Huge albino catfish caught from River Ebro
A CARP fishing trip on the river Ebro threw up a big surprise for fishery manager David Coleman when he struck into this huge albino catfish.
Weighing in at 195lb the fish took over two hours to be hauled aboard the boat from which he was fishing from.
Using light carp gear on a 3.25lb test curve rod it was a boilie hookbait on a size 6 hook which fooled the fish unexpectedly much to the delight of Coleman:
“We must have ended up a mile or so downstream from where I first hooked the beast and we struggled to get it in the boat once it had tired. It was so big it nearly snapped our rods when we finally hauled it aboard the boat,” he said.
The fish capped off a fine trip for the Esthwaite Water manager who also caught carp to 47lb.
UK's biggest catfish landed
Three days of inaction were soon forgotten for James Jones when he netted this 144lb catfish - thought to be the largest example of the species ever landed in the UK.
The Essex rod was fishing on the Predator Lake at his local Oak Lake Fisheries and didn’t receive a single bite until the dying stages of his trip, when the huge cat powered off with his double Mainline Activ8 18mm boilie hookbait. An intense two-hour battle followed before the giant finally surfaced ready for netting.
“I knew the water was home to some big catfish but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to land a new British best,” explained James, who used 20lb mainline, a 35lb Kryston Quicksilver hooklink and a size 2 Nash Fang hook.
76lb catfish taken on 8lb line
Tony Sterry endured an hour-long battle with this 76lb catfish after hooking it while floatfishing luncheon meat for carp at Darenth Lakes in Kent.
The Dartford-based rod latched into the monster on his last cast of the day, having already caught an array of different, much smaller species on his session, where he was using just 8lb line and a size 8 hook.
“When it first surfaced I shouted to one of the locals to help me net it as I knew I had no chance on my own! I’d never caught a catfish before and I doubt I’ll break this personal best for a while,” he said.
Uncaught monster catfish landed
A previously ‘uncaught monster’ which has been smashing up anglers at Pea Lane Fishery for years has finally been landed by venue regular Jon Boswell at a huge weight of 110lb.
Amazingly, the 44-year-old Essex-based warehouse worker managed to get the specimen predator to the bank using just a size 10 hook attached to a 10lb hooklink on to which he had mounted a 10mm pellet intended for the carp.
“I was about so start packing away so I catapulted out a few pellets and then fished my hookbait 5ft below the surface under a large float,” Jon said. “Almost straight away the float buried and I thought I’d hooked a large carp. We didn’t actually see the fish for over an hour, but when it finally broke the surface we knew it was one of the four big cats which reside in the lake. The last one to be caught was four years ago and weighed 76lb. The fish had around 10 hooks in its mouth so it’s obviously snapped a few anglers’ rigs recently.”
