Displaying items by tag: catfish

Thought other fellow catfish lovers might like to see the catfish I caught from a recent trip to Lac renard France. The trip was my 3rd time at this fishery which is a French owned venue of approx 16 acres stocked with carp and wells catfish.

I caught this cat during the early hours of the morning 3 days into my weeks fishing. The cat took a hook bait of 2 halibut dumbell boilies and 2 nash squid robin red 20mm boilies, fished over a scattered bed of mixed pellet. The cat was in superd condition and weighed in at 135lbs!!

I returned to bed one very happy lady!

More cats, carp and kittens followed to make a fantastic weeks fishing. Roll on next year when i will return to this superb venue.

Pamela Martin, October 2010

Croix Blanche - Carp Fishing Lakes in France. Two top class Carp fishing lakes of 6 & 8 acres set in the Picardy region, just north of Reims, only 150 miles from Calais that have been established since 1999. The lakes contain a really good head of carp averaging around 20lb with specimens to over 50lb as well as some very large catfish to over 100lb, the largest in 2009 topping the 96lb mark. Onsite facilities include hot showers and English toilets. There is also a mobile home that is available for optional hire.
	Address: Etangs de la Croix Blanche, 22 rue Principale 02820 Berrieux, France
	Species: carp, catfish
	Tel: 0033 962 20 56 44     Mobile: 0033 670 90 04 33
	Prices: call fishery for latest prices
	Website: www.croixblanchelakes.com

Like just about every fisherman in the world it all starts as a boy, Having lived in Nottingham i was never short of a river or lake to fish, and of course what to fish for, carp, pike, bream, roach etc. So on moving to france 10 years ago i was in heaven, the unspoilt, none over fished rivers, the well stocked lakes and the beautiful surroundings and nature to take in whilst waiting for the bite.

I started Carp fishing as i already had the equipment, my fishing trips were fruitful with A1 carp all double figures and unsuspecting! Having met my now fishing buddy i was converted by my first night CATFISHING expedition, it was amazing, these guys are monsters, with 16 catfish in one night, spending three nights by the river the catches kept coming, from 30lb up to 96lb, and all in between, its thrilling work and when they take the bait you had better be ready! landing these fish is an adrenaline rush, and the whole experience is something that every fisherman should try.

This is why i decided to set up as a guide, to share this experience with others.

The area is the Poitou Charente, flights from lots of UK airports by Ryan Air to either Limoges or Angouleme airports here in France. We make it easy for you as you only need hand luggage, we pick you up and take you direct to the river bank or lake as we also cater for course and/or carp fishing.

All equipment is provided for the duration of your stay as well as breakfast and evening meals.

To book or if you require any further information please contact us at info@catmanfishing.com if you would like to see pictures visit our gallery on www.catfishingfrance.com

Come and share the experience, the adventure continues!!!

By Marc Gough

Part One

A year ago two fishermen & I embarked on a quest into the unknown! Our mission, to winkle a few large carp & some of the resident Cats out of Manor Farm fisheries in Headcorn, Kent.

With very little knowledge of the complex consisting of a match lake with a few carp up to the 20lb mark, a specimen carp lake with carp to the low thirties & specimen carp/catfish Lake with fish up to 40lb we unloaded two cars & one trailer crammed full of tackle & bait.

Day One

After several walks around the Carp/Catfish Lake I decided upon a narrow swim adjacent to the island. With only about 40 metres casting distance to the island accurate baiting was easy for the three rods. The island was fringed with overhanging trees, a scattering of duckweed & reed beds, sexy & carpy or what?

Down to my right I had a lovely looking overhanging willow tree & with the marker rod I found the depth dropped considerable, a likely place to find a cat!

Wheel barrowing a week loads of tackle, bait, food, clothes & of course beer up to the swim in sunny midsummer conditions was torture, I really struggled to replace the loss of liquid in my body with lager quick enough! Not only being a fully fledged tackle tart, any excuse getting my kit off & strip down to shorts is a must!

Three hopefully areas were explored & plotted with the marker rod, an extra area was selected just in case.

Marc Tip: I like to have an alternative fishing spot primed to drop a bait onto just in case one of the other spots fails to produce or just dries up.

