A fantastic day trip today for Damon Goodyear and girlfriend Laura Carter who have been travelling around Europe on a work sabbatical and decided to sample some Ebro catfishing while they were in the area.

After a slow start in some chilly, breezy, over cast conditions things hotted up when Damon had a quick take in shallow water close to the chicken factory and battled it out in an inland sea with a powerful fish of 136lb.

Things got even better a couple of hours later when Laura’s mullet livebait was taken by a heavy weight of 149lb up on the Tyland drift, with Laura managing to tame the fish with no assistance, to land one of our biggest cats caught by a lady angler! Both cats were showing plenty of evidence that they are fresh out of spawning, and looked fairly beaten up with cuts and tears.

The final act of the day was a 40 caught by Damon to wrap up a memorable day’s fishing.

The post spawning improvement has begun this week with the cats beginning to show again, covered in the trademark grazes and abrasions received during the breeding cycle. Steve Humphreys and his band of merry men have enjoyed a couple of days out on the Ebro with a good selection of catfish caught, the biggest a 96 which fell to the rod of John Dean. The catches have been coming from a variety of different drifts, predominantly north of Amposta, with mullet taking all the everything.

The river level has risen, with water being released from the dams, and the effect has been a temporary drop in temperature back down to around 15 degrees.

We have been quiet work wise over the last couple of weeks, with the fishing being mainly indifferent on the days when we have been on the river. The best fish of the period has been a very dark 141, caught by Kev Sinclair fishing shallow near the Chicken factory. This huge catfish put up quite a tussle in this shallow water section of the Ebro!

With the water now reaching the 18 degree range, the cats have inevitably turned their attention to spawning which means a period of tough fishing is to follow.

Despite this, Ricky Smith and Mick Riddell have enjoyed some success on a 3 day trip, with a 5 cat haul that included a respectable moggy of 127lb falling to Ricky’s rod on the final day of the visit. Mick also enjoyed some decent sport, with his 3 fish going in at 95, 88 and 60. The fish which have been boated have exhibited clear signs of spawning, leaving plenty of ‘caviar’ in the weigh sling and displaying fresh bite marks from other catfish.

All the action has centred around a particular feature, where heavy spawning activity has been witnessed, including huge cats leisurely swimming right under the boat, but neglecting to take mullet placed directly in front of their heads!

The 2012 season has kicked off with a flurry of huge lower Ebro catfish being boated throughout the months of February, March and April, with already 40+ ‘ton-up’ cats being bagged by our delighted clients. Guides Al and Martin are struggling to recall a time when the fishing has been better after a blitz of big cats, the highlight of which has so far been a fish of 183lb caught by one of our regular clients, Phil Andrews.

The season began in earnest for us around 20th February, and it was perhaps a sign of things to come when Hungarian visitor Miklos Pintor snared the first whacker of the new season in cold water conditions on an eel, a fat cat of 171lb. Other notable successes within this cool period were Matt Nixon with a 162, and Dave Ellis 152.

As we moved into mid March we had the anticipated improvement in the weather, with water temperature rising and the movement of the mullet back onto the pipes. With the favourite bait now at our disposal and the cats beginning to awaken, we experienced a spell of excellent action with 6 cat per day boat hauls relatively regular. There were some excellent fish caught during this period of March, with the 2 stand-out captures being the 175 taken by first time visitor Alex Jones followed by a 172 for regular visitor Andy Pillinger. Other anglers enjoying the spectacular action included Mark Wilkinson who boated plentiful fish up to 161lb, Lee Booker whose best was 159, and Stuart Heyburn who recorded a 4 ton haul with fish up to 157.

Moving into April the action slowed down for a period, perhaps inevitable after the feeding frenzy of March. It was not long, however, before things started to hot up again with the cats feeding up in advance of the spawning period. Phil Andrews enjoyed considerable success, catching a season’s best to date of 183 along with others at 163 & 142, with fishing buddy Jamie Layzell snaring 2 cats in the 160+ bracket. Other notable captures taking place in later April have included a monster of 169 for Wayne Grady on his first visit to the river, and also a 152 for Richard Scammell, also a first timer.

If you follow this blog you will be aware that the 2012 season has got off to a phenomenal start with some of the best fishing we, as guides, can remember in years. March and April have yielded a plethora of monster catfish with no fewer than 40 ‘ton plus’ fish already boated by our clients, with a season’s best to date of 183lb.

