Lezha

It is a hidden destination beyond the dunes of the Lagoon, in one of the most picturesque places in Albania, the destination can only be reached by boat. As soon as you arrive at the Patok Lagoon, choose to park your car at the Royal blue restaurant where there is plenty of parking places. Many boats are anchored near it and fishermen are always around. Someone from the restaurant will help you to rent a boat with a driver that will take you to a fishing spot near the estuary of Mati River.

The journey there will be one of the most impressive ones. The scenery is breathtaking with waterways, lawns and bushes while you often sail under fishing nets followed by numerous aquatic birds like ducks or pelicans. Here you can also witness one of the most special ways of fishing using special techniques when there is no electricity to lift up the heavy fishing nets(bilance)sometimes more than ten meters big.

As you can see in the video clip the heavy nets are lifted up with the assistance of power produced by running car engine. Old cars are brought over there by boats and positioned on the shores of the lagoon or Mati river banks. Of course you have to spend some petrol to run the car”s engine, but the lifting up and down of the heavy nets (bilance) is more frequent than done manually.

While you decide to fish you can chat with the local fishermen who are very hospitable and try a glass of brandy (raki) with them. In this area, you can catch all kind of fishes of the Adriatic Sea that prefer the fresh waters near the coast, such as sea bass, bream, red mullet, anchovy, white sea bream, shrimp, eel, etc. While after you are done with fishing, you can taste in one of the restaurants of the Lagoon grilled seafood, corn bread with brine or milk cream as well as crudo red shrimp, grilled eels, while the water flows under your dining table, that taste better with brandy (raki) than with white wine.