INTERNATIONAL CARPER - In search of Spanish gold

Below is an article by Andy chambers covering his first trip to the Orellana. You can either download the full PDF file from the original article below, or you can read the full text from the article which is also below.

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In Search of Spanish gold article - By Andy Chambers

Having left France after a disappointing session on Liez, I was hoping for greater things in Spain, and certainly the warmer weather would help. However, it was with a little trepidation that I crossed the Spanish border early on a Sunday morning and it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t know a single word of Spanish!

I had fished in France for more years than I care to remember and it has almost become a second home and it felt strange leaving there. Still, the word for beer is the same in any country, so I was sure I’d be able to cope. Driving further south, the scenery over and through the Sierra mountain ranges was simply awesome and breathtaking. At one point I came across a huge wind farm; there was literally hundreds, possibly a thousand, of these huge wind turbines wherever I looked – amazing.

The drive to the lake I was fishing took about six or seven hours, and I was due to meet my Spanish mate, Miguel from Madrid, who was to show me the lake and some good areas to fish. First impressions of the lake were that it was huge – perfect, just how I like them. It did look like the water was down somewhat but Miguel informed me that it was probably only down 8% on average. The lake contained a good head of 20s and 30s with the chance of a bigger fish; it had produced fish up to 601b+ in the last few years but was largely unfished and could produce some real surprises. What was even better was that the majority of the carp were mirrors, and cracking-looking fish at that. There was a new strain of carp coming through, young, fast-growing fish, and the lake certainly looks like it has massive potential for the future and indeed there are big lakes like this one all over Spain. Miguel had already sorted out my permit in advance and it cost the outrageous sum of 5 euros for a whole years fishing.

The next job was to get to the area I would be fishing, was was easier said than done. I followed Miguel as we took a turning off the main road; great, not far to go now. Fifteen minutes later and were were still driving down a rough dirt track, up and down and around and around. What worried me was not how far we were going, but would I ever get back to the real world again! At long last a small section of the lake materialised. There were some tasty-looking snags in the margin and it looked okay, but was quite narrow and didn’t offer that many options. The bank was also littered with Roman ruins from 2,000 years previous, which was different; you don’t get that on many lakes. Miguel informed me that around the corner would be better so we jumped in the car again and made the short journey around to the next part. When I saw it my jaw nearly hit the floor, it was perfect. Long sloping green banks ran down to the lake and I spotted a point that just screamed out to me to come and fish it. There was a lovely shallow bay either side of the point and on either side of each bay there looked to be the remnants of old grapevines and olive trees running down in to the water. The far bank was approximately 350 metres and was steep; no doubt the old river ran along that side and would give the option of deeper water. It was just perfection and with it coming up to spawning time it looked an ideal point to intercept fish, plus there would be resident fish in the snaggier areas to my left and right; it reminded me very much of the Shepherd’s Cottage stretch at Raduta.

Okay, now to get the gear sorted out. I couldn’t get the car down to the point, which was about 500 metres from the track, so we had to find a spot further up the track where I could get closer to the lake and then take the tackle down by boat. Fortunately there was a spot a little further on and so began the task of unloading. You could almost hear the car sigh with relief, as it had had to carry all my gear and some 200kg of bait for 1,500 miles. Miguel was keen to watch and learn how I would set up and tackle this huge and largely unfished water. My main concern was getting the bivvy up and the gear stored, as there were some very black clouds coming over the mountains. Miguel said not to worry, it didn’t rain here often; even so, I’ve been about a bit and I know a serious rain cloud when I see one. Within five minutes, the rain was torrential, and although I managed to get the bivvy up, I had to cover the boat with the groundsheet to try to keep the rest of the gear dry.

It rained for about an hour, the banks struggling to absorb the amount of rain falling, and being clay, they soon became nice and muddy. This was more like the Orient than Spain, and there was I, hoping for hot, settled weather and the chance for some sunbathing. The rain did eventually stop but much of the gear in the boat was wet. Great, I just love starting sessions like this with everything wet and covered in mud. In situations like this there is only one course of action, put the kettle on and chill out; after all I did have a month.

Miguel left shortly afterwards as he had work the next day but he would be back at the weekend to fish with me. After getting the gear and tackle in some order it was starting to get late and evening fast approached, the only real job that I needed to get done was get some bait out on the lake. I didn’t expect this huge lake to be any different from the others I have fished, apart from the fact that there were likely to be greater numbers of fish in it, so I would bait up the same. I’d got plenty of bait with me and so began the session by putting out 10kg of Nashbait Monster Pursuit and Scopex Squid Liver Plus together with 5kg of Halibut pellets. If the carp didn’t like that little lot then there would have to be something wrong with them. The bait I used was spread far and wide, 300 metres up to my left and right, and 150 metres out towards the edges of the riverbed.

