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!..