Great balls of fire breathing dragon carp!

Plenty of fish been coming out! Last week down on Orellana, I managed to winkle 3 x 30 plus carp, and 3 x 20s in a short session on the old Mistral Baits, thanks for that Allan.

We have had quite a few visitors this way, I have had the pleasure of fishing with Andy Chambers, Peter Christensen (leaping Gazelle as I like to think of him), Allan from Mistral, Rob Hughes of Venture, my old mate Dave Edge from M’CR, Javier from El Carpon and the list goes on and on! All of which I have absorbed a great deal from helping me evolve from noddy to not so…..noddy!
It’s rained and rained and rained for the last 6 weeks here, of which I am truly grateful. Now seems like its fading and the summer sol is here to brill us out. Personally I’m content, I have managed to break my personal best common carp (thanks to net man Andy Chambers) and mirror or royal as they are so handsomely described here! The last few months, true and dandy for a Spanish lake carp buster like me.

The large lady royal I landed, she was a cracker! Had a set of lips on her like the big mama from Tom and Jerry. A deep full fish as you can see in the photo below. The big girl is a capture that will remain a dear and sentimental one for many years. Caught during a short evening session, proving express is a way to success!

She be my first Madrilenian 40lb plus royal, on top of that, she also be a new lake record, arrgh. The lake she resides within, it’s a small deep jem, cut into the north of Madrid at the foot of the Sierra. It’s a water I have put a year into as of now and one which has given just a handful of super fish. It’s not a runs water, nothing like, for that reason – its fished by just a few. Yet every single fish I have seen from within, has been a full-blooded belle, some of which could easily be mistaken as a Donald Leney strain. Not a one has been less than 20lb too, lovely fishing.

It’s one of the few lakes here in Spain that has less than 40 fish in. Most were killed about 8 years ago by a leakage of venom which leeched into the pure mountain water. The fish you get really are survivors, for that reason each one is exceptional.

My mate Dave Edge as I mentioned before and I did a good 3 days stint on the water a while back, Dave has fished for carp now almost 20 years, so spending time on the bank with him was invaluable, he helped me sharpen my pencil no end. Actually I must hold my hands up and say – ‘if it was not for Dave I might well not have caught the big girl’, and if I had not, I would also not be carrying the warmth within that I do right now!

You know it’s one of those restful warm feelings, like the one you get when your belly is full of good grub after an enduring day, cheers Dave!! In someways the feeling can temporarily pull you away from fishing, that’s not happening, but the pressure has gone, fishing Madrid and Spain is something of a tremendous joy! Leaping from water to water like we can do here, I could not wish for anything else.

Speaking of which ‘leaping’, we had the leaping man himself or the Danish Gazelle down here Peter Christensen, now that kid knows the deal all too well, like many of the bounty hunters that will come this way, Peter came on a reconnaissance mission a wee while back to fish, pioneering work. It was evident at first base, he was a spirited adventurer and a great young talent to be bank side with. Peter fished alongside myself and Matt from Fat. He nestled himself in behind the Saber tooth tiger landscape on Brava and could clearly sense the immensity of what lives inside ‘el mejor lugar para estare’ in other words ‘the place to be’.

Peter managed to extract some of the star burst bestial royal carp from amongst the snags and gruesome rocks, he faired well on what can all so easily turn from dream lake to horror scape or a Tim Burton movie. I understand you can read Peters article in several of the leading Carp magazines International Carper for example so keep your eyes peeled foe that! Monsters indeed are in the Brava and Peter with his knowledge gained from capturing Buffalo carp in Austin, Texas and wild north Canadian Char can sense clear as sky blue, that within this watery wilderness shadows of great scaly monsters loom.

We are currently planning a return trip for Peter in October when the Danish adventurer and bona fide talent will lance and cut through the rocks again to reveal yet more Brava residents. Ok, time really is moving me on-ward to the next location which happens to be Ruidera in about 5 hours with my old mate Peter Staggs. The crystal waters in La Mancha have not as yet been kind to me, but it’s home of the giant Comizo. With some luck I might be able to wangle one or 7 out. Sooner or later you will hear about this or another trip, living in electric dreams.

Andy Mac.