Tag Archives: Riba Roja

Fishing on the River Ebro at Riba Roja d’Ebre in Spain, courtesy of Shane Calton. Watch as we get a treble hooker on the catfish rods! Read all about the exploits of me, Shane and Dave Newby-Thornley in my articles: Alternative Ebro Part 1 – Zander, Roach, Barbel & Carp and Alternative Ebro Part 2 – Catfish, and also take a look at the underwater Ebro catfish footage I shot during our trip.

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The streets and riverbanks of Riba Roja resounded with the laments of disgruntled guides and disheartened anglers.  It was our fourth day of six fishing the Ebro and hardly any catfish were being caught by anyone.  We had a sense that the catfish were starting to wake up a bit, but I shall start with how our week began… The first morning we were understandably high on a heady cocktail of anticipation, intrigue and enthusiasm.  We wanted a good start so the pressure would be off, but none of us had seen the Ebro before, let alone fished it, yet its legend gave us high expectations.  We boarded Carl’s California skiff, headed out to an island at the far side of the river and anchored up to cast our rigs for the first time.  These were straightforward sliding floats through to heavy braided traces holding single size 3/0 heavy-gauge trebles.  The stop-knots were set at around 80% depth and we lip-hooked bleak and trotted them downstream.  We moved every 45 minutes or so and the third spot we settled in was full of features and looked perfect. As we watched our floats steadily trotting, Shane’s float jerked downward, then back …

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It must be the best part of two decades since I first gazed at photos of John Wilson et al posing with huge catfish they’d caught from the Ebro.  I’ve wanted to fish there ever since, but had been put off because in many popular areas such as Mequinenza and Caspe, the “fishing” has evolved into nothing more than sitting back while your rods are positioned for you by someone in a rowing boat, your hair-rigged pellet hookbait tipped over the side with several kilos of loose pellets.  When a bite materialises there is little more to do than winch in an overfed, pellet-addicted lump of a catfish.  This is a far cry from the traditional tactics employed on the Ebro such as “clonking” and boat fishing with a float or lure.  This is what fishing on the Ebro is all about to me – putting in the effort yourself whilst drawing upon the experience of a good guide – and I‘ve always felt the river could offer me more. Despite this watering-down of methods, there are still alternatives available if you can find the right guides in the right areas.  A chance conversation with Will Barnard a couple of …

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So, you knew I was going, but how did I get on, over on the Ebro?  Well, I’m going to keep a little bit back for articles (which I’ll post the links to as soon as they’re online), but we had a brilliant week with Carl of Rio Ebro Angling and we did catch plenty of fish!  Although the catfish took a lot of convincing to feed and the “Charlie Boorman” tactics were almost resorted to!  But, as with all the best stories, it all came good in the end… Between us we caught 11 catfish, several zander and – in just one afternoon – over 50 quality roach to specimen proportions.  We fished for 6 days using baits & lures from boat & bank, so all in all there’s a lot for me to write about! The related articles will be in two parts, the first covering the zander, roach and carp fishing (Alternative River Ebro part 1 – zander, roach & carp) and the second covering all things catfish-related (Alternative River Ebro part 2 – catfish cannonade).  The articles should be appearing in the December 2011 & January 2012 issues of Angling Star, with “director’s cut” extended versions appearing on FishingMagic …

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It’s now just two days until I head off with Shane and Dave for a week-long fishing trip to Spain’s River Ebro. We’ll be fishing with Carl & Angie of Rio Ebro Angling. I know, lucky barstools the lot of us! We booked the trip way back in February so there’s been plenty of time for the excitement to build on this (way overdue) installment of my specimen hunting roadshow! Between us we’ll be fishing for wels catfish, zander, carp and roach, but my personal goals are mainly the catfish and zeds. I’d like to join the Ebro “Ton Club” or better, preferably caught on a lure, although if it gets to the last day and I’m struggling I may have to resort to plan B, or as I like to refer to it, the “Charlie Boorman Plan”, (to catch one “by any means”!).  Hopefully that won’t mean going quite this far, but if my neck gets sunburnt and red and I pick up a bit of a Southern drawl, who knows!… Having never fished the Ebro before, I’d be happy to catch any zander from there. So far, this is my UK PB fish and if I could manage a double from Spain on a …

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