On arrival at the airport in Zaragoza, we were met by Steve. AS we began our journey, it turned out that Steve had already had a fish from our swim earlier in the day - a 164lb'er! We couldn't believe it, knowing full well we were about to fish a swim where such a fish had been caught was crazy. We arrived to the swim around midnight, and was met by Steve's friend Martin, who had been looking after the swim. After getting some much needed kip, we awoke to see our swim in all it's glory. Straight away we helped Steve start getting the rods out. Bucket upon bucket of pellet was prepared to be thrown over the side of Steve boat, over each baited rod. Rods were baited with Calamari squid, these just stood out from all of them pellets!

It didn't didn't take long to get into the action, and first in was Jimbo with a small Carp, then Ratty with a low 20lb Carp. I was the first to hit into a cat, but this turned out to be a kitten of around 20lb. Wink then got in the action with a mid 30. After we had all caught a fish, we decided to keep the current rotation and just take it in turns, letting luck decide our outcome. The first large Cat came on the afternoon of the first day, and on Ratty's second strike of the rods, it was apparent he had hooked a right beast! With an arm aching battle following, Ratty refused to give up, although at times I think at times he was wishing he could! As it drew close, we all wanted to see the unseen beast which was mere feet away from us. Then it happened. Up popped the head of a bloody great Cat, it was enormous! Steve reached out and grabbed it by the jaw and hoisted it in, whilst we all stood around dancing like idiots! On the scales the Cat went 146, 101lb bigger than biggest I'd seen previous! After this Ratty opted out of the rotation, allowing us all to stand a better chance of achieving our goal of a tonner.

The Cats came thick and fast, but the next tonner didn't come till the following afternoon. This just so happened to be my go on the rods, which was lucky, as I needed to redeem myself after landing a 5lb kitten previously! On striking I knew straight away that I was connected to something substantial. All of our fish had been hooked at no less than 250 yards, and this fish I was hooked into, was probably nearer 300! Playing the fish, I constantly turned to Steve stating that it must be snagged, but Steve just laughed, and assured me it wasn't. At no point during the fight did I want to give up, but it was without doubt the most physically draining fight I had ever been through. Once into the shallows, up popped the head of a right monster. Steve grabbed hold and did the honours. AS the fish was pulled up the bank, I wondered whether it's length would ever end! At 7 foot long and 160lb, I was made up. I now sat out as well, hoping that Wink and Jimbo would catch their bests too.

The following morning Jimbo struck into his chance, and on the first run, Jimbo was forced to run a good 30 yards out into the Ebro to stop himself becoming spooled! After an initial run of 20 seconds or so, the fish just used its weight for the rest of the fight. And what weight it was, pulling the needle down to 156lb! With three tonners down and one too go, it meant Winky now had 8 rods at his disposal for the last 8 hours of our trip, surely he would catch? Well, with a serious amount of rain water entering the system, the fishing switched off, and Wink had to settle for a 62lb'er. The trip had been awesome, and with Steve and Martin, we had made some good friends along the way. We'll definitely be back before too long, Wink still needs his tonner!