OUR EBRO CATFISHING HOLIDAY 2008 by Adrian Shaw

In June 2007 we visited the River Ebro at Mequinenza for the first time. Whenever going somewhere to fish for the first time it is preferable to enlist the services of an experienced person to help put you on the right spots and do the Donkey work. We spoke to several established catfishing guiding services to find out what they could offer us and at what cost. Although it was going to be our first time catfishing in Spain we are all very experienced anglers and had decided therefore that although we needed some assistance we certainly did not want a fully guided catfishing trip. The Company we found that were the most flexible and therefore most able to accommodate our requirements was Raw Angling. It was therefore very easy when we decided on a return catfishing trip for April 08 we simply contacted Nigel at Raw Angling again and told him what we wanted. He was able to supply us with a fantastic apartment just outside Mequinenza right on the banks of the Ebro in Spain. The apartment is only a few years old and is fitted out with all modern appliances. It has two bedrooms with two beds in each but could very comfortably sleep 6 people if you include the folding beds. Nigel was also able to obtain our licenses for catfishing  in advance. This is a real bonus as it can easily take up half a day of your trip running around organising these. All our catfishing bait and tackle was supplied by Nigel as well. Good quality 22mm predrilled halibut pellets, which are better and cheaper than the ones from some of the tackle shops. All the tackle is top quality. Fox Silure 12ft 3.75lb rods, Shimano big spool reels fully loaded with 65lb braid, solar rod pods, also seats, landing nets, scales etc.

We arrived on the early flight from Stanstead, which landed, at Reus at approx. 9.10am. The 4 x 4 hire car was waiting for us in the car park outside. Just a note here. Fishing anywhere on the Ebro or Segre I would say that if you are serious about your catfishing or carp fishing or  it is advisable to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. It is not always essential but on many swims it will be the difference between fishing and not fishing. The drive from Reus to Mequinenza is easy enough and will take about 90 minutes. We were after a quick turnaround so that we could get off to start checking out swims and this is not a problem for the Raw Angling guys. Jason dropped off the key to the apartment and sorted out the tackle that we had arranged to hire. We also loaded up 6 x 20kg bags of pellet and roped the inflatable to the roof. Just a note. If you intend to fish as we did without a catfishing guide for most of the time then you will require a boat to check depths and take hookbaits out. On the previous trip we had taken out our own boat as hand luggage! It was a Sevylor Fishunter, which proved to be good until the temperature rose. From 11am through to 5pm the high air temperature made the boat go all ‘floppy’ which made it very difficult to manage in the water. As a result we decided to hire a dinghy for the week. Raw Angling is able to arrange hire of a really good quality inflatable with a wooden floor that is roof mountable.

After having a quick sort out with luggage and stopping to take on board a couple of well earned beers we started on our check on the swims down on the river. We had decided that if we had a choice we would fish the Segre so that is where we started looking. We began quite a long way up at the end of the Nature Reserve. The water was very coloured, flowing fast and full of weed. Not good! Most of the swims were taken, we stopped to talk to a few people and found that they were waiting for the flow to drop and for the big spawn full catfish to start going up river. Now although we did not necessarily agree with the thinking that the catfish go up river to spawn we did want to catch catfish and here was probably not going to be the place at the moment. The orchard was full as was the Pump House and High Bank. We retired back to the bar to discuss matters. The decision had been made for us really, we decided to head to the Upper Lake of the Ebro for a look.  We took the road round the outskirts of Chiprana past the fruit factories and stopped on the boat ramp. We could see that the water was significantly down still from when we fished the year before. We talked to a few anglers and a guide that we knew and the news was again not good. The upper lake had come up in level by 7 metres the previous week. All this cold water and debris had had an adverse effect on the catfishing and carp fishing, not a lot was coming out. This I guess is the chance that you take. We were limited to coming out at this time of year because of school holidays and we therefore have to deal with whatever the conditions are at the time. We agreed that the best bet was to come back catfishing on  the Upper Lake the following day and concentrate our efforts on one area to try and entice the catfish into feeding. We drove around for a while checking different swims. According to our contacts one swim that had produced well before the influx of the fresh water was the ramp on the opposite bank from the boat ramp. We drove round and checked it out. There were a few Spanish anglers carp fishing in the swim, which was not surprising seeing that it was Sunday afternoon. We guessed that they would be gone in the morning so we agreed that this was going to be the place to focus our efforts on.

