Stll alive and kicking

Yes I am alive and kicking.. I have had a couple of phone calls from lads asking if I’m ok as I haven’t done an update,  so nice that someone care about me, thank you. Well, I have finally got round to doing an update.  It’s been a crazy year for me, as ever. 

After the season finished, I had a couple of friends over for my birthday, 22 again!!!! a mental week that was. Visiting mother for a few weeks, I don’t get time to see her during the season, its 24/7 for around 3 months, and **** did I need a chill. It was a drastic season..

 

We normally get a bit of rain March – April, but we had 900 litres per sq/m in March alone, that’s nearly 200 gallons per square meter. Most ever since records began, and cold, its been the coldest spring for 30 yrs…

Dam open 2nd time in many years

Famous last words *I never feel the cold* but he did, it was freezing end April 

yep, that's normally a road.



 Serena Dam, the second largest dam in Europe Bridges was opened for the first time in its 16 year life. Orellana and Garcia were opened for the second time in 30 years, roads were washed away, villages flooded, so obviously the fishing, being natural lakes – not stocked puddles, were affected somewhat…….

Never the less, we had some great laughs with the new groups of clients, all cracking lads too… some even uglier than me even…..

 

Normally a trickle in this stream, the flood tide line clearly visible. .


After a long drive the Dutch lads struggled along for the 5 days, we saw fish every day, around and over the baits, but no runs….  It was their first experience of the huge Orellana, and they can’t wait to have another go at it.

The Swedish group also put a lot of effort into it, the lake still rising and rain falling. They managed a couple of small fish, just below 20lb, in the crazy conditions. Two of the group were in their element as they are keen birdwatchers, the vast variety of birds kept them well occupied. Luckily they had their Swedish clothing with them, it helped against the cold and damp conditions.  

 It was the same story for Martin and Jim, we tried our best, loads of effort but conditions beat us up rotten. Never the less, they saw the potential of the Orellana when they heard a couple of lumps crash on their last night… the temp was rising and fish were moving but to no avail..

 

I am lucky I get to meet some cracking lads in this game, and some return year after year. Tom and John were over on their first visit, I got coffee in bed, now that’s service,, we had a scream all week, Tom might be ancient, but his mind is certainly on the ball.

 

Malcolm made the long journey from Dubai to take on the Orellana. With slightly better weather, we still struggled but got into the fish, fishing at around 400 meters, nothing huge but he managed to beat his PB twice.
It turned out to be a very sociable session with some Spanish, friends of friends. I even got to watch the Madrid – Barca game in their bivvy, Spanish anglers like their home comforts.  Like many first time visitors here, Malcolm can’t wait to return…

 

We will be back on the bank in September, it’s around 41 degs at the moment, so were not on the bank…..Jeff is back,  the first client after our arrival in Extremadura, some 8 year ago. Some new groups venturing away from the French overstocked puddles and opting to take on this wild natural lake…. And of course our regulars, the crazy Dutch trio, David and Alex…  Looking forward to seeing you all..  Carp angling at its very best and in its purest form.

 



Winter fishing in Extremadura.

 We have had our first social session of the year, a couple of days at Sierra Brava in January with fellow guide Jake from Sierra Brava Dreams.

On arrival at Brava, we had a quick look around and decided to fish the pegs we fished in December. Getting there was easier said than done, the ground was boggy and soft, the tracks soon turned to deep mud under the weight of our vehicles. We had a good laugh getting there, skating and sliding about in our 4x4's, we even had to tow each other out a couple of times, but we eventually got to the swims.

The weather conditions were quite good; a stiff westerly with rain on the first morning and clear skies the second day, however the wind did get up quite strong and it was a little hard presenting rigs perfectly.

But never the less, I was soon into the fish, my first of the year a 26lb 4oz Mirror. I also had commons of 28lb 4oz, 23lb 8oz, one around 19lb and a couple of mid-teens, all taken on Vitalbaits boilies.



26lb 4oz Brava mirror



28lb 4oz Common

Next week I am fishing another venue for the second time with Spanish friends.. I fished it last March for a couple of days and blanked. We had easterlies then and only 1 carp was landed in the competition, this week’s forecast is strong westerly winds but cold, so hopefully this time I will land my first fish from the lake. Good luck to all those other anglers out there braving the cold….

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Bookings for 2013 and 2014

We are getting a lot of bookings through for next year now, as we work on a first come first serve basis its best that you book as early as possible to reserve your preffered dates.

