Fishing the River Ebro Spain.

[Carpy]

Hi i am this year going to book a holiday, to fish the River Ebro in Spain. I am hopefully going with Andrew. I need info and help so i dont get it wrong.
I have i visited gdyso7605 site, very good it is.
Makes going thier even more special. Will be going for 10 days to 2 weeks.
Any information you have or knowledge of the area much appreciated.

[Andrew Burgess]

Budgie is the main man to speak to as he was a fishing guide out there a few years ago.

I only got a very small idea about catfishing as I did the France catfish last September.

It's look like I am such in demands these days! Fishing there and there! ;D ;D ;D

Carpy - How much will you pay me to come with you? ;D

Possibility have to give up my full time work to be the new fishing guide ;D ;D

[BUDGIE]

Carpy as Andrew says Ive been there a few times (77 to be exact!) both with mates and guiding parties of paying customers.It is the best venue in Europe to catch a treble figure cat with out a doubt.

In the early days there was only a few of us Brits going there,in fact only a few of us knew about it! The Germans were the real pioneers here in fact they stocked the first cats and zander! A bit different now though.Seems to be more "guides" than locals now! Things sadly change but the fishings still great.

Here are a couple of links to articles Ive wrote about catting in Spain and how I first got into it-

www.fishingmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/206/V/3/SP/

www.fishingmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/249/V/3/SP/

www.fishingmagic.com/news/article/mps/UAN/339/V/3/SP/

Will put together a bit on going to Spain with a few photos in the week.Shouldnt have got me going on this subject boys!!

[Andrew Burgess]

BUDGIE said:

Shouldnt have got me going on this subject boys!!

Got to get your posting figures up mate ;D

[Carpy]

I have got you on this subject Budgie And im happy with that. I will be going to great river this year, what ever. Just need to find the best option. Really looking forward to this trip. Got to get it right.

[BUDGIE]

Carpy you have hit it on the head when you say "Really looking forward to this trip. Got to get it right" All to many people dont botjher with any home work and therefore fail.

As you can see in my articles nearly two years of hard research went in to my mate Rob and myselfs first trip to Spain.I would like to think that is why we were so sucsessfull.Breaking the record with the first fish was obviously a bit of a fluke but the over all sucsess certainly wasnt.

Many years have passed since those early days in Spain and there have been a lot of changes both good and bad.However getting it right for your trip will be a piece of cake mate!

I will do a few pieces on Spainnish catting over the next week or so for you and any others who are interested.I dont go there that often now and very,very rarely guide there any more so dont mind spilling the beans so to speak.But please bear in mind I havnt been down there myself for nearly five years now so be aware of any possible changes.

[BUDGIE]

The Rio Ebro at Mequinenza,Spain

THE RIVER EBRO

The Ebro flows across north eastern Spain,rising in the Cantabrian Mountains and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea after a southeastern course of 565 miles.The Ebro is the only major Spannish river that flows into the Med.It is important for irrigation and drains an area of almost 32,000 square miles.It is a big river! Around 1970 a series of large dams were constructed for generating electricity.In the area of these they have created a series of "Embalsa's"or lakes.The depth of these can vary from in excess of 100 feet to a few inches!.Unless the dams are open they have very little flow.Away from these areas and on the various tributaries the variation in depth is not so dramatic. The flow is a lot stronger.The height of the river can vary enormousley but thanks to the HEP (Hydro Electric Power) dams the river is rarely unfishable due to flood.Although the Embalsas are often quite clear the tributaries are always coloured and cold.

The HEP dam seperating the Riba Roja and Embalsa de Mequinenza

THE FISH

A lot of people are suprised to hear that untill 1974 there were no Wells Catfish in the Ebro! In 1974 a German angler by the name of Roland Lorkowski introduced nine small Catfish.By mid '75 a total of thirty two between 8"-12" had been stocked.The seeds had been sown to create possibly the best Catfish venue in Europe.The fish grew quickly and are now caught to weights of around 200lb.

My old mate Rob Dixon with a 98lb Cat caught in the early days.The Spannish record was only 99lb then!

