Big catfish found on Spanish coast

by angling correspondents Roger Stocks and Stuart Lilley
Roger Stocks: 07733 092237 – Stuart Lilley 07811 923599 – email: roachpole10@aol.com

WE start this week with a report from local rod Craig Pert who recently made the trip to fish the mighty River Segre in Spain on a cat fish expedition.
Craig and the rest of the party ventured with Cat Master Tours who he says were absolutely fantastic, but we wonder whether any of the column’s other readers are tempted to try this discipline after taking note of the tackle and baits needed.
They started out with 7lb test curve rods with penn multiplier reels loaded with 140ln test braid and a 200lb braid hook link with 14oz leads to hold the bottom.
These were fished beachcaster style to a tilt switch bite alarm and 9x21mm halibut pellets on a long hair rig doubled over to make a doughnut shape fished over a quarter bucket of 21mm pellets.
At 9.30pm Craig’s bite alarm screamed and he was onto a specimin whiskers which gave a long hard fight making seven or eight hard runs against a tight drag which lasted about 20 minutes.
When the fish was eventually weighed it took the dial around to 166lb and measured a whopping seven foot six inches long.
On the same day, Craig had a smaller cat that weighed in at a mere 109lb and measured five feet 10 inches and in the same week he took common carp to 24lb using conventional carp gear and 21mm halibut pellets, to round off a fine week.

CLUB RESULTS
MEMBERS of Worksop United held their latest permit holders’ match on their own length of the Chesterfield Canal last Saturday where yet again the members found the weights down due to the cold weather: 1st R Brown 8lb 10oz peg 26 skimmers and chub caught on maggot; 2nd S. Moore 4lb 5oz peg two chub caught on maggot; 3rd M. Drage 3lb 7oz peg 20 chub and skimmers same method.

LAKESIDE ROUND-UP
BEFORE the frosts the carp were still having a munch on the main match lake with 72lb 4oz required to top the field in the Wickersley angling open match last Wednesday with pole fished luncheon meat being the winning combination.
Over the weekend, with the onset of the colder weather and overnight frosts, silver fish dominated match weights with 45lb needed to win a club match on Saturday with the winning angler employing pole fished maggot.
On the strip ponds, pleasure angler Martin Smith used a sweetcorn or maggot hookbait to pole fish his way to 100lb+ net of carp goldfish, tench and skimmers.
On the carp lake, specimin hunter Carl Hamilton landed a 26lb 4oz common in his six-fish haul off peg five with Worksop’s Jamie Shaw slipping his net under four lumps to 22lb 11oz off peg three.
Over on the trout lake, Worksop fly caster Chris Watson tempted 13 fish to 4lb on a wag tail and a floating line with fellow fluff chucker Harold Smith banking an impressive rainbow of 8lb 10oz in his 11-fish total on a combination of black buzzers and floating line.

RIVERSIDE ROUND-UP
JOHN Hunt, the proprietor of the Scrooby venue, informs us that he is soon to introduce a further 2,000 carp, with 1,000 fish of around the 1lb mark going in the main lake and the other 1,000, which are around the 8oz mark, being released in the strip pond.
Match weights on both Sandmartins and the main lake have been in excess of 35lb which consist of mainly stock carp and crucians with pole fished pellet the chosen method.

LODGE FARM ROUND UP
THE best match weight of the week fell to Pete Rosenvell from long island with 43lb 9oz on peg 88 using the pellet feeder.
On the field pond, pole fished caster took match weights to 23lb on Saturday’s club match and lily pond saw a winning weight of 23lb but this time with the pellet waggler accounting for the win.
Most ponds are now slowing down due to the cold snap but will start to respond once the fish get acclimatised to the conditions. We are informed a good all-round bait is the ever-dependable caster or maggot fished on the deck.
Hopefully in the near future, Bill will be introducing 3,500 common and mirror carp to enhance the existing silver fish stocks on the top pond. These should be introduced by the end of November.

