The Sessions - Nov 2021
A Barbel trip and a chilly visit to Spain.
I finished last month’s piece having only managed three sessions but with some truly fantastic fishing catching lots of Barbel to 16-06. Winter had arrived in November and I had a long overdue trip to Spain planned searching for my holy grail.
7 November 2021 – River Trent, Winthorpe.
Work has taken over my life a little this last year and yet again I had two weeks off the bank due to work, life is all about trying to find the right balance but this year has been hard as I’m sure a lot of people have experienced.
I had the opportunity for the only session of the month I could fit in this country with a trip to Spain planned for the 17th so I loaded the car and started driving to the garage for fuel, I was a mile from home when something dropped from the car and I was left with a loud grinding sound coming from the front passenger wheel. I stopped immediately and got out and under the car for a look, there was nothing on the road and nothing looked out of place but I am far from an expert with cars so I gingerly turned round and went home with the car making a horrible noise. My thoughts were a wheel bearing, I was recovered from home and took the car into the garage on 5 Dec and I’m hoping it is not too bad…..
Back to the 7 Nov, I swapped the gear from my fishing car to my posh one and drove up the A1with the intention of fishing the middle Trent at Winthorpe. It’s a section I’ve been a member of for a few years but only fished the once, but being better in winter and high water I went for a look, additionally I did not want to drive my Merc up and down the flood banks of the tidal 😊
Over the previous two weeks we’d had a lot of rain, the river levels had been right up and the temps had been down below freezing so I didn’t think I’d missed much. In the days leading up to my trip it had gone mild again with day temps of 10-13 degrees and mild nights. When I arrived it was surprisingly busy and my first choice area had just been taken, with my second choice being free I drove into there for a look. The level had dropped and there was still a tinge of colour to the water, I got the leading rod out and got the Deeper to work, once I’d identified the deeper run at 11 feet I attached a 2oz lead and felt the bottom, it was clean gravel with no obvious snags so I set the swim up.
I started fishing at 14:00 and put both rods on the same line with double 15mm OG and pva bags initially. After an hour with no activity I put and mixture of 20 Asbo / OG through the swim.
I’ve been playing around with a third rod set up for Zander and did so again on this session, setting up slightly differently to my last few efforts. A 5oz running lead, 24lb Fox coated wire to a Big-T size 2 single hook with a Roach head fished at the bottom of the marginal shelf at 9 feet, this was cast out as it was getting dark.
The first Barbel was landed at 19:10, a high single after a few Bream and I then gave the swim a hit of 40 Asbo / OG.
8 November 2021
I had three Barbel to high 9’s and more Bream through the night and had put more bait in after each fish. The night had been very cold and the morning sunny and clear but it was forecast to be cloudy and milder on the second night. I reeled in at 09:00 and walked up for a chat with two lads I’d known from when I was bailiff on my local waters 30+ years ago, Col Douglas and Paul Rudd, both very good anglers and still with the passion all these years later. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying here but Col has his challenges, he is completely deaf and many years ago would watch his bobbins all night. With the technology we have now and vibrating alarms it is much easier for him but he does not let it get in the way at all and is a very good angler with an impressive PB list, it was good to see them both again.
I put the baits back out two hours later and the day light hours passed with one 9+ Barbel.
Col caught me some live baits so I re-assessed the Zander rig and dropped the hook size to a size 4 and lip hooked a 4 inch Roach and flicked it out.
The evening was productive with three more Barbel but all in the 8 and 9 pound class, after each fish I topped up the swim with Asbo and OG.
9 November 2021
In the early hours more Bream and high singles followed when finally I met more resistance on the pick- up and a strong battle commenced; it all ended well with the first and only double of the session at 12-03.
As the sun was coming up at 07:30 I had a single bleep and tap on the Zander rod, I waited for it to go again before striking but it didn’t happen, on inspection of the bait it was a definite Zander hit, what a tricky species they are and I have some learning to do before being consistently successful with them.
18 November 2021 – Rio Segre, Mequinenza, Spain
Due to work and Covid-19 I hadn’t been to Meq or seen my good friend Colin since Nov 2018 so I was really looking forward to the trip. The travel restrictions were not too bad with only my proof of vaccine form and the QR form to complete to enable entry to Spain. Flights were reduced significantly with only two Easyjet flights a week going from Luton to Barcelona from Nov 1st, my flight landed at 20:30 on the 17th and Colin picked me up outside terminal B.
We had plenty to catch up on and the two hour drive back to Meq soon went by, Colin dropped me at the house I was staying in and we agreed to meet at 10:00 the next day.
As is the norm for us we spent all day chatting, getting the gear ready, doing a food shop and driving round looking for swims, it was really good to be back.
