catfishing

[j green]

hi

fishing a lake in france for a week next saturday and its our own 3 1/2 acre lake with lakeside house and wooden pool and theres carp there to 40lbs plus and theres catfish to high 60lbs one end of the lake is shallow and the other deep. i no how to fish for the carp but need some info on the best tactics, rigs and the areas to fish of a lake during the day or the night.

going to stick a rod out for the week.(see what happens)

 

thnaks

[Dick Dastardly]

On small stocked waters like you are going to you will find that the cats have most likely switched on to the boillies put in by carp anglers.So you will have just as good a chance of catching both on the same tackle.

[RobStubbs]

Got to agree with Budgie. Also consider those big pellets / nuggets and if you want to try 'proper' cat tactics then try fresh liver or squid.

 

Rob.

[Steve1]

hi

fishing a lake in france for a week next saturday and its our own 3 1/2 acre lake with lakeside house and wooden pool and theres carp there to 40lbs plus and theres catfish to high 60lbs one end of the lake is shallow and the other deep. i no how to fish for the carp but need some info on the best tactics, rigs and the areas to fish of a lake during the day or the night.

going to stick a rod out for the week.(see what happens)

 

thnaks

 

Try livebaits (if the lake allows them). Large roach make a great bait for Cats, if you use a sub float the bait will keep off the bottom and swimming round in circles all night. Make sure you use a tough hooklink like quick silver or something similar. Just flick it out into the margins and you should get a result. If you need to get further out don't cast your livebait as it generally knackers them, try whinching out the bait with a second rod, as long as you're using a sub float the hook won't get caught on the bottom.

 

Good luck and be ready for the fight of a lifetime.

[fluke]

Try livebaits (if the lake allows them). Large roach make a great bait for Cats, if you use a sub float the bait will keep off the bottom and swimming round in circles all night. Make sure you use a tough hooklink like quick silver or something similar. Just flick it out into the margins and you should get a result. If you need to get further out don't cast your livebait as it generally knackers them, try whinching out the bait with a second rod, as long as you're using a sub float the hook won't get caught on the bottom.

 

Good luck and be ready for the fight of a lifetime.

 

If you have access to a boat use a 22 mm halibut or a loop of about 4 on a 2/0 hook and drop 3 handfulls of the same straight on top. You can also throw some smaller ones in the attract some prey fish. Use the same method with strong smelling fishmeal boilies such as crab or squid.

 

The best areas to fish are margins with weed or tree cover. The cats will patrol at night and early morning. Another option is to use either a lump of liver soaked in something smelly or a peice of squid. Just simply hook these on with a big hook.

 

For hooklinks you should use kevlar but kryston ton-up will do. Use a breakaway lead. Either a heavy lead on a weak link or a big pebble on an elastic band. The cats will probably try to take you in the pads so you need to lose the lead.

 

If you dont have a big net the best way to land them is by grabbing their bottom jaw with a gloved hand.

 

Hope that helps.

[Dick Dastardly]

I have never known a cat in any of the seven countries Ive fished for them ever have the inteligence to intentionaly run towards and in to a snag of any description! Strange but true!

 

I also hope Ton up "will do" as thats what it was intended for!

 

A terrible Carp style "over complication of things" seems to have crept in to todays cat fishing.

 

J.Green dont worry about "Dumbell rigs","winching out" and all this other clap trap they really arnt that difficult to catch if they are feeding! Small water like your going to they will definately be comming across your bait at some stage so if they are hungry you will catch.

 

The size of fish you are expecting will be easily dealt with on the stepped up carp gear I presume you will be using.

 

If you wanted to "intentionally" target them and only them then I would advise a different aproach but I should imagine that you wont mind catching a few carp between any cat action you are lucky enough to get!

 

Im not so sure about the margin advice either as Ive always found it best to put my baits where the cats will be feeding,strangely enough this is normally where the food is! and that isnt allways the margin.If your piling boillies/pellets in for the carp then to my mind thats where the food would be! My experiences have shown me that small stocked,predominantly carp populated waters the cats take on a very scavanger type feeding regime rather than the more active predatory one they do in the rivers...although having said that the "pellet revolution" has changed that a bit too!

 

More importantly make sure youve got the right gear to look after any cat you catch.If you wish to retain one for a photo dont be tempted to try and put it in a sack (not that you will be able to fit most in one!) as carp sacks kill cats easy as that. Far better to take the photo there and then but if you must retain it usea "stringer" I will put in a link to some old tut I wrote which explains the use of this bit of kit.Get an unhooking mat that will take a 6' long fish.A simple bit of the old green nobbly carpet underlay will do,just keep it well wet.

 

Cats are big old fish which live with their weight being supported by the water they live in.Once out of the water (like all big fish) their internal organs are placed under a lot of extra strain,theyare more or less crushing them selves.Bear this in mind when handling them and keeping them out of the water.If its really hot (and I hope it is for you!) then have a large container of water to keep them wet and stop the mucus from drying out.

 

Far more important than worrying about fancy rigs or baits!

 

Good luck bring us a few pictures back,remember to smile!

 

EDIT NOTE: Sorry I forgot the link here it is-

 

http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/article.a...v=1&UAN=339

Edited June 27, 2006 by BUDGIE

[j green]

hi

using a rig which i was adviced to use, dont no what its called but it ivoles using a running lead with line goign up to tubing which at each end has foam or cork balls and this alows the bait to be 1 foot under surface.

and im goign to use squid on large hook also will i be able to use this rig inthe margins because on the lake theres one swim with a large willow overhanging to left of the bank.

 

what do u thnk

[Dick Dastardly]

The rig you describe is the Dumbell rig.If you want to intentionall y target the Cats then really as Fluke says a livebait is the most selective.Carp will happily pick up squid.For fishin a live bait ,even near the surface as long as the water isnt to deep,you simply cant beat the Poly Ball rig-

 

http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/rigs/specialist.htm

 

Also for bait I wouldnt agree with the Big Roach thing either I would always try to get a small carp or tench as these are much stronger baits.Of course you some times have to use whatever you can get!

Edited June 28, 2006 by BUDGIE

[j green]

hi just got back from the place in france i decided not to fish for the cats . The lake is 3 acres and there are two large cats in there of 45lbs and 65lbs so i fished the week for the carp and had loads of carp with 20 of them being 20lbs fish with the biggest being a 29lbs mirror but on the second evening at about 9 oclock my alarm screamed off(i was using a single 12mm halibut pellet with a fake corn on an hair) and the fish was on for half an hour and just kept tearing oiff line and i had never caught a cat before but just new this was not a carp and in the end it came into the net and it was the smaller one but it was at 48lbs.

 

well chuffed.

[Dick Dastardly]

On small stocked waters like you are going to you will find that the cats have most likely switched on to the boillies put in by carp anglers.So you will have just as good a chance of catching both on the same tackle.