I decided on different approaches to each fishing spot, one would just have a pva stocking of goodies attached to the hook link, the second spot would have spodded particles, pellets & boilies over it, forming a dining table of about 2 metres square, the third of which I was dropping under the willow tree was dedicated to Mr Catfish. A bucket consisting of stinking pellets, mixed fishy boilies, tins of tuna, lambs liver & a generous amount of fish oil was mixed into balls around the size of a tennis ball; six were deposited loosely around the willow tree. In the heat of the sun, sweat of my labours & lager influenced state I was in, the smell from the bucket was unreal, nearly chuck up city.

I decided to rest the swim to enable me to get the bivvy up, sleeping quarters sorted & a general tidy up of the tackle around the swim. Bearing in mind I arrived at my chosen swim at eleven am & by 4pm not a baited rig had touched the water yet! I believe quiet, careful preparation is vital in any type of fishing you do, whether it be for a day, 24 hours or a week, a stealthy approach pays off every time!

A quick natter & lager with my companions, of whom were only fishing days during the week’s trip & I was ready for the first cast. Lines clipped to the required markers, baits in place, lines left slack to enable sinking, bobbins attached I was sorted as the sun set slowly over the island trees & stunning Kent countryside.

Life really doesn’t get much better than this?

Lager & cigarette in hand, listening to the birds sing, occasional fish flop out of the water & a very unusual noise? Unusual wasn’t strictly true, I recognised it as a frogs call but it was so loud, so near & very repetitive! Curiosity got the better of me & I just had to investigate more! I couldn’t see, locate a frog of any description around the bank side within the swim? The occasional rustle in nearby reeds & grass but that was it, not a Kermit in sight? I was starting to wonder if my ears were playing tricks on me or one of my colleagues was having a joke.

After a hot, exhausting, rare summers day in southern England I decided to hit the sack as the last rays of sunlight burnt away. Sleep wasn’t exactly easy with a good dose of sunburn, over tiredness & Kermit’s chorus echoing out!

I am not sure if my surroundings went totally quiet or I passed out? Probably the later because the next thing I remember was the delkim screaming at me, the middle rod was lurching to my left as a fish sped off down the lake, kiting hard to gain more line towards the island snags. My 3 ½ tc rod soon had the angry fish subdued & looking sorry for its self in the bottom of the landing net. Not a massive carp but 15lb of hard fighting common carp was very welcomed.

A few pictures later, rod back in position & little trickle of loose feed over the bait I was all set again.

Time for a beer, lager at just gone mid night?

Yeah too right, im on holiday, celebrating my first fish from an unknown venue, do I need to say more?

An hour quickly passed as a sat on my spod bucket taking in the atmosphere, savouring the memory of my first carp from Manor, hoping for many more during my weeks stay.

Two fifteen am & the right hand rod nestled under the willow is off, talk about clutch stripping, line ripping; what ever was on the end wasn’t happy. Lifting the rod & engaging the bait runner I really didn’t know what to expect? The rod hooped over, line still poured from spool, this had to be my first catfish?

Ten minutes in & I am still not making much head way with this fish! As you maybe aware I have successfully landed some very respectable carp from France & here in the UK but none have compared to this! I am really concerned about tackle, from the rods, reels right down to hook! The 18lb bs fluorocarbon main line is absolutely singing through the early morning breeze, rod butt resting upon my thigh to take some of the strain from my aching forearm & shoulder when suddenly I have won! The fish has giving up after some twenty five minutes & ready for the waiting landing net, this is when the fun really started!

I have never caught a cat fish in my career so this was all new to me & in total darkness. With the cats head up against the spreader block the headlight torch picked out two foot of tail overhanging the draw string, “Dam, that isn’t going in there” echoed across the night sky. Plan B? & it had to be a quick plan too! With eighty percent of the fish in the net, raise the net & slacken off at the same time hoping the fish will slide in, went thru my head?

“Woohoo, I love it when a plan comes together”

At this point proceedings became a bit blurred! I remember calling my colleagues on the walkie & saying “Bob I have got one, its massive, what do I do with it next”? I don’t remember if Bob & Gary came to assist or not?

