Big Catfish - Attempt No 5 (Grimsditch Mill Pool)

Although I've still not managed to break my catfish duck, I do feel that I've made a lot of progress as regards setting up the rigs and largely conquering enough bogey man fear to allow myself to focus on the fishing rather than self defence from killer field mice each time I'm on a solo night session!

This time I'm again at Grimsditch Mill Pool on the Lymm Anglers card which I picked as a venue because it is on the way to work allowing some discreet baiting up and small and quiet enough for me to learn on the job and know I'm never too far away from any cats in the water. I don't it's got much of a head of fish but I think I need to have an idea what I'm doing before rocking up at Lakemore or Linear Fisheries and trying to bag a 60 lber.

This time I've gone for the swim where I saw a catfish strike on the surface last time and have put in a big bed of eel pellets and dead maggots on that spot with the intention of fishing a livebait on a dumbbell rig over the top. The other two rods are to be a double leech rig on the point of the pool's main island and a worm rig on the marginal shelf of the island which is not going out till dark to avoid the attention of perch and tench.

Second job is to get some livebaits and the problem is actually catching fish small enough to use without having a moral/fish stock dilemma. Decent roach after roach come to the margin pole before I've got enough skimmers and 3-5 ins roach to last the night. A quick photo of the Mr Fish camp to show Mrs Fish how close to a 5 star Hilton a Nash Oval (Truly great piece of kit) and a large TFG bedchair can be before settling down for the night.

It might have been a good idea to put the pole away before taking this groundbreaking shot though because I turn round to see the pole disappearing into the pool. Even my best Peter Schmeichel dive is not enough to grab the butt before it's gone and steaming away towards the island...

After a Touretts moment it just gets better when I see that a carp angler has set up in the next swim and fastidiously placed three rods in, each with double back leads and super accurate free offering placement. "Hello mate, nice weather, yep, that's my pole haring around your swim. It's a new tactic I'm trying out where the fish tires itself out by dragging a pole and rig around for ten minutes and then I just net a PB in the margins..."

It takes 20 mins to finally snag the pole by which time no doubt a 40lb common has slipped the hook. Interesting that the pole was towed the full length of the lake but despite lots of support, I don't think I'm too popular with those that have had me casting a lead round their swims.

Unfortunately, the night fishing is not as exciting with only one full blooded run to the worm rod at 3am which I fail to connect with. Two screeching barn owls make sure I get no kip though, so it's with very bleary eyes that I check the catch reports for Grimsditch when I'm back home at 7am to see that no cats have come out this year so far. I've not made this easy for myself so I think it's time to try a more target rich venue if I can squeeze another night session in before the weather gets too cold.

Cheers

Mr Fish

Big Catfish - Attempt No 4 (Grimsditch Mill Pool)

I've given up on the pre-baited spot - three nights with no eel or the main target of a catfish is enough of a hint for me. The carping books I'm addicted to at the moment talk of blanking in a swim for literally weeks before Geoff the Leather puts in an appearance but I've done quite a bit of predator fishing and in my experience they tend to have it straight away or not at all. Time to try another spot.

The new swim I've chosen has more open water but still the point of the pool's island to aim at and a nice overhanging willow in the margins to position a bait and hopefully pick up a patrolling fish in the night.

An hour's margin fishing with the pole and chopped worm produces a good supply of livebaits and out goes a 5 ins skimmer bream on a dumbell surface rig at dusk followed by the now fine tuned worm and leech rigs.

Straight away it's all action on the worms without a proper run, so much so that they are replaced with a sardine deadbait until it's really dark as I'm starting to think that the majority of the action I've had to date has been perch led.

The leech and worm rods are quiet through the blackness but the livebait has been harried and pulled all night providing continual bleeps on the ATT alarms - making the thought of work at first light an unattractive prospect - but not one full blooded run. An inspection of the skimmer at dawn shows the little blighter to be still going strong but covered in teeth marks which look very like the ones I used to get when trolling lives at Bala Lake for years. They always produced dropped runs as well and were good sized perch....I know this not because I am blessed with second sight but because they would often take a Mepps trolled through the same spot on the next run through.

