Another warm winter
My last blog and fishing session ended in the south of France when the weather there turned bad with the words: “A good moment to continue the journey”. That was more than 3 months ago now. During this time I had many wonderful experiences, was able to collect wonderful impressions and met great people. It has almost become a habit to spend the winter somewhere in the south. To escape the German winter and get some distance from the events and negative reports in the media that seem to have never ended over the last two years. Admittedly, it's quite a luxury that I afford myself, but as long as I'm able, I'd like to try to continue to establish this habit. So I spent the third winter in a row outside Germany in warmer regions. The second time I went to Andalusia, one of the warmest and most weather-stable regions on the European mainland.
During the three and a half months I stayed almost exclusively on the coast, as that is where the nicest weather can be expected. During this time I had unforgettable moments and met inspiring people, both new and old, who make traveling what it is for me: an exchange between like-minded people.
Time for a change
I hardly missed fishing, instead I devoted my time to other things, like surfing and developing different areas and skills. In order to keep my costs down, I stayed pretty sedentary that winter, driving around little and spending a lot of time in the same places and surrounding myself with the same people most of the time. When I realized that I needed a change again and that the weather (or so I thought) was slowly becoming spring-like inland, I said goodbye to my friends and drove inland.
Spontaneous visit
The second visit from Germany was announced in mid-March. This time, however, there were no warm temperatures and the sun in the south planned for the time we spent with Alice; no, this time we were going to go fishing in pretty adverse conditions in inland Spain. In contrast to the previous year, when I was fishing in Extremadura at the same time, the conditions were significantly more unpleasant: not only was the weather rainy and cold, there were also a lot of anglers at the lake. Not exactly thrilled by the circumstances, we looked for a spot that I recognized from last year and where I was a good distance from other anglers. Thanks to the new all-wheel-drive Sprinter, I no longer had to really worry about driving on the paths and looking for such places - despite the ground being very soggy in places.
Bad weather but the fish are running
When I arrived at the intended location, I started setting up and laying out the rods. The herb had increased massively compared to the previous year. I first headed the boat to a herb field about a hundred meters from the shore. Unfortunately, the entire area in front of it was so weedy that it was impossible to put down the rods there. After several minutes of searching the location, I still found three promising, weed-free spots for my rods. After a quiet first night, one of my rods made a continuous beep the next day in the pouring rain. I quickly threw on my rain gear and rowed towards the fish. After an exciting drill in the middle of a herb field, I was able to land a Schuppi. I was happy about the first fish of the year and was able to share the joy with Alice, who took the photos. Despite the weather conditions during the day, which were very promising from a fishing perspective, the following three fish that I caught all bit at night. From the second day onwards, an orange haze caused by the Saharan dust covered the entire lake - or rather, the entire country. A magical scenery. We only spent a total of four days at this spot because, as is often the case, there was an “Enduro” taking place at this lake at the weekend. The positions had already been marked out for this purpose - including ours. So it was time to pack up and leave. Since Alice's plane was supposed to leave in two days anyway, we set off towards Madrid with the plan to then drive back to the lake alone.
But as is often the case, things turned out differently than planned.
Sequel follows…
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