Prebaiting produces shock park lake catfish - Leigh Flood

“I spent a week prebaiting a swim on my local park lake ready for a night session after I’d finished work on the Friday.

“I put a rod out before setting up my bivvy, and cast a bright-yellow pop-up on to a little gravel spot just an underarm flick from the bank. Fifteen minutes later my clutch went into total meltdown – I could even hear it over the bite alarm!

“I was targeting carp, but it became clear that I was playing something in a different league altogether. Whatever I was attached to stripped 50 yards of line within seconds of me setting the hook.

“After half-an-hour of playing it the fish became lodged in a weedbed, but just as my mate arrived I finally started to gain some line.

“This giant ball of weed came slowly towards me and I feared I’d lost the fish, but then we saw this giant black shape behind it. My mate slipped the net under the weed and in among it was this monster catfish. We just looked at each other in disbelief!

“That’s why I love fishing – you never know what you’ll catch next.”

Leigh Flood with his shock 85lb park lake catfish