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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barred Wobbler" data-source="post: 1723813" data-attributes="member: 69394">Shouldn't that be the Ebro (Ebre)?The wels there are indeed large, they get to over 200lb and fish over 100lb are common. A boat skipper there was telling me a tale about them rising to (and taking) feeding cormorants below a dam near Tortosa.It's actually illegal to return them to the water there once they've been caught, but apart from certain groups who kill them for the pot the normal practice has been to return them alive. I wasn't aware that the government was taking the same line on carp as they were on the wels, but I don't envy them their task if they are thinking about eradicating the cats by netting. It would be easier to eat soup with a fork.The Ebro is a huge and powerful river with a system of large reservoirs, all of which contain wels, ranging in size from fry to 300lb weight. Even if they manage to take out the big ones then in a few years they'll be back to square one as the youngsters grow up.It was only in the 1970s that wels were first introduced (illegally) into the river by a group of Germans. From that small introduction the system is filled with them and an industry has grown around angling for them that brings in a lot of money to the local economy.</blockquote>