Gary Allen's Regency Angling

Archive for the ‘Carp Fishing’ Category

Following on from the very successful April carp session, the 8 weeks had passed by without anymore Volcano activity, so it was Easyjets turn to drive thankfully.

Having spoken to Gary a week or so before we were due to go, he had explained that the catfish had started spawning, but due to a lot of rain falling in the Pyrenees, the river as he looked from his house with its fabulous mountain view, looked like thick brown chocolate with trees being washed down the center making fishing conditions a bit tricky for what was meant to be a concentrated 2 weeks session for Catfish…Great !

However, with Gary’s 13 years experience of the area, he assured us that the area he had in mind for us would still produce a few, and that the weather was expected to change which would certainly improve the river conditions and of course our chance of landing a few cats. We had caught a few before with Gary the year before in March, when the cats are at some of their biggest weights ( along with October ), and had 7 fish in 3 guided sessions to a massive 195lb; but this session was about  putting a few numbers on the bank, following the spawning cycle, and we hoped to average a fish a day with an outside chance of a fish each maybe on the better days, as we fish as a team for the cats and take it turns on the 4 rods to catch them, which also ensures that both of us go home having got some reward, that is after all, a true team effort.

On arrival, the wind was blowing a bit, but the sun was trying its best and had managed 28 degrees, lovely. Gary had a few guests finishing off their session in the swim he had suggested for us on the Monday, which left Sunday to go and kick start the session off and show Gary we knew what we were doing. Sunday evening was spent explaining how unlucky we had been not to hook any cats that day over a very enjoyable roast dinner, cooked by my fishing mate and chef Gavin. Eric, a lad from Gerona who was helping Gary out also stayed for dinner, and was keen to come along with us and do some carp fishing whilst we sat there staring at the catfish rods, waiting for the bell to ring which would indicate that a cat had just made a mistake.

As always, Gary helped us set up all the rods, select the most likely areas by using the fish finder for features and gave us some invaluable advice on how to present the bait on the rigs which he had been playing about with all last season to catch which are fast becoming some very clued up cats in the area of Mequinenza. When you get sound advice from a man who makes his living catching fish from the river, we have always found it best to follow this to the letter, however weird a single pellet hook bait may sound surrounded by kilo’s of them all over the chosen area.

Having got us all setup and explained the best approach to re-baiting etc, the boat which you always get with Regency Angling was parked in the swim ready for action, and confidence was high. Gary had said he had seen a few cats on the sonar whilst putting the baits out, so it should only be a matter of time until the first rod hooped over….

By evening time, disaster…. 2 fish lost, one to a snag and the other after a 20 minute fight from the boat with the hook link and lead just surfacing seconds before it came off, so close, and yet……bollocks !

The next morning came, up at 5.30am with the boat dropping the first bait at 6am with 2 very anxious anglers waiting and praying on the bank for another chance to put one on the bank, following 2 days with no fish landed.

It’s all a blur from that day really for the best part of a week, Gary’s heavy baiting plan must have worked, as by the Friday we were both standing in the river, each with a catfish over a 100lb for a nice brace shot, to go with the other 30 or so fish we had now landed, absolutely thrilled with the result to date, and injuries only an angler would enjoy to all areas of the body. When your catching multiple large catfish every day on braid, feeling every lunge they make and doing your best not to give them too much line as they try to get to snags etc, its amazing how physically tiring it is in what was now an average of around 38 degrees heat every day.

Eric who was fishing for carp with us and working for Gary was a great help in just having an extra pair of hands to do the photo’s, grab some shopping or more bait supplies whilst we just got on with the fishing. We also enjoyed some Spanish lessons whilst sitting on the bank, and his reasonable grasp of the English language helped us to establish that you have no chance of ever learning all of the subtle differences in verbs and contexts, unless you live there for a while, so we just stuck to the basics, which enabled me to order the food for takeaway, any combination of food from the Kebab shop, and how to express anger when a fish found a snag or the hook pulled ! The English translation didn’t seem to be that bad to us, but it made him laugh hysterically when we said it, so in exchange we taught him the English basics for youngsters ; ‘Am I bovered’ and ‘whatever’; Job done !

The first 3 days of actually landing these monsters had also produced a couple of real bonus fish, the good old Albino’s. We had 3 in 3 days which was amazing, not even Gary would believe us when we rang and told him we had just landed yet another one, after he photographed the previous 2 !

