Posts Tagged ‘catfish’
Springtime Action
Thursday, February 12th, 2009By roy van goor
All anglers are waiting for the first sunny days, when the temperatures are going upwards and the lake shows more and more fish activity. The warmth of the sun is responsible for more carp movement and often you can catch them fairly easily on these mild days. A few tips that can be effective considering the early time of the season:
1) Fish often don’t respond to heavy baiting: Under these circumstances, try to fish bags and single hookbaits. Bait that has gone in, can’t be taking out. So be careful with free offerings.
2) Always try to get your rods on the bank where the first sunlight falls on: This side of the lake will warm up faster and on a lot of occasions the majority of the fish will be hanging around in that part of the lake.
3) Don’t ignore the margins: Most of my early season captures are hooked just a few feet of the bank, right in my own margin.. (more…)
Strange Encounters on the Bank
Friday, November 14th, 2008I just got home from a session abroad with some friends
When the trip was getting towards the end something happened too one of the other anglers that shocked me.
On his final morning a rat got in to his bivvy and was sitting on his face. When he woke up, and tried to scar the rat away it bit him in his ear leaving him devastated.
It was the first time I ever heard about something like this happening to an angler. But I am sure there are plenty more stories that are similar to this one.
I never encountered a thing as horrible as that, but do had some occurrences with wildlife in my fishing career birds cleaning my tackle cows watching me playing a fish. (more…)
Reader’s Query on River Carping in Spain
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
martin vaughan wrote:
I’m off to Spain next week to fish the river guadiana (the orellano). Being a bit of a novice I’m after any advice you can offer on rigs. What coated braid would u recommend, length of leadcore & hooklink ? Its a guided trip with Extrema Fishing and all i have to supply is end tackle so any tips or advice
would be gratefully appreciated. cheers martin
Jamie Simpson Replies
Hi Martin
I assume you will be targeting Carp rather than Catfish. Not knowing the river in question makes answering a bit vague but here goes.
I would certainly recommend a strong braided hooklink such as 25lb Silkworm or similar, if you prefer coated braid then you won’t go far wrong with Korda Hybrid. In my experience river carp certainly aren’t rig shy and basic heavy gauge set ups will suffice. I would use hooklinks of at least 18″ and about 4ft leadcore leaders. Assuming the reels are supplied then I would imagine they will be spooled up with line around 18lb. Hookwise I would suggest size4 minimum and would recommend either Korda LongshankX (tough as old boots) or Rigsbiz R2 hooks. There is no need for clever blowback rigs or even shrink tubing as a basic no knot knot will be fine. (more…)
Not so unlucky 13!
Thursday, August 28th, 2008By Pat Gillett
I have just come back from an interesting weeks fishing with Paul Cooper on the Angling Lines Venue, Island Lake.
Island Lake is a mature looking Gravel Pit of approximately 25 acres in the Champagne Region of France; roughly 3 ¾ hours drive from Calais. As the name suggests it has a large island and 4 or 5 bays along with a lot of weed and underwater features.
The lake is totally different to most commercial French fisheries as it is relatively lightly stocked for the size of the venue. Most commercial French Lakes are overstocked and so the fish become virtually dependant on anglers’ baits, which more or less guarantees you catching plenty of fish. The fish in Island Lake are of an excellent average size and it would appear that they have reached and are maintaining these weights by feeding on the abundance of natural food in the lake. This can lead to very challenging fishing, but to me this makes it all the more interesting and rewarding. (more…)
Reader’s Query: Commons Lake France
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Jez Hibberd wrote:
Hello has anyone been to Commons lake in France and had any success there? What bait did you use and any tip on the place would be great
Thanks
Jez
Gareth Watkins replies:
Hi Jez
Firstly I’d say check out the latest news over on the Angling Lines site as they are bookingn agents for this venue in northern France. I shot the video at the venue last year when the guys really bagged up catches a stack of fish to over 40lb. We stayed on for a couple of days and my son had fish to 36lb too.
The lake contains around 175 fish from mid doubles to upper forties, nearly sixty fish to mid thirties were stocked this winter. There is a majority of commons, hence the name of the lake but there are some nice mirrors too plus surgeon and a few catfish. (more…)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.questbaits.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)

