Extreme Fishing – River Tajo a go-go!!

We have been out recently, me and the CARPdiem crew – dipping into some extreme fishing on a lovely little part of the River Tajo. The Tajo is the biggest river system in Spain, it starts in Sierra de Albarracin and ends a long way down river in Lisbon – Portugal. She’s the Mother to the River Ebro, but the big bad dirty Ebro son tends to get all the press and publicity.

The Tajo is the river no one talks about, sssh, she has plenty to offer the big girl, with her 1000km of banks, big barbel and some special carp which rival in looks carp like the The Snake Pit common, were talking about jaw dropping fish! This year Commons of near 50lb have been caught, if you read my magazine CARPdiem issue 5, you will see just how special and comparable these fish are to the best we have in the UK. Our sessions have been chopped into many different parts, starting with expats such as Stephen Buss and James Harrison and at other times my very own team!
We had high’s and low’s during this extreme session, some of the high’s, were the sort that never leave you, the ones that with or without fish you get goose pimples all over. One of the many highlights and I literally mean ‘highlights’,was the majestic or should I say intergalactic stream of shooting stars that burnt out in front of or eyes. We witnessed spectacular things during this session which will be with us for life, at one stage it was as if the gods themselves had set-off a firework especially for me, really it was too special. Angel had a class moment, for his Mothers 50th birthday (one of the days we were out), he landed a lump of 30lb common with a full shooting star display while he was playing the fish, does it get much better than that, for him at this time, no!

Memorable captures were had, with fish to over 30lb, memorable! I personally had a good sprinkling of other things keeping me happy to boot. The local bird life and friendly wildlife. We had tonnes of migrating Cranes above with there brilliant ‘V’, formations and filtered clacky clack calls, just how do they know which way is south? The cheeky Kingfisher which landed on my new Nash – Strongbow Bivy was a special visitor too, I was the bivy a test in these extreme conditions, it passed and was kissed by a kingfishers presence. I’ll take that as a lucky charm! The Marsh and Hen Harriers that were ever so close hunting low on the fields and marsh around us were majestic, just watching them was a joy, shame they didn’t catch that cheeky resident mouse which must have been so addicted to my Liver mix, blasted thing kept crawling into my bivy, baitbox and finally my bed; which I was not up for at all!

Lows: Yep, we had some, apart from the mouse in my bed, the weather dropped to ground level, we were enjoying -5 at night without doubt one of the coldest sessions to endure for me and the team this year! It was especially bad for Raul as he was sick all week, from start to finish, but he bit his lip and ground it out. At the end of the session on his last day he was rewarded not with a fish, but with information and knowledge, which will stand him in very good stead for the future. With or without fish we enjoyed the space we were in, just being frozen in those early evening in a remote sqaure of land with unknown fish about, that’s what it was all about!

Bites: We had a few, Angel got his hands onto a couple of tasty fish 30lb plus commons, likewise I managed to winkle a few out. Maize helped to secure them, as did those prototype Mistral Baits I have been testing. Actually I have been dousing all my hook baits with a certain Liquid Liver from Concept for you, I have to say this has been doing me no end of favors. Big balls to the tune of 30mm size Boilies also accounted for fish as did the Dynamite Baits Source Boilie (pop-up) fished with a piece of Enterprise Baits corn, a real mix of baits got the Spanish river carp hooked, but nothing more obviously than the other.

Angel, tried margin work and went vegetarian or organic which is rare for the Spanish, he was on dried apricots at short range, he was sure he would pick up a Comizo Barbel, I had doubts, I didn’t trust the bait, but I always try to keep the faith, as I have seen Angel before winkle a fish or two on dried fruit in the past, never say never. Raul on the other hand, tried a mix of things in the short range margin too his right, he was fishing in 4-5ft of water. He did manage a get a pick up, on his Maize rod, but the fish made a sharp exit into the reeds and was never to been seen. This was a shame as looking at the stamp of fish coming out lot’s of upper 20’s and low 30’s, it could well have been a new p.b common for him.

Angels inflatable boat did us proud, and really helped us to get the bait onto the spots we selected. He got more confident with rowing and being out on water, we need to do more boat work, and I am sure Angel will as that extra bit of effort played a part in helping him to land a cracking set of common carp. On the whole we were heavy with bait application during the session, but this was the idea. We went with the intention of stopping fish and grabbing their attention. If it did not work we still had bait left which we could use to explore various other swims which we also did.

We adapted quickly to traveling home at night, going back to Madrid, then returning the next day, this also helped us when making decisions about which swims to fish. In the 5 days of travel, too and from the location, we must have clocked up 900km in journeys, petrol – it didn’t matter, this was good quality research work, we were fishing a new river system and the more intense and extreme the session the more we got to know it, and trust me we did learn quite a few things.

Tony Myres our mate from the UK came down with us for a day. He was stunned by the venue, and couldnt help comment about how it looks like the Norfolk Broads, reed lined and wild. He was actually gutted he didn’t have his Pike gear with him as there were loads of Jacks smashing up fry in the deep margins in-front of us, and judging from what the locals say, the place seems to be brimming with Pike. Next time I will be having a go for them too.In general the team moral was one part fine the other part low, Raul had a bumpy start not being well from the off, he fought on, and we all did our bit to raise him up, feeding him with plenty of new rigs, baits, ideas, and jokes to think about. During the session I remember thinking how true it is, when your physically on a low, when your sick, you have low energy, this in turn, like a magnet attracts less movement as opposed to action, I believe in action, as action brings reaction, so when I was watching Raul fishing, he did nothing wrong, but his energy was wrong and true enough, a blank and lost fish followed.

Carp fishing is not fair, but it’s nature, it’s life, imagine a sleepy sick cat trying to catch a healthy mouse, it’s going to be tricky. On some sessions no matter how hard you try, you come up against it, something is not right and the fish and energy does not flow, this was the case for my left hand man. Then again Raul cannot complain as he caught that massive fish in Sierra Brava earlier this year, at 54lb, we have got some serious catching up to do in order to get a fish of that size and join that club!

Well, that’s about all for now, loads of things going on, bubbling and boshing all over the shop, see you after the next installment.

May the fish be with you.

Andy Mac