Santilliana and Romanian Fish Killers

Yesterday we decided to make a reconnaissance mission and visit a large reservoir.

In Spain it would be an Embalse, or body of water called Santilliana. Santilliana can be found near the village of Manzanares Real, North of Madrid, it’s a beautiful little village which has a fantastic little castle called the Castillo de los Mendoza. If you have time, it’s well worth heading out this way. On this occasion we took a bus from Plaza Colon, Madrid, bus no. 724, which to my surprise arrived within 40min. at the waters edge!

We Jumped out at the N.E side of the lake then walked back along the bank towards the west and the village of Manzanares el Real. From the moment we could see water we could also see leaping carp, all over the place. What a perfect site. Actually upon arrival at the bank-side, I don’t think I have ever seen so many fish leaping at one time.

The idea of the reconnaissance mission was to locate fish and to pre-bait for a session tomorrow. First part of the job done, we had found fish, nice, yet at the back of my mind I knew the spot where we could see the fish was really shallow about 2ft, and most of the fish I could see were small, in the 2-3kg or 3 to 5lb; I didn’t really want to spend all day catching lots of small fish, as Santillian has in the past produced some massive Spanish carp of 25kg and above so finding signs of bigger carp made much more sense.

We moved into another part of the lake. The wind was blowing quite strong into the east corner from the S.W, and without doubt we could see thousands of fish in this corner; and low and behold three men, three fishermen, who I clearly needed to talk with about fishing this bank/location etc, before I pre-baited. As we approached the three fishermen I noticed one of them was holding a carp in a real bad way i.e by it’s gill, the closer I got to the men I realized they were most fish killers, no Spanish and looking very dodgy. My instinct was right, we had encountered three eastern European men, total fish killers.

They told us they had arrived just 20min. previous, the time now was approx 7.20pm, and that the Guarda Civil knock off at 7pm so knowing that they couldn’t get in trouble for fishing in, a no-fishing zone, a protected zone, got to give it too them, they had done their homework, and sadly here they were bagging up and catching carp after carp.

In the time we spent watching them approx 25min. they told us that they would catch at least 4 or 5 fish each for the fridge, pot and table. In Romania Carp are sold in the shops and it’s a nice fish to eat one of them explained!!!

It’s not nice being in this kind of situation, and I was torn, my blood boiled at times, but the thing that stopped me from getting really mad with them was either common sense or more the fact these fish were all small.

There complete lack of skill fishing was obvious, yet at the same time here they hauling. I stood and observed them, once a fish was in the net, one of them would promptly thread a rope through the gills of the fish then tie the tail end of the rope onto a large branch plunged into the muddy bank edge in a few centimeters of shallow water. The fish were tied to the rope or line, line passed via their gills, ouch! Surprisingly this act did not make me cringe as has previous. My blood thickened but didnt over boil. I was after-all just a witness in a new country, an onlooker watching a situation which I could do very little about. I could have walked away in disgust, but I decided to not, I wanted to understand these killers, and through further questioning they told us me they would take up to 4 or 5 fish each, max 15 fish. They fish once a month at this time, i.e after the guard Civil knock off. Any fish caught, fileted and eaten, one boasted of a 13kg fish already caught and eaten from another lake, dam!

The fish are tied up and put in the water so that if the Guarda Civil do come they wont find them. If the Guarda Civil do catch them, they are told to pack up and go home, nothing more. After obtaining this information we walked back along the bank towards the castle and village Manzanres Real. We took in the sites, butterflys, flowers, and an otherwise amazing Madrid Sierra on a perfect Spring day!

I’d confirmed that fish were present, but basically they were in forbidden to fish zone, so, I didnt launch or pre-bait. As it happens, I didnt get to pre-bait anywhere, as the only place you could actually legally fish was on the other side of the lake, a long way around, especially walking, we didnt have time left, for that. At the time of leaving the water I was disappointed I had failed to find a spot and pre-bait, but actually the next day, I was crippled with a horrible cough and hey-fever that rendered me unable to go fishing, so in the end it was a learning process for me, I only prey that in time, those carp killers, stop.