Catfish

For weeks we have carefully checked the water levels of the French rivers, which kept on rising from the end of January. It finally became 22 February when the water levels stagnated and we could organize our Catfish Trip.

The weather forecasts for the next days looked very promising, we were expecting an excellent catfish weekend. After quickly packing all the material, we drove down south.

To get a good overview of the interesting swims, we first only took the boat and 2 rods per person on our arrival. We found a deep channel of around 11 meters, where the depth sounder showed us underwater activity of catfish. About 50 meters from the spot, we fixed the boat so that we would not spook the fish.

Live- and Deadbait fishing as well as fishing with lures is forbidden in France until the month May. Because we did not want to risk a fine, we choose to fish with pellets, calamari and worms.

To get our bait at the desired spot we use a ‘trick’ with PVA braid. We attach the float stop at 10 meters depth, but fix the float at the main line with PVA braid at only 4 meters depth. We now put the bait and float overboard and let them drift to the hotspot. Here we prevent the float from floating any further and wait until the PVA braid is fully solved. The rig is now placed at the correct position.

Only 30 minutes after putting out the baits, the first bite occurs. A hard knock on the tip and short run indicated the bite. After a short fight we can land the first catfish of 1.27m.

The catfish who gather in this channel do not seam to like all this commotion. It remains quiet until the break of dawn. A fish hooks itself and directly swims into the hard current. After a long and intense fight we finally manage to land a beautiful catfish of 1.76m and 45kg. The catfish had such a fat belly, as if it swallowed a football in one piece. Never did I see such a fat fish.

When a hard storm came in the evening, we decided to fish the night from the bank and fish static with calamari, pellets and worms. Unfortunately it remained calm all night, the fish might have been spooked by the catch of our last fish.

In the morning we decided to look for new hotspots further down the river, from the boat we managed to catch another catfish of 1.62m.

We have had nearly all weather conditions you can possibly image during this weekend. Rain, hail and storm were our part... Because of the strict French regulations for the bait I was a bit sceptic about the trip at first. For a February trip with only 8ºC of water temperature I can only advise you one thing:

Do not forget to bring the worms!