Settled into a routine in Mequinenza, water is easy to get at the village down the road where we can also empty the toilet cassette down a handy drain, gas is no problem either we can get it from Fragga the next big town about 7 miles away.

The fishing this year is the best we have known since we first came to Mequinenza with a lot of big carp, the smallest being about 25lb's and the largest about 40lb's, my first Siluro (Wells Catfish) as they call them over here a baby one a couple of pounds then last night 26th December one about 2 meters long at 3.30am that weighed over a hundred pounds, much too heavy and slippery to pick up and weigh, which on 25lb line is not bad going.

It was nice to be woken up at 8.30 am on Boxing day by the rod alarm set off by a fat 28.06oz carp, the radio bite alarm which the rod sits in and sends a signal when the fish pulls the line out on the bait runner to a receiver we have in the van, a bit like a baby alarm for toddlers, a great bit of kit as we can now fish all through the night and rely on the alarm to wake us up when a fish is on.

We both have it off to a fine art, I go out and set the hook and play the fish while Sandra gets here warm gear and Wellington's on then goes down the bank to land the fish in the landing net where she lets the fish sit in the water, I then put on my boots to go down and lift the fish out of the water as they are too heavy for Sandra, we weigh it then take it's picture before sending it on it's way.

One big problem we have kept getting is being bitten off as I pick up the rod so a solution was needed. I had a look on the floor for old fishing braid that other anglers had cut off which looked strong about 50lb breaking strain and I have made some hook lengths up out of this so the catfish can't cut me off with their rough pads inside there mouth. I have lost a lot of big fish which will have been catfish. Once one of these gets it into it's head that it doesn't like being caught they take some stopping and the 15lb high tech line hook lengths I am using for the carp is just like cotton to them

The one thing I am disappointed with here in Mequinenza is getting a wifi signal, I thought I had cracked it when the fishing tackle guy said I could use his, and even though he gave me his password and router log in details I have not been able to log on with his signal and the one that I can get down at a big public building down in the town is so hit and miss and is hard work.

The weather here in Spain is knuckling down into winter mode, all the leaves that had turned into autumn colours when we arrived have now all blown off with the recent high winds, and during the night when we go out in the early hours to land any fish, the cold air makes our breath steam so much we have difficulty seeing with our head lamps and Nellie the boat pulled up on the shore is transformed into sparkling white with the layer of frost on here.

We do not hang about now as we have bought a “Carp Sack” to put any fish in, they sit happily in this in deeper water while the morning and the air warms up, which it soon does the moment the sun peeps over the mountains which surround us, making it quite pleasant a bit like an early summer day in the UK.

We are being quite flexible about when we are going down to Portugal and we are in know big rush

but probably will set off in the new year, whether we spend New Year in Mequinenza we do not know, we are both quite content here at the moment but hey ho decisions, decisions, decisions!..

.

I have found a decent wifi signal which is free next a public building so should be ok for further postings and maybe Skype calls..

If you are reading this Norm can you send me a text to my mobile so I can get in touch.. Hope Brenda's knee is ok , give her our love and we hope she is running about when we get back..

Aunt Jess if you are reading this try posting a comment..

Hi.

27^th November 2011..

Well it was a shaky start before we set off with the problems with the trailer, but hopefully they may have been resolved.

It all started when I took the trailer to Armitages Trailers to have it serviced before we set off, it was there they found out one of the tyres had worn on one side and was now illegal and the other three were on their way out.. What! They had only been to Portugal and back once a total of less than three thousand miles..

28^th November.

So it was a rushed job packing up the van at my sons and we set off a day early to take the trailer back to Brian James at Daventry, well to cut a short story even shorter they couldn't figure out what had caused it as far as the trailer is concerned all they could find was the tyres were under deflated at a 28 psi, where they said they should be 65psi..Well seeing as we bought the trailer off them and set off to Portugal within two weeks and we had not touched the tyres since new they had sold the trailer to me with under deflated tyres..

The up shot was they agreed to change all the tyres except they know longer use the wheel size that was on the trailer so they had to change all the wheels and the spare to the new size they are using, all at know cost to me, now that's refreshing a company with morals, I said I would call back to their works when we finally arrive back in the UK.. We will see if this resolves the problem..

29th November 2011.