The one I had, ended up being the biggest fish of the week by 2lb at 174lb, an absolutely cracking fish for June, with the best part of a week left to go, all of the boxes on our wish list had been firmly ticked and then some, so we decided to give it until the Friday of next week for Catfish, and then spend a day out with Eric in the boat carp fishing, as he was keen to pick up a few tips from consistent carp success that we had enjoyed on all of our previous trips.

During the next week, the catfish just kept going and going until we peaked with a 13 fish landed day, which left everyone praying for a break in the action whilst the wounds to the lower regions healed. As we started to ease up on the baiting, the fish appeared to move away from the area and we started to see less fish rolling in the swim, which is a fantastic sight for any angler, you see the fish start to roll, which seems to go on for ages, usually finished by a nice slapping noise as the tail flips over and the fish descends back down to the murky depths.

The statistics for what turned out to be an 11 day stint for the catfish was as follows, 2 weeks of pure magic fishing that we hadn’t dared to dream of, made possible by the masterful Gary Allen who was always on hand to advise and suggest new ideas as the river conditions changed.

77 Catfish landed, around 10 lost to snags and a few hook pulls.

7 of these were below 50lb.

29 were between 50 & 100lb

41 were 100lb plus including 3 Albino’s

7 of these were over 150lb

Total weight was 7,548lb

Giving an average of 98lb

We obviously got lucky with one of the heavy feeding spells these fish have, and its impossible to say which weeks its going to fish like this, but the best advice to anyone thinking of going out there for Catfish, is to listen to Gary’s advice and be prepared to try whatever he suggests, we went out there with all sorts of ideas on baits and rigs, ditched all that and came up trumps with the above catch report. There were other fish being caught whilst we were there, but it’s fair to say that no one we spoke to was having anything like the consistent success that we enjoyed.

Thanks Gary for the most amazing 2 weeks fishing, looking forward to a repeat session next year, although this time I will remember when my wedding anniversary is before booking it !

Rob Leather & Gavin Piper

Once again, another great trip with Regency Angling. Gary was on top form, as usual. See you soon, John.

I had promised myself a holiday with my father for a couple of years and when we talked about destinations we agreed that Mequinenza would offer the Carp fishing we both love, and the chance of a big Catfish. Now we did not do ourselves the best of favours with regard to time of year as due to work commitments we could only go in early June. With this being in the spawning time of both the carp and Catfish we took a bit of a risk!

We then came to the quandary of who to book with. After a recommendation from a guy at work we chose to go with Gary Allen’s Regency Angling. The reason for this was the exclusive accommodation and use of a boat and engine, in addition to this you can book guiding from Gray when he will take you out in his own custom fishing boat. Now before the more suspicious of you are thinking I got a free trip in exchange for an article, I can reassure you all I paid with my very own hard earned!!

We flew into Barcelona and rented a car but you can fly into Zaragoza which is much closer. When we got in the next village I rang Gary and he nipped out in his car and guided us back to his house. The accommodation was a two bedroom static caravan with all amenities, cooker, fridge freezer etc. As we arrived very late Gary had even put a few supplies in the fridge so we could have a cup of tea and a sandwich, a really nice touch. I then checked the bait I had sent out in advance of our arrival which was from a new range of Berkley Gulp boilies soon to be launched in Europe. There was a fair amount missing which I was informed had been used to prime a couple of areas over the previous couple of days? Now that’s the kind of welcome I wanted!

Next morning after a quick stock up at the supermarket we all jumped on board Gary’s boat for our first excursion carp fishing. Now Gary’s boat is totally customised to this kind of fishing, with fish finders, GPS, rod holders etc. All of this is pushed along by a 80hp four stroke outboard. This means that you do not waste valuable fishing time travelling from spot to spot. We pitched up at a reed bed area that Gary had already baited with some boilies and expectations were high. We had travelled light and chose to hire the tackle we used from Gary, all of this was of the highest quality right down to the JRC connections range of end tackle. We had been in the spot not even an hour before Gary was suggesting a move, apparently if you don’t get a bite within an hour they are not there! We had barely started to pack away when one of my rods was off and my first Spanish carp rolled in the net an 18lb Common. Although Dad and I were pleased to be off the mark Gary was not impressed and declared we were still doing the off. After an exhilarating blast up the river we spotted some fish leaping in a shallow bay.  Gary carefully positioned the boat in an area which covered large numbers of Carp that were patrolling between large weed beds. Confidence was a lot higher her and it only took about ten minutes for Dads  rod to be away and this resulted in a personal best 35lb 8oz common, followed in quick succession by a 33lber and the a 27lb 6oz Mirror, an extremely rare fish for the area. I had a 14lber a 21 and then a beautiful high backed 34lb 3oz Common. Now this was amazing and it all happened in about three hours fishing.

