Gary Allen's Regency Angling

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