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Overcoming cunning cats

Paul Garner

The silure still has a very limited distribution in the UK, and with a burgeoning number of anglers discovering the immense power of these creatures, most cat waters are under intense pressure throughout the summer months. Cats might not be the brightest of fish, although they certainly rank alongside pike and barbel, but trying something a little different from the norm can pay dividends. I cut my teeth with the silure, fishing what must be the most pressured water in the country, Claydon park in Buckinghamshire. Claydon is the classic example of what a catfish water shouldn't be, small and shallow, with a tremendous amount of angler pressure and a strict night fishing ban. The fish in this water have received pressure from the top specialist anglers in the country for over twenty years. Is it any wonder that the fishing can be slow? More articles have been written about Claydon's residents than any other cat water in the country and it is certainly a good venue for the beginner to learn his or her trade. Given its small size, the limited fishing hours, and the communal atmosphere that pervades at Claydon, it is difficult to keep any edges to yourself for long and to be honest, most people are open about what they are doing, such is the atmosphere of the place. But, it is possible to do things a little different from the norm.

I first fished Claydon during the heatwave conditions of 1995. The lake was actually fishing surprisingly well at the time, for the simple reason that there was little in the way of prey fish available (the dreaded cormorants had been at work) and the high water temperature. The cats were feeding, they were visible for all to see, but still, most people were blanking. During that first visit we photographed a mid-twenty for a young lad, caught on a pair of tiny ledgered zander scooped from the margins. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to guess what bait we were using the next day! And what a first day it was, five runs, all to the two zander rods, both freshwater and sea deadbaits remained untouched. Gordy, my fishing partners, saved the best till last that day, the magnificent Brown one. It seemed we'd stumbled across a winning method right away! We made no secret of what bait we were using, the secret was how to catch them. Scooping along the margins with a landing net produced lots of tiny roach and bream and the occasional small carp but no zander. No, the trick was to be there at first light. Zander are highly photosensitive, and as the sun rose above the horizon, they would move offshore, out of netting range. So why were zander so successful, and yes, some days we caught far more than our share of the fish? I think it was a matter of offering these pressured fish something a little different from the norm. The zander we were using were about 5 inches in length and very fragile. The best method we found for mounting them was a short hair rig, threaded through the fishes lower jaw. Fished on the Bob Baldock rig, these baits would stay alive for several hours, covering the main lunch time feeding period.

As time wore on, it became apparent that even in such a small water as Claydon certain small areas, often no more than a couple of feet in diameter, would produce far more takes than elsewhere. Plumbing revealed no difference in depth but by using a bottom sampler made out of a film canister, it was possible to make out a slight difference in the make up of the lake bed. The hot spots tended to be the areas of very fine, almost liquid silt. On impact the leads would sink several inches into this silt, and it would take quite a pull to get the lead clear. Why exactly these areas were so good I don't know. If I was to hazard a guess, it might be that the soft silt is disturbed by the silure, giving the fish increased confidence and reducing the fishes ability to sense the rig.

Talking of coloured water brings me onto another ruse that we used on several occasions on this soft bottomed lake. One day, one of the local match anglers was fishing for bream a couple of swims up. After his initial groundbait bombardment, the resident bream shoal moved in and started to feed avidly. As the sun reached its zenith, an area of about 15 feet square was coloured where the bream had been ripping up the bottom. The matchman went on to hook (and lose) several catfish and also the anglers in the adjacent pegs caught fish from areas which we had previously reckoned to be pretty poor. For several weeks after that, both on Claydon and Tiddenfoot, we fished over groundbait but for some reason the bream shoal only returned on one occasion, but once again, the coloured water coincided with a bumper catch. Although this tactic is rather hit and miss, as you are not only reliant upon finding the catfish in a feeding mood but also the bream as well, there wasn't any detectable adverse effect to the introduction of groundbait on those days that the bream didn't arrive, so it was a case of nothing ventured nothing gained.

One aspect of many anglers approach to fishing Claydon was the very poor presentations that they were using. OK, we all know that silure fight harder than just about anything in freshwater but really, there is no need in England to fish we shark tackle! Although not particularly rig shy, like all fish a bit of subtlety goes a long way. For the most part I used size 4 Drennan Super specialist hooks and never lost a fish because of the small hooks. Most of the time we used some kind of hair rig, not to catch out the fish but to improve the chances of the hook penetrating properly. Hooklengths were made from the original 30lb BS spiderwire, which, once again, was more than adequate. A word of caution though, if you have no experience of braids always check the wet knot strength BEFORE going fishing, this could well save a big fish being lost. By the way, we found fears that these fine braids would cut the mouths of the fish to be unfounded, even when the fish was hooked well down (as often happens with livebaits in warm water when the fish are feeding strongly) no damage to the fish was observed.

One final point regarding rigs, for most of the time we were ledgering using standard paternoster rigs, incorporating a Robert's run ring. By using a lead link of about a foot and lifting the lead clear of the soft bottom, resulted in the rig being fairly free running and giving the least resistance to a taking fish. Whether resistance is actually a problem when fishing livebaits I now doubt, but at the time it seemed important. For this rig to work efficiently, even at short range, required a lead of atleast 1.5 oz. When fishing at longer range I wouldn't hesitate increasing the weight upto 3 oz. This gives a solid anchoring point, allowing the main line to be tightened up, increasing the sensitivity of the rig and, paradoxically, reducing resistance as the lead will stay put, rather than drag.

For the most part, lively baits, such as small carp, were fished on a hooklength of approximately the same length as the water depth, normally about three feet in Claydon. During warm periods the silure become very active and will strike at a bait well off bottom. Keeping a bait work on a long hooklength with some buoyancy certainly increases the effectiveness of the presentation when the fish are actively hunting. For more sedate baits, such as zander, a shorter hooklength of about two feet was used and the buoyancy was reduced so that the bait was popped up a few inches off bottom. These delicate baits would perish within minutes when fighting a buoyant rig and the more subtle action of the fish close to the bottom appeared to be just as effective. It was much better to fish with a nice live bait than one that has been dead for several hours.

Since my time at Claydon and Tiddenfoot I have had the privilege of talking to some of Europe's top silure anglers, and have caught these wonderful fish on a variety of methods. In retrospect I would fish for English silure in a very different manner to those early days but the lessons learned during those first sessions are still valid and I hope that the findings we made fishing for these pressured fish might help you put a few extra fish on the bank in the future.