Hi guys

Got back on Sunday absolutely nackered.
We were up for 19 odd hours a day in 40 degree sunshine and loving every minute of it

My brother and I got to Barcelona Airport last Sunday (11th) and met Colin Bunn of Catmaster Tours along with one of his guides. We jumped in the people carrier along with 3 other anglers and 5 other anglers were in the other people carrier so quite a busy week for Colin.

We got to Mequinenza and dropped our stuff off at the apartments and then headed down to Colin's bar for something to eat and a couple of San Miguels. We weren't doing any fishing until 6am the following day so we relaxed and enjoyed the stupidly hot weather and then listened to one of the other group, who turns out not even to be an angler, go on and on about how fishing is all luck and you can cast anywhere you want, if the fish are hungry they will take it

We got up bright and early and went for a little jog on the Monday morning at 5am before Colin came to pick us up. Off we went to our swim which was opposite a reed island and it looked very fishy with a load of snags just off the island. We ended up fishing the swim all week as the cats were unfortunately spawning again for the 3rd time this year as were the carp, this made sport slow but we did catch a few. We rolled a dice to determine the order of who grabbed the rods, I was 2nd but due the the mid afternoon heat we decided to take it in turns to pop back for a shower. The guy who was meant to go first popped back so it was then down to me to strike if a run developed, and one did indeed. It resulted in my first ever moggy @ 60lb, I was over the moon as I all I wanted was a catfish and it didn't matter how big or small


The guy who was meant to go first came back and after a couple of hours he had a run which took him some time to bring in and when we saw it we knew why the cat weighed in at 172lb!!

The rest of the week pretty much went the same way in terms of a few fish a day. I managed a 134lb cat on the Wednesday so I also achieved my next goal of a catfish over 100lb



I caught another 3 cats, one at 51lb, one at 89lb


and one at 3lb!!!


My brother managed 3 catfish, 132lb, 134lb half albino and 137lb, I will try and get his pics asap.

We chucked a few carp rods out from Wednesday afternoon onwards as the carp were picking up the cat baits (halibut pellets X 7 on a hair) but not hooking themselves. This was a wise move as we had 10 or so carp a day, it would have been more if we put them where the cat rods were but as we were there for cats, those rods were a priority. My first carp was 19lb, instant pb. My brothers' was a 30 but he lost it at the net, he was not a happy bunny. He then caught a few doubles along with one just short of 20lb, a new pb for him! I then hooked into something a lot more substantial and it took a little while to get in. Result was a common of just over 30lb


We managed quite a few more but my brother had to beat me and he did with a 32lb common, see results below for weights

Me:
5 catfish
60lb, 134lb, 51lb, 89lb, 3lb
A few Carp
19lb, 27lb, 22lb, 30lb, 6lb, 21lb, 22lb and loads of doubles.

Also tried for some zander by catching loads of bleak, we had a few pick ups by the zander but didn't hook them. I also managed a tiny zander fry
on the whip when catching the bleak and also reeled in a roach of just under a pound on a carp rod, these are quite rare on the Ebro system now, as are the pike and rudd.


My brother
3 catfish
132lb, 134lb half albino, 137lb

Carp
19lb, 22lb, 32lb, countless 20s and a few a smidgen below 30.

Other anglers
Catfish
172lb, 167lb, 49lb, 90lb, 80lb, 50lb, 103lb, 148lb, 26lb full albino (very pretty fish) and another tiny 3lb.

Carp
6/7 30lbers
44lb
Countless 20s
Countless doubles
a couple below 10lb

[ 19. July 2005, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: j_s ]

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Here is a shot of a sunset when I asked Colin to take me out in the boat


Here is a shot of River from the castle over looking it, if you look in the middle of the picture you will see an island with trees on it and then a smaller island below it, we fished towards the smaller island. Budgie will hopefully point out a few swims he used to fish when he guided down there.


I really enjoyed the trip and was quite gutted when I got home as it was back to work yesterday morning. It had quite a profound affect on me out there and I hope to go back in 2006 for some winter carping and perhaps zander.

I would recommend going with Catmaster Tours as Colin really is a great guide and full of information as well as great stories of his past angling exploits as well as other run ins with big angling names, I won't publish them here but let's just say it surprised me about the specimen carp scene.

Also the wildlife in Mequinenza is so abundant, from kites and eagles to bee eaters and a whole load of bird names I forget, a great place for an angler to go.

Great stuff James. Well done.

Outstanding. Thanks for a great post.

I have a question: Do Spanish people ever fish for cats? What do they think of British cat fishermen?

Yep, they certainly do Ian, mostly at weekends on the Mequinenza town front. We didn't speak to any Spanish fishermen but I gather they don't mind.

What is an embarrassment though is the way some of the guiding services act towards the others, Colin has been threatened a few times now as well as his family. Windscreens smashed, tyres slashed, a boat knifed through the middle. All of this is British guiding services, not the Spanish.

Also the carp seem to have evolved to try and protect themselves from the cats, their fins are all very sharp and these ruin a landing net within 2 weeks of first using the net, they get completely shredded!!!

Also i'd just like to add we did pretty much everything ourselves, Colin helped with the location of the fish and rowed the baits out and was on hand if needed whilst we set up the baits, landed the fish, unhooked them etc. He could have done everything for us but I prefer the approach we took which was to actually fish ourselves, much more sense of achievement then

Great read that, thanks, right up to the bit about the sinister side of the guiding services. It's great to see the Brits behaving themselves abroad isn't it?

blimey!...

Send me the details of where you booked that holiday...I'm off

some great cats there! and carp too!
well done j_s

Sounds like a dream come true. Great post