World Catfish Classic - Official Global Website
Chiprana, Spain 23rd - 25th May 2012
| The Usual Ups and Downs |
| Thursday, 02 February 2012 14:32 |
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For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the River Ebro and its water levels, we have included the following information to hopefully dispel any fears you may have when viewing any photos like these that you may find.
 We wouldn’t have included them here, if it was anything else but normal for the river at the time these photos were taken, back in December!
The River: The source of the River Ebro is in Cantabria, The upper Ebro rushes through rocky gorges in the Burgos Province, flowing roughly eastwards. It begins to form a wider river valley as it reaches Navarre and La Rioja, thanks to many tributaries flowing down from the Iberian System on one side, and the Navarre mountains and the western Pyrenees, on the other. 
The valley expands and the Ebro's flow becomes slower as it flows across Aragon. There, massive tributaries flowing from the Central Pyrenees and the Iberian System discharge large amounts of water, especially in spring during the thaw of mountain snow. As it then flows through Zaragoza the Ebro becomes a sizeable river. The Catfish: In March, with the weather generally unsettled, the Ebro Catfish can still be regularly caught, but by April as the weather becomes more stable with consistently warmer temperatures, the Ebro Catfish begin to 'wake up' in increasing numbers. Once May arrives, the weather becomes much warmer and the catfish are very active. 
All throghout the spring months, as the mountain snow begins to thaw, the Ebro generally runs at a reasonable depth, and with the water being highly coloured (due to the influx of melt water) the catfish become active. Entering May, the water temperature rises, and the river usually runs fairly deep in line with the quantity of melting snow on the mountains. As a result, the start of the fishing season is often dependant on the overall winter temperatures higher up the Ebro, in the mountains. Generally, this means that a mild winter (higher temperatures and less than average snowfall) will produce better catch rates and more consistency to the start of the season. May is often when the Catfish spawn and for that reason the fishing can become very unpredictable but, as soon as they are finished spawning, there is a feeding frenzy and anglers can catch huge amounts of fish.
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