So we arrived a day early at Dover for the ferry to be met with waves crashing over the harbour wall and the ferry being shoved about by a tug as it wrestled with the wind and waves.. Should be an interesting sail over to Dunkirk at the 6am sailing..

30^th November.

Up at four am looked out expecting the worse, but no the sea had calmed right off overnight. The Port was operating as normal with no problems from the big strike that was supposed to bring England to its knees, the only thing was the ferry's were running half an hour late with the day before bad weather, the sail over was calm and the ferry hardly rocked and Evie who had to stay in the van didn't seem a bit fazed by any of it.. I must admit once we got off the ferry the road out of Dunkirk was a lot easier than the route out of Calais, I will defiantly do this crossing again, and once we got on the motorways trundling along with the lorries we just ate up the miles, it was amazing how much we saved in fuel by keeping under sixty.. It took us two overnight stops in various “Aires” before we got to Mequinenza..

2^nd December 2011.

When we pulled up in Mequinenza in our usual parking place for our planned month stop over, we were shocked instead of the big beds of rushes and the small gap in them where we stop, they had all been chopped down and the area upgraded and landscaped to quite a high standard, with a seating area which the locals frequent for a chat as they wander up and down the riverside.

5^th December 2011..

So we have been into Fraga to collect my Spanish “La Licencia de pesaca” which was €10.89 for a year, and the fishing permit to fish in the Ebro at Mequinenza is €20 per week.. Alas all to no avail as yet, I have fished two days without a single bite hmm.

I fished a month last time we came to Mequinenza a couple of years back with out a single fish, but I am fishing for 40lb+ fish, I could go for the little ones but I can catch that size any time at home. So its a monster or nothing, at least the weather is kind as it is very warm at the moment a bit like our average English summer, and they have put up the street decorations in the town, and we have already had a Christmas present, the Pesca tackle shop gave us a bottle of wine.

6th December 2011.

Launched “Nellie” our inflatable boat for the first time today, it is like riding the Giant Chivers jelly. Put on the outboard and after a few pulls on the starter it fired into life for the first time and it was off for a trial sail to see how everything performs, its not quite the dive boat we sold, more like a bathtub but saying that we are afloat again, we have not been without a boat of some description for the last 40 years, and it is good fun “put putting” about ..

7^th December.

We found a new source of water instead of having to rely on the local fishing tackle shop which is only open occasionally at the moment, one thing the fishing tackle shop guy said when I asked him about getting internet access in Mequinenza which is always a problem, he said I could log on to his shop wifi, I haven't seen him since as there is another public holiday here and most shops are closed. But I have to go get some more line as I stupidly lost all of it off my reel when I went to the wrong buoy taking the bait out in the boat, I must have gone half a mile and Sandra who was holding the rod just had to watch the line disappear off the reel as I was too far off to see or hear her.. Bugger!. Egg on face time..

The upside of the day was we had enough water for both of us to have a shower, we were both getting a bit whiff'y, Sandra went in the shower first while I cast out the rods, come to my turn and the heater had been turned off so no hot water, put the generator on and the electric water heater soon had the water hot.

Got undressed and in the shower was nicely lathered up with shampoo when I heard the bite alarm screaming out, then the door open and close as Sandra went out to the rod, I was waiting for her to shout out “Ray” but she just got on with it and sorted it, the kettle was now whistling it's head off so I wrapped a towel round me and turned it off I could see Sandra winding away with the rod bent right over so I got dressed and went out to help her land the fish, she was complaining it was hurting her arm as it was pulling that hard, so I took over and Sandra went down the bank to land it, our fist fish in daytime for a long time as we normally catch during the hours of darkness with “Carp o'clock” best time from 10pm onwards..

It weighed a good 30lbs as near as we could judge as the scales we had would not work properly, not a problem now as I have bought some new digital scales.

We had another two runs after dark, one breaking me off and on checking the hook length it was very rough to the feel, so it must have been a Siluro as the Spanish call Catfish, the other run I had the fish on at quite a distance out, but the hook straightened out and the fish was lost.

A very good exciting day with the weather, wall to wall blue sky and glorious sunshine.

9^th December 2011.

Woke up this morning to see everything shrouded in fog and the temperature has dropped substantially compared to the rest of the week, we have the fire on for the first time during the day, also the wind direction has changed to an Easterly which is blowing all the floating dead weed on to our side of the river and is a nuisance when trying to fish.