We still have an excellent selection of dates available for fishing in 2012 from early August right through to the end of our season in late November. We are also well aware of the economic difficulties being faced throughout Europe at this current time so are able to offer a great deal on all trips with Guest House accommodation for the late season period, with a 10% discount on your overall bill.

This deal applies to trips of all duration and party size, so please contact Al by email (ebrocatfishing@hotmail.com) quoting 10% discount, for the latest availability and a bargain quote.

* Offer applicable only to parties staying in the English run Guest House

* Offer applicable only on bookings placed after 26 April 2012

The fantastic fishing on the lower Ebro in 2012 has continued over the past few days with another big cat bonanza enjoyed by Joe Batchelor’s Stag party group from Northampton over 3 days of fishing.

Things got off to an excellent start with 2 huge catfish boated on the first morning of the trip. Richard Scammell was the first angler to hit into one,with a magnificent 151lber which smashed a mullet in shallow water close to the chicken factory at Amposta. Soon afterwards it was the turn of Calvin Keable, who bagged himself a new PB of 139lb from the prolific Campredo margin drift.

Day 2 was a little quieter although there were a couple of highlights, with Scammell bagging his second of the trip at 71lb before kindly passing his rod to Joe, who bagged a skinny fish of 85lb. Both fish were taken from a similar location close to weed beds in the margins up stream from Amposta.

The action hotted up on the final day of the trip with 5 fish boated by the guys, including a hat-trick of catfish going into treble figures. The pick of the bunch was a 144lber for Jonathan Pickering, alas 2 lb short of his previous best, with Jason Spence bagging a 102 and Mark Brown getting his first entry into the 100 club with a fish weighing exactly 100lb.

More images from this excellent trip to follow……

A flying 2 day visit to the lower Ebro has yielded a monster capture of a 169lber for first time visitor Wayne Grady. Wayne bagged 3 catfish over his stay, with the other 2 being of modest proportions.

The huge fish accepted a mullet live bait fished in the ‘Tyland’ section of the river, well upstream of Amposta, and put up a tough scrap as it towed the boat out into deep water.

Watch the action unfold by following this link:  http://youtu.be/x0l2TmDzDho

Appalling conditions have made the fishing tough for the past few days, with a gale force northerly wind gusting up to 85km/h making the river borderline unfishable for a period. Gary Carter has been the unfortunate angler having to brave the elements, and things were not helped by some bad luck which saw Gary miss / lose 3 consecutive fish of considerable size!

Things began to improve for Gary towards the end of his trip, however, with the capture of 2 decent sized cats at 85 & 115lb, both taken on mullet. The 85 was located patrolling shallow water close to a weedy margin with the 115 being found out in the deep stuff, centre channel.

Phil Andrews and Jamie Layzell have enjoyed a monumentally successful 5 day trip on the lower Ebro with no fewer than 5 catfish exceeding 140lb, and a long awaited giant of 183lb falling to Phil on day 2 of the trip!

Conditions have remained cool for the time of year which has kept the water temperature where we want it, in the 15 to 16 degree range. Mullet are currently still easily available, so all the key elements were in place for some great fishing.

Day 1 got off to the best possible start when Jamie latched into a whacker of 160lb in a well fished deep water run north of Amposta, a fantastic kick off for Jamie with the fish exceeding his personal best by over 15lb.

The second day of the holiday proved to be absolutely exceptional, with Phil boating a mammoth fish of 183lb and smashing his previous PB. The fish put up an epic tussle, and the take was also memorable. Having adjusted his depth by a small amount, the cat immediately snaffled the mullet ‘on the drop’ right off the front of the boat. Magic stuff and a great moment for Phil, who has been fishing with Al and Martin on the lower Ebro for more than 10 seasons.

Unbelievably, and just moments after this capture, Jamie whacked into another monster catfish…. in the same swim. This fish seemed just as determined as the previous one and after another epic battle we had another behemoth capture of a 163lber for Jamie, both anglers topping their PB in a matter of an hour!

The trip continued to yield more monster fish for the guys, and day 4 belonged to Phil who took a magnificent 4 catfish haul, all taken from the same mark! The weights were impressive; 78, 94, 97 and topped by another lunker at 163lb. This cat was probably the best fighter of them all, with a steely determination to take us into the over hanging trees along side which it was hooked.

There was even more action on the final day of the holiday when Phil bagged another fine fish of 142lb, his 16th ‘ton plus’ ebro catfish caught over a decade of visits!