November fishing in Extremadura

52lb 15oz

 

Yet another wild Orellana 50lb+ fish for Extrema Fishing Spain

In all I had - 52lb 15oz  - 47lb 4oz - 44lb 15oz - 4 x 30´s - 9x20´s and a 4 upper doubles.

I fished along side Martien, it is his 3rd year with us, and as usual only wanted a fishing partner, no advice or persuasion to change his ´helicopter rig´. He had 6 runs with this his biggest he landed at 34lb 14oz.

Unlike my previous session on Orellana where I dropped a lot of fish, I only pulled from 1 fish out of around 20 runs with the exact same setup, it just goes to show that it happens and if your rigs and set up is spot on, there’s no need to beat yourself up when loosing fish.

47lb 4oz

44lb 15oz

34lb 14oz for Martien

 

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Young Derek (67) had a go at Barbel fishing with us, even though he opted to fish from around 9am till 6 he still had Barbel to double figures. After picking up several small carp on light tackle - he decided to target them and on his last day he worked it out that he spent 6 out of 10 hours fishing fighting the hard fighting doubles.



October saw the return of the Dutch trio, their 4th year with us, its always a pleasure to have them, crazy buggers!!! 

They worked hard sticking it out on boilies in an area of the Orellana where Carp are not really used to them.

Over the last 2 years Erwin had fish at 21.5kg and 22kg, this year it was Derek and Erics turns. They both had new PB´s, 22kg ( 48lb 8oz) Mirror for Eric and 23.3kg (51lb 4oz) Common for Derek.

 

In all they had 16 fish with an average of 15.45kg - thats over 34lbs, all wild Carp. 

 

Dereks PB Common of 51lb 4oz

he also had this 32lb Mirror, equalling his Mirror PB

 

Erics (pretty boy) had a new PB, a cracking Orellana Mirror at 48lb 8oz

 

 

Craig wet his lines for a couple of nights and banked this 36lb 8 oz Common

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In recent months I have managed a couple of social sessions with Jake, the guide at Sierra Brava Dreams. Not that I get much free time during the season, but when I do, it’s nice to fish with someone.

This time was to be on Orellana (the Bitch as he calls it) Jake is a cracking angler, his baiting and casting is spot on, and like me everything has to be right. He tackled the Orellana by himself without picking my brains, ok he might have cast a couple of sly looks whilst I was baiting my rigs…..

This session on Orellana turned out to be hard, we were on the fish but they were being very finicky. I changed my hook baits to try and entice a take and it worked, however I kept on dropping fish. Of course I got the ´piss´ taken out of me, but as I said, at least ´I´ was getting runs.

35lb

It wasn’t long before Jake had his first Orellana carp at 22lb 10oz, it had taken 16 days for him and he deserved it.

I was on a run of dropping fish, normally I would change things, however everything was good, I was happy with my end tackle, and it was only because the fish weren’t having it, an Orellana thing… I was concerned, but nothing I could do would change this……

42lb

 

The runs were few and far between, I had banked a couple of upper doubles and a 35lb common, however the hard work paid off on the final morning. I had landed a common at 42lb and Jake was into his second fish, a cracking common at over 39lb, well deserved that man…. In all I had only landed 5 carp out of the 9 takes, but hey, that’s fishing….

Jakes second Orellana carp at over 39lb

Update at long last....

I have eventually managed to get round to update our catch report, it’s a shortened version as its been so long. The first half season of 2012 has been a hard year, very cold weather and crap conditions right up to May, however we did get out a few pb´s and some descent fishing in.

Fishing in Extremadura during June, July and August is basically a no-no, temperatures average 40 deg and it is unbearable to be on the bank during the day, however we did get some time on the bank, mainly setting up at 9pm (34 deg) and packing up around 10 the next morning.

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I have been teaching Miguel carp fishing, right from the basics.. His pb was around 5lb until he caught a 16lb common and his next fish landed was this cracking common of just under 32lb...

 

biggest fish for me was this 37lb 8 oz common. I had around 10 other hard fighting fish around 25lb

 

Antonio´s new PB of 17.5lb taken on his first ever Carp fishing session with Craig on the Orellana, unfortunately Julie, his friend, lost a fish … The lads are just a couple from the village fishing club who Craig has been giving fishing lessons to.

Late August and Chino was on holiday so I had along weekend on the Orellana with him and his family. Plenty of friends and family turned up so we let them have a go on our rods.. We had around 30 runs- 3 x30s, biggest being 37lb 8oz, plenty of upper 20s and unfortunately I lost a ´lump´on an underwater craypot. Never the less, we had a great laugh, and the visitors landed their first ever carp.

