Ebro Catfishing

On April 25th 2009 Al and Martin jetted off to Florida along with Al’s dad Bryce and friend Mike Heljula in pursuit of the mighty Tarpon. Our guide was to be famous Keys skipper George Wood who we booked for 6 days fishing, morning and evening sessions.

On arrival we were greeted with bad news, hostile conditions in the shape of a brisk easterly wind coming off the Atlantic side which was having an adverse effect on the catch rate, with Tarpon really thin on the ground. The first couple of days proved to be really tough, with the tarpon seemingly not inclined to take the crabs which were being offered to them. The mullet situation was also scarce, not helping our cause (where have we heard this before?) The consolation was a number of decent sized sharks, mainly nurses, black tips and spinners, which provided good sport for all.

As the week passed the wind remained a constant, but did begin to ease on occasions, particularly for the evening sessions which were beginning to produce. The corner had been turned and the tarpon started to take, with the crabs being particularly effective. Some of the highlights included a magnificent fish estimated in the 160 - 170 class for Mart, with a 140 for Al which we were able to beach in the shallows for a good photo opportunity. Numerous others between 70 and 120 were caught, although notably in the evenings with the morning sessions remaining a disappointment throughout the week.

An added bonus for us during our stay was that George had given us permission to fish from his jetty, adjacent to one of the many bridges through which the fish patrol. We always enjoy a challenge and set our sights on snaring a tarpon from the marina. This feat was completed on the first evening of trying with Al landing a fish of around 55 - 60lbs after a great scrap. Many others were hooked and lost, including a fish of around 90lb which finally came off after a fight of around 20mins for Al. Plenty of Nurse Shark (mud marlin?) were also providing great fun and sport.

In the middle of the week we also tried a couple of days back country Shark fishing with Capt. Jack Bakkus. These days proved to be great fun with a variety of different Shark’s providing excellent sport on his light tackle outfits, including Hammerhead’s to 120lb!

Overall we enjoyed a memorable trip despite conditions which were far from ideal. The leaps and runs from the big tarpon will never be forgotten. We will return….

For an extra bit of fun follow this link to see Capt. Al wrestle with a 120lb+ Nurse Shark!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CLc9XRRtsA

A great final day of the trip for Mark Wilkinson and Steve Jones today with a late flurry of action which saw the Chester based pair bag 5 cats in the space of a couple of hours. Fish of 52, 59, 62 and 72 were boated but the highlight was undoubtedly this huge catfish of 122lb caught by Mark, his 3rd specimen to date in treble figures.

There’s been a glut of small and mid size cats of late with many kittens of anything between 15 and 60lb taking on even the largest livebaits (mullet up to 3lb!). The exception was today’s capture of this majestic 115lber, caught in the Ebro Delta area. Young Jordan Hampshire, 15 years of age, was the delighted captor although the fish did not surpass his P.B cat of 138lbs taken in March of 2008.

After wading through plenty of small catfish of the Ebro it was a relief to get back into a better class of fish today with Gary Carter bagging a 107 specimen and fishing pal Matt Nixon smashing his P.B with a superb 129lber. With problems to overcome including a scarce mullet situation along with ridiculous winds making drifting difficult this double capture was a significant result.

The Ebro was carrying extra water today and coloured an appealing chocolate brown colour. This influx of water had a notable effect on the smaller cats as incoming party Gary Carter and Matt Nixon were subjected to a kitten frenzy with 6 cats boated but 4 of these in the 20 to 30 lb category! The highlight of the day came for Matt who bagged a new personal best of 97lb from the Delta islands late in the session.

The Bishop brothers made it a remarkable double today with John boating another 160lb plus specimen from the ‘big cat alley’ drift in Amposta. This whacker of 161 took a mullet fished in a  deep water centre channel location to round off a superb trip for the party.

Darren Bishop landed this massive Ebro Delta catfish of 165lb today after a fantastic fight, the highlight of which was the initial run which saw the fish stripping the reel at an incredible rate as it sped towards the cover of a large bank of weed. The successful bait was once again a large live mullet and the fish was found lurking in a centre channel location in around 13feet of water. The overhead conditions were once again favourable for catfishing with dull, cloudy conditions and light winds.

The rising water temperatures in the Ebro (now up to @ 15 degrees celcius) have triggered the smaller fish into action and the last few days have been producing a smaller stamp of catfish anywhere between 20 and 70lb. However, at around 5pm today, this monster of the Delta accepted a mullet fished just off a weedy plateau. The fish put up an unforgettable battle with one of the runs in the 100 yard bracket and Chris ’star man’ Hull slugged it out with the new P.B for a full 20 minutes. At 171lb this is the second biggest so far of the 2009 season for www.ebro-catfishing.com.

A fantastic end to the trip today as John Shervington, the only member of the group not to have done the ‘ton up’, bagged this fantastic fish of 140lb from the islands of the Delta. The fish put up a tremendous fight making some surging runs towards the rocks, before being beaten after a lenghty battle. John also managed other cats of 98lb and 33lb on a highly successful day!

Regular visitor and well travelled world wide angler Derek Elliott had a mixed day on the river today after losing an absolute animal in the morning. Del dubbed the fish ‘the special one’ after some ripping, unstoppable runs from a definite giant of the Ebro. Sadly the fun was ended when the fish rolled on the mainline resulting in a rare breakage on the 150lb Power Pro. Fortunately consolation came his way later in the session with a new personal best of 144lb from a notorious deep water hotspot.

The pre cursor to all this action was another 100 for Terry Smith, this time 103 caught early in the session.