Ebro Catfishing

The Leer Fish are in town just at the moment, with 2 of these athletic Jacks being lost 2 days ago by Martin Turner and Russell Jones. Today we finally managed to boat one of 25lb with Dave Turner being the lucky angler. The fish put up the trademark amazing fight running nearly 100 yards across the river at lightning speed at one stage. The most incredible moment came close to the end of the battle with the fish floundering on the surface, when a large cat came up and attacked it!

Sometimes huge catfish can be tempted by even the smallest of baits, and that was the case with this mammoth fish of 157lb which accepted a palm sized carp fished on a 10ft plateau close to a weed bed. The fish was Dave Turner’s first ever experience of a treble figure cat and the 20 minute fight of some brutality did not disappoint!

The up turn in results continued today with another big hundred falling to the rod of Russell Jones. This behemoth of 132lbs accepted a large mullet livebait fished in deep water close to Amposta and is Russell’s third ton-up cat from the Ebro, although some way short of his personal best.

The 100lb cat can prove elusive for some unlucky anglers and Sean Ferries certainly falls into this category. Previous trips have yielded cats into the 80’s but never quite has the magical ton-up fallen to Sean’s rod.

This all changed early doors today, with Sean catching 2 cats in the first hour of today’s session, including this scraper 100 of 102lbs, again on a small carp livebait fished static on a hotspot.

A great way to catch your first ever cat on the Ebro is to smash through the 100lb barrier…and that’s exactly what Mick Cannings did today with this monster siluro of 126lb, caught from the Amposta section. The fish represented a little bit of ‘justice’ for Mick who was unlucky to twice pull out of fish earlier in the morning. A 2lb common carp was the successful bait, over night rain has seemingly encouraged the bigger fish to feed with mid sized and small cats coming out earlier in the week.

Martin Turner was delighted to catch this monster cat of 146lbs from the islands of Deltebre today. The huge cat accepted a small carp fished just off bottom at around 5pm and put up an almighty battle with some scintillating runs. Martin, who bagged a monster of 181lbs on last years trip, described the fight from this leviathan as even better!

Regular visitor Jane Bates enjoyed a fantastic session today catching these two monster moggies of 122 and 118lb from Amposta. With husband John out of fish playing action due to an arm injury, Jane was given all 3 rods and made the most of it with this fantastic brace! The river has been fishing pretty tough of late with only small kittens seemingly interested in taking baits, so it was a great way to break the shackles off for the Stoke on Trent based angler. Jane is our most successful lady angler with a tally of 7 hundred plus cats to her name, caught down the years.

It was looking like a tough day on the Ebro today but a flurry of late action yielded this fine specimen of 89lb for Adrian Rickard on his first ever trip to the river. The fish was caught in deep water and a caged zombie was the successful bait on the day for the Irish rod.

The last day of the trip today for Andrew Young and Paul Goodwin and the search for that elusive ‘ton up’ Ebro catfish was finally completed with this magnificent beast of 134lbs caught by Paul. Conditions have been tough with blistering hot weather and the river still in high summer mode with hot, clear water, so this fish represents a great result!

A session on the Tortosa stretch proved successful today for Andrew Young on his first ever taste of the Ebro. This 89lber took mullet livebait and gave a good scrap in the fast flowing stretch of river.