The fishing had been tough through autumn with only odd fish being caught but some good ones had been tripped up. There are a lot of reasons why but the bait was definitely a big factor, we had been using Biomar Halibut pellets for many years and they were without question the best available. When Colin sold Catmaster three years ago the supply of Biomar to the fishing bait market was stopped, and the much lower grade Coppens and Skretting pellets were the only viable options. We then had a two year period of very little bait going in the river due to Covid so it is quite possible the Cats had gone back to natural food. Skretting were the best of the two available so that was what we’d be using for the session, I took 5kg of Biomar that I had at home to use as hook baits hoping that may give me a little edge.
The two swims we wanted were the only two being fished in the area so we decided to start on the road bank of the Rio Segre and went in the Gazeebo setting the swim up just before dark. The day had been warm and sunny at 15 degrees but as is normal in Meq in winter as soon as the sun drops behind the mountain it got very cold, and with the water temp only being 8.5 degrees it wasn’t going to be easy…..
I set my rods up with the set up being 70kg braid mainline, a 16oz lead fixed with a stop knot, a three foot 100kg braid boom with a 12 inch section of Kraken attached via a swivel to form a combi link with a size 8/0 Penetrator hook, 3 or four pellets were placed on a braid hair. I started using the Kraken for its toughness a few years ago due to the problem with mussels and clams cutting the line just above the hook.
We rowed our baits out for 19:00 with the temperature already down to 4 degrees, mine were set at 11 and 12 feet deep coming up the back shelf, once the rig was dropped in I put two good double handfuls of bait over each rig.
19 November 2021
The fishing times are 07:00 – 23:00 but when I’m away I like to maximise my fishing time so took the chance to leave the rigs out, I was a good decision as the rod at 11 feet went over at 02:00 and I landed the first Cat of the trip at 117 Pound, not massive but good to get a fish so early. It had gone down to freezing with a frost so I didn’t put the rod back out until 09:00 when we rebaited all the rods, with the water temp being so low the pellets were lasting 12 hours plus on the hair without any problems. That presented another problem as the freebies would still be sitting there and what we didn’t want was patches of bait laying here and there when the Cats were clearly not feeding hard so we both made the decision to bait a lot lighter unless the catch rate improved.
Using a marker and rebaiting the same spot is successful and would have been appropriate in this case but unfortunately the Clams and Mussels now see pellets as a natural food source and are attracted to regular baited spots, they attach themselves to the hook link and any pressure and its cut through like butter, they also attach themselves to the hook completely covering the point which leads to lost fish as the hook does not set due to being covered. It was so easy when we first started using pellets in 2003 but that’s all part of the game working your way through the problems…..
The day passed without any action and the weather followed a similar pattern to the previous day, we were getting ready for the evening bait up when we were subjected to one of nature’s great spectacles a huge murmuration of Starlings came over head, there were thousands of them and it was an incredible site as they moved through the air changing shape constantly to protect themselves from the predatory birds that were tracking them, it’s something I’ve seen many times and will never bore of watching.
Saturday 20 November 2021
The only bite of the night came at 05:00, I played it all the way to the deep margin and the hook pulled, it was not a massive fish but annoying all the same as they don’t normally come off that late into a fight.
The day followed a similar pattern, I popped back for a shower and rebaited at midday. I made a slight change by using a large pva bag filled with 12 Biomar pellets and only one double handful of Skretting to make one good mouthful of food.
It started to warm up a little with a north westerly wind and cloud coming over and as we did the evening bait up at 21:00 it was still 10 degrees, the conditions looked good so confidence was high.
Sunday 21 November 2021
It was still 8 degrees at 02:00 when the rod at 11 feet went over and I hooked another Cat, nothing went wrong this time and Colin gloved another average Cat at 111 pound. As he did the other rod went but this was Common at 30-08, I rebaited both rods and rowed them back out to the spots.
The cloud cover cleared and it got colder again and went down to 3 degrees with the water temp at 8 degrees. Colin had two Carp rods out and caught two in the morning, a double and a 35 plus that was tangled up in lots of lost line, he had to go out in the boat and unhook and release the fish due to it being tethered. We fished through until 14:00 and talked about a move, I’d caught fish but not the size we were looking for so after talking it through we agreed a move and packed the swim down. This is something we’ve done so many times together over the years, we both go into auto pilot knowing exactly what each other is doing and the swim is packed down in minutes, Colin drove the van and I jumped in the boat and rowed downstream to the next swim and the whole process was sorted in an hour.
We chatted, cooked and didn’t worry about putting rigs out until 20:00 for the night session, the wind had swung round to a south westerly and it was quite mild for November. As we were cooking Colin noticed a Fox in my shelter, they were regular visitors to the swim and he pinched my glove and ran off with it thinking it was food.
Monday 22 November 2021
The conditions looked good so we were surprised it took so long for a bite when my rod at 11 feet went over at 05:20, it felt a much stronger fish but was another average Cat at 118 pound.
