Just keep moving – Just keep grooving!

With winter creeping closer and the Spanish puente (bridge) meaning holiday upon me, I decided to betray my local Madrid waters and take a trip down to the ever popular river Ebro. I had heard this summer that the Ebro was not doing so well, but pushing that aside, I jumped on a plane from Madrid to Reus and made my merry way down to Amposta in Tarragona to meet my host Gary Sheridan.

On the way down it was nice to absorb the landscape, rice paddy’s, mountains, and the sea, add to this the mix of birds, Egrets, Herons and Hoopoes it was a classically Spanish voyage.

Gary met me at the station in Amposta and from this point we heavily conversed and really didn’t stop! Gary hadn’t fished the river recently due to major works at his home. That shouldn’t be a problem it would give the fish a rest! We joked about how near the swim was to Gary’s house, the river was impressively close. When I think back, most of our conversation evolved around fishing, salinity of water, largest carp and cat from the swim, how the Ebro normally fishes, variation of flow, nights are better than days, best rigs, winning baits, the chat rotated around these subjects.

It was nice for to talk in English with someone about fishing, don’t get me wrong I do like to talk about other things but Gary’s been fishing for sometime, and putting it relatively, I am a new kid on the block.

In less than 1 hour of my arriving at Gary’s home we were setting up on the bank side of the river, nice. This was just what I wanted, no fuss, we wheeled the barrow to the end of the road and we were straight in, 3 days and nights hard-core fishing, ahead, lovely. Weather wise it looked real good, there was a lovely fresh wind and to my eye it felt right.

I had no expectations, but I was eager to get into some fish. The pegs we selected were convenient, approximately 1 min. walk from Gary’s home. Bank side we had plenty of space. It was impressive; Gary had calved out the reeds and bamboo to make a shelter which resembled something from Robinson Crusoe. In my short video clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCbjugcqI64
you can see the situation, 60inc brollys, 2 x bed chairs and still plenty of space to spare. The bamboo that surrounded us offered two things a wind break, and shade from the sun, both of which are important at varying times of the year. I was more than cozy in this spot. The rods were located on wooden pier or platform, (also visible in my video), each of them has ample space from which to lance out your baits and wrestle a chunky silver common should one fall for the trap.

I brought my own pellets, boilies, alarms and end tackle, but that was all. Gary provided pod rods, baitrunner reels, umbrellas, beds, bags, and the lot, real easy. The camp and kit was sorted, I wanted for nothing except to catch fish.
Previous to my arrival Gary had been putting in the baits, dripping in a few kilos a day to keep the swim ticking over. With this information we were sure to get-into some fish and pronto. On first night anything can happen – especially if the swims not been fished and baits been going in. This first night was painfully slow, Gary managed to winkle a small fish of about 3kg which took a Dynamite Bait fluro pop-up, I have to be honest I am not a fan of pop-ups, and for 90% of my fishing I use bottom baits. In the first 24 hours my rods remained silent.
Day 2:We thought – slow night, fish could be on the move, actually for the next two days we didn’t see a Carp surface or move within 300m of the swims. I remained optimistic for 2 days, but by the end of the 2nd , I was getting itchy feet, I realized that maybe a move was in order; but a move was not possible, as we were truly set in camp. Sadly at the end of the 3rd day we had managed to notch up a grand total of 5 fish, none of which were double figures and 2 of which were Mullet!

In fairness it was just one of those sessions when the river was off. We did everything right, but the fish didn’t bite. Way up river in Mequienza the same thing was going on, many of my Spanish Carp friends who fished the same weekend, blanked or struggled to get fish out. Those who managed a run caught only small fish.
The Ebro is a massive, river, with limited access to fish from, yet unlimited possibilities and places for fish to be. My advice to anyone who wishes to get on the Ebro is to keep mobile. Fish for a day, if you have no action, move. Gary’s set-up is really good, he offers comfortable nights fishing on the Ebro, coupled with experience, he is willing to share tips and tricks and he is undoubtedly very helpful.

I would defiantly give it a go again, but I would keep in mind, if fishing is slow, you need an alternative.

As the late Dick Walker once said: “The first thing that a fisherman looks for is a comfortable place to park his bum, rather than the fish themselves”, – worthy of mind especially on the River Ebro.

Tight lines.

Andy Macgregor