18 September 2016 – Catch report from: Paul and friends

In order to balance things up a bit, I spent a very pleasant few hours working with Andy and Will on Monday making a few tweaks here and there. After that they were both off and running and Andy banked a nice brace of low thirties and Will had two good carp and a catfish of a lifetime of 82lbs. Will hadn’t caught a proper catfish before and was stunned by the unstoppable power of it. He described the experience as ”The fish of a lifetime”.

Unfortunately for Paul and Simon, the good start stopped and they couldn’t manage another pickup despite obvious signs of activity over the spots. Will and Andy continued to bank two fish per day between them and the group finished with a grand total of 13.

The combination of chod or stiff hinged rigs and my home rolled cork ball popups fished over light scatterings of 24mm Beausoleil baits proved very effective again. The stiff rigs continue to be the very best method of avoiding accidental captures of C2’s. The guys did try bottom baits but even when Paul used 2 x 32mm halibut pellets for a big cat he hooked a C2 with eyes bigger than his mouth! Each week we remove more and more C2’s but unfortunately they continue to hamper fishing with traditional bottom baits. It was a pleasure to meet the lads and perhaps we’ll have the pleasure of welcoming them back one day.