After the long drive we reach Deltebre (la Cava).
The place seems to be promising. The marshes alternate with cultivate fields of vivid colors. There is a lot of migratory birds and the place looks still wild.
Our accomodation is the Paca Hotel only a few hundred meters from the Garbì dock (the boat rental service)
The hotel is clean, with very friendly hosts, with excellent cuisine and a very well furnished wine cellar. We suggest to taste the “Vina Esmeralda” a fruity withe wine, very delicate, that leave your mouth full of reminiscences. In Spain you can't loose the famous Paella, the true one, the “Marinera”, very well cooked in Paca hotel.

So it is our first fishing day.
At 9.30 am. we are at the Garbì dock ready and with loaded weaphons. Maybe you wonder why so late in the morning. Not because we like to rise late but because there the gulls raise late and work until late afternoon. Fish start breaking the surface at 10 am. and go on until 3-4 pm. with no pause.
At 10 am. we leave the dock with our guide Juan and we head for the 40 m. bathymetric. After a few minutes we start to see fish chasing preys on the surface. They are not very concentrated because the anchovies schools are scattered along a wide but thin front. We start to catch the first mackerels and chub mackerels and we are impressed by their size, 40 to 45 cm. with some specimen weighting around 1 kg
With two of them hooked at the same time on the same rod (we used a 9’#9 and a sinking tip 300 grains line) it's a pleasure… they pull really strong until boated. Our guide said the late in the season, in october, they catch some in the 1.5 kg range. The first day have been rich and our balance is a lot of mackerels and chub mackerels and some frigate mackerel (bullet tuna) that there is called "Melba”.
Back at the dock we find the usual leerfish or amberjack caught with live or dead baitfish by some angler from Germany (they call it “alemanno”).
Then at the hotel, after a cold beer, we bring our rods in our room leaving them rigged and we enjoy a rich dinner before to go to sleep.

The second fishing day were very similar to the first one with abundance of catches of mackerels and chub mackerels and with occasional frigate mackerels. The best thing were a large front (about 60 m long) of breaking fish, due to the many anchovies scools attacked simultaneously.
The third fishing day were important because for the first time we fished without a guide.
We go. A few minutes to take confidence with the boat and we are ready. The day seems to be a good one but the " mangianze" (schools of gamefish chasing baitfish, breaking the surface ) are sporadic and fast. In the morning we asked at the hotel for a dinner with “Paella” and a pair of “Vina Esmeralda” bottles like expecting for something to celebrate. After two hours of the same fishing we start moving in a path along a 34 to 37 meters bathymetric and we find another "mangianza" but after several casts we catch nothing. The fish seems to be smart and picky but we keep trying and we find the answer. The aren't mackerels but bonitos. I catch the first one that make three or four runs and pull some ten meters of backing off of my reel and fight for some minutes before to be weighted at slightly more than 3 kg on my bogagrip.
After less than 10 minutes also Adolfo catch one. The fish start slowly, it don't seems to be a bonito but in a few seconds it show all its strenght. After a good fight it's boated and weights at 3.4 kg. My friends have a smile in his face that show all his joy. We are satisfied but keep fishing until 5 pm..
When we arrive at the dock we find a 2 kg. bass caught in the afternoon inside the estuary, literally cut in half by a large bluefish.
At the hotel we enjoy our paella and the wonderful “Vina Esmeralda” and we give to the chef the fillets of our larger bonito for the next day's dinner.
You can ask to have your catches cooked and in the previous dinners we just tasted some very good mackerel's sushi.

