Angling Star December 2011 Issue Ebro Article part 1 on Front Cover

Just a quick update folks, to let any of you who are interested know that this months issue of Angling Star has hit the shelves and part 1 of my account of our Ebro trip in September has a double-page spread inside.

Not only that, but Shane's pose with his big roach has made it onto the front cover too!

Predator Fishing Article - Zander, Pike & Eel - on FishingMagic

Just posted on FishingMagic today is an article about my recent predator session, where I managed to bag a trio of Pike, Eel and Zander, all after dark:  http://www.fishingmagic.com/features/coarse_fishing/predator_fishing/15496-predator-fishing-%E2%80%93-andrew-kennedy-nets-a-hat-trick.html

I was testing out a new specimen unhooking mat from Cyprinus and the review of this well-made mat is also on FishingMagic here:  Cyprinus Beanie Mat Review

Ebro Article Part 1 - Alternative Ebro on FishingMagic Now! Zander, Roach & Carp

Part 1 of my writings about my recent trip to the River Ebro in Spain is now live on FishingMagic.com!

Alternative Ebro Part 1 Article on FishingMagic.com

You can see some of the "sneak peek" photos from my previous post in all their glory, such as this one:

Alternative Ebro Part 1 Article on FishingMagic.com

A slightly different version of this article should be featuring in December's Angling Star magazine too.

Keep an eye out for the concluding part 2, which details all of the catfish fishing we did, in the near future.  I'll be posting that link here as soon as it's live.

I hope you enjoy the article, please feel free to come back here and post any comments.  If you're a member of FishingMagic (if not, why not sign up?), then please post any comments or questions below the article, I'd be delighted to read & reply to them.

Andrew.

Catfish, Zander and Roach Fishing on the River Ebro at Riba Roja d'Ebre

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 though 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 and the second covering all things catfish-related.  The articles should be appearing in the December 2011 & January 2012 issues of Angling Star, with "director's cut" extended versions appearing on FishingMagic soon.  We also took a bit of video footage, including some underwater video, which I still need to edit together before putting it on my YouTube channel.  Once they're up I'll post the links on here. 

For now, below are a few "teaser" photos of the action and the fish, just to prove we didn't blank! ;)

One last thing, I happened to notice last week that the total visitors to this blog had topped 15,000 in less than two years, which I think is pretty good going considering I don't have anything even approaching profound to say!  Good work folks, I hope you enjoy what you see here.

 

You can find out further information about fishing the River Ebro at Riba Roja on the Riba Roja Tourism Agency website: http://www.riba-rojatourismagency.com/

Countdown to the Ebro... Catfish & Zander Fishing in Spain

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're going to 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 lure, I'll be over the moon.

I think if I can land any catfish from the Ebro I would have to be really unlucky for it not to beat my UK-best which is this kitten:

So, fingers crossed the fish gods are smiling down on us next week.  I'll be filling you in on here and on FishingMagic once we return.  'Til then, wish me luck!

Zander Saves September - Perch Fishing, Zander Fishing

Well, after my last post virtually declaring September as a "lost month" as far as my fishing results were concerned, a good fish comes along and gives me a slightly more rose-tinted view of September 2010 after all!

I travelled a little farther afield than usual and endured a gruelling day fishing for perch, with very disappointing results.  The weather was overcast all day, the river was fairly clear and to be honest, I considered the conditions to be perfect for perch fishing.  However, the closest I came to catching a big perch was a missed take on a spinner early on, which felt like a perch and also felt heavy.  Then an hour later I was lure fishing in a shallow, gravelly run when I got an amazing follow.  The bow-wave created was huge!  It zig-zagged behind my lure and took one final swipe, but missed.  I'm pretty sure I saw the mouth of a perch as it made that final grab and I'm also sure that a pike would have had the small lure well down its throat long before that anyway!

After a few hours of throwing lures around and failing to catch even a micro-perch, I settled on a peg to bait fish.  Several hours passed and the best perch I had was around 4oz, on maggot; the best fish I had was a chub of around a pound, on lobworm.

Still, I had also caught a few roach around 3oz, which I'd killed to use as baits as the light began to drop.  The other rods I had in the van were set up for some zander fishing, so I rigged up some of these fresh baits and sat back not expecting too much.  My only run of the evening resulted in this 8lb 11oz zander:

It's by no means the largest zander in the world, but it's my biggest for a few seasons and as you'll see by reading my article "My Love Affair with Zander", I'm quite attached to the species, despite living a good 2 hours drive from most of the best zander fishing in the Country and blanking on far more sessions than I catch on.  So, this fish is very, very welcome and has made me a happy man.

It was interesting photographing this fish and just as the first shot was taken, the zander kicked and ...well see below for yourself!  It was such a quality, one-off photograph that I thought it deserved a caption and deserved to be put up on here.  Below are the best two captions so far, but if you have any better ones, post them in the comments box and I might even add the best ones to the photo and post them on here...

Plus, this photo really got me thinking about just how big the mouth of a zander gets when it flares its gills.  I tend to use small baits when zander fishing, but its mouth was twice the size of mine!

Finally! (But was it worth the wait?)

Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! 

After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I'd target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there.  I haven't really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process.  With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic - even those more associated with winter - so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I'd double my chances ...I thought!

S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day.  I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the "snooze" button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself.  Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just queueing up to take my bait.  I settled on a swim with a deep slack and thought to myself that if I hadn't landed a fish by 8am there was something wrong for sure.  Well, 8am came around, so did 10am, then mid-day and I hadn't had as much as a dropped run!  I'd tried different baits, fished them hard on the bottom and paternostered mid-water and had a good cast around, all to no avail.  I had seen cormorants catching fish upstream, but it was inaccessible so I tried to cast as close as I could, which only resulted in my rigs getting dragged into snags which were stronger than my mainline.  I was having a stinker! 

There was the odd bait fish showing near the slack and I had some worms with me, just in case, so to save my sanity I set up a feeder rod to try for a perch.  Apart from the odd slight movement on my light bobbin, which I put down to tide/flow, I still sat bite-less and fish-less until I finally decided to reel in the feeder rig to check my bait.  Initially this was snagged, but after much tugging, the hooklength parted but I felt the weight of my swimfeeder was still there.  A few turns of the reel handle later, the rod tip jerked into action and it soon became clear I was battling a fish!  A few seconds later, I wasn't any more.  When I reeled in, there was my feeder, there wasn't my hook, just as I'd expected.  I'd had deadbaits in the area all day, which the predators ignored but now they were striking at my - seemingly more appealing - swimfeeder!  A lure was hastily deployed to the same area and first cast, BANG!  I was finally into a fish!  At four pounds in weight, it won't be breaking any records but it did provide a rare highlight during a less than remarkable day!

I'm out making the most of what's left of the season on Thursday & Friday, then next Wednesday & Thursday too, probably concentrating on predators but maybe I'll fit in a chub session somewhere too...