57lb cat from Yateley.

[Cooperman]

Heard a little rumour over the weekend, a catfish of 57lb was meant to be caught from Yateley Match Lake, anybody else heard anything about this?? There should be 2 others of similar weight to this one, but they do seem to be too big to get in on standard carp gear.

[maximus]

That's some fish mate! If it did come out i bet the geeza is well happy.
I would imagine you could get a cat in that big on carp gear. friend of mine has caught them to just under fifty in france on carp gear, it depends where you hook them,if it was deep hooked and the hooklink was rubbing against the pads then i would imagine you would probably loose it due to the hooklink cutting, but hooked in the corner of the mouth etc and i'm sure you would land them.
.

[Cooperman]

It's not where you hook the fish in it's mouth that is the problem, the Match lake is very snaggy, and the cats love the overhanging trees on the 3 islands, they just snap you up before you realise what has happened.

[maximus]

Time to get out the beasty catfishing gear methinks.

[fatboy]

Poor pussy cat (taken from the Telegraph website......)

Hunt for monster catfish
(Filed: 26/07/2001)


A FISHING expedition to catch a 5ft catfish at large in a British river is being mounted today by Environment Agency officers.


Wels Catfish: can grow up to 300lb
The Wels Catfish was landed by a 15-year-old schoolboy who returned it to the River Darent at Eynsford, Kent. Anglers have nicknamed the fish Darren.

The species is usually found in warmer parts of Europe where they can grow up to 300lb and have been known to attack humans and dogs.

Adrian Saunders, of the agency's Kent Fisheries Team, said yesterday: "It is a very ugly fish with a huge, bulbous head and a wide slash of a mouth lined with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.

"They are very strong and put up a huge fight. It is likely this has been put into the river illegally for someone's angling fun. But it can be a threat to the environment, making a big impact on local fish stocks.

"We are seriously concerned that there are other catfish in the Darent catchment area and if they breed it would be disastrous.

"We are going out in force to catch it."

LIKE JAWS ALL OVER AGAIN /images/forum/icons/smile.gif