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Etang de Cats Ian Wakeford All summer I had been blanking at Maxey. I was desperate to remember what a catfish looked like. It was time to head for France, to Etang De Rouge for some confidence boosting. This was the third time that I have visited Etang De Rouge, and I was determined not only to increase the size of catfish that I have caught here, but also the number. Last year the weather was cool and rainy and only small roach livebaits could be caught. I believed that if I could only get some better baits, bigger cats would follow. The weather forecast was hot and sultry so confidence was high as we crossed on the ferry. After a quick trip to the Hypermarket en route to buy bread, cheese, wine and a token apple (keeps the scurvy at bay), we arrived at the lake at 9pm on Friday night. Etang de Rouge is very busy in the summer and anglers already took all the deep-water swims for the following week. Against my better judgement we had to settle for a shallow water swim, which seemed to be devoid of carp and cats and had only 1oz roach to keep us company. After catching some small roach, I put out 3 cat rods on my kinder egg rigs. This is basically a popped up livebait leger rig, but instead of a polyball I use a kinder egg case, with a few split shots inside. As a cat approaches I find that the livebait gets very excited and hence the kinder egg starts to rattle like crazy. I reckon it gives me an edge. A cat just can’t make it’s mind up whether it wants to cruise around and spook the baits, or eat them. I think the rattle just might help them make up their mind. On Saturday afternoon I had a short run on a 2oz roach. After 30 minutes I decided that the cat was not coming back. I wound the bait in to check it had not been fatally wounded and to my surprise the livebait had acquired a little extra weight. The smallest catfish I have ever seen caught had taken a 2oz roach on a pair of 2/0 hooks! It weighed just one pound. It had struck the roach and hooked itself up on the rig, but did not have the power to spin the spool, so it just sat there.
As dusk fell I caught my first decent bait, a 12oz skimmer. This was immediately given a guided tour of the lake attached to the back of the bait boat. Within minutes, the skimmer was tail-walking all over the place. A cat was trying to make a meal of it. The skimmer was having none of it and was too frisky by half for the cat, which soon gave up. Things went quiet and sleep overcame me. A friend of mine who wanted to catch his first cat joined me on this journey. He was fishing 3 carp rods and had a token cat rod out (Yes we all know what’s coming!). At 1am his cat rod's alarm screams and after a 20-minute tussle he puts a 24lb cat on the bank. He was thrilled. One hour later the same thing happens. This time, a 30 minute tussle and a 45lb cat, he was now thrilled to the power of 10. This fish is about as good as it gets at Etang de Rouge and he’d had a 40 at his first try. Sunday was quiet all day. The sun beat down relentlessly and I tried to concentrate on catching decent livebaits. Other people had crucians and tench so why was I destined to keep catching 1oz roach? Monday came and one of the deep-water swims was now free, as a French angler had cleared off. I thought I’d give it one more night and if things did not pick up, I was off to the dam wall. Matt could not catch any carp either, but fish were crashing around in the lilies in the shallow reserve end. He wanted to move too. I had one run Monday night, and had a cat of 26½ lb, this fish managed to cross the line of another angler. We both played it for a bit until he gave up and let me land the fish. Tuesday was move day. Livebaits were now getting bigger and better, as I’d switched to corn from maggots and was now fishing off the dam wall for livebaits. Darkness fell and I was feeling confident. It was a perfect calm night with a sliver of a moon, very dark, very still, and everyone else was fishing for carp. The line started to pour off a reel. One of my newly acquired 12oz skimmers had been taken. During the fight I could tell this was a very big fish, as least as big as a 46lber I had had the year before. Sure enough, it was 47½lb, a very big fish for this lake, and very fat, stuffed with roach. I was stringing up this fish to a tree when my second rod sprung into life. Another really big fish, but I could not get it into the net as it was about 2 feet too long! I waded in and lifted it’s tail into the net with my foot. When I tried to lift the net onto the unhooking mat, this fish was bigger still and was clearly into sack of spuds territory as it bottomed my 50lb scales. I strung the fish up and vowed to borrow some bigger scales in the morning. After a bit of a sleep, at 4am, another run, again another big fish, but this time the scales coped at 37 ½ lbs. This was the best cat night session I had ever had, 3 fish, a 30, 40 and 50lber. In the morning I went and borrowed some 56lb scales, I wound the scales back 2lb for the weigh sling and tried again. The scales went a pound past their 56lb limit and stuck. Clearly this fish weighed 57lb, maybe a bit more and it had been on a stringer all night. I am in no doubt that it would have weighed about 60lb at capture, as they tend to loose a bit of weight over night. But, c’est la vie. This fish had a peculiar whisker, that branched into four, which was particularly unusual. I was also informed that the previous lake record was 56lb, so now this fish was the record holder.
Wednesday night was less productive, a smaller fish of 21½ lb and a short fat fish of 45 ¾ lbs. In the UK a fish of the same length would probably have weighed only 30lb. The weather was now becoming windy and a bit cooler and the carp were beginning to feed hard. I saw three 29lb carp caught that day and I played a very large carp for 2 ¾ hours on my float rod before my size 18 hook pulled out. By Thursday the lake was really quite choppy, but I managed one more fish of 48lb. This was a very long, (as long as the 57lber) mean looking cat, with no gut to speak off. Infact, it was so mean and so hungry that it took two livebaits within ten seconds. Before I could hit the first rod, the second rod had developed a run too. At first I thought that the fish had crossed my second line, but when I got the cat in, sure enough, both sets of hooks and two 12oz skimmer bream were in it’s mouth!
The lean, mean 48lber In reflection this had been a very enjoyable trip. The good thing about Etang de Rouge is that the facilities are civilized and you bank fish UK style. There is no need for uptide rods and a speedboat, carp gear (although 5lb rods help) and normal reels are all you need. The down side is that it is a very busy lake and it costs over a hundred pounds a week to fish it. Crossed lines are common place, as every one fishes at least 4 rods, some more, and everyone knows everyone else’s business. Still it is my annual confidence boost and in a week you can catch as many cats as most UK anglers will catch in a season or two. That’s why Etang de Rouge will always be to me "Etang de Cats"!. |
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1LB Catfish,
of little acorns.......
57lbs, a
new record.