Given my last unsuccessful sessions in the surf on Praia da Alagoa, I decided to try a different spot. It is still uncharacteristically cold, so I decided to try Gilão River in Tavira. I thought about trying this for a long time, but the surf was always so much more appealing. This was a perfect opportunity to actually try the river.

I chose to fish comfortably, close to the car and so I went underneath the N125 bridge and drove 100 or so meters upstream on the macadam road. Parked there and set up.

 

There were loads of mullet around and I could not resist catching a few, while I had my carp rod set up on a bottom rig with white clam on. I had 3 bites on the clam, and got only one seabream – one of the bites I did not even see as I was immersed in catching mullet on the surface.

The following day a buddy of mine, having heard my report, insisted to go himself. Being a solidary man, I could not let him have a session on his own, could I???:)😊😊 And so we did exactly the same thing – one rod on clam each and another rod with bread on the surface for mullet. Tis day mullet were very shy – we barely god 10 or so between us. And clam was untouched for more than 2 hours!!! As my buddy was packing, the water started receding and I finally got a bite and a seabream. I decided to linger a bit more and rigged up my feeder with another clam.

Soon after I was alone on the bank, something grabbed the clam on the feeder and pulled the rod right into the water – I am not sure if it was a BIG mullet or a seabass, but the take was sudden, ferocious and I am almost glad I did not hook it as I would have had to swim for my rod. Still, now I am motivated to redo this session, even at night, but I need to wait for the high tide to fall at dusk.

After this I had a short boat session – and I still do not get boat fishing at all!!! First 2 casts, in the initial 5 minutes, I got a nice red seabream and a BIG stripped seabream. After this there was noting but small fry and mucharra for the next 4 hours.