I have been for a few years fascinated by the Embalse del Ebro when studying maps of Northern Spain .
It is a very large, vaguely whale-shaped reservoir nestled in the Cantabrian mountains . It is located approximately
45 Miles south of Santander. The border seperating the regions of Cantabria and Castille-and-Leon runs through the middle of this large man-made lake.
The mountains around the lake are pretty big , some around the 2000 metre mark, but from the lake they don't appear so large as the lake itself is also high above sea level.
The maximum length of the lake is about 11 miles and the maximum width is just under 3 miles. I spent considerable time on Google-maps-street-view exploring the roads in the area, some of the roads were surrounded by woodland mainly of Oak and Pine, also there were large sweeping areas of grassland and pasture. Another interesting fact about the Embalse del Ebro is that the mighty River Ebro has its small beginnings a few miles west of the lake before continuing its long journey across the width of Spain to the Mediterannean coast where it spills into the sea near Tarragona.
Then in the summer of 2024 I had been spending a month exploring Northern Spain and decided it was time to visit the lake and its surrounding countryside. Reinosa is the nearest town of any size, it is located to the west , very close to the lake. I was currently staying in a hostel in Santander and the easiest way to get to Reinosa was likely to be train.
I booked a hotel in Reinosa for two nights .. "Hotel Abrego" at a good price 30 euros a night and boarded the train early the next morning .
The train journey was very scenic indeed , it left the flat coastal plain of Santander and gradually the built-up industrial area transitioned into lush green countryside . The train gradually climbed up through the valleys of the Cantabrian mountains. Copious amounts of forest were on both sides of the track and as we got higher there were vast sweeping views across the valleys down below.
Eventually after approximately an hour I arrived at Reinosa station.
The first thing i wanted to do was have a coffee and a bit of breakfast but it was still early , not even 9 am and I couldnt find anywhere open in the town. As I wandered along the main street of town I got my first impressions of Reinosa. It had a pleasant mountain town atmosphere it seemed neither run-down or poor but neither did it have a luxurious expensive feel like some Spanish coastal resort cities. Some of the buildings did have a slightly Alpine look about them that you might see in the Swiss mountains. Many of the older building were made of grey-coloured stone .
Further along the main road I came to a bridge over the River Ebro . How small and shallow it looked compared to the last time I saw the river Ebro at Tortosa on the east side of Spain where it is a huge river.
I found my way to my hotel and noticed the bar adjoining it had just opened so I had my coffee and breakfast - Pan Tostada aciete con tomate.
I checked into the hotel , my room was small, but clean and comfortable. I left my rucksack and fishing rod in the room and set off to explore the town.
What I really wanted to see was what fish species were living in the river . The river here was clear , quite fast running and well oxygenated , it was shallow with varying depths but maybe averaging a foot deep. its width varied but probably averaged about 3 metres in town . The water had come down underground off the nearby mountains , it welled up as a spring at a place nearby called Fontibre. 
As I stood on one of the bridges in the centre of town I scanned the river upstream , which was pleasently lined with trees. In a calm area of the stream under the trees I saw tell tale circular ripples of fish rising to take insects off the waters surface . These were undoubtably brown trout. I wandered further down the river and from the walkway I could see several small brown trout , heads facing up-stream, swimming with the current in the fairly shallow water about two feet deep.
I explored around Reinosa a bit more , there's a very nice old chuch in the centre - Parroquia de San Sebastián, pictured below.
The main body of this Baroque temple dates from the 16th century and is said to have been built by the stonemason Pedro de la Peña.
In the 18th century (1754–1774), the tower, portal, and dome were added.
I headed back to my hotel as my aim was to get a bus to the Embalse del Ebro , and do a bit of fishing whilst there . There's only one or two buses a day heading from Reinosa to and from the villages along the lake. After studying the map I decided that the best village to head for was "La Poblacion" as it was located right on the banks of the lake, whereas the other villages along the bus route were further inland.
I arrived at the bus station and boarded the bus - a minibus. There was only two other passengers, two youngsters in their early teens. They proved to be quite useful later as I couldnt understand the bus driver what time and where I would be picked up in the evening , these two spoke some English and translated for me.
