Catfish Slaying Time.

 

 My bi-annual visit for Catfish was booked, plenty of discussion had about tactics etc which once all played out was pretty mute, they eat anything, on the surface, on the bottom and anywhere in between!, If re-incarnation was a thing, the humble slug would be my next life form, we do share that trait.

 Nothing special, only fish to 60lbs floating about in small numbers which were most likely guarding nests by this point, so we knew the size of the fish would be impacted by this but did we care? not one bit! my good chum Brian unfortunately received some terrible news recently and saw this trip as a blow-out before he is relegated to the sidelines as he takes on his battle with the dreaded C! 

 A friendly competition as always is good but when we do this catfish fishing we build a joint tally and try to reach certain targets but this time around it was fairly clear from the off that we didn't have massive numbers of fish in front us and that other pegs on the other side of the lake were fairing far better than us, but what can you do! We set out our stall and stuck to the game plan. 

First of 6 twenties.

 36hours was booked and hoped we would see at least PB fall whilst there. Brian' best is 30lb 3ozs, Richard (Bro's) 33lb 10ozs, Richard B 35lbs and finally mine at 39lb 9ozs. All fairly respectable weights without really fishing anywhere (barring a blank at Swallow Pool two years back) where monster fish are present. Knowing Charlie's in Ashford does hold fish over 60lb meant we do stand a chance of adding a fair chunk to our PB's, if we could find one. 

 That however in the blaring sun was not easy and found sport very slow, in-fact combined it took us well over 12hrs to get over 10 fish combined, that really was slow and fish weren't of decent sizes either, I lost a big fish that gave me the slip in some pads and Brian lost an equally decent fish to a hook-pull, not what we wanted but part and parcel with fishing. Meat was clearly the bait of choice and all but the odd fish falling to boilee and paste, it helped bolster our takings.

Upper 20.

 When these fish do go it is great fun and fights often last 5-10 minutes, especially when the battle isn't nipped in early and they get a second wind, it can be good fun with the added jeopardy of being given the slip as they know where the snags are and found them often charging 50-70 yards to far margins in search of cover, thankfully fishing decent gear they often didn't get close enough, but the battles are good fun.

 Over the 30 hours that we fished the scores were in and as we wrapped things up Brian slipped in to first with fish of the trip....written in the stars some might say! I shall let Brian fill you in with the details through his blog here: Pike Blog Nicely done mate!

 The scores were as follows:

 Brian - ******* fish - best *******.

 Rich (bro) - 6 fish - best 23lb 14ozs

 Rich ( Bentley ) - 4 fish - best 27lbs

 Yours truly - 10 fish - best 2x @28lb 6ozs.

 All in all, good craic and must do it again, but maybe go for something a little bit more serious once Brian has come out the other side! 

Best of the bunch for me 28lbs 6ozs.

A Round Up of 2020.

  2020, the year that if I could, start all over again, roll the dice and hope for a much better outcome!

 January: Very little of note was caught apart from a superb brace of tiny chalkstream Chub, four pound fish are still considered good fish. After plenty of searching myself and Brian located where there were some fish, a steady stream of maggots and dollop of patience was enough to take three super fish, topped off with a 6lb 3oz brute which was braced with a 5lb 4oz fish that in itself was good enough to walk away feeling a great sense of achievement.

 February: Was even more difficult as I only went fishing once, Whilst away in the Caribbean I did get some fishing done but as they were caught in March they don't really count, so this lovely marked Brown Trout will have to do! Oh and I had a lovely Barbel the evening before I flew out, 10lb 7oz.

 March: Once I got back to Blighty I fancied a trip out after Grayling and ended up having a great day out, with numerous fish to just under 2lb and also a lovely brace of Roach which again just missed out on the two-pound mark but were amongst a shoal of much larger fish, one of which I did lose.

 April: Owing to the pandemic sweeping the globe our freedoms were stripped to protect the elderly so we were told to stay at home, so thats exactly what I did, the fish could breath a sigh of relief and my house got a lot more attention than I thought it would. No Pics, apart from copious amounts of Gin!

 May: Well, what can I say, most of it again was spent at home until restrictions were lifted slightly, with that I decided the Catfish needed a good seeing to, so Brian, my brother Richard and I did just that where I landed fish to 39lb 9oz and my largest UK caught fish ever. Plus I had some beautiful small farm pond Tench that ranged from 5lb to nearly 8lb, everyone a worthy adversary as all of them battled tirelessly for freedom amongst the thick pads.

