Fishing Reports for trips with John in 2007

This page has been introduced to the updated web site and will be used to provide reports on the fishing in Portugal and specifically on the trips made with customers and visitors using the holiday and escorted fishing services of Tightlines-Portugal and John Bate. So keep an eye on it over the coming weeks and months.

The following are new visitor testimonial for some of the 2007 visitors making new or return visits to Portugal using the services provided by Tightlines-Portugal.




The fishing in Portugal is so fantastic!

Roy and the lads were smiling all the way home

This is the second year we have fished with John and he looks after us so well that we will be fishing with him every year from now on.

Ireland is finished for us, the fishing in Portugal is so fantastic, with thousands of hard fighting carp in perfect condition (from the dams), good barbel fishing on the river and accommodation and food is very good, the Portuguese people are very friendly too.

What really impressed us that for a week we only saw two other anglers and they just passed us by whilst they were spinning for bass. We had miles of water to ourselves and not knowing either the next bite would be from a 1lb carp or from one of over 20lb.

Roy and the gang from Wigan

90 fish to around 6lbs on plastic sweetcorn by 2pm.

I have a holiday home on the Algarve and visit for several months each year. I love to fish and my mates come out on holidays with me fish to.

Until I started fishing with john from Tightlines I found the fishing poor even when fishing with local anglers.

The quality of my fishing improved dramatically on starting to fish with John, nothing is to much bother for him from getting up at 4 am to taking my mates all night fishing for sharks. He knows the waters in detail much better than any other angler in Portugal when he guarantees fish you can expect a great day out. On my last trip he said I would catch 40 fish, not big ones but good fun on his match rod I estimated that I had 90 fish to around 6lbs on plastic sweetcorn by 2pm.

Just to give you an idea what John is like, I will relate one of our trips last year.

We were fishing yet another new water with John when my mate Rob had a run on his big carp rod, he hit the run, rod bent double and his line broke, 15lb line, he had forgotten what John is always reminding us to do, that is to check our reel drags! Anyway 10 minutes later John hooks a nice fish on his match rod using 5lb line, says to me that it feels like a good fish after it takes 100 yards of line off, then he gives me his rod. After a 15 minute fight John slips his big net under a very nice carp for me and I have great pleasure in giving Rob his hook and rig back (yes, this was the fish rob lost, just 2 oz under the 20lb).

On other days we have been barbel fishing and have seen big barbel under our rod s that looked over 10lbs ,but so far our best is just over 7lbs, up to 12 barbel per day. I have had carp as well with the barbel and mullet that fight best of all. I recommend John to you for any kind of fishing from sharks to carp and black bass.

Alan Dunn

Many thanks for a great holiday John!

Our group was very happy with both the fishing and the great price of food and drinks at night.

We normally go to Ireland most years but after taking several thousand carp and barbel, fishing with you last week, you can be sure that we will be back to see you again next year.

Thank-you once more for all your effort and for the vast amount of feed and bait you included as part of our package.

The accommodation was good and your breakfast that you made to start off the day with was fantastic, the local restaurants even gave us a going away present! A bottle of Port wine (each).

Ian Barnet and the lads