Catching Wels Catfish a Quick Guide

The Wels Catfish has a long scaleless body, like an eel, with a large head and mouth. The inside of the mouth has rows of tiny little like Velcro teeth on the top and bottom of its jaw, these are used to hold its prey before passing it to the two sets of crushing pads at the back of the throat. It has a small pointless looking dorsal fin whilst the anal fin stretches backwards until it almost reaches the tail. The colouration's vary from fish to fish but normally they are dark green or black body with creamy yellow sides given a mottled effect.

They have a large number of scent glands and vibration sensors all along their body, with greater concentrations around the lateral lines. These may help in detecting any vulnerable prey within their vicinity.

They have two long whiskers positioned on the upper jaw. These can be used to track live prey out in the flow of the river. They possess another four whiskers on the bottom jaw, which are used to scavenge around the river beds to detect smaller food items, such as crayfish, worms and leeches. Catfish do need their strong senses and glands in order to survive because they have very poor vision. Their eyes may just have enough focus to distinguish between day and night!

Wels Catfish often lay in quiet, dark lairs until ready to feed: overhanging trees, weed beds, lilies and hollows under the bank or on a lake or river bed provide ideal locations. They inhabit rivers and large lakes and ponds where they occupy both a scavenger and apex predator role.

Catfish have a well-developed sense of smell and are, for the most part, omnivorous which means that they will eat a wide variety of foods and are opportunistic feeders known to bite just about anything that is edible and some things that aren’t.

A Catfish’s natural diet consists mainly of fish, but is a predator with a considerable appetite and varied palate and will consume amphibians, worms, crayfish, leeches, small swimming mammals like mice, rats or voles, and water birds from chicks to adult ducks.

There are various methods to tempt the Catfish, one is to ledger deadbaits consisting of Roach, Rudd, Carp, Tench or eels. Look for any likely feature that the Catfish would patrol like marginal shelves, deep holes, old stream beds and snaggy areas and place your bait here and wait.

Livebaits if permitted is another favourite, fishing with the above fish baits but alive! The bait can be presented just below the surface using a dumbbell rig or if possible a weak link tied to the opposite bank. This method produces very violent takes, so make sure you are by the rods at all time!

Worms are a very underrated bait and can be devastating if fished just off the bottom, only to be used at night though as every other fish in the lake will want to eat them during the day.

The most common bait to be used on most commercial fisheries at the moment is the Halibut pellet. The pellets come in various sizes and are best fished with a few large pellets on a hair rig over a bed of smaller pellets.

The pellet rig is a basic carp rig but stepped up to withstand the abrasive teeth of the catfish. Use either 20lb amnesia or kevlar braid for the hook length. This is tied to a size two extra strong hook using a knottless knot creating a hair long enough to hold two or three large pellets. This rig is fished using a free running lead with a large running ring.

When fishing close to the near margins replace the heavy lead with a few swan shots on a link ledger. This creates a very efficient rig with almost no resistance. Although catfish are predators with large mouths they can still be very finicky when feeding, so if a bait is picked up but there is too much resistance the catfish may well drop it and move on.

From time to time, small dead animals such as mice, voles, rats, and birds will find their way into the water, all are readily eaten by catfish and can be good baits on certain waters.

A hungry cat will eat almost anything even if it doesn't occur naturally in its environment. By careful pre-baiting they can be encouraged to take most things, for instance sausages, liver, luncheon meat, squid, octopus or even shellfish will all catch especially if they have a strong smell. The attraction of this type of bait can be improved by soaking in flavours and oils, particularly the meaty or fishy ones.

So there you have a very quick guide to what is perhaps the most powerful fish in European freshwater. Wels catfish may not be the best looking fish that swims but they can't help that and it somehow only adds to their mystique.

Fishing For Tench

The tench is one of Britain's most distinguishable and loveable fish, with its olive green flanks, tiny red eyes and powerful grey-brown fins. Anglers cannot fail but recognise this beautiful species, but by the same token, non-anglers recognise the tench too, due to its distinctive shape, colour and size, and due to the fact that many tench are sold in garden centres as pond fish.

Tench Fishing can be one of the most rewarding types of fishing but at the same time one of the hardest. Tench are a very shy species of fish and they can become almost unfindable and uncatchable at certain times of the year. There are Tench in most lakes, rivers and gravel pits up and down the country, some that never ever get caught.

Tench are different to the carp. They are much shyer, more timid and more fussy when it comes to feeding. The tench will not compete for food in the same way that carp do and this makes them harder to catch. Tench prefer natural baits, that look natural. They can be caught on boilies and pellets, just like carp because in many lakes they have become a natural food source for the fish as anglers continue to use them.

Baits to catch Tench - Their natural foodstuff are bloodworms, small crustaceans and microscopic foods such as daphnia. But tench can quite easily be tempted by the likes of worms, sweetcorn, red maggot, casters and luncheon meat.

Targeting and finding tench in lakes can be quite easy during certain months of the year. Firstly, tench are never too far away from vegetation or underwater gullies. They are a bottom-feeding species that use the sides of ledges and the stems of underwater weed as cover.

Tench can produce streams of tiny bubbles when they are feeding. These are created when the tench crushes its food, and the bubbles escape through the gills. So, if you find series of these pin-prick bubbles breaking the surface you know you are not too far away from a feeding tench.

Binoculars will help enormously when searching for these signs, as will a high vantage point.
But if the water's devoid of any bubbles, watch for signs of reed knocking around, lilies moving, coloured water close to weed and calm patches within rippled water all denote the prescence of a tench or two.

Fish at the right time - You are best fishing for tench between July and October. This is because the tench are slightler slower to wake up from their winter sleep! Whereas carp and most other fish wake up around April -May time; the tench will not start feeding properly untill July.

Therefore if you are the type of angler that fishes for different fish throughout the year then make sure that you save some time inbetween these months to fish for tench.