I do remember lifting four & half foot of fish on to the mat, looking at it in amazement, nervously extracting the hook from it’s a massive mouth, sliding its bulky length into the weigh sling expecting thirty pounds plus as the scales swung round to a mere eighteen pounds, totally amazed again, I checked & rechecked the scales! Eighteen pound eight ounces from two different sets of scales. Self portrait photographs safely taken & my first catfish disappeared back into the depths of Manor Farm fisheries.

Marc Tip: Cat fish will test your tackle to the utter most limits & beyond, so be prepared!

Re-positioning the rod as quickly as possible & a few unhealthy scoops of the delightful ground bait dropped under the bush I was back in the doss bag gagging for some decent shut eye.

Day Two

After a restless but fruitful first night I began to unload Bob’s gear from the trailer behind me, gentle placing his equipment in his desired swim I noticed a row or should I say large stream of bubbles travelling up the lake, followed by another & another. These aint no carp feeding patterns unless they are huge! I thought to myself.

I watched the activity for an hour or two noting the positions, times, weather & temperature conditions. When all had ceased out with the marker rod to have a feel around! What ever the culprits were (Catfish) seem to be following a small channel that ran directly thru the middle of my swim down to the deep end of the lake, what a find.

Depths carefully taken & noted I decided upon a plan of attack! Of which I would employ late afternoon.

Marc Tip: I had over looked this channel when mapping the swim out yesterday; despite it only being a metre wide, six to eight inches deeper I had missed it! This is why it’s vital when using the marker to log, note everything from where the lead & float lands right up to the margin. An hour or so later Bob & Gary joined me; excitedly I began

to narrate my catfish battle with them, accompanied by photographs. Neither Bob nor Gary could believe the length of this fish.

After a brew, few fags the guys started fishing & the lake started filling up rapidly with day ticket anglers, great time to reel in, wonder down to the wash room for spruce up.

Bearing in mind I had only been gone thirty to forty five minutes, the lake was packed, really packed, non fishing swims now had anglers fighting to wet a line, my margin rod was now unusable as an angler had set up on my door step. With this much activity I opted to only fish with two rods, so a hopeful bait was cast to the channel I had been watching earlier. My new neighbour watched shaking his head & smiling as I let the line sink & drop some spod mix over the top.

Bob wondered up the bank around ten o’clock, “Busy init Bro”? I could only reply with a “Hhhhmmmm”.

We sat there chatting tactics, bait placements etc when one of my rods burst into life, a short tussle later & a carp of around 12lb was safely in the net. This activity continued right up until late afternoon, literally loads of carp around the ten pound stamp were coming out, I don’t think anyone failed to catch! I started to prepare for the coming nights fishing as the day anglers started to pack up & disappear leaving just Bob, Gary & myself to enjoy the lakes beauty once again.

With the sun setting, birds settling for the night, Bob & Gary safely back at their apartment, leaving myself & one other angler on the lake (Nathan). Things had returned back to tranquillity of the night past.

Before setting the rods for the night, I took a wonder around the lake via the toilets. I paused for a good half hour chatting to Nathan, picking his brains for any information, tactics he could give about the lakes & their inhabitants? Safely back to my bivvy, settled for the night & thought it was a good idea to catch a few hours sleep hoping for some action during the night. As I dosed I wondered if I was to be woken by a catfish or a really lumpy carp in the early hours. I still had my plan of attack at daylight! Presuming the culprits that travelled up the channel would return tomorrow?

All these things bounced around within my head as I listened to the recently started rain fall on top of the bivvy.

Marc Tip: It is always a good idea to politely ask other anglers for any information, background knowledge they know of the venue.

Day Three

The night passed uneventful but come first light the bubbles started at the far end of the channel, I quickly repositioned two rods, one baited for carp the other baited with four 25mm halibut pellets for cats. I dropped half a dozen spods of the smelly bucket mixture around the pellets & patiently watched as the bubbles came closer & closer.

To my amazement it was the carp rod that ripped off first but it was no carp pulling my arm from its socket, a cat had picked up a single 14mm KG1 boilie & was now tearing down the lake at a ridiculous speed! Being as cautious as I could I played & wore out the 16lb cat on a size 8 korda hook attached to 12lb braided hook link.

After photographing, weighing & returning the fish I carefully inspected the hook link, as I expected it was shredded with at least half of its fibres torn in half! Marc Tip: After many years of fishing I always replace the hook & hook link after every fish with the exception if I am pasty bashing.