 

Even the farm hand had his lunch with us and had a go. 

 

 

A 30 plus for Chino and myself



37lb 8oz for Isa, Chinos sister. The first fish she landed was around 20lb, this one weighed in at 37lb 8oz....well done Isa .....

Chule with his first Carp

 

 

Isa a competent Black Bass angler, needed just a little advice

 

You always get one!!! ¨Chule with little Chino¨

 

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 Bob joined Ken for 4 days and had plenty offish to 36lb 8 oz. Not bad as he didnt recast his rods throughout the night... Ken again had a pb common, the last 2 trips he had a pb common at over 34lb and a mirror at nearly 37lb.

 

I managed a bit of fishing with them and banked this 38lb 10 oz Common

Ken gets a run whilst filming fish topping on the Orellana

 

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One of the 2 competitions entered on Orellana in April -May. We managed 2nd out of 22 pairs with a 37lb Common to Stu´s rods., it was hard work with cold weather and storms, plus a huge hatch that went on for the 3 days.. Thats fishing!!

 

Birds hit the hatch for 3 days, so were most Carp

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One social event went horribly wrong, but a great time was had by all.I had just fished a 3 day competition with Gary from Alicante in which only 5 fish had been banked out of over 30 pairs of anglers. Fish were all over the place, crashing like mad but weren’t interested. We worked hard at it, trying everything until one of my rods eventually screamed off -10 minutes after the whistle had gone, either way it wouldn’t of counted as I lost it, I had gone down so fine (18lb flouro hooklength)it cleaned me off –remember these are strong wild carp here. .

Next day I went for an overnighter as we had permission to fish the night in an area we don’t normally night fish, we are restricted to night fishing only a small area of the lake I got hit by a huge storm and the night was uneventful other than the crazy weather.,.

 

Moving on to our allocated pegs Stu and I drew a bad swim, unfishable due to the weed. The weather was mad, storms and rain, 4x4´s getting stuck and Spanish makeshift bivvys getting blown into the fields behind. Nevertheless, we had a few laughs and Chino and Fernando caught a few fish.  The Nissan was called for to get this one out, the Suzuki just bounced around on the spot with tyres spinning, not enough weight or power..

 

 

A typical Spanish ´bivvy´ very social events normally, all the family, pets and usually a traditional ´Paella´cooked for everyone..  Unfortunately just after setting it up, a storm blew it into an ajoining field.

 

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My really serious session with Jake Langley Hobbs on Brava ...

After the mad weekend with friends, where Stu and I blanked, we were struggling on our allocated pegs, as we were fishing over heavy weed and fish were showing further up. I spoke to Jake, who was alone on Brava and he suggest i should have our first session together and fish next to him on Brava. I decided to stay on Orellana but move to the area a little further down where Fernando and Chino had runs from. After moving, within hours the fish start spawning, so the next day, I rang Jake and asked if it was still ok to go fish with him. So I headed to Brava to set up in my 5th peg of the week, I was knackered and determined to enjoy it and relax with a few beers. I did big style…, I didn’t take it too serious, which cost me several fish, as I recast rods after runs whilst making new (different) rigs up. I would normally change things first. It was a good session, plenty of runs, piss taking and we both managed to land a several 30lb plus fish….

 

 

I didn’t like the mice there though….., they must have grown huge since my last visit, they kept on nicking food n stuff, even my coffee jar… Was a great chill out – thx Jake..

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Brothers Bob and James visited us from Bonnie wee Scotland for a bit of pleasure fishing. Both being very competent fly and boat anglers fancied something a little different.

They had a little bad luck with the abnormall weather we have had this year, but had plenty Barbel and Carp on tip and waggler tactics.

 

A bite a chuck, first Barbel for the lads, and a PB double. These Carp are small, but scrap like hell on light tackle.

 

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Marty and Peter drew the short straw on their visit, gale force winds. It never stopped until the last day or so, and to be quite honest, by that time we were all worn out and beaten.

After 3 days no sleep, due to the crashing waves, Peter pleaded to swap bivvy with me so he could sleep, he was exhausted and his head drumming. I was bivvied up in the shelter of the trees a fair few meters from the bank. They caught fish, not many and not big, It was probably the hardest week of my 11 year guiding career, luckily they both were great blokes and we managed to take it in our strides, only just but we did…...

 

 

 Never the less, we had some good laughs, Peter taking his frustrations out on the wine. Two top blokes