Ebro Catfishing

The river level was lower and the temperature of the water is slowly creeping up, around 12.5 degrees today. The cats responded accordingly in the improving conditions with these two large fish of 138 and 95lbs taken by Steve Peters and Dave Massey, both accepting live eels fished in the margins. The Ebro Delta was the successful location on the day and both anglers were delighted with new personal bests.

Follow the links below to view footage of the battles….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvrMHjiq6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2UUBCOnIUw

It’s been a really tough period in the last couple of weeks with cold, clear snow melt water making it’s way down the river, and both the mullet and cats showing little sign of feeding.

Every fish has been well earned, and this 85lber for Martin Eyres was taken on the elusive mullet and was the biggest fish of the short visit.

Here you go Dinger, 50lb, caught some time last year!

The 100lber can take some anglers longer to achieve than others. Steve Jones has taken longer than most, with this week being his third visit to the river, but finally the mile stone was reached (just) with this well earned fish of 105lb.

This cat was found tight in amongst snaggy branches and slowly took a small carp livebait offering in the extremely cold water.

Even launching the boat has been a challenge this week in the flood water conditions!

A really tough set of conditions this week, biting northerly winds and even flurries of snow with nights falling to freezing point. The river temperature has fallen again as more and more cold water makes it’s way down from the north.

This has made the fishing and bait fishing really tricky with the water much colder than the ideal. Despite this, hard work and perseverance can occasionally tempt a huge fish to take, as was proved by this whacker of 167lb which took a mullet in the margins of B.C.A. The grateful captor was regular visitor Tony Hampshire, who upped his P.B by 21lbs with this superb cat.

A great finish to the trip for Steve PIllinger today with this great new personal best of 117lb which accepted a mullet fished in a flood water hotspot. The fish was the highlight of a slightly unlucky week which saw a number of small to medium sized fish caught by the Bristol based group, who went home happy none the less!

Matt Nixon and Mark Newman enjoyed the most amazing 5 hour catfish frenzy we have experienced in over 10 years of guiding on the river Ebro. Between 1pm and 6pm the guys boated a phenomenal 6 cats, with some amazing weights: 182, 145, 130, 118, 97 & 55lbs. When the river is in flood conditions the cats can sometimes be located sitting almost on top of each other, and this was the case today as the fish were located in a known flood water hotspot.

Mullet was the successful bait, accounting for all the fish. This staggering catch was all the more amazing when you consider that the river temperature is still sub 10 degrees Celsius! The delighted Essex based pair were left with aching arms, grins from ear to ear, and many a story to tell!

Mark Newman could scarcely believe his luck, when just 15 minutes into his first ever session on the Ebro his mullet livebait was taken by this huge specimen of 163lb, one of the true giants of the lower river. The fish was located in a slack area off the main flow as the river is presently pushing through at levels verging on flood. The fish put up a highly entertaining fight, picking up the flow and taking the boat through a surging eddy in mid river, before finally being boated after a marathon scrap.

The cats of the lower Ebro are often caught at their best weights in the colder months and this was definitely true of this monstrous fish caught by Northampton based angler Andy Love. This giant of 188lb was taken on a mullet on the ‘big cat alley’ drift and is the largest catfish known to have been caught on the lower reaches of the Ebro. With the fish getting tantalisingly close to the 200lb mark it may not be long until this next land-mark is achieved.

Congratulations to Andy on this memorable capture which capped off a difficult trip in cold water conditions.