Before I could the rod back in position the halibut pellet rod was lurching angrily to the right, spool spilling off line as another cat sped off down the lake, my arm hadn’t recovered from the last battle & I was into another straight away!

“Jeez, these fish can fight” I thought to myself, its unbelievable how they fight! This cat again tipped the scales round to a healthy 16lb; one thing I did notice was just how much the fish differ between each other! Every catfish’s skin had a totally individual mottled pattern upon it. Has to be the perfect camouflage? By the time Bob & Gary had turned up for their daily fish I had banked three cats within around an hour, with a fantastic 22lb being the biggest. With this sort of action & excitement at 6am in the morning I was enjoying a can of lager, mug of black coffee & bacon frying in the bivvies porch. “Life, what a life” I muttered to myself!

I had all most one hundred percent decided to move lakes today but I was now in two minds after my recent successes. Weighing the options up I decided upon a good look around the specimen carp lake as no real big carp were showing on the lake I was fishing.

The specimen carp lake only being around 3 acres had some lovely features, over hanging trees, marginal shelves & a gravel bar stretching across one very secluded swim. I watched & watched looking for the slightest sign of a carp when I was rewarded with some bull rushes twitching to & fro several times, as I got closer a huge common carp rolled in front of the reeds followed by a mirror of equal proportions. I all most ran back to my current swim! Excited about what I had seen & the prospect of hooking into one of the beasts I had seen earlier.

As quiet as possible I set up the three rods, carefully thinking what sort of bait, loose feed to introduce into the new swim? With activity still constant around the reed stems I gentle lowered 2 grains of glugged natural maize popped up with the plastic version as close as I dare to the reeds. Before I could get the line sunk, rod onto the delkim I was receiving liners, things looked really promising as I crouched close to the rod.

I was in two minds whether or not to bait the area, would this spook the carp off, make them search for food?

I decided to give it thirty minutes before taking any actions & went about setting up, casting out the other 2 rods. One was cast to a likely patrol route along side another reed bed, the other just off a gravel patch I had found on the first cast near to the point of the swim. I constantly watched the other rod as the line picked up & then dropped down again; it had to go soon as clouds of debris rose to the surface just inches from where I had lowered my hook bait.

Marc Tip: When carp are this active I prefer to fish slackish lines as possible & do not get the marker rod out!

My wait was over as the delkim bleeped a few times & the fish kited fast to my right into open water, I was on the rod in a flash, feeling the steady, heavy plod of a sizable fish searching for haven. After a few hair raising moments of the line pinging across the carps dorsal fin & could now see the carp just beneath the surface. Safely netted & photographed the mirror carp certainly looked a mid twenty, the scales settled at 24lb 4oz, “Result” I thought to myself.

Bob soon joined me to take a look at this stunning fish & helped me celebrate with a can of lager in the afternoon sun.

Three days still to go, what else would Manor farm fisheries have in store for me?

Author: Marc Gough

RENOWNED BRITISH actor and passionate fisherman Robson Green experiences the adventure of a lifetime in the thrilling Extreme Fishing With Robson Green.

Robson Green (Reckless, Wire in the Blood), a keen fishing enthusiast for many years, has always thought you couldn’t beat a nice quiet day’s fishing, until he went on an extreme adventure – a globetrotting fish finding mission to some of the greatest fishing destinations in the world.

Originally screened on Channel Five, the hugely popular, exciting four part series follows Robson on his mission to discover the weird, the wonderful and the forbidden of the fishing world. This fascinating adventure will be released as a two disc DVD set on 6 April 2009, courtesy of Acorn Media to coincide with the TV transmission of series two on Channel Five.

His travels take him to Costa Rica, living with the Maleka tribe as they hunt the elusive piranha-like mahaca, to Louisiana in search of barracuda; on to South Africa to face the hammerhead shark; hunting giant catfish on the Ebro River and attempting to catch a 500Ib marlin in the Azores.

On boats, in canoes, up river and underwater, Robson chases some of the most elusive and terrifying fish on the planet. He learns new tricks, hears old stories, and eats pretty much everything he catches – like a true hunter-gatherer.

Robson doesn’t fish just for fun – he fishes to the extreme.

