Fishing on a budget

After my trip to Spain it was nice to get back down to the lake I love and missed and with the season coming to a end and a few guys leaving a social was needed.

After a heavy night on the beers and jd's and dribbling over sexy ladies it was off back to the lake to try and catch some stunners. Knew it wasn't going to be easy as my freezer was empty and no bait to be found so all I had for ammo was some 10mm + 15mm pop ups.

I was already one night down as I didn't get to the lake until Saturday lunch time and with the worse hang over ever it felt like a life time carting my gear round and getting set up, but after a few beers I was forced to drink I felt like a new man and the rods didn't take long to get set up and I was on the hunt.

stacks of fish boshing all over the small lake and with only one person fishing it I had to be mad not to get a line in the water
So I set up a zig rig around 13ft using the new Nash 10lb NXT Zig Flo line and my choice of hook was a size 8 fang uni .. I armed it up with two 10mm white choc pop ups  (yellow/pink)
Out they went in around 16ft of water and with the carp going mad all over the lake it was only a matter of time before it ripped off

Few beers later this little stunner was on the bank

Happy days few more beers was needed and the BBQ was fired up
Few laughs and that with a few members as the sun was out in force and being their last weekend we made the most of it

It didn't take long before I was running down to the rods again, after spotting fish moving near to my swim I reeled in the rod from the small lake and cast out the zig to the showing fish and it only took about 20mins before I had another stunner on the bank

over the moon two fish within a few hours I just wish the sun came out more often :)
After having two on zigs I thought I would get another rod set up ready for the night as I didn't really wanna be messing around with zigs in the dark so I tied up a chod rig ( I must be a noddy as I use chods ) and loaded it up with a 15mm Nash white choc pop up.

Out it went in around 18ft of water on a nice light weed area - The trap was set.
few more beers and laughs with the guys they started to drop like flys and off to bed they went with the sun still out, luckily reggie was still at hand as within moments of everyone calling it a day the sirens were calling my name

No freebies was used in the helping to catch this fish :)

The hunt is still on  tight lines and catch stunners

Back on the Ebro

A week in the sun what more could you want? well carp would be nice.

Me and my mate headed out to the ebro for an adventure. we planed to fish up near caspe for a few nights with ebro carp fishing (www.ebrocarpfishing.com) then head down river to riba roja with ebro madcats (http://ebromadcats.co.uk/)  

After a long journey we got to Spain around 9pm and was welcomed with rain and dark clouds, I was thinking were is the sun? we left sunny England to come here we must be mad.
after a few hours drive we got to our first destination

nick shattock, was there to meet us and had set all our stuff up for us as he knew we wasn't getting to the swim till late so we didn't mess about rods went out and beers cracked open and the waiting game begins.

6am and the fish started to feed this stunner 33lb+ was caught by my mate and he was over the moon

After a few hours we had bagged a few more carp and some 2lb roach which also seemed to like a few 20mm pellets





Day2

After another night we decided to move swims as the water was starting to rise so we headed to a tributary where we had seen carp and thought it would be a good idea to give it a bash
Most of the head of fish we caught was small and my mate had again the best of thee bunch which he caught from a margin spot he had been baiting up

Day3

Our trip to caspe was over and it was now time to head down to Riba Roja and to meet up with ditch from madcats. The weather had turned too with the sun shining and the winds warming things were looking up.
After spending a few nights on a bed chair it was nice to have a comfy bed for the night so we didn't bother getting the rods out but decided to get a good nights rest and feel fresh for then next few nights fishing

Day4

As we was fishing with ebro mad cats it would be wrong not fishing for cats so we headed up so a nice looking swim and baited up and gave it ago as a few had been out the last few days

Plenty of beers and sun was soaked in and not one bite all day and night it was time to load up the van and head off on the hunt for carp again




Day5

We drove around and looked at a few spots but this spot looked pukka and after spotting a few good size carp we unloaded the van and made our way down the cliff side to a nice looking swim.
As the swim was a bit tight it was a few nights under the stars for us but with views like these it don't matter were you sleep

 

 

 

It didn't take us long to get on the fish catching loads of carp around 20lb up to 29lb all on the mighty monster squid

 

 

 

 

Crazy night fishing with fish crashing every five minuets if we wasn't so tired I think we would of ended up with about 20+ fish but with the sun back out and the water dropping we headed to a new swim

 

 

 

 

Day6

 

Nash man ditch catching some stunning ebro carp

 





Carp fishing is turning me gray

Its still that time of year, water temperatures are dropping and the carp are less inclined to feed. A lot of carp anglers hang up their rods for the winter, WHY???
Winter carp fishing is a pastime that sorts the sane angler from the insane...
I love my winter carp fishing there are far less anglers on the bank indeed on some of the waters that I fish I can nearly guarantee to have the water to myself. Its true that with the lowering temperatures the fishing does drop of for a few weeks but once the temperatures have stabilized the carp will start feeding again, and with less anglers on the bank you have more chance of catching them.