Soon after we left Reinosa I got my first views of the lake , the "tail part " of the whale ( if you remember I said the lake was vaguely whale shaped) . This area of the lake was serpentine in shape following the valley of the river Ebro . The countryside around was mainly open fields with the mountains in the distance and forests on the mountains. It was a hot, sunny, typical Spanish day - very bright with large open skies . We came to the main body of the lake and it was vast, like an inland sea, and not long after we crossed a long modern bridge and arrived at La Poblacion. The bus droppped me off outside a large bar/resauraunt next to the lake named "El Corloto" . It was hot and I was thirsty so I went in and ordered a nice cold beer. A friendly local old-timer started chatting to me in Spanish and advised me about where was good to fish and what fish were in the lake . He said there were some big trout, but not that common , it was mainly Carp and Black Bass that people caught in this area of the lake. He advised I start fishing by the long bridge I had just crossed.
It was so hot I was considering whether to abandon the idea of fishing , there were no trees for shade along the banks of the reservoir . I might be more comfortable just staying in the air conditioned bar but then I had the idea of seeing if I could fish actually under the bridge in the shade . Off I set with my fishing gear , when I got to the long road bridge I walked to the centre so I could get a good view of the lake and decide which bank to fish . The bridge crossed a wide inlet of the lake . I noticed three White Storks standing in the grassland on the far side of the inlet , such beautiful birds . Nearby is a bird observatory.
On the nearshore of the inlet I could see carp moving about in the weedbeds pushing the weeds apart as they moved through them . However access to the bank looked difficult , therefore I decided to head to the far bank and crossed the bridge.
There was a jetty near the bridge and as I started to acclimatise to the heat I thought I might try spinning for Trout or Bass from it . There was a bike and some clothes on the end of the Jetty I looked out and saw a man swimming a good distance off .. these must have been his. Later when he got back I had a pleasant chat with him though I cant remember much of the conversation except that he's lived here all his life.
I set up my rod and put on a lure and started casting in different directions and reeling in my lure. After about half an hour trying at different depths I hadnt had a bite, I was getting very hot out in the open so decided it was time to move under the bridge and ledger for carp instead using some bread I had brought along as bait.
I sat in the shade of the bridge for an hour , my ledgered bread was cast just beyond the furthest patch of water weed . I couldnt see any sign of carp moving where I was, though frustratingly I could still see a few carp far off near the opposite shore. I watched the three storks quite nearby they didnt seem to be doing much , maybe they were waiting for the cooler evening when the frogs and other food items would start to appear .
After no bites for an hour and a half I was getting thirsty and decided to have a break . I headed back to the village and went into another bar/restauraunt further in the village but still next to the lake . After a relaxing drink in the shaded terrace I went for a wander into the back garden and down to the lake shore . It was here I noticed amongst the aquatic weed numerous young Large-mouth Bass chasing fish fry into the shallows . Time to set my rod up again! These Bass were only about 15 cm max. in length but I thought it might be fun to catch a few . I scaled down my tackle to a small jig hook and an artificial silicon worm attached . I cast out near to the shoul and soon I had a lovely fat little bass on the bank . Followed over the next half an hour by a few more .
Just then a carp of about five pounds cruised past. I thought why not try the artificial worm on the carp as I've read that Spanish carp are more voracious and predatory than Northern Europe, perhaps because of the higher water temperatures.
Sure enough, as I dropped the worm not far from the carps nose he rushed at it took the lure in his mouth and tore off at high velocity , my rod bent over violently and the reel screamed but before I knew it the carp was buried deep in the weed bed . I tried for ten minutes to get the carp out but to no avail . The hook came out and that seemed like a good time to call it a day. The next day I planned to try the river Ebro for trout.
Next morning I headed with my fishing rod to the area of river in the middle of Reinosa where I had been watching the trout. I planned on experimenting using a silicon worm on a small hook . I spotted several trout in the same place as the previous day and started drifting the worm past them. After several attempts the trout were showing no interest in the worm. Just then a chap in his thirties approached on his mountain bike. He informed me that it is not permitted to fish the river in town on Thursdays! This seemed an unusual rule we don't have in the UK and was wondering if he was winding me up. However I gave him the benefit of the doubt and brought my lure in.
I decided to go for a walk downstream and observe the fish. Maybe when I got out of the town area it would be ok to fish. Further down the river I saw under a bridge shouls of what I thought were trout. I was surprised to see such large shouls of them. Later on in the day I discovered (from the same chap on the bike) that these were actually Boga ... Spanish Nase , of which there are several species in Spain. They have a very similar body shape to trout but if you look carefully you can see they have a different mouth shape. Also on closer observation you can see these members of the carp family also have larger scales than trout. This is not to say that the previous fish I had seen were not trout.. they must definitely were as I could see them properly and identified the red and brown spots on their body, typical of brown trout.