The next days had the same "menu" with mackerels, "melba" and bonitos and some interesting bonus species. One morning we found a large "mangianza" and among the many breaking fish some wonderful Mediterranean spearfish appeared. We stopped the boat and tried to cast for the spearfish but with no results. The positive side is that fishing is very varied and at every cast you can catch something new.
There, it's very important to care about this chance. In Liguria (Italy) we use to catch mostly frigate mackerels fishing the "mangianze" but in the Ebro's estuary it's not rare to encounter some very large fish. Our fishing week had very hot weather and water, like in tropical seas ( 27° to 29°). Obviously in this condition the large predators reduce their activity and are more responsive to meaty and easy preys (live baitfish). It's always possible to encounter the “palometon”, the local name for leerfish, and the record catch can be done but it's not easy.
We spent most of our afternoons searching palometon (those weighting 10/15 kg). Afternoons spent casting monster poppers 15/20 cm. long, and when tired we trolled enormous flies.
Saturday was our last fishing day.
We urged to have an unforgettable day. The luck helped us for this with the gift of a day full of emotions.
We leave the dock t 9 am. and head for the same fishing spot. A rendez- vous with the gulls that go straight to the food place. We only need to follow the gulls to be, after 20 minutes, among large "mangianze".
We decide to stay no more than two hours there for the same fishing of the previous days and then to go near the shore for a not conventional fishing session for bluefish and leerfish.
At 1:15 pm. we are over 13,5 mt of water and we start trolling with our fly rods.
We have a 40 lbs. steel shock tippet in one of the rods and and an Orvis 0,53mm. fluorocarbon shocker (you can damage your teeth trying to cut this stuff) in the other. The fly it's incredible: an imitation of a 40 cm. (1 kg) chub mackerel. The fly looks good in the water and we can clearly see it under the calm flat sea surface.
I were still unaware of the hard lesson that I were about to receive. After 10 minute trolling I feel the touch of a fish. Unespected, unusual and sudden. Not a stroke but a subtle take and I see that after the subtle take my not conventional fly is clean cut in half. A surgical operation by a merciless sea's killer. Withsuper sharp teeth the large bluefish did it and I felt almost nothing. With an heart attack and an adrenaline discharge leaving me breathles, still incredulous for the scene, I told to my friend Paolo what just happened. But it's not the end of the story. Still having the fly's head tied I have the hope for a return of the monster. And for real the beast comes again. I see a boil when the fish change direction and decide to come back to complete his work. Both me and Paolo look at the fish that move the water with its back for three times and finally reach the fly. My heart is full of joy: if he take the fly I can catch it. If he take and turn back, nothing can avoid an hard fight. But, what happens? He engulf the whole thing and clean cut the tippet leaving me no time to strike. At 1:15 and 40 seconds the life lesson is done. An eternity long 40 seconds. We turn pale and cant's decide if cry or curse and need almost an hour to return apparently calm ( but we still think abou this...)
The day is not at the end. In the evening we humbly come back to the dock but another emotion waits for us: leerfish. In 1 meter deep water they decide to give a show of strenght. The show it's one good for the “National Geographic”. The sea if flat calm and we see sudden 40/50 cm. waves (waves, not wakes) esploding, caused by leerfish chasing a school of 1 to 2 kg mullets. The sea opens when they pass and the silence is broken by the noise of their tails in the surface.
We are very grateful to have been in such generous place, near home and equal to its reputation.

The final balance it really positive.
In spite of the damned african high atmospheric pressure and the tropical water temperature the estuary gave us strong emotions.
The Ebro Delta is a very good Mediterranean fishing spot starting in june but best in september and actober, when there is dorado, and the chub mackerels, frigate mackerels and bonitos are in their best moment and there is plenty of leerfish, amberjacks and bluefish.

Thanks to our friend Juan, prodigal with help and suggestions. The place it's easy to reach from most European countries and worth to visit.

Useful info:
Tackle:

-Rods: 9’ft 8-9-10 weight, we mostly used the #9 , and I suggest rods not very stiff. I used a Sage RPLXi. I also suggest a #12 weight rod in the case you encounter some of the larger fish that live around the estuary.

-Reels: saltwater resistant with a good reserve of 30 lbs.backing.

-Lines: sinking tip like Teeny or Airflo, 200 to 500 grains but also intermediate and floaters for surface fishing and popper action.

-Leaders: braided ( like those tied by Rinaldin Antonio ) with fluorocarbon tippets 20 to 80 lbs. and 40 lbs. steel wire shockers.

-Clothing and accesories: depending on the season you can need stripping gloves, shoes without laces that can foul the line while casting, polarized sunglasses and bogagrip

-Flies: imitations of anchovies, sardines and generic bait fish in classic colors (we had good results with black over white and krystal flash as a lateral line and olive, lime and white also with krystal flash); don't overlook bright colored flies like pink, yellow, etc.; our flies measured from 5/6 cm. to 18/20 cm. with #6 to # 4/0 hooks.