With my trip to Spain feeling like a lifetime ago i headed back out to the Folly lake for a two night sesh. On arrival the lake was dead with pick of the swims i had a walk round to try and spot signs of any carp.
After watching the water for a couple of hours and with no fish showing I decided on swim 1 (The Bog Swim) which gave me access to an island to the right and a nice silt patch i like to fish down a middle channel. I think that one of the hardest things to decide on in winter is how much bait to use, too much and you could kill your swim before you start. I have caught carp over big beds of bait in winter but I do feel that the conditions have to be right, for this reason I will usually start by using hook bait only on one rod and perhaps PVA bags on the other rods for the first hour or two and then decide whether to use any more bait.

A couple of hours in and no signs of any carp movement and no indicator movement so I decided to bait up along the right hand channel with a couple of  handfuls of monster squid and a few 10 mm boilies, the other rod was fished in open water with a PVA bag and no freebies.

After a few stressful days fishing my net has stayed dry, the weather has really messed up my fishing and has put the fish back into winter mode.
Blanking and losing fish really gets to you sometimes and you end up thinking what am i doing wrong? is it the bait? rigs? swim? over the last few months I've noticed quite a few more gray hairs and i need things to change before i turn into a silver fox.
I'm lucky enough to fish at a stunning lake and i always like to admire the views, catching fish is always my main target when i go fishing but just being there is the main prize.
As I'm lacking in fish photos here are a few views over the past few weeks

Winter Carp Fishing on the Ebro

The great thing about carp fishing on the Ebro is that the river fishes well all year round. So instead of struggling for bites in the UK during the winter months I thought i would give the Ebro a go, even though i was only heading out for a few nights i aimed high and was on the hunt for just carp and big unforgettable ones too..
Winter time seems to sort out the bigger fish whereas the summer produces more fish but of a smaller stamp, So i thought i was onto a winner when i headed out but wasn't prepared for the obstacles that lay ahead.

I've seen in some catch reports over the last few months that some nice 40's had been coming out on the stretch of river i was going to fish so i took up a trip with Nick Shattock as he had a good idea of the spots i could find these monsters..

We arrived on a nice sunny day late January and was so glad to be getting away from work and back on the hunt for carp..
We met up with nick in Riba-roja d'Ebre and got ready for our few hour drive up north to the hot spots.
We didn't want to jump straight in the first swim we sore so headed to a few places he knew.
The river was running wild due to the floods and most of the swims we went to was under water so we found a spot near caspe that was a bit less wild and looked good for a bite.
The views are stunning around these parts and hold very big fish even though the river was flooded it didn't put us off and we just got on with are challenge and got the rods out and sat it out for the night.

The next day came without a sight of a fish let alone a bite so we decided to pack up and head back up river to see if it had calmed down a bit. Chiprana was still bad so headed up to Escatron and the river was still ripping though so we got out the map and spotted a small lake that looked like it joined up with a small part of the river.
After driving for hours we found some dirt tracks that we thought would lead us to the lake, so out came the GPS map on my phone trying to find our way though the maze of tracks searching for anything we could. But all we found was a nice little stretch of water that looked fish able and after getting out the truck for a look around we sore stacks of fish - not the size we was after but we was running out of daylight so but said lets do some pastie bashing.

Pastie Paradise



After a night of catching fish that a 200lb cat fish would of loved we decided to pack up and try and find our way out of the maze of tracks but that wasn't to be as when we went to start the truck the battery had gone leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere. luckily some Romanians turned up a few hours later and saved the day or we would have had to have another night at pastie paradise.
After a few hours driving and feeling really low me and nick headed back to all the other swims we had looked at hoping things had changed and just to see some signs of carp.
We was running out of ideas and went back to chiprana and setup on the side of some cliffs.
Nicks dad had joined us for the night as we didn't want to risk the battery going again so we all set up camp for the night.

Morning came with no joy and the weather was getting worse with 60mph winds and 4 - 5ft waves.
The river had turned into a dirty brown mess with alsorts drifting though our swim so we packed up and called it a day and hit the road

It was a great few days, was a bit gutted we didn't catch the targets we was after but the enjoyment of seeing the river from so many spots and the buzz of trying to catch a fish in these hard times was worth every minute. Nick Shattock was a top guide and a top bloke, he did everything he could to try and find where these lumps were hiding but it just wasn't to be.

Check out his website -  http://www.ebrocarpfishing.com/

This sort of holiday is for people that are after an adventure and want to hunt big carp or cats.
He will definitely help you on your hunt and will give you some good knowledge to take home with you.


Here are a few other swims we looked at on the trip back to Riba-roja d'Ebre