Special | Ebro fishing
The Ebro is famous for being the longest river in Spain. Although the river starts small in Cantabria it ends in the Ebro Delta, one of the biggest nature reserves of Spain, in the province of Tarragona. The river itself is filled with life and wels catfish can be found everywhere. Therefore a closer look at the Ebro and it's scary looking inhabitants.
The river Ebro
The Ebro (Catalan: Ebre) is Spain's most voluminous and second longest river. It starts at Fontibre (in the province of Cantabria) and passes Zaragoza, Flix, Tortosa and Amposta before ending in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Tarragona. The Ebro Delta is one of the largest wetland areas (320 kmē) in the western Mediterranean region. The Ebro delta has grown rapidly and the modern delta is in intensive agricultural use for rice, fruit, and vegetables. The Ebro delta also hosts numerous beaches, marshes, and salt pans that provide habitat for over 300 species of birds. A large part of the delta was designated as Ebro Delta Natural Park in 1983. A network of canals and irrigation ditches constructed by both agricultural and conservation groups are helping to maintain the ecologic and economic resources of the Ebro Delta.
The wels catfish
The wels catfish (Silurus glanis) is a scale less fresh-water catfish recognizable by its broad, flat head and wide mouth. The mouth contains lines of numerous small teeth, two long barbels on the upper jaw and four shorter barbels on the lower jaw. It has a long anal fin that extends to the caudal fin, and a small sharp dorsal fin positioned relatively far forward. It uses its sharp pectoral fins to capture prey: with these fins, it creates an eddy to disorient its victim, which it then simply engulfs in its enormous throat. It has very slippery green-brown skin. Its belly is pale yellow or white. Wels catfish live at least thirty years and have very good hearing.
The female produces up to 30,000 eggs per kilogram of body weight. The male guards the nest until the brood hatches, which, depending on water temperature, can last from three to ten days. The wels catfish lives on annelid worms, gastropod, insects, crustaceans, and fish; the larger ones also eat frogs, mice, rats and aquatic birds like ducks. The catfish lives in large, warm lakes and deep, slow-flowing rivers. It prefers to remain sheltered in places such as holes in the riverbed, sunken trees, etc.
With a possible total length up to 3 meters (9,8ft) and a maximum weight of over 150 kg (331lb) it is the second largest freshwater fish in its region after the sturgeon. However, such extreme lengths are extremely rare and fish longer than 2 meters (6,7ft) are normally extremely rare. Only under exceptionally good living circumstances can the wels catfish reach lengths of more than two meters. On 23rd November 2006 a British angler has landed a European record on his first cat fishing expedition. He caught the 103 kg (226lb) wels catfish on holiday in Tortosa, Spain. The men struggled with the 2,40 meters (8ft) monster for more than 90 minutes and have named it Jaws. After an hour of admiring their catch and having it weighed and verified, they expelled air from its stomach and let it go. That's the way to do it.