Only an idiot would go fishing on a Monday or, for that matter, on a Thursday. Where I am in Cantabria, if the guardia civil caught you in the act of trying to catch a trout in the local section of the Ebro on either of those days they would land you with a fine that would make your head spin.

Such, at least, is what the bloke I met today on the river told me. He caught sight of me wading in the river as he was out walking his dog and, being a local fly fisherman himself, he was much more clued up about the regulations. The cops here don´t mess about and so I took the guy´s advice and packed in for the day before the day could really get going.

So I could not spend the day fishing and so, rather than waste it, I decided to explore the river and see if I could walk the stretch from the town of Reinosa to the Embalse del Ebro, which is the furthest upstream of many reservoirs on Ebro. The walk was pretty straightforward and there were paths and styles which made the trek quite straightforward.

I did make it as far as the reservoir and, in the process, made a couple of interesting discoveries. The first was that the barbel are plentiful in the stretch of river leading into the reservoir. The river here is also relatively open and not overgrown. Yahoo!! The second interesting discovery is that there were plenty of carp in the reservoir at the point that the river flows in. Curiously, I heard these carp before I saw them. They were making that distinctive slurping sound that they produce when they are feeding in weeds. It was really odd. Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp! I knew they were there but only later did the odd fish show itself in the gaps between and among the weed beds, and a couple were obliging enough to allow me to make a video recording of them at relatively close range.

Needless to say I am itching to get back and see if I can fool those carp and the barbel with artifiial flies.

That is my plan for tomorrow!

Most of the carp were well hidden, although they made plenty of noise. These two were considerate enough to let me take a good look at them!
I didn´t know how friendly the cattle would be as I made my way through some fields towards the reservoir. I skirted these ones by sticking close to the river. I figured that if I got into trouble I could always leap in! In the event the cows proved gracious and accommodating.
Slurp, slurp, slurp everywhere! They could be tricky to spot but the weed beds were alive with actively feeding carp.
This is a beautiful place. This wooden bridge leads on towards the reservoir.