No blank then but no eels or catfish again. However, for the first time, I did see a catfish strike on the surface in another swim when chatting to a carper - it was the next door swim nearer deeper water so that's the next target area when I can do another night. I'm reasonably confident that the baits and rigs are right so unless this place produces soon I'm off to somewhere a bit easier before the warm nights pass and I've missed my chance for this year.

Cheers

Mr Fish

Big Catfish - Attempt No 3 (Grimsditch Mill Pool)

Same venue; same swim but a change of plan. Sod the eels - I can put up with losing a python hell bent on sliming and eating me on the bank in the middle of the night - the wire is history and all the rods have been changed over to catlink traces. I've rigged up with ceramic run rings; slightly heavier leads so they don't move when line is taken and the bobbins are extra light and on the floor before anything running feels the baitrunners on the very lightest setting. I've also brought a box stuffed full of high strength lager to liven things up; not really.....I'll make do with tons of worms (dendros) to see what's lurking out there.

Three rods again - leeches; sardine head and a monster ball of worms on a size 4 raptor. The response is quick in the form of a 4oz bream on the worms on a meathook!

He's quickly swapped for the sardine and we've now a livebait in the strike zone. Next is an 8oz tench on the worms - surely these can't have been picking up the sardines?

A very dark bream of 1lb follows (Stunted?) and that's the pattern for the night. Worms = action but not from catfish or eels. There's one violent pull on the leeches under a margin bush in the very early hours but no cats. If I can fool a small tench, then the Mr Fish Theory is that it will fool a cat or eel so they just can't be in the swim or feeding. New swim or venue needed me thinks but I did here a big crash and maybe a tail slap at 3am over open water - am I going mad and trying to talk my sleep starved head into some optimism. Best to be sure and have one more go here...

Cheers

Mr Fish

Big Catfish - Attempt No 2 (Grimsditch Mill Pool)

Second attempt on the Catfish and I've persisted with the leeches on a submerged dumbbell set-up on one rod, with two other rods on sardine heads.

It's a full vampire session as you can see from the photo and I'm into the same tight island site where I've kept the pre-bait going in every other day since my last attempt.

All the baits have wire trace as I'm hedging my bets a bit with the possibility of a good eel - the Mr Fish theory being that an industrial revolution mill pond could have a few very old rascals in residence. Not top of my list for a midnight hour grapple but with Kim Bassinger unlikely to be trawling fishing ponds at night, or any other place to be fair, I'll make do with a PB eel and don't want to be chewed off at the net.

It's a frustrating night with the sardine rods jangling away almost as soon as they go in with plucks, pulls and the odd clip out mini run which aborts before I can get to the rods. I think I'm in for a night of no sleep or fish when the action all stops at 9ish and apart from the leech rod being taken out of a loose clip at 1am, it's very quiet apart from the bogey man, or perhaps an animal, howling away in the field behind me. Blank No 11 in the bag.

1. Is my set-up giving too much resistance?




2. Is the wire putting whatever is on the baits from taking properly?




3. Do cats mess with baits or just roar off?




4. Why can't I win the lottery?

Plenty to ponder for my next crack at it...

Cheers

Mr Fish

Big Catfish Attempt No 1 (Grimsditch Mill Pool)

I've been sneakily pre-bating four swims in two small Cheshire lakes known to hold catfish for a month now and tonight was my first attempt at one of them. It's been chopped up sardines and pellets going in on the way to work every 2-3 days and I really fancied a tight overgrown channel alongside an island as you can see top left on the photo above, which is about 25-30 yds from my peg.

The two rods are rigged with wire traces in case a biggish eel picks up the bait and one rod has a sardine section as bait and the other leeches popped up using a small dumbell rig set out about 2/3 up the shallow 3 ft of pool depth.

Starting at 7 pm there are instantly knocks and short pulls on the deadbait but nothing to strike at. I'm fishing with my carp pod with it's relatively heavy swingers that may be a hindrance and making the fish drop the bait...

It's pull, twitch and all manner of knocks which you couldn't strike at till 1 am when I pack up. The line has been out of the clip three times strongly on sardine but each time nothing on the strike - could be small eels or perch when it was light. Only one sharp pull on the leeches...

Another blank then but I'm off work for two weeks so will try again in a few days, probably with some better set-ups.

Mr Fish