 June: Opening day of the new season Brian of Navareth ( formerly Brian of Sreatham ) came along for a 48hr session out in the boat after Rudd....3 hrs later we came in, hole in the boat we decided we'd stick to dry land, I managed a nice old warrior of 2lb 5oz, not bad for a session that was littered with poor decisions (mainly weather related)

 July: July looked to be my 2020 turning point as I went out in search of targets and got close to some and achieved others, a big chub of 6lb 4oz (early season) slipped up during a short morning session on a small chalkstream, then a canal march was decided upon. Although no Carp were located a big Bream decided a lump of slow sinking bread flake was too good to ignore, 8lb 14oz. Then I made my Wrasse debut where I had a few stunners off of Portland west side, a great experience and one I will certainly go for again.

 August/September: These were both very lean months in terms of angling and found myself scratching around for the odd Chub and Barbel, all of which weren't big therefore not really worth mentioning! Not that that is the criteria of course, just this is a highlights!

 October: By the middle of October I hadn't managed a trip, then I gave myself something to think about that put a foot up my arse, as my fishing was going stale and quickly losing my mojo. The plan isn't necessarily a short term goal but will give me a sense of direction for my angling. That target is to achieve a double figure Barbel off of forty different rivers across the country, some obscure and some alot more obvious. I started off with the not so secretive (Trent) and blanked then went off the radar and banked a huge 15lb 12oz Barbel on my fourth visit to that particular river. A few days later, I went back up the Trent and banked an impressive 13lb 9oz Barbel on the first evening, two rivers checked off in 5 days I think it was, not mention beating an 8 year old PB (originaly 14lb 6oz from the Hants Avon).

 November: The blanks started to mount up at an alarming rate but one I could have foreseen as temps started to fall away, the only thing that was good about November was a chub session I had on the float, 16 fish teased out of one pool where the remainder of the river seemed empty, glad I found them!

 December: The blanks continued on at the same rate, but for another session on the float for silvers it was fairly dead, on the float was great fun and to finish off I managed a beautiful mirror around 6lb on 2lb bottom, size 16 hook and a light float rod.

 Lets hope 2021 is a darn sight better in many respects, although 2 PB's isn't a terrible return I must admit.

 I wish you all a very happy new year in blogland and wish you peace and prosperity for the year ahead. Tight Lines all.

 James.

Baptism of Slime.

 For some time now I have known about the ever increasing capacity of waters in their catfish stocks, catfish being a species I have had no interest in, at all!. BUT! I am one to try my hand at just about anything and if I fail first time around I'll often get straight back on the horse and try again.

 Thankfully, the lake I visited is quite well known ( Charlie's Lake, in Ashford ) for its obscenely healthy population of slugs ( a term often used for catfish ). With lockdown still in place I made a booking a week or so in advance to put myself in with the chance of catching one.

 Fast forward 1905 on the Saturday evening....I had already banked two. That wasn't too hard was it now.

 Within ten minutes I got a one-toner on my LH rod and proceeded to land a 20lb 9oz specimen which was backed up by a 19lb 8oz catfish. With both catfish in great nick I admired them both before gently cradling them into the lake to roam free once again.

A twenty to ease me in with. 20lb 9oz.

 Sport then did ease up as it took me an hour and a half to register a third fish, this being my first thirty pounder ( 30lb 12oz ) and boy those larger specimens are a different gravy, longer more drawn out battles and more forceful lunges/runs to bankside vegetation and treelines, which in turn did give another dynamic to the battles which I can happily say I endured more of.

 As the night closed in on us we were in for an interesting night as the bigger fish seemed to come on the feed. Between 2247 and 0145 I had four fish with three over thirty pounds with the biggest just missing out on the forty pound mark ( 39lb 9oz ). That was interesting holding it up for a photo! Not quite a chub or roach.

The benchmark has been set.

 After a ( 33lb 5oz ) cat I took the opportunity to have a kip and woke up around 0615, twenty minutes later the LH rod yet again tore off and locked into battle with the second smallest of the trip ( 17lb 10oz ), but then I did suffer a proper lull in action as my next bite didn't come until just after midday ( 17lb 12oz ). By this point I was already very happy, I do have to confess mind you that having come so close to "forty", I now wanted to achieve that.

 Every take I had from then on I was willing for it to be a lunker and although I had had some very good fish already I wanted more. Not unusual for me it has to be said.

Finish it off with a thirty, why not. 30lb 10oz

 Then as we approached the final sector of the trip a few more fish came my way and as the gong went a ( 30lb 10oz ) slug slipped over the cord to give me a final total of an astonishing 337lb 1oz bag of cats. Not bad for about 16hrs fishing if you factor in the shuteye.

 20lb 9oz   1901
 19lb 8oz   1905
 30lb 12oz  2036
 28lb 1oz   2247
 32lb 2oz   0005
 39lb 9oz   0045
 33lb 5oz   0145
 17lb 10oz 0635
 17lb 12oz 1206
 21lb 13oz 1305
 22lb 6oz   1358
 16lb 2oz   1615
 20lb 4oz   1640
 30lb 10oz 1818