The Cat fish Meet report

[Banana Steve]

Greenheart {Ian}, Twiddler {Claudia}, Mithrandir {Mike} and I all arrived at Todber at around 11am on the Friday. We were all looking forward to a great weekend. Neal was due to arrive later as was Chris and his wife Kim.

I found that Ian had already gone up to the lake and found himself a nice area at the bottom of the lake. When I spoke to him he informed me that there had been other anglers on the lake over the previous week, He explained that they had not faired that well. However, not disheartened Claudia, Mike and I choose our perspective swims for the weekend. I choose the first peg on the right hand side of the lake. Mike and Claudia said that it would be better if the fished the left side and leave a Swim between them selves for Neal.

After a couple of hours setting ourselves up in the hot weather we were all fishing.
As the evening started to draw in Ian went and got a Takeaway {Very nice as well}
And at around 6:30pm Neal arrived. At that point I received a call from Chris that he wouldn’t be with us until the following morning.
As the evening progressed and started to darken my hopes started to lift.

As the night came in and people decided to settle down for the evening things went very quiet. Then at 11:30pm my bite alarm screamed off, after fighting with my sleeping bag and finding my shoes, I got to the rod. I radio for help to land the fish and Ian kindly came round to help, Neal also came round to help. Mike and Claudia were at this point in the land of Nod. The fish gave good count for its self to weigh in at respectable 14 ½ lb.

With the photos took and the fish returned we returned to our bivvies. Later that night whilst I was fast a sleep I thought I head my alarm clock go off, I dreamt I turned the alarm off and went back to sleep. I found out when I awoke before the alarm clock was due to go off it was still set. As I emerged from my Bivvy I noticed that one off my bobbins was hanging loose and when I reeled in the bait was not were I had cast originally. Oh well what I dreamt was my alarm clock was actually my bite alarm, as in the famous words of Homer Simpson DOH.

As the day progressed the day became very hot and with no action during the whole day sprits were a little low. Chris arrived at 11am and set himself up on the first peg.
Neal was catching on the Lob worm but they were tiny carp the biggest around 2lb I think he had at least 7. As the evening drew in again we decided that takeaway was in order again. This then turned into a small social, for which we all enjoyed. As the evening started to turn into night we returned back to our Swims. Chris had spoken to Ian about Live baiting for the Cat fish for which showed him a supplied Chris with Rudd for which Ian caught earlier.{using his 3lb test curve rod as a whip}

During the night Chris’s Rudd had come off his baited rod, So Chris walked around to Ian’s swim to see if was possible for another Rudd, on looking into Ian’s Bivvy to see if Ian was awake a Large Toad that had settled in Ian’s Bivvy jumped straight at Chris and gave a shock of a life time.

At around 4am I was awoken by an alarm, the first thing I did was check my alarms, but the alarm was coming from Chris’s swim. I got out of my bed and went round to see if he had caught only to find that he had missed the run.

That was the only action for the second night. As the morning arrived sprits were still a little low, but as we all do we never say die, someone must have another good fish. It was Neal who hooked into something better than a small carp, but he lost the fish, with his braided hook length snapping.
At 12:00 it was Ian who hooked into the next screamer, whilst packing down his kit his rod screamed away, Ian struck into a good fish, after a good 5 minute battle, Ian announced that he had a Catfish on. 6lb 4ozs {Well-done Ian}





By 2pm we all had packed up and were all ready to go home. I had a good weekend, got burnt by the sun, caught a fish and had a really good laugh with Fantastic Company. Thanks Guys. Here’s looking forward to the next meet.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Brill read and cracking piccys next time hopefully I can cast a line

[Norfolkboy]

Well done guys, shame the fishing wasn't a little better, but bet you all had a great time anyway. Wish I could have made it.

[Twiddler]

Excellent report Steve and thank you again for organising the event.....shame about the lack of fish but at least the good weather and great company made up for it a bit.

And a well done to your carp and Ian's moggy

[Greenheart]

Great report & pics Steve & another great Forum meet. As usual the social side was excellent & it's always nice to meet new members. Fishing wise, things were really difficult, due mainly I think to the hot weather & having tried the traditional methods of night fishing for Catfish, I was well surprised to get one at noon, during the hottest part of the day & just as I was about to give up.... (There's a moral there somewhere) Definately something we shall have to organise again. Maybe we should try Revels Fishery near Dorchester next time, as i believe they have a good head of Moggie's in their waters. Oh, and if anyone would like to buy my specially trained guard Toad, to guard their bivvy, I'm open to offers....

[center]

[cuckoo]

Excellent report and pics steve ,
sounds like you all had a great time even though the moggies werent playing ball lol ,
well done to all ,

lee.

[Catfish Virgin (Still!)]

Despite the lack of (sizable) fish, I really enjoyed the weekend. My first experience of "Bivvy Fishing". Many, many thanks to Claudia and Mike for providing most of the required gear. More thanks to the rest of you for making it a memorable and very sociable (!) couple of days and nights.

Here's some of my photographic contributions:

TODBER AT SUNRISE:


PIT REELS ARE ARE ABSOLUTELY HUGE:


IT WAS ALL WORTHWHILE IN THE END:


THE REMNANTS OF A GOOD NIGHT IN (CLAUDIA'S PITCH):

[Twiddler]

And here a few more pics

My fishing partner


Who was cheeky enough to make my pitch his own


even caught him coming out of my bivvy......thats where all my chocci biscuit went



The 'Chav' and his catch lol


Who is a pretty boy


Another victim who fell for the lobworm
with us Neil and for reminding us that the good old fashion bait gets you further at times than all the modern ones.

\i hope you will join us again in one of our 'crazy' meets

[fishypaul]

well done all of you sounds a good weekend even though the cats wouldn't come out to play
love all the pics

[pingu]

[quote=Catfish Virgin (Still!);
THE REMNANTS OF A GOOD NIGHT IN (CLAUDIA'S PITCH):[/QUOTE]

nothing unusual there then

looked / sounded like a tough weekend there but a good laugh and target species caught well done all
still gutted i couldnt make it

dave