SPANISH LESSONS

Hello to all

These drawn out summer evenings are brilliant! the last few weeks have seen me on the banks almost every day.Mainly local, quick after work sessions on the lures but aside from that, I have also ventured down some steep rocky cliff paths in search of salt water action, a pursuit I rarely ( for some reason ) indulge in.

But firstly, let us not forget my Spanish lessons on the Segre.

As readers of this blog will know,I'm no stranger when it comes to Catfish and Carp; but the fact of it is I had never caught a really large sample of either species.The mighty Spanish river systems of the Segre and Ebro hold enormous creatrure's with the carp touching 70lbs and the Cats in at a bone crunching 240 plus!

If there was ever a place to catch a lump, this was it!

However such waters are not much like the rivers I have tackled here in the UK, oh no! The Segre is a daunting sprawl of river with widths of up to 600 yards and a flow that often requires 3lb of lead to hold bottom.Not the sort of place you would turn up to and fish blind so we opted to book a trip with the help of the good folk at Cat master tours.These guys are like the A-team of Wels hunter's and main man Colin Bunn has caught more giant fish than I've had hot dinner's so it was an easy choice when it came to choosing a guide.

A week long trip in the company of fishing buddy's Danny boy , Al the hurricane and pickle was exactly what the doctor ordered.I don't think I have ever had a week without life's needs and musts getting in the way of a such an angling binge.

The weather was hot,  and the lager's cool, as was our bitch for the week ( Ryan ).who gracefully put up with us lot, and didn't even mention the dead bird we scooped out the water,  then covered in that  carp goo crap and left on his bivvy table as an air freshener.But on a serious note all the guys at Cat masters are top lad's that do their up-most to keep you well fed, comfortable, and most importantly guide you to a fish of a lifetime.

over the course of the week we all had ton up catfish, as did our Swedish friends Henrick and Bo.It was a very social trip with us all pitched together sharing the runs lottery style.This is not essential as you are welcome to fish your own two rods, but by the end of the week it had only been 3 out of the 8 rods that did all the catching so if we were to have fished our own rods there would have been some rather sour looking faces on the journey home.

All the Cats fought like Demons with some of them beating us up a bit. After landing a 141lb fish I had bruises around my groin from digging the butt of the rod to gain more leverage against the heavy flow and a lump on the hook. Awesome stuff!

Aside from our target species we did a spot of feeder fishing and caught some cracking Roach. Zander also featured in our catch which were great fun on ultra light lure fishing tackle.

the majority of Carping was done from a boat which proved very use-full for exploring the many inaccessible ( from land ) area's the river had to offer, however the largest carp we had was caught from the bank. Al the hurricane destroyed his p.b with a strapping 38lb 2oz common so well done that man.

We all had a proper hoot and got some pb's smashed, if your thinking about a trip to Spain I can't recommend Cat master tours enough!Thank you Colin Ryan and Ash and big up Henrick and Bo Bo,We'll be over shoon to catch your pikes and zanders.

Til next time

Good luck

IN A SPIN

Hello to all

As I sit and write, I can feel that warm tingle on my face from all the sun I have exposed myself too.I gotta stop forgetting the sun cream, Anyway my angling exploits have taken me some miles this month and I'm starting to really feel the lack of sleep catching up with me.

There is a lot of catching up to do as I have very busy on the banks but have found little time to put it to pen, to start of with let me just confess my new found love of lure fishing. I sneaked a couple of sessions on the river before the close season hit us tacking a few good doubles on the trusty shad hammer,whilst slowly bouncing  perch replicants  through slack water.

over the last few weeks I have made thousands of casts, firstly I fished a BLAC (British lure angling championships) qualifier on the Exeter canal, Lets just say that was some what of an eye opener. Just like my pal Julian predicted it was the perch anglers that really stole the show. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm complete novice in the art of lure fishing but the guy I was paired with (Dan Sissons) most defiantly was not.The first thing I noticed was how small the lures (20mm shad with a 1g jig-head) he had rigged up on his rods were. after a chat he explained to me he intended on using tiny cute little lures to bag up on small perch, after all a big fish can also take a small lure can't it?

I took us to an area I knew held some perch as they had been following a large spinner bait I had been using there a few days before.We arrived in the swim and I put on a nice shiny replicant twist in a roach pattern fresh out the packet, there on the far margin stood a nice overhanging bush which most often houses a pike or two, lets get the lure right under it I thought.....Wrong, like a complete bell-end I lobbed it straight into the bush and had to crack the lot off.

I don't think Dan noticed or perhaps he was to polite to laugh,either way I had quite literally got off to a cracking start.But enough about my noddy exploits,this dude from Portsmouth was slaying it. He was working  micro lure's close to the near bank, consistently catching small perch along with the odd micro jack. his impressive catch earned him a qualifying position in the final which will be held at the mighty Chew valley reservoir.

I finished the match with a perch of 15 cm which saved me from an embarrassing blank on my own turf, still I learned a lot from my time watching Dan and yes I now have my own ultra light set up (a 6ft 3-12g casting rate rod coupled with an ultron 1500 loaded with 10lb braid) and I'm pleased to say In the short time I have owned it I have caught lots of  Perch, some jack pike which really go like stink when they realise there hooked and a few Zander to the 5lb mark.

This method of fishing I have found to be very absorbing and addictive, and best of all lots of fun.

The next lure fishing adventure had no place for the ultra light tackle or baby lures, a qualifier on Chew saw lots of familiar faces from the pike fishing scene and beyond all gathered outside the lodge like excited children waiting for the sweet shop to open.The prospect of a bit of unseasonal lure angling on what is considered the best Pike water in Europe had us all going stir crazy.

I was hoping for it to be a bit of a turkey shoot but on the day we found the pike to be very inquisitive in that we had lots of follows from big and small pike, but they just weren't feeling angry let alone hungry.however some pike were willing to have a go and during the 6 hours we had afloat I managed 2 pike and a rainbow trout of the surface, which went totally ballistic giving me a proper scrap. However trout did not count towards the total so I finished with a un- qualifying length of 115 cm, else where on the water John Horsey's boat partner landed a 20lb plus Pike which I believe was the only big Pike of the heat. But fish of the day had to go to local lad Danny Parkins who had a 9 inch swim bait engulfed by a 3lb 8oz Perch, what a jammy git! 

Aside from the lures I have also been doing some serious bait and wait fishing, a trip to the awesome river Segre in Spain saw me and the boys embark on a epic adventure in search of silly sized Cat fish and Carp.And yeah I did take my ultra light lure set-up as I believe there to be some good Zander fishing also.

But that's a whole different story.

Until next time

Good luck