Cat time!

After finishing my pike season with a bang, I have been out of sorts to be honest. The rivers are closed, my first choice waters haven’t switched on yet and I’ve been lost for a target species. I’ve fished Lymmvale for tench on a couple of occasions with no success and been put off by how busy it has been this year. I remember last year, if you didn’t have the place to yourself midweek, it certainly wasn’t crowded either. So I’ve been roaming the canals looking for carp and popping down the specimen lake for the same species. Apart from pulling out of an orange koi on a piece of floating bread, a fish I caught a few years back, there has been no action. So with this warmer weather, and with a tip off from Smudge, I headed to a small pool after big cats! It seems odd for me to start catting this early in the year but I needed to escape the crowds and find my ‘own’ water to fish. Thankfully few have been night fishing and I have had the place to myself. Settling on a spot in the middle of the pool where any cat which moves up or down will pass my bait, I quickly got the gear sorted and was fishing in no time. A slurry of chopped pig liver, heart and kidney, grated spam, tins of sardines, tuna, and pellets bound in halibut groundbait was dumped on my spots along with a couple of pints of maggots to attract the prey fish. This was followed in by the rigs baited with the standard half tins of spam.

A question I get asked the most is what set up/ rig I use for catfish. So basically it is a standard carp rod and reel with 40lb line, mono for Lymmvale due to the braid ban, but braid also in 40lb breaking strain, for everywhere else. The reason being is that you need to stop a cat from rounding an island, finding a snag or taking everyone else’s rods out. Which happened to me once in the past resulting in a messy situation. The hooklink is 2ft of Catfish Pro kevlar Catlink in 40lb to a size 2/0 eagle wave hook also from Catfish Pro and a 150lb b/s swivel. This is accompanied with a 3oz running lead with a Fox pop up leger stem providing the all important resistance free rig. I use a piece of polyball or wine bottle cork as a bait stopper which also neutrally balances the bait and a section of a drinking straw is pushed through the centre of the spam, through which the hair is threaded, to stop it flying off on the cast. You can cast as far as you like with the bait rigged this way.

What really makes the difference though is these rollover indicators from Zandavan productions. http://www.zandavan.co.uk/rollovers.html  Without a hint of exaggeration, these have revolutionised my predator fishing, to the point where I wouldn’t consider fishing without them. Basically they allow you to fish with open bail arms and the slightest pull on the line makes them roll back and frees the line to run off the spool. I got them for eel fishing but my success with perch and pike this winter is down to the zero resistance offered by these indicators. I can’t recommend them enough, thanks to Bruce for getting me on to these. Anyway, enough about that. After several missed runs on the first session, I packed up and went to work, then finished work and went back to the pool! Maximum time spent on the bank is key. Baits back out, missed runs again, which I always put down to kittens, then at 8am, I finally connected with a fish.

It ran me ragged all round the lake and took a sustained cajoling to bring to the net. 20 minutes after the take it was finally bagged. I rested the fish for a good 5-10 minutes whilst I faffed about getting the scales and camera sorted. Taking the strain of the weighty fish, I knew it was a ’30’ at least, the scales read 37lb 12oz. Not bad for a first fish from this water, my 11th UK cat over 35lb, couldn’t be happier. I have a feeling they don’t go any bigger in here, so i’ll fish a few more sessions testing out some bespoke boilies courtesy of Mike at Viking Baits, before heading off to the next target.

Until next time, Tight Lines!