Title: Extreme Fishing With Robson Green
Release Date: 6 April 2009
Cat No: AV9727
Running Time: 175 mins approx
Cert: E
RRP: £24.99

For further information or any press materials please contact:
Debbie Murray at Aim Publicity on 020 8292 2818 or email debbie@aimpublicity.com

The Wels Catfish

Description
The Wels Catfish has a long, scaleless body like an eel, with a large head and mouth. The inside of the mouth has rows of 100s of tiny little velcro like teeth on the top and bottom of its jaw, these are used to hold its prey before passing it to the two sets of crushing pads at the back of the throat. It has six barbules, two long ones on the upper jaw for detecting its prey and four shorter ones on the lower jaw. It has a small almost pointless looking dorsal fin whilst the anal fin stretches backwards until it almost reaches the tail.

The colouration of the Wels can vary from fish to fish but normally they have dark eyes with a dark greeny black body with creamy yellowish sides creating a mottled effect. Albino looking catfish are sometimes found but are very rare, these have red eyes and a yellow/creamy colouration to its body.

How to catch a Wels Catfish
There are various methods to tempt the Catfish, one is to ledger deadbaits consisting of Roach, Rudd, Carp, Tench or eels. From the information i have found it is best to look for any likely feature that the Catfish would patrol like marginal shelves, deep holes, old stream beds and snaggy areas and place your bait here and wait.

Livebaits are another top favourite, fishing with the above fish baits but alive! The bait can be presented just below the surface using a dumbbell rig or if possible a weak link tied to the opposite bank. I have been told this method produces very violent takes, so make sure you are by the rods at all time!

Worms are a very underated bait and can be devastating if fished just off the bottom, only to be used at night though as every other fish in the lake will want to eat them during the day.

The most common bait to be used on most commercial fisheries at the moment is the Halibut pellet. The pellets come in various sizes and are best fished with a few large pellets on a hair rig over a bed of smaller pellets.

Location
Catfish like to hide away in dark quiet places until they are ready to feed, which is not very often. Look out for overhanging trees, weed beds, lilies and hollows under the bank, a bait placed near any of these areas is a good bet. Anglers do say that when a catfish is on the feed it will come to you and will not be a fussy eater either.

Wels Catfish uk record
62lb (28.123 kilo’s) 1997: R Garner from Withy Pool, Henlow, Bedfordshire.

Recommended Catfish Venue
Carpenwater, Clacton-On-Sea, Essex, England
Contact Phil on 01255 479918 or email to Carpenwater@btinternet.com

Source: www.welscatfish.co.uk

Many thanks to Phil at welscatfish.co.uk for kindly allowing UK Fisherman to use this article.

Pondwood Fisheries, Berkshire

Located in Berkshire, Pondwood Fisheries is the premier fishing facility for anglers of all categories with three coarse fishing waters, one of which dates back to medieval times and one which is in excess of 30 years old. In addition there is the Snake, a still water course dating back to medieval times which was opened for day tickets in 2002 after widening and extension.

Pondwood fisheries offer carp, roach, chub, perch, rudd and tench fishing as well as some of the best catfish fishing in the South of England.

Reader Review - Jason Barnes, Berkshire - July 2007

Just thought I would let you all know about a lake I go to called Pondwood Fishery. It is the only place I know about where you can guarantee to have an amazing day's fishing.

It has 2 lakes and a snake river. The first lake has an amazing amount of catfish and some big carp in it - it is the only catfish lake I know where you can guarantee to catch a cat in the day time. Some of the catfish I have caught (pictured below) are a 32lb 5oz fish and the other was 38lb 7oz. I have caught so many cats here it would take the whole site up to show you them all - like I said before, AMAZING !!

The second lake is great for the whole family. It has a lot of carp and anyone can catch in this one. I took my little boy fishing for the first time the other week and below is a picture of him with his first carp ... now I can’t keep him away from the place. So much for my peaceful weekend away from the kids ha ha !! But thats what kind of place Pondwood is - great family run lakes.

The last water at Pondwood is called the snake river which has carp, tench, roach, perch and pike. This is where I caught my personal best carp of 32lb floating bread of the top ... amazing !! I know it seems like I’m going on a bit but if you’ve been there you will feel the same way as I do. All this for a tenner a day ... can’t be beaten.

