Catfish trip

Another attack on the alleged catfish in our local pond.

On arrival, there were already 4 cars there.
We had a look round, and decided on a spot that could be fished in the afternoon, but then command most of the lake when the other pleasure anglers inevitably went home for tea.
Eventually they did :-)

This time we only used live baits to avoid any eel entanglements. We got some better sized baits too.
We used the usual tactics of a sliding leger, but this time with a good sized pva baggy of groundbait tied to the lead. The thinking here, was to attract a whole bunch of small fish into the area of the feed, and the feeding could attract the cat. On the cats arrival, the fish would scatter - except one, the one going round in circles above our lead :-)
We also mixed the groundbait with sardine oil to give off a huge scent trail.

To cut a long story short, we spent a fantastic evening sitting there on our own, with the Kelly Kettle boiling away every half hour providing the most fantastic hot fresh tea.
(very Chris Yates :-)
The evening was full of wildlife and very mild, the water dead flat, and felt very fishy.

It was the most gorgeous evening, and all was right with the world - until about 7:30 - I started feeling very odd. It felt as though someone had pulled the plug on every ounce of strength and energy I had in me. My limbs felt like lead, and I felt very woozy, faint and shaky and decidedly rough. By 8pm I was feeling sick and ready to abandon all my gear and go home on the spot. Having not had any definitive bites, but just the endless occasional beeps from line bites, Mike and I decided to call it a night, and packed up - slowly for my part.

So, another catfish trip with no catfish. But a great afternoon out with the smoking kettle at least (notwithstanding feeling ill).

http://www.kellykettle.com/

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Update.
I ended up taking the following day off work too, cos everything aches. I must have a virus or something. :-(

Catfish trip

It turns out someones put a couple of catfish in a local pond, so Mike and I made a trip to see if we could snag 'em out again.

A fabulous evening and early night. The weather was dead calm, with clear skies and a stunning sunset, plus the clearest and brightest moon seen for a long time.
We also had the lake to ourselves, which was very odd, considering it was a Saturday with good weather.
All in all, one of those really memorable fishing trips.

We tried the halibut pellet approach, but kept getting 3-6lb carp, so switched to ledgered live baits in the form of small roach caught in the margins.
This changed things. We started getting little knocks, which we guessed were small eels. Mike is an eel hunter of the old guard (he's an old git, used to fish for giant eels big as your leg on dodo livers with a tank arial.... or somthing.....) ....anyway....on a hunch he thought there might be bigger eels in there, so changed to a dead bait really close in to he margins. This rod then spent ages getting beeps and knocks, and eventually 'eeked away slowly, giving a positive take. Mike struck, and was lucky enough to get into a good 2lb eel. He was very pleased with that. :-)


For my part, I got a very positive run on a live bait, which could only have been a catfish I reckon, but struck into nothing. On inspecting the bait however, I only had a small piece of roach head left. So how close did I come to hooking my first catfish ?
We'll never know...
We're going back soon though....