Sport Fishing in Cambrils and Salou

If we take a look at the sea charts of the province of Tarragona - with a fisherman’s eye - there are two geographical spots that jump out at us immediately: The Cape of Salou and the Ebro Delta.

Without any doubt, the gulf named Golfo de Sant Jordi is one of the best fishing areas in the Spanish Mediterranean. The Ebro River brings a constant supply of nutrients which feeds plankton and all types of small fish, which at the same time feeds the larger predators.

The waters close to the Ebro Delta are shallow and the sea bottom is sandy and muddy which come from the river. It is necessary to sail various miles in order to reach depths greater than 100 meters. North of Cabo de Salou, however, the sea bottom drops off much faster. The ports of Torredembarra and Vilanova i la Geltru are very well located for big game fishing.

The mouth of the Ebro River is very well known for its rich waters, moderately shallow and a preferred territory for bluefish or ‘Tallahams’ and for leerfish. Traditionally, these predators are fished by trolling, but in the last few years spinning and popping have gained acceptance in the Delta. While fishing in the Ebro Delta we have bites from horse-mackerel, sand mackerel, and sea bass and if we are sufficiently far enough up the river, we have been surprised by a 2 meter long catfish.

The rocks and the wrecks found throughout the Golfo de Sant Jordi are hot spots for jigging and deep sea fishing. Depending on the sea depths it is possible to catch dentex, amberjack, Atlantic bonito, mackerel, and little tunny among others. The winter is when we mostly do deep sea fishing, because when we are trolling is very difficult to catch a decent specimen. Bottom sea fishing, here we catch green wrasse, forkbeard, red bream, white sea bream, black spot sea bream, meagre, etc.

Big game fishing takes place from April until October. We start fishing more than 20 miles out from the coast, where the sea bottom drops rapidly off to 1000 meters in depth. There are some spectacular fishing areas such as ‘Les Mamelles’ and ‘El Rinyo’, where the sea bed rises from 1200 meters to only 200 meters. Around these mountains there is an abundance of sardines, anchovies and mackerel, which at the same time are magnets for red tuna and swordfish.

It is interesting to know that this area, understood as the area between Tarragona and the Balearic Islands, is where the bluefin tuna spawn. This is not just a crossing point, these fish are here from the end of March to the end of October.

Since fish farms introduced bluefin tuna near the coast of L’Ametlla de Mar, there are giant tuna fish only 2-3 miles out from the coast. During the summer months huge catches of Giant Bluefin Tuna (up to 400 kg) are frequently fished while chumming.

For those that don’t want to spend an entire day at sea, or those that don’t want to be quite so far from the coastline, we propose trolling along the coast. In general we do an easy going in-shore trolling and light tackle fishing with small lures used to catch mackerel, horse mackerel, Atlantic bonitos, and sea pike, among others. But we are also able to set up much larger lures or fresh bate such as cuttlefish, octopus, or sea pike in order to attract leerfish and bluefish during the months of July, August, and September.

There is also the option of deep sea trolling, exploring the rocky areas and those of the ‘Poseidonia’ where the giant dentexes, amberjacks, and other fish hide...

By Rail: The AVE (high speed train) goes directly to Tarragona. From Madrid it takes about 2 hours.

By Air: The nearest airports are Reus and Barcelona. The Reus airport is 20 minutes from the port, while Barcelona is just over an hour from Cambrils and Hospitalet de l'Infant.

By Car: For those want to drive, take the A2, use exit 37 for Cambrils and exit 38 for Hospitalet de l'Infant.