Ebro Catfishing

It’s been blazing sunshine all the way for the last few days and as the water temperature begins to rise the fish have begun to show more signs of getting back onto the feed.  Best fish of the trip was a heavy weight of 115lbs caught by John Sartin from a location in the Delta area, and this is John’s 5th 100 plus cat caught down the years with www.ebro-catfishing.com. Mullet livebait fished in the margin was the successful formula this time. Other fish in the last few days have included Martin Campbell 85 & 43, Del Elliott 71, Ray Jennings 95, aswell as a 91 for John Sartin.

The fishing is still slow at the moment with the water remaining unseasonably high and cold following large amounts of rainfall across northern Spain. There was a welcome result this afternoon for Oscar Phillips with a 114 and Jason Sinclair with a 61. Despite the bright conditions, the fish both took a liking to mullet live-baits presented close to the surface.

Dale Blowes finished off his trip in fine style with this fantastic 123lber from a margin location upstream of Amposta. The fish gave an exciting take, chasing a large mullet in from the channel into the margin before whacking it hard on the surface. This fish is clearly spawned out with an absolutely hollow girth, a few weeks ago this 7 footer would probably have been a comfortable 140-150!

An influx of cold rain water into the river has dropped the temperature back down to lower than 16 degrees celsius and this does not seem to have had the desired effect on the fishing! Instead of the usual post spawning feeding frenzy we seem to be in a state of limbo with the cats somewhat circumspect with regards to munching livebaits.

Fortunately today saw an improvement in the catch with 2 good fish falling to the rods of Mark Fitzpatrick (104) and Dale Blowes (94), a relief after a couple of disappointing sessions.

Pics of Fitzs’ 104 to follow……

Kevin Sinclair and Paul Iddon had an enjoyable day at Deltebre today, each bagging a respectable moggy of 81 and 95lb respectively. Some extra water in the river seemed to have stirred things up a little bit, with the cats happy to accept live eels fished in the margins.

Big mullet are a great bait for tempting some of the lower Ebro’s larger residents and today was no exception as this monster took a liking to a mull in the 3 - 4lb category. The fish was again found lurking in relatively shallow water and weighed in at 126lb, just a pound short of a personal best for a delighted Dave Couzens.

We are reaching the back end of the spawning activity with the odd fish now looking to feed, and this 110 lber, caught by Tony Scott clearly exhibits the bite marks from other fish incurred during breeding. This powerful specimen accepted a mullet fished over a shallow plateau in the Delta area and put up an exciting fight with some zippy runs in the low water.

Some vile weather with heavy rain fall had coloured the river up today, with increased flow and a temperature drop back to around 16.5 celcius. The result was an up turn in activity, but unfortunately it was only small fish that were playing with a sprinkling of 30 and 40 lbers. Amongst these, however, was an absolutely stunning albino fish of 41lb, caught by a delighted Jim Cheslin - Smith on his first ever outing on the Ebro.

The cats continue to largely ignore the baits as spawning continues, but once again there’s always one that will give you a chance if you keep plugging away. This time Lawrie was once again the captor of a 75lber, covered head to tail in bite marks and spawning abrasions, and taken from the Delta area on mullet.

The action has been thin on the ground with the catfish of the lower Ebro seemingly disappearing during the spawning activity. Even the best quality mullet livebait cannot interest the fish when they are ‘getting their fin’s over’.

However, there’s always one exception to every rule, and this 133lber made the day for Lawrie Holland. It’s Lawrie’s 5th catfish over the ton mark caught with Al and Martin down the years.