Wild camping near el Chorro, Spain and my first ever Largemouth Bass.
It was Oct 2014 I had been wild camping in the mountains near the village of el Chorro. My camp was hidden away amongst Aleppo pine trees, on the side of a mountain named the "Sierra de la Pizarra" according to peakvisor website. To get to it you had leave the road and walk up a steep concrete drainage channel through the trees until you came to a flattened area higher up where there were horizontal side-channels forming a herring- bone pattern coming off the main channel.
It was fairly remote but not too remote , the village of El Chorro was about fifteen minutes walk. From here you could get a train or bus to the larger town of Alora or the city of Málaga.
My camp consisted of a cheap fishing bivvy and over it a camo tarpaulin. The tarp had rope attached to each corner and was tied to the pine trees so that it formed a sloping flat roof over the bivvy. I had to use a sharp stick to level the ground where I slept.
High Up above the camp, circling the mountain top, I could often see over 100 griffon vultures, gliding on enormous, broad wings. Once I hiked to the summit and discovered there was a vulture feeding station . I got pretty close to some griffon vultures as they were used to being fed by vulture conservationists.
Down below my camp was the El Chorro reservoir , and on the opposite shore was the village El Chorro. I stayed at this camp several nights, my only complaint was the constant hum of the hydroelectric power station nearby but it wasn't too loud and I had no problem sleeping.
Some people might ask don't I feel scared camping alone in the wilderness . However I'm a believer in God and Jesus and I trust his promises of protection in the Bible eg. Psalm 37 says "The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them." You can read my testimony here: https://zedwildsurvivalandecology.blogspot.com/2025/08/i-was-born-in-shrewsbury-my-dad-worked.html?m=1
In the evening I would walk to El Chorro and enjoy a beer at Bar Isabel next to the train station or in the bar at the nearby hotel Gargantes.
One evening a chap from Ireland arrived at bar Isabel on his bicycle. It was heavily loaded with camping gear. He was in his sixties and a little overweight. He came and sat with me and told me he was touring the mountains of Andalusia and had come from the direction of Ronda. He had done this similar route several times before. As we drank our beers we both chatted about many things and especially shared how the mountains and valleys of this area evoked strong emotions in us ... even to the point of shedding tears. They were so beautiful , especially the forested areas. That night due to my company I had more beers than usual and remember it was quite a mission staggering back to camp.
I was new to this area but I eventually discovered that about 10 km away , higher up a winding road there were three very large reservoirs . I had seen these three reservoirs from the plane previously. From the air they formed a kind of fan shape with the lakes almost meeting each other at one end.
I also found out that there were Largemouth Bass living in these lakes. These popular sport fish were introduced to Spain from North America in 1955 , the Spanish call then Black Bass or bla-bla.
I decided I must catch my first Largemouth Bass. I had fished on the Cacapon River in West Virginia , USA when I was twenty. I only caught Fall fish, which resembles a chub, and Bluegills which are in the safe family as Largemouth Bass but much smaller .
Now was my opportunity to catch Largemouth Bass so one morning I set off from my camp on the long uphill walk to the Conde del Guadalhorce reservoir which is the nearest of the three reservoirs. From my camp I first walked along the side of the el Chorro reservoir. Near the end of this reservoir is the deep canyon called the Gaitanes Gorge, along which the Caminito del Rey travels , now a famous tourist attraction.
The people crossing the footbridge that spanned the canyon looked like little ants they were so high up.
The road then does a sharp angle left into a valley past spectacular cliffs where sedimentary rock layers that were once horizontal have been tilted by tectonics so that they are almost vertical.
I continued along this valley, there were trees on both sides , mainly Aleppo pine, as well as other vegetation and way down below on the right was a stream which eventually ended up in the El Chorro reservoir. Near the stream were clumps giant river cane ( Arundo donax) and Eucalyptus trees.
I passed a beautiful old Spanish church... the Ermita de Villaverde and next to it was a bar and hostel called la Ermita , which I stayed at on a later occasion.
Up and up I walked along the narrow road, I left the quite narrow valley and the view opened up at a viewing point noted for it's interesting geological formations . These were large bowl shapes cut in the sides of the sandstone cliffs . I'm guessing wind created these by blowing sand around and around in what started as a small depression and it gradually increased over centuries till some were bowls big enough to shelter several people.
From this viewpoint you could look down the valley from where I had walked and if you turned around in the other direction there was a wide beautiful panorama of pine forest on undulating hills gradually sweeping upwards . Towering above me was the mountain of Almorchon.
I continued onwards along the mountain road which wound through the pine forest, it crossed over several small rock bridges where there was a dry stream bed below. A cliff face on my right was swarming with martins... maybe sand martins or crag martins. I saw more of the bowl shaped formations in some massive boulders near the road. Eventually as I ascended higher the pine forest thinned out and the countryside became grassy scrub planted with olive trees widely spaced. As I came to the crest of the hill I came to a t junction and here I got my first view of the enormous Conde del Guadalhorce reservoir. The t junction was located halfway along the length of the reservoir, on its East bank, it's now recently been converted into a roundabout and the Caminito del Rey visitor centre is now located here. However back in 2014 none of that was there , I had to descend down a narrow foot-track made by goats , through scrub, consisting of rosemary, tall grasses, chamaerops palms and other scrubby plants. My legs and knees got scratched by the woody stems but eventually I reached the lake shore. The lake was vast, on the opposite shore the rolling, hilly countryside was mainly fields , maybe for growing wheat, and also large olive plantations. Further back in the distance were high mountains, the Sierra Ortegícar.
I noticed a few carp cruising so I got my telescopic rod out of my bag, used a small miniature plastic bottle as a float and tied on a size 10 hook with some bread as bait. It wasn't long before my float dived down and I was fighting a nice little mirror carp of about 3lb .
Then I decided it was time to target any Largemouth Bass that might be around. I changed my terminal tackle to a small whiteish silicon shad lure on a single jig hook . I walked along the bank casting out the lure a far out as I could add retrieving slowly , with flicks of the rod to make the lure skip up and down in the water. After several casts a fish hit my lure but I failed to connect. Then after a few more casts the same thing happened again , I couldn't hook into the fish. I decided to slightly change my set up by adding a stinger . This consists of an extra length of line, only a couple of centimetres long, with a small treble hook tied on . The treble hook is hooked into the tail of the shad. This greatly increases the chances of me hooking the fish . Sure enough after a few more casts my lure was hit by a fish and I had a Largemouth Bass fighting all the way to the shore. It was only a relatively small one not even half a pound but I was very happy ... it was my first Largemouth Bass.
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