I was fishing down my local runs water and got talking to one of the lads their when he informed me he had never come across a catfish and didn’t really know anything about them or how to fish for them. This got me thinking about how many people were in the same situation and the information I could share.
The Catfish has a long body, like an eel, with no scales on it with a large head and mouth. The inside of the mouth has rows of tiny little teeth like Velcro on the top and bottom of its mouth. It has barbules, two long ones on the upper jaw and either two or four shorter ones on the lower jaw, for detecting its prey.
It has a small almost pointless looking dorsal fin whilst the anal fin stretches backwards until it almost reaches the tail. The colouration of the Wels can vary from fish to fish but normally they have dark eyes with a dark green black body with creamy yellow sides creating a mottled effect. Albino looking catfish are sometimes found but are very rare; these have red eyes and a yellow/creamy colouration to its body.
Locating Catfish can varies from water to water but the best way I find locating them is within weed beds, sunken trees or snags. When a catfish is on the feed it will travel all over the lake in its search for its food, sometimes you can see big swells and lots of bubbles follow them as they swim along the bottom of the lake.
All of my Cat fishing is done using a mixture of shelf life Special Crab and liver B8 15mm boiles with four of them usually being on the hair. I have confidence using a mixture of these and am pleased with the results. The rig I use is made up using black amnesia as I find it works well and does the job required.
Good luck!
Samantha Collins- Ratcliffe
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