It was a day in late May and I went fishing on Secca Dei Monaci, Northern Sardinia, one of my favorite spots, one of those places that on the right days gave me incredible sceneries, but there was a cut of cold water that made it almost desert.
Having seen that cold cut, I therefore decided to change the area, approaching the coast where there was some more possibility of finding warmer water.
After a quick evaluation based more on instinct than on technique, I decided to go on the Secca delle Bisce, on a small hat not far from the central body, where the depth is about 20 meters.
As usual, I prepared myself by concentrating on the descent and dove checking the bottom looking for small signs that could make me identify some prey. When I arrived halfway down I saw a black silhouette that stood motionless a few meters from the bottom. At first glance it looked like a giant dalselfish and there was a lot of curiosity. Slowly I approached without pointing it directly, but doing a side-by-side, from above. When I arrived at a useful distance, I shot and this strange fish reacted only with a short escape and then abandoned itself dead to the recovery of the line. You can’t imagine the face I made when I realized it was a 7-pound all-black snapper.
In my life I have caught many snappers but never black. At first I thought it could be a typical color change due to their ability to camouflage, but it could not be so as it remained that color even after being brought to the surface.
There was a lot of curiosity and I asked my spearo friends if they had ever caught a snapper of that color. The answer was that never with the speargun, only with the lines. A friend told me that fishermen caught one in the island of Ponza (centre of Italy) at a depth of more than 500 meters.
Needless to say, the same evening I celebrated the capture with friends and all 12 of us were amazed when, after the Catalan cooking, the red snapper scales remained black just like when I caught it.
