We used to catch cichlids on "The Hotties" behind Pilkingtons glass works on the St Helens Canal ---The water was that warm that in winter you'd be sitting in the middle of a big cloud of steam ........
And then there was this story of a trip Graham and I did to France -- Here's Grahams report of what happened .........
Unusual Catch
One night at Domaine Des Isles in France I was roused from a particularly enjoyable dream by an absolute screamer of a run. I ran to the rod and could swear I saw steam coming off the spool it was spinning so fast. As I lifted into it Eddie loomed out of the darkness with landing in hand ready to do the honours.
It didn't feel like a heavy fish, not like the 30lb-plus fish that inhabit the water, and certainly not one of the 40's or 50's. This one was too fast. The biggies go off on slow but very powerful runs and then sandbag the rod in short bursts. This one half-kited, half run, to my left, towards one of the many channels at DDI. So I leaned into it more and forced it to kite right into my own bank about 50yds away. Better that than down the channel where I would have been sure to lose it.
I bent the rod into it and slowly but surely began to gain line as it tried to dig into the bank. 'Is it a good fish?' Ed asked.
'I don't think so', I replied. 'It feels strange. Could be a small cat, or a big grassie. I just don't know what to think.'
And that sense of the unknown was multiplied a thousand fold when whatever it was started to climb up the bush to my left as I was trying to pull it from under! Bear in mind it was pitch dark and we couldn't actually see what was going on.
I increased the bend in the rod and dropped 'it' back into the water. And soon after a weed-covered object was scooped into the landing net and lowered onto the unhooking mat, whereupon it freed itself from the weed and proceeded to run round the landing net mesh like whirling dervish.
'It's a giant rat!' Said Ed.
I shone the torch on it, holding the landing net at arm's length and said, 'No, it's a bloody baby coypu.'
And so it was, hooked in the back leg just in the flesh, the boilie still intact. 'Unhook it then', said Ed.
'You can go and take a flying **** as well', I said. 'That 'giant rat' will have your hand off in one bite. They chew through trees with those teeth, you know.' So while it lay quiet I sneaked a pair of scissors through the mesh of the net and snipped the line close to the hook. It was a micro-barb hook and it would be rid of it in no time. The landing net was dropped in the water and it swam off pretty quickly.That definitely rated as my most unusual catch!