We rebaited at 08:30 and Colin put his Carp rods out and quickly caught a 31 pound Common, with the Cats only feeding in the dark we decided to Carp fish during the day. We both popped back for showers during the day and I set up my Carp rods for a 17:30 start. The Carp were showing right across in the shallow water so I fished the rods in my Catfish rests so they are up and keeping the line out of the main flow, Colin was trialling a new Carp rod rest that did the same job, to help keep the rigs in place we used 10oz leads. While I was setting my rods up Colin had a 36-00 Common so after netting it and doing the photos I jumped in the boat and rowed my rigs out 150 yards to the spots. I was using single pellets topped with fake corn and baited with six pellets spread around the rig, I liken it to a snooker table, a freebie in each pocket with the rig in the middle of the table.
An hour later I had a take and knew straight away it was a good fish and slowly coaxed it across the river, it went in the net first time and was a good one at a very pleasing 43-08.
40 minutes later we had three takes in quick succession, a 44-00 and 31-00 to Colin and a 35-00 to my rods.
We had the same again an hour later, a lost fish and a 24-00 to me and a mid-double to Colin and then the strangest of things happened. It was 21:20 and we had rebaited the rods ready and Colin was in the boat first and rowing out when we both clearly heard a loud scream from a man from the mountain behind us, it sounded like he had fallen but we did not hear a landing. Colin was at least 50m out and I was the closest but we both thought the same, someone had fallen and was in distress. Colin came back and we went up for a look, it was then I put my work antennae on as I felt it could have been a trick to get us to walk away from the gear. It was pitch black and there had been no one about at all but my spider senses were tingling as I walked up and over the road to look, I heard Colin come up to the road and looked back, he had feared the same and was “prepared” for whatever happened. I went over into the verge and down to the bottom of the mountain and looked all along but found no one, we only had head torches but would have seen them, it was a very eerie feeling, was someone hurt? Were we going to be attacked?
We went back down into the swim and talked it through, there was no doubt someone was in distress so we called it in. The Protection Civil came first, they are volunteers that work alongside the police, the Guardia Civil arrived about 40 minutes later, we told them what had happened and they did the same as us and had a good look and calling out but nothing was seen or heard and after an hour they all left. We did not know what to think as we both knew what we heard, there was no doubt, we discussed packing up for the night but decided to stay and put the Cat rigs out at midnight and both slept with one eye open.
Tuesday 23 November 2021
To top off a bad night it started to rain at 04:00, it poured and didn’t stop!! I treated my shelter with Fabsil at the start of the trip but it wasn’t enough, most of the tapes that seal the seams had come off over the years and the rain was leaking through….
I reeled the Cat rods in at 13:00 and put the Carp rigs out and got soaked in the process, the rain was finding any gap or failure in my clothing and coming through and I was like a drowned Rat and had to pop back for a change of clothes.
I set up another shelter, moved my bedchair under that and managed to start drying of my coat and over trousers under the other one, it was grim but I was still enjoying myself as I just love being out there doing what we love.
The Carp started feeding in the evening, Colin had Commons at 36-08, 36-00 and 28-00 and I had two at 32-02 and a huge looking 39-04 that in the net Colin was convinced it would be a fifty as its head was so big.
Wednesday 24 – Saturday 27 November 2021
We’d put the Cat rods out but could already see the river rising, colouring up and lots of weed coming down, mine were the first to be wiped out at 03:00 followed by Colins, it was still raining and clear we’d have to move again.
The rest of the trip we moved every day trying to find fishable water but it was near impossible due to huge beds of weed wiping out the lines but we kept at it.
It wasn’t until Saturday evening we could fish properly but the water temp had dropped to 7.5 and felt cold. We were back on the Rio Segre after trying down on the Ebro and Colin had the only bite with a huge Cat to finish the trip at 192 pound.
Despite the generally cold, wet conditions and poor fishing we were still enjoying ourselves, being out there, cooking on the bank, loving the outdoors, enjoying the nature, we saw 51 different species of birds including a Golden Eagle, 18 Marsh Harriers attacking the Starlings and the epic Griffin Vultures, it’s something I’ll never tire of and long may it continue. In years past November had always been kind to us so I was hoping I’d catch my holy grail, it didn’t happen this year but I’ll be back next year and we’ll do it all over again and that 100kg plus Cat will be mine one day.
Colin has started guiding again and has set up another guiding service, for those interested in a trip to Spain for the huge Catfish and Carp look up ebro-expert.com, the site will tell you all you need to know and tempt you with some pictures of some of the huge fish that are there to be caught, Colin’s contact details are on the site and he is always available to answer any questions you may have.
He is the most knowledgeable and best guide on the river, so if you’re looking to go to Spain my advice would be to book with Colin.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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