I just cast the rod out that night with stringers and looked forward to a good night’s sleep, as it had been a long journey. I was, however, woken a couple of times by action but unfortunately lost both fish to hookpulls. I was still using the combi blowback rigs that I had on from Liez and it was my guess that the fish just didn’t need anything so complicated and the simple approach would work better.

After a good night’s sleep I awoke to find clear blue skies and increasing warmth from the steadily rising sun – this was more like it. I took the opportunity to dry off everything and almost start again, as it were. First job was to re-do the rigs and, looking through the rig wallet, the Korda Wide Gapes looked ideal when matched with some of the 301b Armakord as a hooklink. That might surprise a few people but it turned out to be superb, and at the end of the session I ended up using the 501b version. Once the rigs were sorted, next on the agenda would be where to put them. I had a good look around the swim, with the echo sounder. Just like the bank around me, this sloped nice and gently out to about 80 metres, the depth here was 6 metres; there was then a 2-3 metre rocky step down and then two further steep steps down to the riverbed, which was about 130 metres out and in 15 metres of water. The plan I formulated was that I would fish 70 metres out and bait a strip for two rods in the hope that the fish would be using the stepped areas as patrol routes but would come up onto the weedier flat areas to feed. With this being spring the two bays to my right and left looked ideal for spawning and I could intercept those fish taking this route – perfect. When we first arrived Miguel had asked if I wanted some other areas as back-ups for a move, but, to be honest, this area had everything and it would be interesting to see what would be swimming past over the coming weeks.

During the day, fish started showing out in front of the swim, nothing big, mind you, but it was an encouraging start and I even managed to catch a couple of fish in the afternoon, a nice 20 and an upper-double; it was good to get off the mark. So bad had the winter been that these were, in fact, the first carp of the year, so even better. Miguel had informed me on arrival that there were no catfish, grass carp or even bream in the lake. It sounded too good to be true. He did say, however, that I might catch one or two barbel. No problem, I could put up with that, and it was later that afternoon that I did indeed catch my first ever barbel, which probably weighed about 101b but which fought like an animal, and it certainly wasn’t to be my last. During the night I managed a further four carp, the biggest 271b, but the number of fish crashing in the swim early on was unbelievable – every 10 seconds a carp could be heard leaping out of the water. It was impossible to sleep as some were literally only five metres out, and then the wind got up and everything stopped; no crashing anywhere, which was a bit of a relief really, as at least I could now settle down and get some sleep.

Dawn the next day and it was calm again. Odd fish could be seen rolling and bubbling around my marker and I managed two 201b + commons, the first fish of the trip. As I mentioned earlier, the lake predominantly holds mirrors but does have shoals of commons, and if you catch one you probably go on to catch three or four, and then perhaps go days without seeing another. The rig I mentioned earlier was also doing the business and just about every run now was producing a landed fish. As predicted, the size of fish was around the 10-12kg mark and I really needed to do something about this and try to work out how to tempt the bigger fish. The riverbed looked a good bet and so morning was spent out in the boat looking for suitable spots.

After about and hour I found what I was looking for, a spot about 14 metres in depth with an uneven rocky bottom and just over 200 metres away to my right. Spain only has a two-rod limit which does make it difficult on these big waters, especially when you have been used to using four. It can take you twice as long to find going areas and depths but what it also doe is make sure you fish those two rods harder and more efficiently. Everything has to be spot-on and you take even more time to get them in the right position, etc., so one rod was fished on the marker and the other on the riverbed with just a light baiting around it, just 10 boilies; I didn’t want to attract any small fish or barbell.

Once the riverbed rod had been done I was prepared to leave it out there for three days and nights. The action on the other rod out in front continued with a steady stream of mirrors up to 281b; they were getting bigger, but only very slowly. Still, the weather was nice.

That evening I got a nice surprise as I spotted a big old wild boar coming down to the water’s edge opposite, this was then followed by another and about six piglets, or should that be boarlets? In fact, over the next ten minutes a further 15 big and small boars materialised from the trees. It was an unbelievable sight as they ran around and played opposite me; I never saw them again though, which was strange.

