Quest for a 30lb Catfish

I've been fishing for catfish for about 4 years now, and probably have about 30 captures under my belt. I only get chance to fish for them 2 or 3 times a year as there aren't really any local fisheries that stock them. Most of these trips have been with the same small group of friends, and as such a bit of friendly rivalry over who has the "biggest catfish" record has developed. I'd been lucky enough to be the proud owner of this most prestigious of titles pretty much since day 1, when I caught a 17lb 8oz catfish from the Anglers Paradise Eldorado day ticket complex in Devon during the dying seconds of the last day of a week long holiday, after following the advice of the estate manager Joe. Admittedly my friend Steve held the record briefly as he'd caught one a few hours earlier, but for the next 2 years my first ever catfish would hold the title until I cemented my 1st place position by catching a 27lb 8oz fish, again from Anglers Paradise, but this time from the main complex octopussy lake.

27lb 8oz catfish from Anglers Paradise

My new record however, only lasted a year as on our annual week to AP in 2013, my friend Ben went and beat me by a few measly ounces with a 27lb 14oz fish from the Eldorado complex. I managed to net two 20's that week, but at 23lb and 24lb it meant Ben was the new record holder. To make matters worse, I knew I'd probably have to wait until the following summer before I'd have a chance to regain my title, so that gave Ben bragging rights for a whole year! Still, on the bright side it gave me a long time to prepare for this years campaign to try and beat the 30lb barrier, and more importantly Bens record...

The first part of my plan was to fish a lake that only had big catfish. I had enough experience now from the smaller catfish to have confidence in the methods and baits I was using, so I wanted to fish a lake where I knew that if I got a run, it'd be a new record. Thankfully, Anglers Paradise has such a lake, the specimen catfish lake on their nirvana day ticket complex. Steve and I already had a week booked for early June on the main complex, so we decided to go a day early and do 24 hours on the catfish lake before the holiday proper.

The weather forecast wasn't great, there was a big low pressure heading in from the south west (which normally would be good) but it was due to bring with it the biggest thunderstorm the country had supposedly seen in decades, and the last thing you want to be doing in a thunderstorm is waving a 12ft long piece of carbon fibre above your head. Still, as the great man Zyg Gregorek always says, "it never rains in Devon" so we hoped for once his words of wisdom would ring true.

The Nirvana specimen catfish lake at Anglers Paradise

We set up under blue skies on the far side of the lake. We had the whole lake to ourselves and found that between the 2 of us we could pretty much cover every bit of the lake from this position while still having our bivvies pitched next to each other for a bit of a social and a helping hand landing a fish if either of us was lucky enough to hook one. A quick lead around revealed the lake bed was pretty much weed free and silty just about everywhere, so I opted for smaller balanced baits to keep them from sinking into the silt. The rigs I used were a size 4 fox kuro hook tied to about 18 inches of 35lb fox coretex with the last 2 inches of coating before the hook removed. This was attached to a 45lb fox edges submerge leader tied to a 15lb GLT pro tough main line with a free running 2oz swivel lead. For bait I used a single 20mm halibut pellet with a sticky baits krill pop-up in a kind of pellet/boilie combo snowman.

From past experience from fishing other lakes and religiously following the AP catch reports, I knew the bigger fish generally came from open areas of water, but more fish tend to come from around the island features. As I was fishing a lake where the fish ranged in size from 30 to 60+ pounds, even a "small" one would suffice, so I baited an area about 15ft off the side of the island with a few kilo of mixed size halibut pellets and fished my left rod to this in the hope the cats would find the baited area during their nightly patrol of the lake. My right rod I decided I would periodically cast around the open water to my right with a large pva bag of halibut pellets in the hope I'd drop it near a fish and tempt it into an easy meal during the day time.

The lake was pretty quiet apart from the odd orfe jumping, there are a few big carp in the lake too but they didn't show themselves. I spent more time watching the carp lake behind us as they seemed to be quite active and its a lake I plan on fishing in the future so I made a mental note of where the fish seemed to be located. It was while watching this lake a single beep broke the silence. I turned to look at my rods to see my right hand bobbin slowly dropping. I'd caught cats on single beeps before, so I lifted the rod, wound in the slack and struck...

It felt like I'd hooked the bottom, only it moved! The fish made a dash for the near side marginal reed bed so I plunged the rod tip into the water and put as much side strain on it as I dared, my 3lb test curve rod hooped over almost double. I managed to turn it back into open water, where thankfully it stayed while a game of tug of war ensued. Every time I got it near the bank, off it went back into the open water, not fast, just a steady, unstoppable plod with the rod hooped over as the spool ticked round on the clutch. What seemed like forever, but in reality was only 7 minutes, the fish came to the surface. It was a nice fish, but it looked like it might not meet my target of 30lb. Another heave on the rod and it was in the net!

Upon attempting to lift it from the water I realised I may have underestimated it just a bit. It wasn't really much longer than the 27 I'd had before, but it was fatter, a lot fatter! Steve gave me a hand lifting it onto the mat where the hook pretty much fell out by itself. I tried to weigh it in my sling, but soon realised it wasn't going to fit. Thankfully Steve had a larger one, and we weighed it in at 44lb 8oz. My PB was smashed, my 30lb target was smashed, and after the fight and lifting it for the photos, I was smashed!

44lb 8oz from the Nirvana Catfish lake at Anglers Paradise.