The following morning found the alarm clock sounding at 5.15am. The car was loaded with all the catfishing tackle and enough bait for the day. We had left the boat chained and locked at the side of the boat ramp so at least we would not have to drive at 40mph. The drive from Mequi to Chiprana takes a little longer in the dark around the winding roads with hairpin bends. You can do the whole journey without seeing another car, however you will meet several articulated lorries so it does pay to take care round the corners and pay attention to the road.Sure enough the Spanish carp anglers from the previous day had gone so we decided to fish two people either side of the ramp. Dave and myself on the right and Andy and Nick on the left. I mentioned before about having a 4 x 4 vehicle if possible. The track leading to this swim had been partially blocked by a land slip and if we had not had a 4 wheel drive we would have had to walk the last ¾ of a mile, not particularly enticing with cold rain falling steadily.Once set up Dave and myself drove round to get the boat. I rowed the half a mile across just as the sun was coming up over the hills. We then sounded both swims using the boat. And found that the old riverbed which is the only feature in the flooded valley and therefore what you want to be aiming at was about 180 yards from our fishing positions. We made reference points using features on the opposite bank and the bridge downstream so that our baits would go out to the same position each time. You cannot clip up! We then took it in turns to row the baits out two at a time and put two handfulls of free offerings around each.

Because the mornings were so cold the action was a bit slow to start with. The carp were the first to show with Andy who had started fishing both rods for carp catching a couple of commons at around the 20lb mark. I then had the first catfish of the trip at 80lb, a nice fish to start. Nick then had a couple of catfish around 30lb as the catch rate picked up slightly. Andy had a few more carp, Dave had the biggest carp of the day at 27lb and then I had the first ton-up catfish of the trip at 103lb. The rain started falling by mid afternoon and coupled with the cold northwesterly wind put the fish down and everything went quiet. We decided to pack up and return to base for a hot meal.Over dinner we discussed the strategy for the next few days as we were still hoping that the main river would have fined down enough to fish by Thursday at the latest. It was agreed that we would concentrate our efforts in the ramp swim for the next two days. We would put in half a sack of pellet over each area in the morning and then reduce to a handful or so in the afternoon. The theory was that the influx of good quality bait in reasonable quantities over a couple of days would bring the bigger fish into the swim. We had already had in one day more small fish than we did in the whole of the previous trip and our thinking was that were there were 15-30lb fish there would be big fish. Over the next two days we put our plan into effect with pretty good results. We had 4 more hundred pounders with the biggest catfish of 138lb falling to Andy. We also had many more catfish around the 15-40lb level and the carp were making a regular appearance with Nick landing the biggest at 33lb.

Thursday came but with all the rain we had had over the last two days the main river was again really coloured up and large amounts of debris was washing through making it even more difficult to fish. We talked to a few guides and the news was that only a few smaller catfish were coming out. We therefore decided to stay on the upper lake and keep the catfish bait going into the same spot. This proved to be a good call as we had the best day of the trip with four more hundred pound catfish falling to our rods. Dave had what proved to be the biggest catfish of the trip at 139lb, and there were also a few good back up catfish to 98lb.Friday was a difficult day with rain almost continuous and the cold north westerly becoming stronger. The catfish and the carp had obviously decided that they had had enough and did not feed very positively at all. Dave had a cracking catfish of 138lb that looked a lot bigger and I had the biggest carp of the trip at 35lb.Saturday proved to be a frustrating day because the weather was much improved but the fish were just not having it, probably because of all the fresh water going in the previous day. Anyway we finally pulled off at 1pm so that we had time to pack, clean the apartment and get to the airport in time for our flight at 8.30pm.

 The trip had proved to be really quite frustrating. The weather had been poor and the main river had been almost unfishable. However we had still managed to catch a good number of catfish and carp, in total having 45 cats with 9 over 100lb the biggest going 139lb. On the journey home we began to plan next years trip which looks like being in September or early October and will be focused entirely on the main river.Our thanks go out to Nigel at Raw Angling who provided us with a great apartment, tackle, bait and all the licences. His contacts on the ground in Mequinenza are both knowledgeable and helpful. We will definitely be using him again next year.

Adrian Shaw