18 June 2017 – Catch report from: Karst and friends

One rig, one nugget, one spot and 5 cats from 82 to 105lbs banked in 5 days!

After we left, the guys got set up and 1.5hrs after putting out a Beausoleil catfish rig with a Shrimp & Cray Nugget, Karst was into the fish of a lifetime. During the battle the mainline and the knot testing gave him the confidence to give it his all and the size 4 hook coped without issue. The whole team got involved as they used the boat to control it in the space available and some 30 minutes later, Bjorn managed to bundle her in. At 105lbs, it’s the largest cat we’ve seen this year, what a way to start!

Code cracked, it was job done for Karst and for the rest of the week, every afternoon, Karts hosted a cat fishing party in his swim and everyone took it in turn to bank their first ever catfish!

This was a great way to share his success and ensured everyone smashed their PB’s. At night the guys returned to their swim to target the carp. It was like a fishing cooperative and we thought it was a brilliant idea, especially for the summer.

Spot on tactics for the carp as well

When the cats are active the carp are trickier than normal but Karst opened the batting with a super carp of 37lbs 8oz. Jan was next with a 31lber and the sturgeon paid him a visit twice! Over in Home swim Ify was having a very relaxing time which suited him down to the ground but the carp did come a calling and he banked a nice specimen.

All the guys continued to catch steadily all week but for some reason it wasn’t happening for Bjorn. I sharpened his hooks on Wednesday and he caught a massive catfish on a popup rig I tied for him but he really wanted a carp. By Friday he was very frustrated, everyone had caught a carp except him. I re-sharpened his hooks and modified his lead system. Ify very generously gave him one of his spots and Karst used the boat to put in on the money for him. Later that day he banked Galaxy at 30lbs. Now that’s proper team work and it was great to see.

A big well done to Jan who was well prepared, had taught himself how to sharpen his hooks and tie a good Beausoleil rig and as a result caught steadily all week. Simples! Wouter came along as a chef for the team and for a relaxing holiday with his mates.

On the last afternoon though it was his turn to hit the next catfish run and considering he doesn’t have much in the way of fishing experience he did amazingly well and banked a 102lb catfish! This the 5th 100lber this year and only the 2nd ever week in which two three figures cats have been banked. Bloody well done mate!

The right mainline gets the result again

On another subject Karst had bought 1500m of Big Game 30lbs and 1500m of P-line CXX X-tra strong in 30lbs and wanted me to compare and test them for him to help make the right choice. The P-Line passed my 20lbs bucket lift test but after I gave it a little bounce it crashed down. The Big Game had no such issues and I couldn’t get close to breaking it with a 20lb bucket of water. As we found in our line testing, Big Game really does what it says on the tin so 25lbs is good for 25lbs etc.

Next test was a simple abrasion test. I used the sharp corner of a paving slab and rubbed a 12” section of P-Line back and forth across it with the line wrapped round my fingers so I could exert some decent pressure. 15 strokes and it was done. The Big Game made 40 strokes and I really had to give it some to rub through it. Karst and the whole group fished with Big Game all week.