March in Spain
- At April 04, 2015
- By admin
- In Travel
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On the 23rd March I took the plunge and set off to Extemadura with regular client John Wingrove. John is on a great amount of medication for various problems and so this was a trip undertaken with reservation. However, I had employed the assistance of my friend and local guide, Luis Meana, the master fly tier who specialises in the “paradon de Meana”. Luis is obsessed with the fly from the coq de Leon and has virtually devoted his life to making his flies more widely known. Last November he had to cancel joining me on a fishing trip because he was invited to present a talk and demonstration on his flies in New York, and next weekend he heads off to do something similar in Denmark. I can recommend his book all about the subject – “The Paradon de Meana and the Feather of Gallo de Leon”. You can check out his website www.cotossalmoneros.com” for a lot more information.
We met Luis at Madrid and were soon speeding down the motorway to La Siberia. This is a part of Spain rarely visited by tourists. It is, as its name suggest, remote, and wild. However it is truly beautiful. And the system of reservoirs is just stunning. It really is a fisherman’s dream to visit such a place. Many barbel fishermen know all about Orellana and I have previously fished Cijara. In Cijara there are some great pike, a lot of black bass and a somewhat puzzling amount of barbel. I was first put onto fishing Cijara by Andy Lush (you may know him as the owner of “The Friendly Fisherman” fishing store). He had discovered barbel fishing there many years ago and these barbel were avid feeders on surface flies! That to me sounded too good to be true so it was not long before I was booking a trip and heading out there. Well, on arrival we found few barbel – apparently all spawning, though I have my doubts on that, but many black bass which were really keen on taking fly, and so we had a great holiday fishing for this strange fish.
I have returned several times to fish for barbel with dry fly and always managed to find some feeders. As Andy suggested to me way back, these barbel just love a surface fly! It seems so odd. You can watch the fish cruising and occasionally grubbing around on the bottom, but put an ant pattern, or a beetle over them and you have a good chance of them taking this imitation. For a couple of years this has puzzled me as I have never seen a barbel rise to a natural fly. But, on this trip with John I saw this happen regularly. IN fact on the one day when the temperature reached around thirty, there were many different insects around and obviously some of them fell on the surface of the lake. The barbel didn’t miss out on this opportunity. John and I had good sport with the fish – and, all were caught on dry flies.
We caught two species of fish. The small headed barbel (microcephalous) and the Comizo barbel. Luis actually has a theory that many of the fish that we think are comizos are in fact hybrids, I leave that disection to him. All I can tell you is that this is seriously good fun fishing. I would suggest that the fish that are rising are easy enough to catch….the problem is that they are usually way out in the lake. If they move close enough to the bank then you generally get a response. However, the real challenge of this fishing is to work on those fish that are cruising the margins. These fish are looking for feeding areas. They often stop and start feeding on the bottom. Sometimes they feed like bonefish (in many ways they are very like bonefish, not least the first run that the microcephalous makes) and show their tails as they are feeding. A cast in front of these fish sometimes produces a reaction. If it does not, then it may pay to present the fly a little “heavier” in order to distract the fish from its feeding on the bottom. Of course this comes with the risk that you may completely frighten the fish away, but, hey, there will be another chance a hundred metres along the bank…
The most important aspect to this fishing is getting the conditions right – though isn’t that the case with most fishing? The BEST fishing conditions in Extremadura are bright sunshine and calm! These conditions give you the most amazing spotting conditions. The lakes are clear anyway, but with the sunshine that we had on the final two days, it was often possible to make out a fish moving along the bottom at over fifty metres. The shallow margins are the first parts to warm up and so the fish take advantage of this as soon as the sun gives off some heat.
John had two great days of fishing and managed to catch nine fish. Several of them took him well into his backing. His best fish would have been around five pounds. We both fished with five weight rods, tapered leader and tippet around 10 pounds. The flies are fairly big (beetles on a size 10 or 8 and the ants and grasshoppers are on a longer shanked hook about a ten) and so there is no point on fishing any lighter. The fish don’t seem too worried by the thick tippet. There are few obstructions in the lake, but often there are plenty behind you. I can highly recommend a trip out there. Personally I cannot wait to get back.
Finally I must say that those of you who are interested in the wildlife aspect of your sport, then this is a MUST trip to do. The birdlife is amazing. I saw many species that I have never encountered before – including a pratincole, a crag martin, serin, and Imperial Eagle. I heard cuckoos each day, saw hoopoes and azure winged magpies, and spectacular butterflies including swallow tails. And storks can be seen nesting on all sorts of odd places, including a huge crane!