I followed the river out of town through some fields and arrived under a dual carriageway bridge. The river was considerably wider and deeper here due to a tributary that had joined the river where the fields were. There were lots of trees along the bank and it was pleasantly shady and verdant. It was here below the bridge that I met the chap on the bike again. He didn't seem bothered that I had gone back to fishing and said he wanted to show me a stretch where there were lots of fish. First though we walked to a nearby wooden bridge and looked down at several shouls of fish, the same species I had seen earlier and thought were trout , he told me they were Boga as I mentioned earlier. Here it was easier to see them and I could see the distinctive underslung mouth typical of Boga or Nase. We tried fishing them for a while , taking in turns with the rod, first with bread as bait , then with a silicon worm but they didnt show much interest in the bait. I needed a smaller hook and smaller bait,
I resolved that next time I visit Reinosa I will come better prepared so I can catch my first Boga .
Next we walked downstream to the place he wanted to show me , we went past the road bridge and came to an open part of the river , it was wider and deeper here . Immediatly we saw several large, dark, torpedo shaped fish swimming back and forth in mid water. These were barbel about 3 or 4 lb I guessed.
Again we tried fishing for them but they too didnt show interest in either of my baits .
When my new friend left I revisited all my previous spots and tried using a spinner to tempt any trout that were about ... there were definately a few about rising for insects . I ended up back where we had seen all the barbel and noticed a very large brown trout lying on the river bed , it was in distress struggling to move and gulping for water . My guess is that it had been caught by someone earlier but left out of water too long . I actually managed to lightly hook it on a fin and brought it in close to study it . A beautiful golden fish with brown and red spots circled in white , about 2 lb in weight . There wasnt much I could do to help , what a shame, but I said a prayer for it that it might recover.
I decided to pack up fishing and just continue to explore downstream , I came to a group of Romany gypsies that were having a picnic , they saw my telescopic fishing rod pokeing out of my bag and said in Spanish "no fishing on Thursdays!" ... so my friend hadn't been making it up .
I continued along the river to a park area with lots of big trees for shade a couple of attractive Spanish ladies were throwing balls for a Wolf Dog /Alsatian cross ... when it saw me it went absolutely beserk , barking aggressively . They quickly put it on the lead and they recommended I pass quickly they said its a dangerous dog .
At the far end of the park area I was looking for a footpath to continue along the river but it seemed like the riverside path discontinued at the park. There was a small farmhouse next to the corner of the park and suddenly four tiny dogs came hurtling out of the driveway and surrounded me, yapping and nipping my heals . An elderly lady, the dogs owner, emerged and just stood watching as these dogs harrassed me and bit at me , no words of command . After these two experiences in the space of ten minutes I concluded that dog owners in Reinosa dont know how to train dogs or they train them to be aggressive. I walked away and the little dogs gradually lost interest and stopped chasing me. .
I was now at the edge of a village named "Requejo" I entered the village , my aim now was to explore a large area of pine forest which I had seen on google maps which was not too far from the village . I was feeling very hot and a bit tired from walking as it was another hot sunny day so I sat in the shade of a bus shelter for a while . After half an hour and a good drink of water my energy came back and I set off through the village and turned right along the country lane that eventually led to the pine forest . After a while I crossed a cattle grid , there was some farm buildings and the lane turned into more of a track. Up ahead of me was a huge savannah of pasture . Behind it, quite far off was the forest . Scattered across this vast sweeping pasture were herds of horses running free, and more worryingly herds of Cattle ... with enormous long horns similar to highland cattle . I have a phobia of large domesticated animals , I was chased by an aggressive stallion once and another time a herd of cows chased me across a field .
There were no fences separating the track from the livestock I could see this wasn't going to work , I tentatively approached a few hundred yards along the track and got quite near the closest horse but it was no good , my fears got the better of me although the lovely pine forest was tantalizing and tempting me in the distance I turned around and headed back . I would have to think of another way to get to the forest next time I visit Reinosa , maybe hire a car ( I had just seen a car with some youths inside drive out of the forest and down the track and past me ).
I don't remember what I did that evening when I got back to Reinosa but next morning I got the train back to Santander, where I noticed one or two of the trains in Santander station were absolutely covered from top to bottom in Graffitti .. we dont see this on British trains as they are stored more securely when not in use.
And so concludes my first trip to Embalse del Ebro and the town of Reinosa.
