The Elusive Catfish

My Luxury Accommodation For The Weekend

Sunrise At Todber Manor

The Elusive Catfish

It all started with a chance conversation with Claudia! She mentioned “Catfish” and the possibility of a vacant place in a forthcoming Fish-In organised via another Web Forum. Now, I used to live very close to the Yateley Complex and had walked the banks many, many times and had seen a few “Moggies” netted. I'd even persuaded a couple of regulars to take me along one evening and ended up being attached to something rather big but heading for the other end of Split Lake at a pace I can only describe as supersonic. We parted company very quickly! Since then, I've had a bit of a thing about finally landing one, so I jumped at the chance.

Only later did it dawn on me I didn't have much in the way of appropriate gear for even modest sized Cats! Whatever, I'd find a way. So plans were hatched, gear begged, borrowed and stolen. Several trips to the local tackle shop and a lot of surfing the web for information on rigs and tactics saw me reasonably prepared for the 48 hour session.

Our small group of seven had booked an entire lake at Todber Manor which sits comfortably in the rolling Dorset countryside. In my opinion this is one of the better “commercial fisheries” on offer and the “Specimen Lake” was nicely situated and looked superb. Carp to 28lb and Catfish to 38lb swam within its 2 or 3 acres and there were plenty of features to fish to with islands, bays and mature reed beds.

Steve's 14lb Mirror

We had the lake to ourselves from 2pm Friday but due to work commitments I arrived later at about 6:30pm. A really warm September day was just fading into a very still evening as Claudia greeted me with a huge smile and hastily introduced me to my new fishing mates. Conversation was temporarily interrupted as the evenings Chinese Take-away was delivered. I'm afraid I probably took more than my fair share of Claudia's Sweet & Sour Chicken!

I was then introduced to what was to be my luxury accommodation for the next two nights! It would be unkind to say that Claudia and Mike are tackle tarts but their collection of apparently spare gear may well begin to challenge that of the famed Peter Jacobs! A very spacious and comfortable bivvy, rod pod complete with alarms and swingers, 3lb tc rod and reel, bed chair, head torch, bivvy light, butler and topless pole dancers were all there ready and waiting for me (maybe I exaggerate the last bits but you get the picture!).

In my defence, I did bring one rod (acquired via the Chavs vs Aces raffle back in January), reel, chair, landing net and unhooking net. I also tied my own rigs (after a fashion) and provided my own bait but essentially everything else was there for me!

None of our group had yet caught or even had a sniff of a fish but my expectation levels were very high.

Perfection In Miniature

I literally raced around trying to get set up before darkness arrived. After checking with Claudia that my rigs were correct and safe, I finally cast two monstrous halibut pellets, dipped in the foulest smelling glug you could imagine, tight to the left hand side of the island opposite me. They were swiftly followed by a similarly smelling chunk of luncheon meat that went to the right hand side of the island. Alarms and swingers set, I sat back in my chair. What do I do now? Usually I'm fiddling with ground bait or regularly loose feeding as I attempt to build up the swim. But I'm here for 48 hours not 5! I compromised by feeding halibut pellets into the margins determined to try that line later.

Darkness fell and all was quiet except for some stimulating conversation via walkie-talkie radios as the group swapped jokes and banter around the lake. The odd bleep from my alarms kept my attention at a high level but nothing really developed into a solid run. I did see quite a few shooting stars as the night was very clear but perhaps not the best conditions for Cats.

At about 11:30pm the still night air was shattered as “fish on” crackled over the radio waves. Steve, on the opposite bank, was into a fish and asking for help. Both Mike and Claudia were in dreamland but Ian and I finally stumbled our way round to assist. Not a Cat but a good looking Mirror of around 14.5lb soon graced the net. Weighed and photographed it was returned safely and I went back to my rods with enthusiasm suitably fired up.

I mainly resisted the urge to reel in and “check” but I did change the right hand rod over to a bunch of lobworms but no further signs were seen or heard from the lake. I eventually succumbed and retired to my sleeping bag at about 2:30am.

My watch alarm went of at 5:30am (which, in my half awake

”Easy Does It,” says Claudia

state, I mistook for the bite alarm and subsequently fell out of the sleeping bag, rolled over to the pod and knocked a rod off!). I don't think the others noticed so I casually sorted things out and prepared to fish properly through the dawn period. But still not a touch. The others had not faired any better and Steve's Mirror was the only success so far.

For the most part, Saturday looked quite promising with low cloud and mist hanging around well into late morning but the fish had definitely not read the script. By mid afternoon the sky had cleared and the sun was beating down, again not the best conditions for any fishing really. Despite our general lack of success, the spirits were still high and the anticipation was just as keen as the second night approached. Maybe it was the several bottles of wine, kebabs and pizza but everyone was still full of confidence!

The night passed peacefully! Did see plenty more shooting stars; found a huge slug in my sleeping bag and Claudia made friends with the local moorhen chicks. But no fish!

Early Sunday morning I tried lobworms again and hey presto, a text book run on the left hand rod got the heart racing. A gorgeous looking mirror came to the net but at around 2lb it was not quite what I was looking for! Several others followed but they were getting smaller! If I'd brought my pole I reckon I could have bagged up!

Ian's 6lb Kitten

I was just contemplating trying something different when the alarm went off again. I casually picked up the rod expecting the same minor resistance from another miniature carp but was surprised to feel the rod going over and seeing a bow wave heading away from the island. It lasted all of a few seconds as the line then went slack and I was left speechless (others will tell you various profanities were heard but they must have been hearing things). My rig came back minus the hook. It was one I'd tied myself using 25lb “Catlink” and I had had a few problems when trying to get the knotless knot to gently slide into place. I aborted several rigs using up quite a lot of this cheap (not!) stuff so at first I thought maybe my knot was at fault. But after closer inspection, the break was well above the hook and quite clean. It may have been damaged, but I'm ruthless when tying hooklinks and discard any suspect results. Maybe it was a “cat” and 25lb was not tough enough to avoid the abrasive effects. But it was a lost fish and to say I was disappointed is an understatement.

The rest of Sunday was disappearing fast and again it was very warm, clear and bright. I began a very slow packing up process and was still more than a little annoyed at the chance I had spurned. Others in the group were doing the same and we swapped comments like “that's fishing” and “if we caught every time we go out” etc, etc. It was a very good weekend but we were all disappointed at the lack of fish. Then another shout went up “fish on”.

One of Ian's rods had “gone off” as he was packing up and he was into a fish. We raced round and were just in time to see Claudia slide the net under a perfect little catfish. It was all of 6lb 4oz but it was a very welcome sight indeed. Caught at around midday in very bright sunshine and on lobworm. For me and I suspect for the whole group, that one little “kitten” lifted the whole weekend. It was a fitting end to a great weekend in great company. Driving home that afternoon, I reflected how damn good the Internet can be. Without it, would I have had such an opportunity or met such a great bunch of wine drinking, pizza eating, laugh a minute anglers? Probably not!

My great thanks to Claudia and Mike and to the rest of the group for allowing me join in the fun and particularly for the loan of copious amounts of gear.

Am I converted to this type of fishing? Probably not! But it was enjoyable, challenging and got the brain working overtime. It was an experience which was so different from my usual fishing,

Very Late But Very Welcome

but I will happily do it again.

Now where's my 13m pole and what time does Gold Valley open up?