DAIWA HALLCROFT ROUND-UP
THE bridge pool is proving to be the most productive in open matches taking place at the Retford venue with winning weights of skimmers and carp going to 88lb with pole and pellet fished on the deck at six and 10 metres being the favoured approach.
On moat pool, the weights are slightly down with the onset of the colder weather but yet again long pole fished pellet on the deck is accounting for the winning bags which are in excess of 40lb on both the island and the outer pegs.

SHERWOOD FOREST FARM PARK
DESPITE the frosty mornings 67lb 14oz was required to win last Wednesday’s match fished on Holmedale with pole fished pellet being the responsible tactics.
On Sunday however there was a white-over ground frost enveloping the venue with bomb fished pellet or corn cast over to the lilys or any other features being the top method.
On Saturday, the second round of the venue’s winter league was held on maunside and cavendish lakes where pole fished worm and caster on the far bank at maunside dominated the results with chub and ide being the mainstay in nets in excess of 40lb.
On cavendish, carp filled the nets of the anglers who cast their ground bait feeders over to the far bank features.

TOFT NEWTON ROUND-UP
SEVENTY rods caught 278 fish for a rod average of 3.97 in yet another very good week in nice conditions.
A few frosty nights have not affected the sport with lovely warm sunshine throughout the days.
Fish are a few feet down first thing in the morning and then moving up in the water as the sun warms things up.
Cats whiskers and olive concrete bowls are proving good on intermediate lines around the black pipe and north east corner. Diawl bachs, buzzers and daddies are worth a try on floaters in the afternoons.
There have been several good catches including Mr Umney and Mr Bonson from Chesterfield, who caught 23 fish fishing from a boat, including a nice rainbow of 5Ibs.
Thanks to all who took part in the Toft Newton Cup and to those anglers and Andrew at The Lincolnshire Fly Shop, who kindly donated some nice prizes. The weather was kind to us and the fishing was good.
Mick Angell from Scunthorpe was the winner who caught his six-fish limit within the first hour, which secured a healthy time bonus and a winning combined weight of 13Ib 9oz. Dave Holroyd took second with 12Ib 14oz and Andy Clark from Scunthorpe was third with six for 12Ib 4oz.
Other prize winners included Mr Frakes, Mr Todd, Pete Cowan and John Tattersfield.
The best fish was a nice 5Ib 4oz rainbow caught by Rod Leonard who picked up a bottle of sloe gin and a flyline.

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Anglers out in force for charity

A GENUINE show of generosity encapsulated the spirit of the local angling scene at this year’s Guardian Angling Charity Match at Lodge Farm on Sunday.
Competition winner Tommy Davenport, 15, one of the highest profile juniors in Worksop, donated a healthy chunk of his prize money to the Bassetlaw Breast Cancer charity, which recouped £425 from the day’s proceedings.
A hard frost greeted the competitors but the sun soon took hold and a glorious Autumn day saw 38 anglers getting to grips with the field pond.
Despite the cold conditions, there was an air of expectancy from all the participants and although the fishing was admittedly hard, particularly at the bottom end of the lake, there were decent weights returned with young Tommy rising to the occasion for a clear win.
The event went without a hitch due to the efforts and organisation of co-sponsor Geoff Mawby of Gateford Angling and the team at Lodge Farm, with particular thanks going to George and Bleak for all their efforts, and fishery owner Bill for donating all the pegging money to the charity.
After the match itself, the raffle draw was supervised by charity co-ordinator Sally Richardson who generously stayed on to present the winners with their prizes.
The whole proceedings made a grand total of £425 and all the anglers were genuinely touched by Tommy’s donatation to this worthy cause.
Thanks must also go to everyone who competed and the generous donations of raffle prizes from Linda Davenport, Pam Johnson, Gateford Angling, Michael and Kim of Snak Attak, David Grant of TBF and Ian Davenport.
Results: 1st Tommy Davenport 23lb 11oz peg two pole and pellet; 2nd Tarl Bailey 21lb 12oz peg 33; 3rd Mark Jefferies 20lb 6oz peg 35.