48 Hour Birthday Session at Celtic Lakes Resort - Day Two - The Catfish.

I'd been on the bank for twenty four hours and had a bit of action and even cracked a new PB, well it has to be a PB as its my first ever Grass Carp. I had another twenty four hours left on the bank and my confidence was high.

The area I'd baited was showing signs of activity with fish topping and fizzing, this visible display soon vanished during another downpour.

I decided to check both my rigs and get some fresh hook baits, I continued with the Mistral i40 boilies on the Carp rig and the Cat rig was baited with a fresh double 22mm Halibut pellet. Tipping them off with PVA bags of crushed boilies and mixed pellets.

Not long after the rain had started to die down I was wetting the net again. The heavy baiting was starting to work with another Mirror Carp picking up the bait, this was the biggest Mirror Carp of the session so far weighing in at 11lb 2oz.

Fish number 5, Another Mirror on the bank.

As the light started to fade I was getting line bites fairly often and I was in two minds to reels in and check the rig but it turn out I didn't need to as yet another Mirror Carp made the bite alarm sing. This time it didn't break any records weighing 7lb 8oz but it was another fish on the bank and the final fish to be landed on my birthday.

The last fish of my birthday, awful photo and I only took one shot.

As the night settled in the swim went quiet. I cooked myself a Chicken Jalfrezi in the frying pan , then zipped myself up inside the bivvy to stop the hoards of midges eating me alive, on the plus side got a few hours kip before the main event of the night. 

It was about three in the morning when I was woken by the sound of the bite alarm from another swim. I got up to see what was happening as there was a bit of a commotion. I walked over to see what was happening and one of the guys fishing in the next peg to me had hooked into what he thought was a Cat and it was running him all over the place. I'd been with them for about five minutes and the fish was just taking line, the other angler said that I think it nearly over by your peg when on cue my bite alarm made two single beeps.

Thinking that his fish had swam through my line I started to make my way back to my peg. I picked up the rod with the single boilie hook bait and reeled in the slack until I could feel something pounding away. I genuinely thought we'd crossed lines. I didn't really apply much pressure and was calling back and forth to the other angler telling him I was letting out line. He then shouted 'I can see it, it's a Cat' I really didn't expect that as I knew my line wasn't running anywhere near where he was saying his Cat was and then the reality of the situation struck home.

I had not crossed lines and there was something on the end of my line that I'd been giving an easy ride for a few minutes. As soon as the penny dropped I tightened up and pulled back. It suddenly began to fight back and all I could do it let it run. It was by far one of the hardest fights I have ever done in the dark. It was like being connected to a true leviathan, I would make a bit of line back then it would tear off cutting along the margins and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was a long hard battle where I would think that I was making progress and then it would just power off and I would be back where I started.

After what felt like hours I pulled the biggest fish I had ever seen into the net. It was so big that I couldn't get the whole fish in the net without folding its tail into the net.

Result! I had done it! I was absolutely worn out, I was out of breath and my arms were aching but it didn't matter. After nearly fours years since my first ever session trying to get a Catfish I finally had one on the bank, and it was massive!

It was one ugly beast! a massive head, massive mouth and a slime coated body. I was in awe of its sheer size. From what started out as a mess with potential crossed lines and me leaving it run round without fighting back I couldn't believe I finally got one on the bank. I don't know what surprised me the most actually getting one or the fact that it was so big or the awesome fight it gave. I've never had anything fight back with such power.

It was longer than my weigh sling which made weighing it a bit of a task so, with one side of the sling zipped up and the tail hang out of the other end I managed to get it off the ground safely. The scales slammed round to 31lb and 8oz

So happy!

The beast was longer than my weigh sling.

A collection of photos showing that a 30+ Catfish isn't the easiest fish to hold.

And finally a mat shot before a powered off in to the night.

I done my bit of video blogging and took a few photos, I have to say that it wasn't the easiest fish I've ever held but it was certainly the heaviest. Once I'd taken my trophy shots I placed it in the weigh sling and lowered to down into the margins. I thought that it would need a while to get its strength back but that was not the case, as soon as its head was in the water its tail started flipping back and forth. I simply opened the sling and it was gone.

I was buzzing and worn out. I lied back down on my bed but didn't drop off to sleep for ages.

I felt like I'd only been to sleeping for a few minutes when the alarms woke me and I was back on my feet and into another fish. It was to be my first lost fish of the session as after a long battle in open water the fish steered itself into the marginal lilies and threw the hook. I had seen the fish and it was a Mirror Carp and it look a bit bigger than any of the previous Carp I'd landed, but I was still on a high from landing the Cat so I wasn't too disappointed.

The morning mist from my swim.

I checked both rigs and put them back out with fresh PVA bags and then tried to get a bit more sleep.

My final bit of bankside action arrived at about half past nine when a real hard fighting Common graced the mat, another double weighing 10lb 9oz, a great way to round off the session.

The final fish of my birthday session another double to end a truly brilliant session.

After the fish was back in the lake I cooked up some breakfast and then started the inevitable pack down albeit a slow one. I haven't done a session longer than 24 hours in a long while so I was expecting the 48 hours to feel like ages but it didn't.

By about midday I'd got nearly everything packed up and only the rods left to bring in. Unlike most of my fishing sessions I wasn't trying to will another take or hoping to get one more fish on the bank before I left. I was happy to leave Celtic lakes without any regrets and for once in a long time I didn't have any niggling thoughts of I could have done better.

This was by far the best birthday session I'd ever had which left me thinking how will I ever stand a chance of topping it on future birthdays. This trip had seen two new species to grace the bank which in turn provided two new personal bests and also my biggest fish ever! All in all a session I don't think I'll ever forget. Lets see what happens on my next birthday session.

The final part of my birthday video blog.