Travelogue • Cordoba, May 2008

A brief travel/fishing report of a relaxing one-week trip to Cordoba (Andalucia, Spain)

Already a few days ago, I arrived from a short trip to the area around Cordoba, which is located in southern Spain. It was a really - lets say ‘informatory’ fishing trip and I’m really glad that a friend from Madrid (Thanks David!) took care of me and introduced me to Enrique, who’s a local guide and tournament angler based in Cordoba.


Enrique did a great job taching me about different bass fishing ‘tactics’ and even if we didn’t broke the deadlock of 4lb during our three days at Embalse de San Rafael de Navallana, we had a few good sized bass and a lot of fun. As it was my first ‘official’ bass fishing trip, I was full of anticipation and really curious to size new territory, but also had to realize that catching big bass can be a tough ‘job’.

As I was more into bank fishing recently, it was also slightly challenging to fish from a slowly drifting boat in heavy cover, but I adapted well (I think) and casting through structures like underwater trees and rocks turned into a funny game of skill. The waters I’m fishing here in Germany hardly ‘offer’ any extraordinary structures and fishing situations, so it was really refreshing to test my ‘heavy-duty’ tackle in these conditions.

Enrique catching the first bass of day one

The area around Cordoba is known for it’s good bass fishing waters and Navallana is a beautyful and varied reservoir embedded in a sublime scenery. From shallow weedbanks to ‘rocky’ canyons there’s everything the heart of a bass and bass angler can desire. Some parts of the reservoir hold a lot of underwater trees and other ’sneaky’ structures. These hidings where always good places for searching bass, but also to blame for a few really good sized fishs that got lost during thrilling and roller-coaster fights.

Typical view of the banks at Navallana reservoir

We fished Navallana for three successive days and while the weather was almost perfect (a mix of sun and cloudy parts), each day and different part of the reservoir had its own special conditions and situations. At all, the reservoir can be described as what most people call “pressured water”. Even in midweek we saw numerous bass boats and from talks with friends I know, that bass fishing seems to be a popular ‘leisure activity’ for Cordoba’s locals.

Just after a few hours on the boat silent or near silent lures and slow presentations turned out to be the key. I brought a lot of lures and plastics to Spain, but to be honest 2-3 lures brought nearly 99% of the caught bass. May be I was not patient enough to try every tactic in detail (especially plastics), but the decisions I made turned out as not “to bad” at the end.

First but also biggest bass in three days (a bit more than 3.5lb)

Besides FLT’s Zillva 160 and Imaktsu’s IS-Shads (100/200) in nataural colors, my current favourite - a Vision Oneten (color: “MG STARDUST SHAD”) proved its stunning potential once again.

Three bass around 2-3lb and a mid-sized pike within 10 minutes at the same spot are telling its own story. In all three days this lure brought not only most of the caught bass, but also underlined its top class in different situations. More hymn of praise to follow in one of the next posts to the review section.

Typical mid-sized bass at Navallana

Monika and her “Siesta-Bass”.

Thanks again to Enrique and his wife Monika for a really good time on and at the water, perfect catering services and funny talks and tackle chit-chat. Nothing much to add at this point besides that I’m really looking forward to go back to Cordoba soon. Another trip to southern Spain is already sheduled for end of September.

Take care…
Christian


PS: If you are interested in more pictures from this trip, you can check my photosstream at flickr.com.