This report is a follow on from the nice report Paul Bowen did a few weeks ago and from it you can see how things can change in just a few weeks and why you need a guide. When Paul returned to England a few weeks ago the main dam was 70 ft down from full and no water in the river.

April came and as normal we had rain. One week later my mate Eddie Mears came out for his 1st of 4 trips booked this year, Eddie has been coming to the Algarve fishing for over 30 years he made 2 films years ago about algarve fishing which you could find interesting. Algarve angling experience on running water and algarve angling experience on still water you can see these on Youtube.

I picked Eddie up from the vista marina hotel in Portimão (recommended ) and took him to the dam only to find the spot we had fished a week earlier under 20ft of water.We fished it for a few hrs and had a few barbel and carp but nothing special. I suggested we packed up early and could go and look at my plan B option for the next day.

We looked at the river feeding the dam and there was about 5ft of water running in.We looked again one mile down the river where it enters the dam and found around 8ft of water worth a try for the next day.The next day we fished and had some nice fish in the rain.

Gary Spencer was to join me a week later and I had this same spot in mind, but on arriving at the river I was very pleased to see it just over the bank.When this river is like this its the best fishing I have ever found in all Portugal, we have had near on 200 barbel in 4 days with fish over 10 lbs.

My mate had a 13 lb fish there and lost a bigger one. We had a good days fishing with barbel to 9 l bs and carp to 11 lbs all on feeders.

We had the next day off and returned to the river the day after and found the water 20 yards over the bank into the fields and impossible to fish…. so plan B was to return to the swims I fished with Eddie, on arrival we found the water over the banks and 3ft of water where we normally sit so its plan C…. thats why you need a guide.

I took Gary over to the other side of the river and very carefully in my 4 x 4 made my way to the river crossing several spots that would be impossible in a car.

This spot I had looked at last summer for just this situation and it looked good Gary was soon into his 1st barbel around 5 lbs and had a good few more up to 7 lbs and some carp as normal we lost some in snags, but thats why the fish are there

I had a few fish and lost a good carp in a snag. These barbel are fantastic far stronger than UK fish even a 5 lb fish was bending Gary’s 2 3/4lb fox carp rods double screaming of for 25 yards in seconds. What a 20 lb fish fights like I cannot think, but they are in there so watch this space.

John Bate