Preparation is the key carpfishing Extremadura

I first met matt from Fat Angling Tours in the competition held at Valldecaballeros (April 2007), it was clear from this time that Matt and FAT were doing something different, and I wanted to know what!

I arrived in Tallarubia (extremadura), by special taxi from Madrid and within no time at all we were in the Matt’s 4×4 and looking at some potential swims to fish on the monstrous water that is Orrellana. Matt believes the key to fishing in Extremadura is preparation, wind, and location. Before our bait even hit the water we spent 3 days searching for fish, both morning and night, the waters were quite in general with not much in site. Tree days of evaluation both on Orrellana and Sierra Brava. The first two days flew passed very quickly. For me personally they were excellent, I don’t remember the last time I saw so many birds of prey, rollers and cuckoos. Just being close to this energy and wildlife was a pleasure; and seeing them made the build up to fishing even more interesting. Extremadura is a special part of Spain.

On our third day we were joined by a Sparsholt Collage graduate Richard. Richard was clearly very keen to get on and fish. The 21 year old has a UK p.b of 21kg. and from the start he was clearly keen to break this and pull in a large common…After more searching we finally agreed to fish swim 221 near the island on Sierra Brava…

Why?

We selected the swim for the following reasons: depth, snags, roosting egrets, small fry, shade, wind and bank side space. I was especially excited about the location, because of it had water features. I love fishing near snags. The submerged trees in front were at night and every night during summer home for hundreds of Egrets. These noisy white birds were roosting in these snags as they had been doing seasonally for years. Egrets eat mainly small fish, frogs, insects and seeds, I couldn’t help thinking about old, big fish, these old warriors we were after would know the Egrets roost at night and discharge a pre-digested fish meal eaten earlier in the day, surely this pre-digested natural ground bait would be fundamental in holding fish of some size. This point held concrete in my mind during the session, I knew we were going to do well, and we did not bad at all.

Bait:

Before we started Matt prepared a particle mix of aba, maize, pig feed, black peas and special baits “Pepino Chops’. The ‘Pepino Chops’, are a mix of quality boilies in an assortment of color and size. The mix proved to be explosive on this session. To start we put in 10 x 5 kg bags and enough particle mix to give what we thought would be a strong signal. We estimated that between 50-70kg of bait went in on the day before we fished and much more followed. We were in big water and fish country, so a big bed should be put down. Line and reels were also checked, three new reels were loaded with heavy Suffix mono of a 0.45mm. diameter. this we hoped would be enough to secure any fish we hooked in these snag ridden conditions. We needed strong line to give ourselves a chance.

Arrival:

We arrived on Friday afternoon at about 4pm at swim 221 and were pleased to find no one was fishing. I selected the right hand snag swim, it was a quality spot as it had loads of features. Matt would be in the middle fishing open water and Richard would be to the left of Matt with snags and trees in front and to his right. I set-up 3 different rigs, one with Korda IQ Flurocarbon, Indyline 35lb Chakchiuma Braid and some Kryston Supermantis Dark. From the start our alarms were twitching. Just when we were thinking the crab were on our baits Matt had a run, he landed a small dumpy common carp a new stock of about 3lb. About 10 min. later I was surprised to hear my alarm sound off and even more so when I picked up the rod and it double over! I was hard with the fish, as I didn’t want to risk the snags. The fish turned out to be a 26.04oz Mirror, what a great start! We had just put this fish into the weigh sling when my other alarm sounded. I had my hands full with a lump at that time…. Matt hit my rod for me and made contact with another. Richard took my first fish from me and put it in a sack while I took the rod from Matt. The fish was strong and made it into a low snag just in-front of me, I was sure I’d lose it but somehow I didn’t, I managed to work the big boy out of the snag an into the net. It was a longer carp than the fist and looked big. On the scales he was 28lb3oz, a fantastic start to the session and my best brace of fish to date. After this initial explosive start things calmed. We managed to take some smaller fish to 4kg but nothing of any size. At 11.30pm we retrieved our rods and pods prepared some food and went to sleep. Night fishing is illegal in Spain and the fines can be big.

Day two carpfishing:

At 6am the next day we woke up and cast out. I was really tired so I moved my bed chair next to my rods and attempted to sleep. Within no time at all we were all having runs. Between 6am and 12pm. We managed to land between us about 15 small common carp of around 1-3kg. Matt had the best fish of this time period a common carp of about 6.5kg. From 12pm to 3pm things went quiet, and then Richard had a screamer, the fish turned out to be the best of the session 34lb 2oz.

It was a lovely mirror carp, which fell for his own pop-up. Not a great deal happened after this fish was caught. Time passed by and once again at 11.30pm our rods were retrieved food was prepared and we slept.. I slept really well this night and so was much more ready and relaxed for the next day. However on the other hand, mosquitoes seriously attacked Matt and Richard. Matt had several bites on his face and Richard was also bitten on his lip. They must have sweet blood and mine must be rotten, must be the pirate in me, ARRRGH.

The Final day on Sierra Brava:

At 5.30am I was up and ready to fish ‘keen as mustard’, and with bags of energy after my great nights sleep. At 5.40am my rods were in and by 6.00am, I had begun to start catching fish. Between 6am and 12am I must have caught more than 15 small carp. They were beginning to be a nuisance. At 3pm we had caught so many fish that we were all thinking – it’s time to try somewhere / something else. I put my rods short of the baited area and bang off it went, this time I felt a more powerful fish. After a spirited battle a lovely 22lb 2oz Mirror carp was with us. Once again it had fallen to the killer bait of the session a big yellow 22mm Pineapple – Pepino chop.  Photos were taken and fish returned. 

Within 10 min. of me catching this fish my other rod sounded. I hit it expecting a small fish and was surprised when the rod doubled yet again. The weight at the end was so heavy; I had never felt a weight like it… I knew that whatever it was on the line, it was a personal record for me….

I didn’t want to lose the fish so I walked up the bank and got up high, real high, on top of a rock. Whatever was on the end of this line was big. Really big! A monster. After what seemed like a long time we finally got the fish in the net. The fish had felt very heavy because sadly it was foul hooked. We put her on the scales and she went 30lb 3oz. It was a pity the fish was not hooked fairly as foul hooking does not count and she was a lovely fish. The runs began to slow not long after this time, although Matt and I lost what we believe were bigger fish.

>>>>>>>I was snapped twice at the rig end as Matt was too.

If we had managed to land those lost fish I am sure our tally would have been amazing… but for a summer session we managed more than 50 carp between the 3 of us. Five f the fish were large 11kg, 12kg, 12.5kg, 13.6kg and 15kg. It was a great session, which proved that big fish could be caught in the middle of the day. Actually the most productive feeding time was between 3-7pm. Matt and FAT did what they setout to do, catch some lovely fish, we did a great deal more than that!

A fantastic session in amazing snaggy summer conditions with some cracking fish too boot, get me back on that water!!!