February in Cuba
- At February 26, 2015
- By admin
- In Travel, Uncategorized
- 0
I couldn’t get my usual spot in Cuba this year so I booked in for a month earlier. The group met up at Gatwick after check-in and once we had ensured that a decent supply of “whicky” (as the Cubans call it) was bought, we settled for a chat over a departure refreshment. This year there were seven of us. Crooky as usual, Simon Hodges and Andrew Barker who both came last year, and new to our party, Matthew, John and James.
The flight seemed longer than usual, maybe we were all so looking forward to this particular trip! But, on reaching Havana we were through the immigration ever so quickly as I had made the decision to book at no great expense the v.i.p. “meet and greet” service. I wholeheartedly recommend this service as later in the trip I spoke with a couple of people who were on our flight and they took over two and half hours to clear immigration. We were in the lounge awaiting our bags within half an hour, and we were able to get a cool beer in the air conditioned lounge!
Money changed and bags loaded off we went to Caleton. The driver was as slow as any I have encountered in Cuba, but I guess he was at least pretty safe. A quick snack greeted us at our Casa and then we hit our beds.
The guides were waiting for us next morning as we headed down the long track to La Salinas. As per the night before Camillo – our driver, was very cautious and this meant that the journey to fishing each day would be over an hour. However the coach was fairly comfortable and we could chat and sort out gear and leaders if we wanted to and one or two of the group would usually catch up on sleep.
First day on the flats was wonderful. It was so good to be back there again. Everyone caught fish that day, though the newcomers experienced much frustration as they attempted to cast at the “ghosts” that the guides were repeatedly pointing out! By the end of the week all of the guys were spotting some fish and catch rates improved.
James had a superb jack crevalle of about twenty pounds on day three . This fish was caught on his eight-weight bonefish outfit and took him at least an hour to land. John caught the largest bonefish which measured 57 cm, and so would have been around 6.5lbs – great achievement on his first trip. Simon had the most bonefish for the week, whilst on one day alone, Andrew managed to catch 24 bonefish! Strangely, that day I managed not one bonefish, though I did catch my first shark on a fly.
There were several decent barracuda caught by the party, one or two decent snapper and many odds and ends. Tarpon were few and so we opted out of trips to the river. Crooky managed one tarpon as did James. My day on the river resulted in quite an amazing hook-up! I had stopped for lunch with my guide Jasil next to an old hulk half sunken. I had hoped that there would be a few snapper around and had changed from my 400-grain line with a black death fly, to a floater and clouser minnow. There were no snapper around so we relaxed and had our rolls. Then I spotted a fairly decent snapper appear from under the stern of the boat. I dropped the closer towards the fish and it took instantly. At that moment a juvenile pelican flew into the bay and immediately seized my fish! I was now playing a pelican instead of a snapper. Eventually I wrestled the snapper out of the bird’s pouch and managed to swing it in before the pelican was able to grab it again. The fish lost a few scales but seemed untroubled by the attention that the pelican had given it!
We experienced some unseasonably cool weather this year and several mornings and evenings had to don a sweater or fleece as all of our meals were served outdoors as is the norm. We even had to wear an extra layer on a couple of mornings on the flats. However, by one or two every day temperatures were hitting 26 plus, and we often went over 30 degrees. The flats took longer to warm up than any trip I have done so far, and so it was no great worry to pole out for a long time (and distance) as there were often few fish in until the water warmed.
I saw permit on day one and day two. The first day the fish were already disturbed and chasing about in an odd fashion. On casting in front of one of the fish it headed straight towards my fly but turned around and set off for the horizon at an amazing speed. The two fish I saw on day two were feeding and oblivious to my guide and me. I managed a decent cast and one of the fish swam over to my fly but didn’t pick it up. However it was not disturbed so I had another shot. This time the fly was ignored, so I went a third time. Again one of the fish came to the fly, but again it failed to take. Another couple of casts did nothing and then the fish just moved steadily away. I’ll get one yet!
I tried to book the place for next year as we all get on so well with the guides and the lovely people who run our casa, but no bookings are being taken. IT seems that as the market is opening to the Americans, the fishing lodges and operations are beginning to realise their potential and so are making plans to capitalise on things. So, I have made arrangements to return in late October through to early November as the operation I use will still be available then. Anyone interested in that trip please let me know as soon as possible. I will be emailing my regular clients with details.