I have been fishing for many years and like most anglers I started fishing for small fish in my local waters. Slowly I worked my way up to fishing for bigger fish and then developed an interest in predators so I started fishing for eels, pike and zander with some success and managed to land several big fish. Living in Birmingham I had met Colin Bunn many times and had chatted to him about fishing, When he told me he was running catfishing tours to the river Segre on the river Ebro system in Spain I decided to give it a go. My first trip went better than I could have dreamed of. I caught some quality cats weighing in at 67lb, 113lb and a cracking fish of 120lb. I was hooked on fishing the Ebro area so I booked my next trip with Catmaster straight away. After being picked up from the airport at Barcelona, we set off for Mequinenza. During the drive myself and my son Nick used the time to get to know the anglers who were on the trip with us as we had never met them before. They were Paul Richardson, who is disabled and fishes from a wheelchair. Paul is a right character who had everyone in stitches with his dry sense of humour. Also on the trip were Steve Dunnett and his partner Jan who are also great people and are very easy to get on with, so the holiday was off to a good start. Up and coloured When we arrived at the river we were a bit concerned as it was raging through and chocolate brown in colour. Our guide Colin assured us that the cats liked those sort of conditions and it was normal for late March. After we settled into the apartments we went for a couple of beers and a nice meal, then next morning we were off to the swim to set up the gear for the week.
The method we used was the tried and tested buoy rig where a large buoy is either tied to the far bank or an Island, or it can be dropped into the river on the end of a rope and a heavy weight. The line from the rod is then tied to the buoy by a short piece of light mono to form a weak link which breaks when the cat hits the bait. A livebait is then suspended below a large pike-type bung, set normally at a depth between 3ft and 6ft. “We had to stop it pulling over the wheelchair!” First to catch was my son Nick and after a short fight his first ever catfish was on the bank; a modest fish of 31lbs, but Nick was well happy. The next piece of action was Paul’s rod flipping back as a cat hit the bait. The rod was struck but to no avail: the cat had dropped the bait. The bait was rowed back out and placed by John Deakin, who is Colin’s new guide for this season. He was helping us out for a few hours. John had only been back on the bank for a few minutes before the same rod got hit again and this time the fish was on. Paul guided his wheelchair into the fighting position and began to give the fish some stick. Paul began to realise it was no small cat when someone had to hold on to his wheelchair to stop it being pulled over. Paul expertly played the fish into John’s hands and it was into the sling ready to be weighed. When the scales went round to 168lb Paul was delighted, as we all were. Steve was next into the action with a creditable cat of 93 lb and it was then we all began to realise that we could be in for a good week. Little did we know how good it would be. A near albino at 157lb and a new PB Wednesday dawned and it was my turn for some action – and what a fish it was! As I was playing the fish we saw a glimpse of it and it was whitish yellow in colour. An albino someone shouted, but unfortunately it was not a full albino but a lovely part albino that weighed 157lb and a PB for me. What more could a man ask for? The action was thick and fast now and my son Nick was into a good fish that was surging all over the place and nearly pulling his arms off, but it was safely banked and weighed 160lbs. Needless to say Nick was over the moon and I was very happy for him. Paul was next up with another good fish that weighed 126lb. This one fought better than his bigger fish as it was hooked at over 150 yards range and took some getting back through the strong current. Steve was unlucky again as he had another fish under 100lb and I had another good fish of 110lb. Things went a bit quiet for a while with smallish fish for Nick, Paul, and Steve. Then my rod got hit again and I was into yet another really big fish and after a great fight a fantastic fish of 171lb was on the mat ready for photographing. This was surely a fish of a lifetime and I was thinking things just couln’t get any better. It was still taking line with a 7lb TC rod bent to the limit and the drag locked down By now it was Friday and we were thinking time was running out for any more big fish – how wrong can you be. Nick chipped in with a fish of 142lb and Steve got his reward at last with a fish of 138lb. We were all glad his patience had been rewarded. I was in again, and after the strike I could feel little resistance so for the first few minutes I thought it was a small fish. But then the fish got into the main current and the line began to tighten up more and more until I was struggling to hold on to the rod. It was making strong lunges and even with the clutch fully locked down and a 7lb test curve rod bent to the limit it was still taking line. Thirty minutes later and the fish was still a long way from the bank I could make no impression at all on this fish and 15 minutes turned into 30 minutes and the fish was still a long way from the bank. My arms and back were now giving me some serious pain but no way was I going to give up on this fish. After about 40 minutes of hard graft the fish was about 10 yards from the bank and it was then that it rolled on the surface. Everyone just gasped when we saw the size of it. I just could not believe that it looked even bigger than the 171lb fish I had caught earlier. Colin said that this was a very big fish which put extra pressure on me not to slip up. The fish brought its massive tail clear out of the water and slapped it back down causing an enormous splash on the surface. This was to be its final act of defiance, for I guided it to Colin and he put his hands in its mouth and pulled it safely into the sling. 7ft 8ins and 13 1/2 stone of Spanish catfish It took four of us to carry the fish and the sling to the mat. We hooked up the scales and the weigh bar and Colin and me tried to lift the fish. We got it up long enough for Nick to say that the scales were going to 192 pounds then we had to let the fish back down again as it was so heavy. Colin wanted us to double-check the weight and to photograph and video the scales as it may be a record, so this time we put the weigh bar on our shoulders and stood up together. Sure enough Colin confirmed the scales had settled at 192 pounds and that meant it weighed in at over 13 and a half stones.
Colin said that this fish beat the previous best fish of 191 lb caught by fellow Brummie Glen Patterson last year and it was a record fish for Catmaster Tours and possibly a record for Spain. We measured the fish at 92 inches long (7ft 8ins) or 2m 34cm. We returned the fish to the water for a while for it to recover from the fight. I also needed time myself to recover as it was hard to take in what I had done. We got the fish onto the bank again and took lots of photographs and video of it and then returned it to the river and watched it swim off strongly. This really was a fish of a lifetime and after some words of congratulation from Colin and the others we cracked open more than a few beers and a couple of bottles of Spanish plonk and sampled one of Jan’s fantastic bank-side BBQ’s. Saturday was a big anti-climax, especially as early in the afternoon all our lines got wiped out by a large tree that had been carried down by the now rising flood water. Steve had to go out in the boat and release all the lines from the tree and he only just managed to get back to the bank due to the now raging current. So we decided to call it a day and go back to the apartments to get cleaned up. We had a nice Chinese meal and some more beers in the nearby town to end a great day and to end a great holiday. Catmaster can be contacted on 0121 451 1861, or click the advert on the forum pages of this website. |
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