[Andrew Burgess]

Nice pictures Budgie. It's true that fishing below the dam at Riba Roja will only produce smaller catfish than going over the dam will produce bigger catfish at Mequinenza ?

[BUDGIE]

Sorry Andrew your post has confused me a bit.The cats are bigger downstream of the Dam at Mequinenza.The Riba Roja all the way down to the Delta holds bigger cats than the Embalsa de Mequinenza and above.At the moment the Mequinenza area ie the Riba Roja ,Segre, hold the biggest but the ones further down river towards the Delta are growing quick.Only time will tell if the Ddelta fish will out grow the Mequinenza fish.On the other great European Cat rivers,the Po in Italy and the Saone (or more acurately the Petite Rhone,which the Saone flows into) in France ,the delta regions have eventually produced the biggest fish.

[Andrew Burgess]

Sorry mate I just thought you said to me in the past (just wanted to make it clear for the website) or if I have seen a similar post somewhere before. Once again sorry mate ;D ;D

[Carpy]

Thanks BUDGIE . I have searched every site on the web for info, yours very welcome.
I have found one which has everything included, b&b , fishing licences, tackle hire for Cat & Carp fishing end tackle. plus 5 hours guided bank fishing in the morning and 5 hours guided boat fishing in the evening.
Is it better for me to book a all in trip or plan from scratch.
if i book accommodation, i will still need tackle and somebody to guide me.

[BUDGIE]

Carpy I will do a few more posts covering travel,licences,rules,tackle,bait,methods and areas over the next few days.

This will help you two ways,firstly it will give you the knowledge to "do it yourself" or secondly help select a good guiding/holiday service.Doing it yourself is a lot,lot cheaper but is also a lot harder work despite all the info I will give you.Comercial enterprises can take away a lot of this work but also a lot of your money to!

There are now like I said many guides and angling tour operators on the Ebro.My experience (based on my customers who have tried them and after seeing some of the bank side antics!)is that there are some very good and extremely bad ones.
Too many people go out there these days on a holiday with a good company ,catch some cats cutousey of the guide then return the next year as guides and catfish experts! One of the reasons that the "German" style of tackle and tactics is so common and the same areas hammered year in and year out! One "guide" I know of takes his customers to the same swim each trip!

Bit of good news and bad news about this situation though! The bad news is that the only service I could personally reccomend at this time (there are obviously many other good ones just that I dont have enough experience of them to reccomend them) is also the most expensive! That service being the Bavarian Guiding Service. A German outfit who have been there for many years now.They employ a mate of mine called Gary Allen who is English and a well experienced guide.The good news is that even the crap guides will be able to put you on some fish as it really aint that hard!

As you said its worth getting it right.

[Andrew Burgess]

Carpy, If I was coming with and as I don't know the area well for location for catfish as I only have limited fishing for catfishing experince apart from catfishing at Adam's Pool and a very little/small experince in France last year. ;D ;D

I would suggest (if I was there with you) either have a couple of days using the guides either bank or boat or both and spend the rest of the days doing it ourselves.

But it will be very hard work Our normal tackle would be no good to take with us to Spain so tackle hire is the easy option.

If I was you Carpy don't just pick the website because it is link to our website (gdyso7605) you must search around for the best deals if possible.

Here are a few examples

www.catfish-spain.com/

www.catmastertours.com/ The best bet as they gurantee a fish ;D

www.ebrovalleyleisure.com/fishing.htm


At the moment Carpy, I am still thinking about your offer but as I have Maybe two Northern France carping hoildays this year! ;D ;D just waiting for futher information to see what is going on!!

[Carpy]

Cheers BUDGIE more info needed.
I hope you can come Andrew and what you said makes sence a couple of days with a guide. And i didnt pick gdyso7605 site, i viewed loads did my homework.
one i did like www.ebrovalleyangling.com/ comments very welcome.

[BUDGIE]

Sorry,in addition to my previous post I would also be happy to reccomend Colin and his guys at Catmaster Tours.