Uk Fisherman would love to hear from any other anglers who have good or bad experiences of Pondwood Fishery. We would especially like to hear from anyone connected with Pondwood Fishery who would like to comment on this review.
Paul @ UK Fisherman

Please note the views expressed on these review pages are not necessarily endorsed by UK Fisherman.

How to become the ‘luckiest fisherman on earth!’:

Source: Tim Richardson, author of Big Carp Bait Secrets

Have you ever wondered why one ‘lucky guy’ seems to catch the biggest fish again and again, while the majority of other fishermen just seem to get the average catches? Why is that?

Many of us would love to catch those big catfish, carp, bass, trout etc, every time we go fishing. It may just be that the guy is a genius angler, but real fishing success is often simply about using bait that is more effective than most other anglers baits at getting round fishes natural fears and resistance to eating it!...

But how can we achieve this? Well here’s a few of some of the best most proven methods of increasing your catches, especially for carp and catfish, but can be applied very effectively to many other species:

1. Try taking a look at the most popular baits where you fish and eliminate any similarity your homemade bait has with them. This especially applies to your own unique fishing bait recipe or formulas. This removes the fishes ‘danger reference points’. This gives your bait a massive ‘edge’ because the fish will not associate your bait with danger, anything like as much as with the baits everyone else are using - afterall , the whole point of a bait is simply to fool the fish into taking a hook into it’s mouth!

2. Make your bait different sizes, odd shapes, density, colors, flavors, with different attractors and additives, the more different to the usual bait the fish experience, the more effective your bait will be potentially be. Making your own bait puts the odds back in your favor and the power back into your hands - literally!

3. Absolutely pack your baits with “powerful ‘free amino acids’ (the type bodybuilders use as a liquid protein food supplement.) Even if you’re making a proprietary bait using a ‘commercial base mix’ that anyone can purchase, this will really set your bait apart and make it preferable to fish!

4. Pack bait with minerals, vitamins and trace elements - get a health tonic supplement from your local drug store. Very few people realize that these are in fact amazing attractors in their own right! An astounding edge is to massively increase the attractiveness and soluble nutritional message leaking from your bait, by soaking your hook bait in a mixture if fresh liquidized sweet corn, molasses and liquid protein food (so-called ‘free amino acids.)

5. It has been proven that when tested carp were provided with a number of complete foods providing all their nutritional requirements, preferred the food that had been sweetened. Eg, try sweetening honey and molasses , fruit sugar (fructose), or saccharin.

6. Add Sea salt to your bait - this is one of the most proven and unbelievable fish feeding triggers, and a great nutritional taste enhancer full of minerals. Nearly every animal and fish cannot live without salt!

7. For many fish including catfish and carp, pack your bait with fresh good quality digestible protein - it doesn’t need to be a large proportion, no more than a third of your bait. Ingredients such as trout pellet powder, meat and poultry meals, blood meal, fish meals and shellfish meals and liver powder are great. Add energy rich carbohydrates to provide balanced nutrition and binding. For example, soya flour, semolina, or even ordinary white or brown wheat flour. For carp try adding some wheat germ it has excellent properties!

8. Add a small amount of oil to your bait for a balanced nutritional value. For catfish this could be you favorite fish oil. For carp the best is probably pure cold pressed hemp oil -it’s natures ‘super food’ and is one of the richest and most healthy and nutritional oils known to man and fish!

9. Give your bait some protein that’s been ‘predigested’ or ‘hydrolyzed.’ This is easily achieved by adding a small amount of proprietary powder, like predigested liver, fish meal or shellfish extracts to your bait; available from bait companies all across the worldwide web. This method is incredibly effective, improving the fish attractive ‘amino acid profile of your bait. Fish are extremely efficient at detecting and utilizing amino acids, and you may well find that with the higher the rate of inclusion of these highly fish digestible ingredients, your catches and numbers of bigger fish soar too!

10. Allow your bait to ‘cure’ for 3-4 days prior to use; this allows your bait to start to ferment and lets bacterial enzymes release alcohols, sugars and increase the level of predigested proteins in your bait; all amazingly extremely good fish feeding triggers and attractors. See the difference this makes to your catches!

11. If you use ‘boilies’ rather than paste or dough baits, try chopping edges off your hook baits as if other fish have been ‘playing with your bait and taking small chunks out of it; this can really make the bigger fish ‘feel’ safer when they sample your hook baits - try piecing your hook baits right through to release the maximum attraction even from the center of your bait; it really works!

