I didn't believe it, but found it was true; millions of the things in the water leading into Naples.

Another example was when we were coming into Beirut; we powered through a literal sea of orange halves, mixed with the occasional dead goat. An orange juice factory just dumped their squeezed oranges into the sea. Heavens knows what the other factories dumped that did not float.

My hope is the world's increased environmental awareness has reversed the trend.

A_Brit_In_Ischia

You probably want to find him a sport fishing opportunity, but there's a growing trend here for 'pescaturismo' - which is where you go out with a real fishing boat, and work the nets or lines with them, to bring in the catch...

http://www.federcoopescaturismo.it/l...ING/index.html

All sounds like rather too much like hard work to me!

Peter