We have some of the best Barbel fishing in Portugal - Southern Barbel which can go to 30lbs! Great fun on the fly.

We have some nice Carp fishing, with a few fish to near 40lbs and fish just over 50lbs only a one hour drive away. We have some nice runs waters for carp. Mainly mid doubles and low 20s. My friend had 24 one day, my best is 19. We have the fishing rights to the best private runs water in Portugal at Arge near Portimão on the Algarve.

Carp fishing in Algarve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDfFAvG4H8s

Still water fishing in Algarve with Keith Arthur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUjozhjCTfs

Running water fishing on the Guardiana river with the England world champions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs63U8Z1BKs

Very nice pleasure fishing - I have had many mixed bags of over 200lbs with my best catch + 400lbs in a day of Carp and Barbel.

Nice Black Bass fishing - we have had over 100 in a day from my boat on my private water. They go to 12lbs - but the big fish are clever!!!

INLAND FRESHWATER FISHING IN PORTUGAL

Big Zander to over 20lbs, mainly in the Alqueva Dam.

Pike and Catfish - a few nice fish mainly in the river Tejo and the Alqueva Dam.

Trout - a few in the rivers and dams in the north of Portugal. I’ve not seen pictures of any monsters, but a few nice fish. You need a special permit for some waters.

Big Comizo Barbel are possible to +40lbs.

Some nice Carp, a few waters have them to around  40lbs– and just a few over – 50lbs. For now that’s it, but a few fish in special waters are getting bigger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BL-MwxliW8

We have Crucian Carp as well not real English Crucians they are  a silver variety Carassiys Auratos but they fight and bite like Crucians. There are millions of them in the Alqueva dam .Client  had 68 in one day, normal size is 2lb to 4lb.

We have a golden variety and some similar to gold fish all colours you can think of, gold with black spots, red and orange  

Big Carp in Portugal

How It All Started

I arrived in Portugal from the North West of England some 27 years ago and settled down to live on the Algarve. Being a passionate angler for my whole life, I soon had my rods out and started what was to be a long hunt for some decent fishing. I started as you would - by asking in my local tackle shop where there was big Carp. The owner just smiled and said that was there secret. Remember in those days there was no internet with Google Earth or Carp fishing magazines in Portugal. All I could find was a set of military maps from Lisbon - like the UK Ordinance Survey maps. There were 512 in the set to cover Portugal! I ended up driving six hours to the north from the Algarve to fish the Cabril Dam near Pedrogao Grand. Here after catching over 2,000 carp over 10lbs in other dams I had my first 20lbs Carp. This water is one of the waters where night fishing is allowed - since 2017.

I continued my hunt, traveling as far west as Sines then East to Elvas and down to the Algarve and Lagos. What I found was that nearly all the dams were stuffed with small carp most around 3lbs with just the odd double up to around 17lbs. Local anglers tell tales of 32kg Carp from most of these dams but never have pictures or first-hand knowledge of these mythical monsters.

The Portugal Record Carp

Some years ago Chris Daley came over from England and had a common carp of 52lbs from a small private water near Elvas. That was the best we had at the time. Last year Chris Whitman from Lagos had a Mirror Carp of 54lbs which has since died but there is one other fish in there over 50lbs and getting bigger so the record could go again around 2020.

The Future of Fishing for Big Carp in Portugal

There are a group of Carp anglers in Portugal who have after years off talking, managed to get some new laws passed that could help our fishing. For example we can now fish with three rods (this is only for Carp fishing) and night fishing is allowed on some waters. 95% of the waters in Portugal will never produce big Carp unless the powers that be change the rules. I will explain why that is. We need to think what makes a big Carp water. Let’s start at other big Carp waters we know in Portugal and Spain and see what they have in common. My match fishing mates used to fish the Ebro before the cats were established, in those days it was filled with 3lbs Carp just like most waters in Portugal. Years later another mate was fishing the Ebro and had a cat of 100lbs which vomited out a 17lbs Carp it had just eaten. Come forward another 10years from then and we have better Carp fishing now. With lots of 20 lbs to 40lbs fish a few 50lbs fish even 70s and 80 lbs fish makes you think. Yes I know that hundreds of tons of pellets get put in each year for Cats and this must help the Carp get bigger. Let’s move onto a good dam in Spain the Orellana yet again lots of 20lbs to 40lbs fish and a few 60lbs fish and over. What predators do we have there? Pike, Zander, Black Bass, Chanel Catfish, Comizo Barbel and I think Silure Catfish.

Most of these are classed as invasive species in Portugal and we are instructed to kill them. Over the years I have found some decent Carp in Portugal.

I will tell you what I have found so if you fancy continuing what I have done you could find the next record Carp water, they are out there but not the big dams for now. .What I used to do when exploring was to arrive at a chosen water at sun rise and watch the water for a few hours to see any fish topping or rolling  and looking for flat spots where big fish had rolled just under the surface. What I found is that on most waters there were hundreds of small fish topping this was on waters like the Roxo dam and the other big dams around there. Good pleasure fishing but very difficult to catch any Carp over 18lbs. Occasionally I would see no fish or just the odd one. Now I start getting interested. Next steep was to see what the water was physically like, we need the following to have a good chance its going to produce big fish.

1. Stable water level about 20ft deep when full any lower and waters can dry out in droughts.

2. Nice beds of reeds and weeds.

3)

Cray fish the more the better (all our best Carp waters are stuffed with them) have a look with a torch in the shallows

at night .They like hiding in rocks at the dam walls ,in some places they even crawl about the bank at night. The Crayfish eat the Carp eggs so they do not over breed and the Carp positively eat lots of the Cray

4) Strain of fish – if the water just has long lean wild Carp forget it.

5) FISH and catch some fish –in the best waters the fish will be shorter and much deeper than wild Carp and in some waters positively fat.

6) Predators the bigger the better- I know we have some good Carp in waters that only have Black Bass as predators  but they sure help and who would turn there nose up with a 40lbs Comizo Barbel ?

Long term and the Alqueva Dam could change things as I have seen some big fish there Mirrors, What I think has happened is that fry from some good waters in Spain  ( Orellana)have ended up in the river Guadiana and into the Alqueva dam. ( lots of big predators here) This I can now confirm  as the Spanish are catching some big Mirror Carp to 50lbs on the river Guadiana in Spain. We have a few small private waters where we can protect our fish like our syndicate water at Arge near Portimão 30lbs fish and getting bigger each year. Now night fishing can be legal on private waters I think that French style Carp waters are viable especially in the mild Algarve BIG HINT. You could stock up a nice private water then register it with the ICNF as a private water and tick the box on the form to allow night fishing.