Whilst returning to the slipway we discussed tomorrow’s plans. Dad and I had decided to spend the morning and most of the day fishing from the smaller boat, and the maybe have some guided trips for Catfish in the evenings. The boat Gary supplies is a very stable beamy aluminium punt style with a four stroke 15hp Yamaha which is a dream to start and use. Once a time is agreed Gary will take you down launch the boat for you and then at an agreed time come and pick you up. You may want to return for lunch or fish right through to the evening which ever way you want it happen Gary will accommodate. One important point was that Gary’s time keeping was exceptional! If you wanted picking up at 1pm, he was there at five to with the trailer reversed down the slip way. This is a small thing but not once in the whole week we were there was he late and that included 6 am starts and late finishes.

Anyway back to the fishing, the next day Dad and I returned to the same area and had an exceptional days fishing taking seven fish, Dad and I had a 37lber and a 38lber respectively and I topped off the day with a 42lb big long river Common, a dream come true. As the week went on the fishing got better and better the more and more bait we put in. On two occasions we had all four rods go off at once, and landed them all.

We asked Gary to guide us for Catfish on a couple of evenings and despite the conditions being bad he managed to get us a fish. Unfortunately it only weighed about 30lb, but it did represent the only Catfish we saw or heard about to anyone in the whole week we were there. You can’t catch what is not there, and a lot of the cats were still up in the spawning areas.

We took the decision to focus on the Carp as they were feeding well and we managed to accumulate over forty fish, 9 thirties 16 twenties including three 29lb pluses. These fished were topped by my forty two, and then on the last but one evening Dad hooked played and landed his dream fish. It was a Common of 43lb 6oz’s and I will never forget the look on his face as it sat in the net waiting for a picture.

All of the carp we caught fell to either Berkley Gulp Tuna Spice or Halibut Crab Boilies. Tactics were fairly straight forward, strong line, long rubbing leaders and then lead core. Strong sharp hooks are essential and despite the fish having very soft mouths the smaller hooks seemed to get a better hold. Sourcing locally you can only get size 2’s and 4’s, Gary had pre-tied rigs to get us going even going to the trouble of shrink tube line aligners, what other guide would go to that much hassle for his customers! I settled on size 6 Connection MTB3 long-shanks to 35lb Cocoon braid.  Dad and I fished these with a single 20mm boilie and hooked directly on a PVA bag of chopped boilies and small pellets. All our fish on this trip fell to this tactic.

In conclusion we had a fantastic trip in amazing surroundings. On our sessions we saw Vultures, Marsh Harriers, Hupu’s, Storks, Purple Herons etc, if you are not sure what they are Gary is an encyclopaedia of the local birds, the only negative from the week were Gary’s jokes!!

I am still hankering for a big Cat and will go back to Spain during a different time of the year when the fishing can be better; I only hope I do not get way laid by the amazing Carp fishing again. When I go back I will definitely book with Regency Angling again, and I would not hesitate to recommend them to others.

Thanks and see you soon regards Simon.

Just refitted the 2 boats ready for the new catfishing season.

I tested a new bait at the end of last season with fantastic

results…. 193lbs 201lbs and 204lbs were the best 3 fish,

so i’ve had a batch made in the UK, which arrived today

Can’t wait to give it a try when the weather warms up a bit. !!

Tight lines, Gary ( will upload the photos Monday )

A few pics and clips of a 2 week fishing holiday in Mequinenza, Spain, staying with Gary Allen of Regency Angling. 700lb of Common Carp caught in 8 days including 2 fish over 40lb.

Hi.

I have had a littlel revamp on my website as you may have probably noticed, I’ve gone all bloggy…

Yep thats right, me Gary Allen, Carp & Catfisherman supreme, I’ve had my buttocks dragged into the 21st Century. So hopefully I will be posting more and more of my daily diaries on here for you all to read.

I will be out and about in Mequinenza, taking pics, checking out the best places for all you lovely people to visit and all manner of stuff. Hopefully we’ll see you ctaching some big Carp or Catfish here in Mequinenza soon.

Please check back soon.

Gary.