Fishing report from: Julian, Rob, Caz & Cath

Two Monster Catfish to 140+!

This week we welcomed Julian and wife Caz along with friends Rob & Cath. The two couples met many years ago while fishing at Anglers paradise in Devon. Recently back from a trip to Gillhams, they were here to do battle with our monsters.

Julian is a very experienced angler and describes himself as more of a catfish man than a carp angler. He fishes for the full range of course fish in both still and flowing water. The only non angler of the group is Cath who was here to relax but also to look after the troops. 

The good news didn’t take long to arrive: Rob banked the sturgeon just 1 hour into the session and later on Julian banked the biggest catfish we’ve ever seen! The photos clearly show that this creature was at least 2.3m long (tip to tail). The guys even had to use a second mat for the tail as our enormous 2m x 2m catfish mats were too small! They didn’t attempt to weigh it but we know a 135 lbs catfish was around 2.1 – 2.2m long so this is easily a lake record. Conservatively I’d say it’s 140 lbs but it could more.

It was taken on Julian’s favorite massive solid PVA bag rig dropped from a boat. Hookbait was a Mainline wafter wrapped in some homemade paste. Julian was fishing a version of my heavy duty carp/cat rig: knotless knot tied from Gardner coated braid using a size 4 korda Wide Gape hook and a running lead. The rod was only 3.5lb TC but the reel was a heavy duty Shimano 12000d bait runner reel.

After a string of catfish losses over the last few weeks, one of the reasons why we believe this beast was bankable was the fact that Julian was fishing in the Big Double rather than in the Point Swims. This gives anglers a much better chance at steering them away from the danger of the tip of the island. The mistake that this catfish made was to head up to the dam wall and stay in the main bowl of the lake where there’s nothing much in this area that is going to cause any problems.

This is not to say that landing this fish was a foregone conclusion! Julian had followed our advice, tested all his knots using the 8 kg kettle bell to make 100% sure nothing would fail. There were also plenty of extra pairs of hands available when the crunch moment came. Rob’s skills and strength were really put to the test to haul it up on the mat 👊

Later in the week, using the same tactics, Caz also landed another huge specimen estimated to be 120 lbs. Julian’s caught enough massive fish in his years to be able to make a good estimate and by the look of the mat shot, I’d say he was not over estimating it! It’s easily the biggest catfish ever caught by a lady angler and a fantastic piece of angling.

Even with their skills and experience and having fished for some of the largest freshwater species in the world, they were blown away by how hard our catfish fight. They’d simply never experienced anything like it on “normal” heavy duty carp gear. Trying to control such immense power on rod and line in a small venue like ours with an island is a massive challenge and every successful battle won should be celebrated!

The carp were proving a tougher nut to crack than the catfish. Julian banked a nice low thirty, Rob started off in Island point and then flipped over to the big double where he caught an upper twenty along with a small catfish or two.

The guys had a great time, caught some massive fish and we hope that they get on well at their next destination.