After fishing in Andalucia in 2023, I wanted to come back. La Fernandina treated me wonderful, but I caught the Jándula at a complicated moment and I could hardly have any fun… This time Jándula behaved, and she behaved. Taking advantage of the good times I had and the amount of quality fish that came out, I decided to write this little chronicle, I hope you like it.
The adventure begins, fishing in Andalucia
For work reasons, I could not sign up for the trip until the last moment … but luckily I could do it and enjoy 3 days of fishing in very good company. The gentlemen: Rios, Rober, Kiko (since then Mr. Sawamura pink), Juanlu and Savio were the companions with whom I could enjoy a lot, both in and out of the water. The group was motley, some of us did not even know each other in person, but when you get together with people who live fishing as you do, it is normal that everything flows as it did.
But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, which is the important thing. The night before we arrived at “Los Pinos”, located at the gates of the Natural Park and “quite” close to the reservoir. It should be noted that to access the reservoir there is only one road, which crosses the Natural park of Andujar mountain range. This road is long, with many curves and crosses an area with a lot of wildlife, so you have to take it easy and foresee a journey of almost an hour to be able to “disembark”. So we had a couple of beers, a good dinner planning the next day’s strategy and went to bed, we arrived tired from the trip and had to get up early.
1° dish: Jándula lake
After a good breakfast, we set off for the lake and mounted the float tubes. Although it is lazy to mount everything, once in the water with the electric motors it is a marvel. I have always enjoyed float tube fishing and even though I now have a boat, I still go out with a float tube and enjoy it. As I had no sonar, my strategy was clear: parallel to the shore with soft swimbait in the areas that gave me the most feeling. Without knowing the lake and without a sonar, I thought it would be the best option and the results were good. Of course, without the advice and help of my mates I could never have done it.
The lake is a spectacle, with a considerable density of fish and a very good average size as well. Fishing 6 float tubes at the same time is not easy, so we decided to spread out in different areas of the lake to not to disturb us too much. Rios had mechanical problems from the beginning, so he had to stay close to the start…. And thank goodness that Kiko lent him his second battery to save the day, a great gesture on his part.
At the end of the day practically all of us had results. There were 7 fish over 2 kg (the biggest +2,300), a good handful over 1,5kg and a few keepers. Everyone fished their own way, proving that there is always more than one valid strategy. Soft swimbait, power-fishing, finesse, screen fishing, deep fishing… practically every strategy paid off if you chose the right area and the right time. The final balance of the first day could not have been better: quantity and quality.
2° dish: Beznar lake
I had hardly heard of this reservoir and these crazy people told me a couple of days before that after the Jándula I would have to drive a long way, so we had to drive on the road. The truth is that it was a good beating, but we were already in December, it gets dark very early so it gave us time and so I could know a new reservoir.
The forecasts were really hard with a hellish wind that would probably force us to stop fishing at noon… and so it was. Except for the crazy Juanlu who would be able to fish in the middle of a tornado. The rest of us decided to get out of the water and call it a day when things got complicated. A hearty lunch at the foot of the reservoir, a coffee while Juanlu tried to “save” an unsalvageable day and we left for the third and last reservoir of the excursion.
Even so, most of us were able to get rid of the bolo with nice fish. Savio was also able to catch a beautiful +2k that he could not photograph because he was alone at the time of the catch and with an imposing wind. The truth is that the reservoir is beautiful, with many cuts, vegetation, structures … and I’m sure we will return someday. Fishing is fishing and you can’t fight against the weather conditions, so I think we did enough.
Dessert: Yeguaslake, fishing in Andalucia
The last night we slept in Andújar to be as close as possible to Yeguas lake, another of the mythical fishing spots in Andalucia where I had never been. The conditions changed radically from the previous day but… that’s what fishing in December is all about. We went from a hurricane wind to a very serious frost and flat water. We even started fishing in negative temperatures on a day when the wind was almost never present.
Sun, cold, absence of air… conditions that are not bad in winter if they were preceded by several days of stability and you know where the fish are, but this was not the case. The temperature drop was very strong, the change was very radical and at this time of the year that is usually not good.
What we feared happened and the fishing gave us very few options? Quite a few shy bites that we did not manage to materialize. Som of them were not big enough, another they did not bite well. C’est la peche, however Andalusia is Andalusia and we were able to catch a few fish. In the end we landed some nice fish, a few keepers and the +2k of the day this time it was my turn, with my beloved soft swimbait.
Forward looking sonar
The new forward-looking sonar probes offer a wide range of possibilities. Both in terms of locating the fish and seeing much faster what kind of presentations they prefer. However, intuition or “reading the water” is and always will be important. Once again it was demonstrated that it is possible to catch fish without the use of new technologies, as it has been done all our lives.
As a final thought/opinion, I think that taking advantage of the good things in technology, especially if you are a competitive or professional angler, is critical. It helps you save a lot of time, both in training and in locating fish. Still, if you get obsessed with it and spend all day looking at the screen without trying to understand the whys, you’ll never learn how to fish, for whatever that may be.
Thank you very much to all the bunch of fishermen with whom I was able to fish in Andalucia. It was very enriching, both from a personal point of view and what I could learn from each one of them about fishing. And we also had a great time because we were all like goats. I’m sure we will see each other soon on the water, cheers and good fishing!
