Wild Sea Expedition, another vision of fishing by Nicola Vitali

Discover the portrait of Nicola Vitali, founder of Wild Sea Expedition and pioneer in extreme sport fishing trips.

Hello Nicola, could you introduce yourself to our readers before we begin?

Hello Rodmaps team. My name is Nicola Vitali and I am an organizer of sport fishing trips in the Red Sea and the Middle East. I own a mother ship in Sudan, have organized fishing trips to Socotra from 2010-2015 and have just started again with a tented camp.

I also plan to create a base camp in Eritrea and exo fly fishing trips in Djibouti. Together with a partner we are also starting a jungle camp in Peru for Arapaima. Besides that, I organize trips around the world with my old clients who want to travel with me and fish in new and unusual places. We specialize in fly fishing, popping and jigging.

Where does your passion for fishing and exploring come from?

These two passions have been in me since I was very young. At the age of 3, I asked for a fishing rod when no one was fishing in my family. The same is true for exploration.

When I was a child and later as a teenager, I did not find myself in “classic” activities (well, a small part of my time was still devoted to that). I've always had the spirit of exploration

When I was 12-13 years old, I took the bus to go fishing in my little creeks lost in the mountains or I went cycling on the Po. I got used to taking care of myself quickly since my childhood.

 What does fishing mean to you?

Although getting older changes my outlook somewhat, fishing is still a way of life for me. First of all, fishing is my job and therefore takes up an important part of my life.

Second, fishing allows me to clear my mind and makes me forget a lot of the bad things in life.

Finally, I no longer care about the quantity or size of fish (for me, of course, I want my customers to fish well), but fishing has become my way of life and an excuse to explore the world, visit an amazing place and sharing the experience of good guys from all over the world.

Do you have a favorite fish or fishing technique?

Hard to say… Over the past 12 years I have had the opportunity to Popping a lot for GT, and a lot of fly fishing puts GT and other species on the flats.

I would say that now what I prefer depends on my mood. Whether I want to work hard to have a huge GT in topwater, or if I want to go get trigger fish in the flats, or even jig like a patient looking for a big doggy.

You created a company called "Wild Sea Expedition", dedicated to extreme fishing trips. What destinations do you currently offer and why?

Originally, we were born in Sudan and Socotra (Yemen) which are very wild and non-fished destinations. Then we put Socotra on hold for 4 years and we had time to explore other Red Sea destinations.

In 2020, after much preparation and improvement, we will be able to offer trips to Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Socotra.

We will also organize fly fishing explorations in Eritrea, Djibouti and Socotra.

We are also starting to send fishermen to Peru for the Arapaima. The reason why we promote these destinations, despite the organizational difficulties, is that we like original and unique products with the best possible service.

Why did you choose to become a fishing guide and especially in such conditions? What motivates you the most during these trips?

Enjoy and be able to spend my time in wild places far from any civilization. To be able to observe mother nature in its purest state.

What are the qualities to be a good fishing guide according to you?

Understanding fishing and how fish might think is the foundation for me.

Then to be a really good guide you need to be able to handle the whole trip which means which client is going to fish where, when and with which guide depending on their fishing skills and itinerary.

Understand how far you can go in your teaching depending on the type of clients. Sometimes you can teach a guy properly and make him a better angler by the end of the week.

And sometimes it's easier to just ignore the teaching and just take them fishing with a lot of patience.

Do you have other projects in mind that you would like to share with us?

As I said, our project is to open Eritrea for popping and fly fishing, Djibouti for fly fishing as well as Socotra.

We are also developing Peru for Arapaima fly fishing. The Andaman Islands and Gabon are other destinations where we want to cooperate with some local operators, also for popping and fly fishing.

Nicolas Borreau from Rodmaps made his first exo trip with Wild Sea Expedition a few years ago. He told us that he had one of the best moments of his life thanks to you and the big GT he caught. Do you remember this moment?

Yes, I remember them very well, like most of the fish I have guided for (although there are many). The trip ended on a good week. If I remember correctly, from March 2 to 12, 2014. Our four fishermen caught 58 GT. Nicolas fished well, but he was very used to more “light” peaches.

Exo fishing was very trying and Nicolas lost confidence in himself day by day. He finally managed to shoe a beautiful GT of about 45 kg. Once he put her on the boat, he burst into tears.

After so much work and a lot of effort, he finally got his dream fish. After that he only fished with a light set.

 We're sure you must have thousands of stories to tell us. However, do you have one in mind that you would like to share with us?

The highlight of my career was when I had the best GT fishing trip in history (6 guys had 325 GT attacks in 8 days) and when we got back from this secluded spot we learned that Saudi Arabia had bombed Sana'a airport.

We had to leave Socotra by boat to reach Oman. I also had to evacuate all the other tourists from the island. It sounds extreme, but we were very safe and relaxed, it was just an adventure.

Useful links to get to know Nicola Vitali and Wild Sea Expedition better:

Learn to fish with a fishing guide

http://www.wildseaexpedition.com/en/