Thunder Hole

[Old Smoothound]

What a weekend it was.

I arrived at the lake on Saturday Evening and got the Tent pitched in the drizzle and rain…….

I cannot describe the Lake or give away the location for obvious reasons……but there was only 2 of us fishing….maybe it was something to do with a Gig called Live 8??? Who knows but the place was deserted and apart from some noisy Coots and the splash of the occasional water rat and small fish it was a pretty quiet place to be.

I decided to fish 2 rods specifically targeted at the Cats and Sturgeon with fishmeal paste on one and lamprey on the other with Halibut Pellets, Eel and fish dead bait being the switch baits. I was told by my pal to fish a swim that had ideal Catfish terrain and that also had an overhanging tree, part of which was in the water, the idea being to intercept the Catfish on their nightly patrol for prey fish.
I'm sure you all know the importance of finding drop off's and potential feeding spots by plumbing the depths and recording as much info as possible. P*ss poor planning = poor performance.

After 45 minutes or so of plumbing depths and assessing potential ambush points the rods were tackled up and with anticipation of a good nights fishing I baited up the swims with what I thought might be the type of baits they may find irresistible….Halibut Pellets! The idea being, to fish the "fishy" baits over the top. Terminal rigs were old style bolt rigs size 8 hooks with a 2oz lead as the anchor point. Main line was Grauvell Teklon Gold .22mm 6.2kg line and 2.75lb test curve Carp rods and Shimano Baitrunners.
No rod pods and buzzer bars for me, just my old slidy’s, keep it simple I thought.

I'm embarrassed to admit it but………….I had to stop fishing for a while and get some sleep, us old timers can't stay up all night like we used to!

To cut a very long story short, in all I had 5 runs 2 in the night and three early in the morning (between 5am and 10.00am). 2 were from small Pike!! One I never saw, it broke me on the first screaming 60 yard run…..but the other two I landed safely.

And here they are.......

26lb Catfish



12lb Sturgeon




The Catfish took 20 minutes to land keeping deep and shaking its head at every opportunity Just sheer dead weight and tremendous power. But the Sturgeon…..all I can say is I'm glad it wasn't a really big double……It fought like a Marlin….leaping and tail walking all over the place! That took about 10 minutes to land, the power of these fish has to experienced to be believed.

So mission accomplished and after a reasonably short journey home, I celebrated with a nice bottle of wine and a hot bath!

I'm not going top camp out all night for a fish again in the foreseable future.

[Norfolkboy]

WOW!

Well done Shaun, 2 cracking fish and obviously a cracking lake!

What baits was it they took in the end then mate?

[Old Smoothound]

The Catfish took Lamprey chunk about 4 inches long and the Sturgeon took 20mm Hallibut boilie.

The Old eel fish paste did not work, but I reckon the Hallibut pelletts did the trick in creating enough scent to bing them in.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Cracking fish mate you must be made up

[pingu]

Shaun that is just brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you deserved the wine , and hope got back scrubbed as well
awesome fish,
dave

[Rob M]

Outstanding fish Shaun!!! Cracking report too mate

Rob

[Old Smoothound]

Thanks fellas

[Pross]

Nice fishing Smoothy, don't think there'll be many more sturgeon caught for the species hunt, have you offered it to the Queen? Didn't even know we had lakes with sturgeon in this country!

[surface#iain#]

I am amazed thats also my misson for the summer holidays with my mate norfolkboy to catch a catfish and the sturgen



Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Omahayank]

Wow! great job, pix & fish!
We have 3 kinds sturgeon in the missouri river, but can only go for shovelnose (sturgeon), the others are endangered and can't be caught or harmed. Too much hassle for me.