Ebro Cats

GrahamM

GrahamM

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Did you see that picture in AT of the big line-up of cat anglers on the Ebro catching that ginormous catch of big cats from an area prebaited with tons of halibut pellets?

Don?t know what it did for you but it left me cold. That?s yet another different and magical part of angling disappeared down the hair/bolt/boilie/pellet route.

It used to get my blood flowing when I read about big cats taking livebait on float tackle and the ensuing battles from boats, etc. Real fishing that was different and exciting. Now, just another big fish on yet another pellet from a yet another prebaited swim.

Where will it all end?
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

Guest
Tonnes of it going in now, fish rolling in the swims.




I'm still on par boiled spuds.
 
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sash

Guest
There are still sections of the Ebro and other European cat waters that remain 'traditional' Graham, but even though I hope it stays like that I can't see it lasting.

I fully agree with you, it leaves me cold.
 
R

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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The use of vast numbers of marine sourced pellets should be making us anglers and conservationists think a little more.

Tons of them Graham?

Has anyone ever sat back and thought where these pellets come from.

Well I will tell you.

They are processed from marine life such as sandeels, pilchards, sardines, fishguts, anchovies, krill etc etc, which in most cases is vacuumed up from the sea bed. Such items provide food for many sea creatures including cod which are now reaching the verge of extinction. There is something not quite morally right in my mind about the catching of a few hideously ugly monsters to satisfy the macho egos of a few glory hunters using a food source that one day might run out.

What say you?
 
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Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)

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Graham, there is still plenty of real angling challenges out there.I was a bit disturbed though to find an a recent trip to catch mullet in traditional style on the float a couple of guys outfishing me about 4 fish to 1 with youve guessed it bolt rigs and method feeders!Great guys and they were certainly enjoying themselves so why not I suppose?
 
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marcus ballam

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Will pellets blow? Seem to have been around awhile now.

Now, livebaiting with kittens, thats real fishing....
 
M

Mark Hodson

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Theres no skill involved, do the anglers feel as though they have achieved something special, have they learnt anything groundbreaking angling wise, does it enhance their overall enjoyment of the sport ?. They must feel overjoyed at first to catch such a magnificant creature, then a week later they see another 25 people have done exactly the same thing on the next trip and they must feel so deflated.

Those cat trips are a bit like a new rollercoaster at a theme park, you pay your money and enjoy the ride, if your one of the first to go on its magical and special, a groundbreaking experience, 6 months later no-one cares as every ones seen it and been on it, why they continue printing the pictures I don't know !! "Oh look another 100lb moggie from spain, cor that dosen't happen every day " Oh yes it does.
 
L

Limestone

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The Ebro is a very big river, but the huge cats you see in the press are mainly from the area around Mequinenza, where a great deal of bait does go in, and where the cats (and, to an extent, the carp) are very big indeed.

Does that make a 100lb or even 200lb cat any less of a noteworthy fish? Not really - certainly no more or less noteworthy than the same barbel from the same swim or the same carp from the same lake. Landing a cat anything like that size is a whole different thing from hooking it!

But there is much of that great river that never sees a pellet from one year to the next. Nearer the delta, it's very different. Yes, it gets fished, and by professional guides, but it's more 'natural' fishing, more 'traditional' fishing (given that cats have been in the Ebro for less than 40 years since their introduction). So not every Ebro cat is a pellet fish.

My best Ebro cat? My only trip (earlier this year) produced just a 30lb fish for me, taken on a floatfished livebait, from a friend's boat. I never saw a pellet all week, although I did have a chuck on the Porky Pig with a method feeder, trying to augment our bait supplies! I hope to return some time.
 
B

Budgie Burgess

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It leaves me totally cold to Graham.Im glad I stopped guiding when I did as I certainly dont want any part of it.

I could write pages on this but simply cant bring myself to.As Star Treks,Bones would have said "Its catfishing Jim....but not as we know it"
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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It's not the cats, size or otherwise, I'm knocking Dave (Limestone) but the latest method that involves sackloads of halibut pellets and an orderly queue to catch them.

And yes I know it's not like that all along the Ebro, and hope to god it never does get like that.

But I'm not holding my breath.
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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Budgie -- did you used to go 'Clonking'
on your guiding trips -- I believe that was a skill in itself .....
 
E

EC

Guest
Wherever there is a commercial gain to be made someone will be in there lads.

One of my mates dads fished the ebro by boat 4/5 years ago with a guide, right by a sewage outfall, live eel as bait, cast out for him etc etc, caught 5 or 6 cats to 70LB! He's never been fishing before or since.

Its just another tourist trip to some. Just like whale watching or the barbecue on 'smugglers beach'!

But deep down is it really any different than sitting down on some UK commercial fisheries?
 
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Ric Elwin

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Personally I'd rather catch a pound trout on a fly from a gurgling stream.

Or a pound bass from the ocean, or a pristine roach from a river with little form of producing them.

There again, i'm not materialistic. Not sure if that's anything to do with it or not?
 
E

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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A mate of Graham and I (Terry Knight )used to go and was telling us about it..he said it was amazing how it worked

Did you ever come across Pete Evans out there --he used to do a bit of guiding didn't he ?
 
Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs

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Graham,

Like you this sort of fishing leaves me pretty cold, in fact near to frozen.

Although, when I think about it I have to wonder if this is really any different from those anglers who regularly use pellet for Barbel, Carp and (as I saw a coupe of weeks ago) Roach on the Avon as well.

I would agree with Mark when he says; have they learned anything groundreaking, or has it enhanced their overall enjoyment of the sport?

From a personal point of view I tried pellets a couple of seasons ago, after a thread on FM that had me wondering if I was missing out on something. To be totally honest I didn't enjoy those trips half as much as I do using maggot, bread, worm, caster and corn etc.

Undoubtably mass baiting with pellet, over a period of time, will in all probability result in large catches of large fish, but from my standpoint I am much happier catching fewer fish of smaller sizes on what I term 'traditional' baits.

I suppose it all boils down to what you want from your fishing and what you are prepared to do (or sacrifice) in order to achieve it.
 
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Limestone

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Eddie - I understand Pete Evans is still guiding. My mate who I went with in April had his first few trips on the river with him.
 
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paul williams 2

Guest
Drawing the line is the thing.....we get "top" anglers using the local talent to put them on to fish and then writing about how they are the great white hunters, going where others fear to tread, when in reality they are big girls blouses...........who can then blame Mr Working man for wanting to do the same?

Sometimes i spit feathers when i read some of the self indulgant praise that some writers heap on themselves!
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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He's a good lad is Pete (for a yorkshireman)--he had a few goes on the Cheshire Meres with us in the seventies /eighties....
 
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