Perry with his 103lb Cat
It was the 31st October 2007 when Perry and Caron came over for a few days (Halloween) we had a party to go to that night which resulted in all of us having a few too many drinks which meant the fishing couldn't start till Nov 2nd, we didn't fancy getting up too early after the party so the day was spent showing our visitors the local area.
The morning of Nov 2nd saw Perry and I set up on the river with two rods out for Carp and two out for Catfish, although this time of the year can be cold we were very lucky with reasonably warm bright conditions, the river looked in good shape with the odd Carp showing itself near the far bank. We were using pellets for the carp with PVA bags a method I have found to work very well, boillies in this part of the river do not catch the quantity or size of Carp that halibut pellets seem to produce. The Cat rods were baited with my most productive bait, whole chicken fillet!! Although this can be awkward to cast, if hooked up correctly can be cast the required distance. The day finished well with 7 Carp up to 15-16lb no Cats, but at this time of the year they do slow down. We had already decided to fish the next day also and were hoping for the same conditions, this trip over for Perry was not a serious trip just for fishing, it was a visit for 4 days with the chance of maybe 2 days fishing while with us, if we caught great, if not maybe next time. November 3rd and again a nice day to be beside the river, the same tactics were employed as the day before, we started to catch a couple of Carp of similar size when one of the alarms sounded on the Cat rods!! The line was being taken in a few short jerking movements which I left, the line then started spinning the spool against the large baitrunner reel, I turned the handle which disengaged the baitrunner and struck firmly three times into a very strong Catfish that was taking line against the clutch. I then passed the rod over to Perry as he was a Catfish virgin and I wanted to see his face when feeling the power of this fish. To say the fight was spectacular would be an understatement this fish tore up river against a very tight clutch with Perry hanging on for dear life!! the rod at times was bent double with the braided mainline like a bass guitar string, at times the fish thrashed on the surface and at other times sent bubbles from the bottom exploding to the surface, all this time Perry struggling to play the big Cat. What was doing when all this was going on? Killing myself laughing, giving guidance and trying to capture some video!! We managed to land the fish by me gloving the Cat on the bottom jaw and laying it on my "made for the job" weigh sling, after weighing the fish we decided on 103lb after deducting the weight of the sling, although the pics are not perfect you can still see the immense girth of this fish. If Perry could have lifted it a bit more, we perhaps could have got some slightly better pics, I could not have asked him to get in the river to support the fish, not in November anyway!
Still a very good couple of days fishing for Carp and Catfish, roll on the next one.
Just a couple each, click on the pic for full size.
For the Video capture of the big Cat click here YouTube (Perry the Movie) you will love it!!