12. Try wrapping your bait and your hook (except the point) in a paste or dough. Try a mixture of ordinary flour, marmite, parmesan cheese, garlic granules, curry spices, sea salt, eggs and liquid amino acids - this mixture is pure ‘dynamite’ and really makes ‘em bite!

13. One of the most successful paste / dough baits of recent times is made from a mixture of fish meal and a couple of predigested ingredients like predigested fish meals, or predigested shellfish extracts. Try binding them together with just ordinary flour and loads of liquid amino acids / protein food supplement. ( But no eggs.) Experiment with different proportions to get your dough / pate to hold and last on your hook for different times. When you ‘bait up’ or ‘chum your swim with free baits like this, to attract the fish - hold on to your rod/s!!!

14. Add natural ingredients to your bait, for example, bird foods contain all kinds of fantastic foods fish love, like insects, seeds, grubs and worms. Many times, these encourage smaller fish to find your bait, and these can lead the bigger ones to your hook...

15. Add a ‘crunch factor’ to your bait - many fish have food detectors inside their gills, and allowing fish to experience eating your bait like it was natural food, eg, like shrimps or snails or mussels, is a great way to ‘turn them on’ and get more confident feeding and more bites!

16. If you use ‘boilies for carp catfish, etc there is a simple method of improving them: If you buy your baits frozen in a bag, then open them up and let them defrost and ‘warm up for 3-4 days in advance of fishing. This gives bacterial enzymes the time to start breaking down your baits and releasing very attractive alcohols, sugars and amino acids for example. It really works well for better catches and can even promote quicker bites!

Making and adapting your own and readymade shop - bought baits to make them different to the rest, and far more effective than normal is a science, and a very satisfying 'art'. When you have armed yourself with a range of great baits, the confidence you feel is awesome, and especially satisfying when you’ve ‘designed them and make them yourself!

I could show you many real life examples of how using edges like these and others, have resulted in fantastic big fish catches.

I love researching and writing about fishing bait because it is one of the fastest short-cuts to success! I am into bait in a big way, having even researched the subject with a PhD biochemist to reveal the reasons why and how baits really work to catch fish. I’ve found that a little bait knowledge can catch you more fish, but the more you know - the more consistent your catches can become - and the more big fish you catch!

The truly amazing thing is, ANY angler can achieve truly amazing catches with just enough of the right bait knowledge!.. Then other anglers will wonder what his ‘secret to success’ is...

Want to learn more about the "secrets" of caching big fish,
check out Tim's website at:
www.baitbigfish.com

Superb Carp and Catfish Fishing at Etang De La Boissonie

Dreaming of fishing for BIG carp with the sun on your face all year round. Turn your dreams to reality and pay a visit to rural France for some big carp action.

Ron Browning from Carp Anglers Dream sets the scene:

Set in the heart of the Limoisine region of France, dating back 100 years, Etang De La Boissonie is a totally secluded private lake. Being five acres in size and totally surrounded by acres of treelined meadow, it ensures that you are not overlooked by houses or roads.With its mainly gravel bottom and two natural water supplies feeding the lake, it makes the perfect habitat for big Carp and Cats.

In my 25 years of Carp fishing, I have seen too many lakes overcrowded, making fishing very difficult, so we have limited the maximum number of anglers to six. The lake opened in April 2004 and has seen a successful season. Bookings for 2006 already being taken so book early to avoid disappointment.

To compliment its original stock of between Two hundred and Two hundred and fifty Carp, we have added another ninety Carp with weights up to 30lbs. Fourteen catfish were also added up to 30 lbs

January 2005 saw an additional stock of carp introduced which consisted of 3 x 28.5 lbs, the rest were between 31 lbs up to 36 lbs +. Also added at this time were 6 Catfish between 41 lbs and 98lbs.

To make your stay with us more comfortable we have added an English shower and toilet block, with hot and cold water. We can now offer collections to and from Limoges Airport in our 11 seater mini bus, when booking Fly and survive.>

To read more about fishing at Etang De La Boissonie or to check availability and prices, visit Carp Anglers Dream's website at:

www.carpanglersdream.com