The next 24 hours were quite significant in that I caught my first Spanish 30, a nice common of 331b and then a good mirror of 30.081b, and I also received a run on the riverbed rod. It was about 6.00am when I received a few bleeps on the Delkim and automatically looked a the close-in-rod. There was nothing, which I didn’t quite understand, until my attention was drawn to the tip on the river rod, which was bent right over. I struck and immediately took to the boat due to the rocky nature of the riverbed. After ten minutes, though, whatever it was had gone around a number of rocks and was snagged solid, so I had to pull for a break. Gutted, I made my way back to camp; time for a coffee and also a chance to console myself. I decided to beef up this rod, given the nature of the bottom I was fishing, and respooled with 201b Big Game and a 401b Big Game Leader, with a buoyancy float up the line and a breakaway rock as weight. If anything big came along, next time I was going to nail it.

Given that I had now been fishing for five days and had got a reasonable idea of what was happening on the other rod, I knew I also needed to make changes here as well. I had been using my usual PVA stocking bag of pellets and chopped boilies and rowing this out so that I could be precise where I dropped it. The trouble was that the PVA bag, and in particular the pellets in it, seemed far too attractive to the barbel, which seemed to be increasing in number. I decided, therefore, to drop the bag in favour of a two-bait stringer, which meant I could now cast to the spot I was fishing. This would not only save time but would mean I wouldn’t need to spend so much time in the boat over the baited area and risk spooking any of the bigger carp.

It was now Friday evening and Miguel would be down for the weekend in a few hours. I had been baiting steadily for the last few days, 5kg a day, but thought I would spice things up for the weekend and put 10kg out to see if that increased the action. Up till then the weather had been hot and sunny, but as the time of Miguels’ arrival approached, dark clouds built up over the mountains. It was good to see Miguel, as I had not seen anyone for days, such was the remoteness of the place. He had also brough t beer, which was even better. Miguel set up next to me as there was plenty of room and we looked forward with anticipation to the weekend’s fishing ahead. I had by now stopped fishing the close-in-rod after midnight, such was the activity from the barbel and small carp, and preferred to wake at dawn and start afresh. The start of the weekend began by being slightly overcast but there was plenty of activity over my close-in marker, with fish crashing every few minutes. I had six fish before Miguel awoke at 9.30am – clearly another Briggsy liking his sleep! The fish had certainly got on the big bed of bait I had put out and over the course of the day we managed something like 50 fish between us and it was not uncommon to get double, or even triple takes at the same time.

I didn’t put any bait out on the Sunday and action was a lot slower with perhaps only 10 fish. We had a visit from Miguel’s good friend Raul and his girlfriend Inma, who kindly brought down lunch and cold beers, which was most welcome. They also showed me some Spanish general fishing magazines, most months they manage to get in one carp article, but given how popular carp fishing is becoming in Spain, I don’t think it will be too long before they have their own carp fishing magazine. Raul, Inma and Miguel took their leave that evening and left me on my own again in this paradise. I decided to wait until morning before baiting up again just to see what would happen, and this would turn out to be a crucial decision.

I started the Monday like it was a new session; the bivvy needed moving back as the water was rising all the time. I had a good wash, shave and tidy up, and gave the swim some more bait at lunchtime. The riverbed rod had been quiet and so I moved this to a 10-metre deep spot to the right to see what I could attract. The new baiting up time seemed to work, as at 4, 5 and 6 o’clock I had 301b+ mirrors and then just before dark another 30. This was more like it. I still caught smaller carp and barbel but at least felt I was getting somewhere by attracting the bigger fish in to the swim.

The weather was also starting to change from being hot and sunny to being really, really hot and burning. By 11.00 in the morning I was seeking the limited shade the brolly could provide, but still the fish fed. Usually, though, by early afternoon a strong wind would get up, much like the French mistrals and this would cool things down and really get the fish feeding. I was by now tinkering with the time when I did my main baiting up on the close-in-rod and tried 10 o’clock, midday, and 2 o’clock, and it seemed that 2 o’clock was by far the most effective for bringing the bigger carp into the swim later in the day. The 10-metre rod was producing every now and again and I had a good 30+ smaller carp and barbel but it seemed to be making no difference to the other rod. Every time I was out in the boat putting it on its spot I tended to get a run on the other rod and lose it. So for the second half of the session I decided to concentrate both rods on the close-in spot at 70 metres. I’d got the bait working, I had a good idea of when to put the bait out and how much, and I was catching the bigger fish more often. It was now a question of whether I could achieve my main aim of the trip, which was to catch a 401b Spanish carp, or even better a 20kg+ fish. Given the number of carp in the lake and the numbers I was catching it would be a tough task, but I was hopeful I could net that pot of Spanish gold by the end of the trip. Until next time, Andy.

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