9 avril 2023
DAY 2 EXTREMADURA FISHING TRIP
It's the second day of fishing at Orellana la Vieja in Extremadura, and today, we're highly motivated to outperform yesterday!
The fishing day starts with an amazing session of zander: almost a zander on every cast !
It's the second day of fishing at Orellana la Vieja in Extremadura, and today, we're highly motivated to outperform yesterday!
After an early start, and especially without breakfast because the lakeside bar was closed, we begin this second day of fishing.
Based on yesterday's fishing and the really poor results with the wacky rig, we decide to try a morning session for zander once again with a Nitro Shad using a slow, close-to-the-bottom retrieve, and it's pandemonium.
The zander are going crazy; we're landing a fish every 15 minutes, and Jayson, with his brand-new livecam-type sonar, is getting a strike on almost every cast.
"The spot is literally filled with zander, and these fish can be found in 6 meters of water just as easily as in 1 meter near the shore.".
Coming to fish in Extremadura, Spain, is all about catching big bass... and we're there!
The fish are of a good size, with an average of 60 cm. In the midst of these zanders, while using an incorrect retrieval technique too high in the water column, a very large bass takes my Nitro Shad.
A not very violent strike, but a fight, of course, much more spectacular than a zander with powerful jumps and rushes, but with so much pressure on the line, it was impossible to land this big bass. A big 54 cm bass in the midst of the zander euphoria – that's Extremadura (and apparently a typical day for Jayson...).
After catching exactly twenty zander, we decide to change our fishing spot because the fish have calmed down a bit, and the sun is getting quite intense, which is causing the zander to move down a bit in the water column.
"At this time, the underwater grass beds are huge, and the bass hiding in them are more than likely to bite a small worm gently falling into the water. (You guessed it, back to the Wacky rig!!)"
I manage to land a nice 47 cm bass on a Wacky rig above the underwater grass beds. The fight is intense because we are using a light setup of 2-10 grams, and I assure you that a bass can have its way with such a lightweight rig, especially when hooked with a single hook...
A scorching but excellent afternoon!! A day of fishing with over thirty fish. Fantastic!
Let's go for a second afternoon of fishing, and we start with the Wacky rig where I caught my 47 cm fish an hour before, but now, there's not a single bite.
"A lack of bites, obviously not due to the absence of fish because on our way back along the shore, we saw about fifteen fish, including a 60 cm one."
It was obviously not a problem of fish presence because on the return pass, which was precisely to confirm if the fish were really in the area, we had to see about fifteen bass over 40 cm, with one fish almost reaching 60 cm!!!
In the afternoon, the heat is overwhelming (a little 30°C in early April...), and the boat seat is so scorching that we have to wet it before sitting down.
We decide to return to zander fishing, still using the Nitro Shad, on a rocky point in the middle of the lake, and we manage to trigger 5 zander strikes under a scorching sun, which is absolutely incredible when you consider that in France, people tell us that zander are cold-water fish (I even wondered if Spanish zander aren't genetically modified to bite at temperatures above 40°C during the Spanish summer).
"At 5 pm, we change to a spot in a bay that had been reserved by a carp angler for several days, and we fish with the Nitro Shad in shallow areas with 2 meters of water, targeting zander we can see!!"
Crazy moments where the zander follow your Nitro all the way to the boat and suck it in from 3 meters away in crystal clear water, truly amazing.
In summary, it was truly a wild day, completely different from the previous one. The fish, especially the zander, were extremely active, with good-sized fish and in abundance (we ended the day with around 30 fish...).
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