Catfish Fishing, Roman Lake, Furnace Lakes Fishery

Catfishing 

Furnace Lakes Fishery, Slinfold, West Sussex, UK.

Roaman Lake At Furnance Lake Fishery

With spring in full blossom, and daffodils, hyacinths, and bluebells appearing, my attention has turned to revisiting my favourite Fishing complex, and target the mighty Wels Catfish, this is one of my most anticipated ventures of the year, catching PB's each time I go and potentially a chance of catching the fish of a life time surrounded by beautiful scenery and abundant wildlife, I had a week booked off work, and me and my brother Scott were going for a Sunday to Tuesday 40 hour session, the weather looked good as well, 10 mph with slight gusts of up to 18 mph and sunshine with no rain forecast, and temperatures during the day of 17 degrees Celsius dropping at night to 5 degrees Celsius. Nothing was going to stop us, not even the fact my bait wasn't delivered in time for me to take. making do with some old bait, I could always buy some more on site in the tackle shop if the need arose.

What Did They Ever Do For Us?

It always amazes me how much tackle we take, and with it all ready and waiting blocking my hallway, I thought "do we really need all this?" I took stock, and the fishing tackle and bait accounted for about 1/4 another 1/4 was food and drink, and 1/2 was a chair, sleeping bag, bed, bivey and table, I thought about leaving some of the non essentials behind but without the chair and table the pile of gear just didn't look any smaller, a futile attempt, so they went along anyways. Scott picked me up ahead of schedule as I phoned and cheekily demanded he come round early as the wait was killing me, I was like a hungry dog with a biscuit balanced on my nose, and I bet he was too. We arrived at Furnace and a new tackle shop/office had been built and we discovered new owners had taken over the business, the shop was a lot bigger and a handy burger stall was now on site. We paid our moneys, and decided to fish Roman lake, unfortunately the swims we were after were all taken, but we still had 4 options of swims to pick from allowing us to fish together, and in a blink of eye ourselves and our gear were ferried by an ATV with a trailer to our homes for the next few nights.

Ever Watchfull Even Whilst Making Rigs

We decided to toss a coin for which swim we had, I won, and I picked the centre swim, I knew the other swim was more likely to produce being in the corner but I have to admit I like space and thought with an empty swim to the left I could cover more water, and with the opposite bank empty though it was unlikely that someone would pick to fish there. I set up my 3 x 12' Greys Prodigy GT5 3lb test curves paired with 3 x Shimano Super Baitrunner Aero XTE-A 8000, one loaded with 16lb Fox Exocet main line for Carp and 2 loaded with Korda Subline 20lb for Catfish. I baited an area with 250grams of small 10mm boilees as I set up and fished a single 14mm boilees on a hair rig with a size 8 barbless hook, although I was there for Catfish, I couldn't resist using 1 rod for Carp as there are more than enough big carp that would smash my UK PB to make it worth a shot, I then fished a Catfish rod on the left and right one on the far bank and the other on the inside bank margins, both running legers baited with double 21mm Halibut pellets mounted on a 40lb Catlink hair rig with a size 1 Sakuma Chinu hook, with a large pva bag of mixed smaller pellets to give scent and offer a tidy little pile of bait around my hook bait just big enough to make it worth while for any enquiring Catfish.

Snotty And Snotty, That's All

It seemed an eternity till I was settled in my camp, The mountain of gear had been unpacked, built up and sorted into a well arranged and familiar set up, with only a few hours till dark, I sat down with exhaustion but confident that it would be worth it. I done a little walk around the lake, and discovered that most the Catfish that had been caught had been on Spam (pork luncheon meat), with the known biggest of 47lb, A last minute trip to the on site tackle shop to buy the last tin of Spam and a change of tactics as I replaced one of my pellet baits for a large cube of Spam. Apart from the occasional knocks of optimistic Bream trying to eat baits that were far too big for their mouths, although I did manage to hook one of 2lb 12oz, at least I was off the starting block. I have to admit by this point in the trip, I was having a run of bad luck and planning, My camera battery was dead, Scott had asked if I had scales, which I did, so he left his in the van, but then I realised that mine only weighed up to 33lb, I'd lost 2 rigs to the island with a few poor casts, and even managed to run out of Catlink, so was unable to make anymore rigs, and had none spare now, I'd left half the condiments and food still in the fridge, anything else? oh yes, the kilo of boilees I'd thrown out for the carp rod were all eaten up by swans as I must of been fishing in very shallow wate, should of used a marker rod and checked the depths!, and all this on top of about 15 geese, 2 swans, and about 10 mallards all ferociously fighting in my and Scott's swim over nesting grounds, seriously it was like WW3 had broken out, no chance of any shy fish hanging around.

