Angling Lines blog

by Lee Johnson

Being a lake owner doesn’t always mean you get to fish whenever you like. This May, I did manage to get a few days fishing in on Lake Lauren here at La Gléhias and decided to go for a Catfish or two as they are hooked often, but rarely landed as the angler on the other end is generally fishing for Carp with Carp rigs. I was also keen to see the progress of them because they get banked so infrequently. In fact the bigger they get the less we get to see them; I can only estimate the smallest to be 48lb and the biggest around 65lb.

The three Cats’ were introduced to keep the number of smaller fish down so I knew I had a bit of a challenge on my hands as I don’t believe they ever go very hungry due to the number of small Tench and Roach.

After witnessing Tommy Chantler’s success with squid in 2008, this had to be my first choice for bait. My first small problem was that I had to buy my squid from a fishmonger, not in a tackle shop. This meant that I had great slabs of squid meat instead of small whole squids.I tied myself some rigs with size one hooks on 50lb bs braid with the hairs around 3 inches long to stitch on the baits which I had now trimmed down to strips of 2 inches wide by 10 inches long – I even cut tentacles into them! The squid off cuts were mixed into some 3kg of large halibut and carp pellets along with about 1kg of broken up Quests Liver B8 boilies. I then added a cupful of lake water and let this steep for an hour to make it cloud instantly in the lake. This absolutely stunk and I was certain the cats would have no problems finding it.

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Paul Cottingham wrote:

Hello, My good friend and I are going to Margot for a week fishing June the 13th.  I would like to know whats the best bait and method to fish for catfish, as this is the species I’m most looking forward to catching.  I was hoping to use halibuts, luncheon meat and pellets ..but am worried that possion chats will eat it before the catfish.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your query. Margot does indeed have a fantastic head of big fish including big catfish and the mandarin cats, which are gorgeous fish.

Your method on the whole looks to be fine, but let me just underline a few points that are worth bearing in mind.

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Wayne Richardson wrote:

Hi, I’m just after some info on Morganes as me and a friend are booked up for a week from 19th April.

How’s it been fishing lately? Any tips for the carp at this time of year and will the cats be likely to feed?
thanks for any help.

Hi Wayne,

Well it’s early days yet to to say how the lake has been fihsing is a bit premature. It has not been fished since last year and the first groups are only now this week booked on. We will of course, in due course post the catch reports we are sent.

As to tactics for the venue, I’d say don’t go in over complicating things, get the basics right first. Decent rig, decent bait…..KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) I’d choose one or two good boilies as the basis of your attack on the lake. My choice at present would be Quest baits Rahja Spice and second Special Crab.

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