Warmongering Geese On The Lookout

As the birds settled for the night so did we, after having a small BBQ of pork and beef kebabs with salad, pita breads and fiery ketchup, washed down with a few tins of beer, I tucked my self into bed as the temp was dropping fast and we both were feeling the cold. I was immediately woken by Scott, he had a run and was into a fish, and definitely a Catfish, as the fight continued I realised by the bend in the rod and the length of the runs that this was a big fish he had hooked, the fish went to ground for almost 20mins leaving Scott no choice but to keep the pressure on and wait till he decided to move, giving me time to ask a neighbour if I could borrow some scales, which he kindly did, by the time I got back the fish had decided to move and headed back the opposite way weaving his way along the inside margins, through trees and tangled with all my 3 rods, if I didn't have had back leads on, the fish would of just gone under them but that was how my day was going, the fish then buried itself in a large reed bed to the inside left of my swim, unknown to Scott I set about untangling the 3 lines and then started untangling his line from the trees between our swims, having done as much as I could, I rejoined him where it was another long wait.

Scotty's New UK PB Wels Catfish Weighing 66lb 2 oz

29lb Wels Catfish For Me

The fish had been in the reeds for 30mins, their was no way to move him, having to be patient again, the fish then decided to make his own way out, as soon as he was on the move, Scott was able to gain line and slowly teased the fish back into his swim, I saw a flash of the fish as it turned in the water and really thought its really not a big fish, I was very wrong, as I often am! this fish was long and as I attempted to land it with the net I realised just how big this monster was, our neighbour had made his way over to help out and being a experience Catfish angler chinned the fish for us, as he pulled it out the water on to the bank using the landing mat as a slide, I could hardly contain my excitement! Scott was ecstatic, the fish tipped the scales at 66lb 2oz, a new PB for him, and a really good achievement for his second time Catfish fishing, and hats off to him, he may of lacked experience before today, but learnt fast, he played the fish carefully when he could, was very patient when he needed to be and fully deserved this fish, the 1.5 hour fight had left Scott absolutely knackered, and understandably he didn't fish for the rest of the night. I recast my 3 rods, and by now if was freezing cold, literary freezing!, 5 degrees Celsius the weather forecast said!! more like -1!! my bivey was covered in frost, the net had frozen, and I was freezing! but I tucked my self into bed and fell into a deep sleep happily knowing that this trip had been totally worth it already.

A Beutifal Dawn To Be Awoken To

I wasn't awoken till my Halibut pellet rod alarm sounded, clambering out of bed into a dark and misty cold dawn, I grabbed the rod and struck, I was on, after a relative short fight I had a Catfish in the net, weighing 29lbs, a decent fish which I was over the moon with. This day on the other hand went quite peacefully, we had got Scott's big scales from the van, stocked up on Spam, made a few spare rigs, but neither of us lost anymore for the rest of the trip. We passed the time catching float fishing for Roach and Bream on a short spinning rod, the only thing that didn't bode well for us was the wildlife, with the daylight, WW3 had restarted! with the geese fighting, splashing, squawking in our swim, I knew it was very unlikely to get a run during the daylight, even though others around the lake were catching during the day, I didn't mind though, the thought of moving was way too much effort to even consider, so I heavily baited with boilees and pellets my 3 fishing spots, and would just have to wait till night and hope I'd put enough bait down to stop any patroling fish under the cover of darkness.

My Best Of The Session a 32lb 4oz Taking a Huge Cube Of Spam

Whopping Me Again With A 34lb 8oz

The following night Scott lost a fish, but by the morning we had banked a Catfish each on Spam, his going 34lb 8oz, and mine going 32lb 4oz. and we was both lucky enough to see our neighbour catch a new PB of 69 lb with a beast of a fish, it was short but looked like it had been down the gym pumping weights and steroids all its life. This had been a very memorable and enjoyable session for myself with 2 30lb fish I really couldn't complain, even though they were dwarfed by these 60lbers, I love fish and fishing, and almost, just almost, get as excited for other people's fish than my own. I am over the moon for my brother with his new PB, taking a massive leap from 30lb to 66lb, and I will take any brotherly stick from him firmly on the chin with a big smile, it took 3 of us to get this fish on land, and when Fishing for big fish, Carp included, it is sometimes very difficult to land these big fish by yourself, and knowing the prize that could be lost, all help is very much appreciated, Its really nice to know that strangers on the bank will selflessly help each other in the middle of the night, to reel in rods, land, photo and weigh big fish, and a big thank you to our neighbour who helped with Scott's big fish, and for Scott who took some lovley photos that I used for this. Furnace hadn't let me down again! I really love this place, I only mange to get the time go once a year though, but I may make an exception this year and have a session solely devoted to Carp as it full of big specimens, and it really is time I beat my miserly UK Carp PB of 18lbs.