Adam Elsbury, aged 26 from Reading, had a Holiday to remember at Anglers Paradise after catching his biggest ever fish, a Monster 62lb Catfish from the Specimen Cat Lake beating his previous Personal Best of 14lbs which he caught just 2 years ago meaning he’s beaten it by 48lbs!! This is the New Cat Record for this Lake too as the previous was caught by Ryan Owen at 60lbs.
It is unusual to bank a catfish so late in the season but with mild conditions the season gets extended.
Adam caught the Beast at midday just 3 hours after casting and used a simple running rig with a 22mm Halibut Pellet and a 20mm Halibut Boilie on the hair with a small PVA bag full of Micro Halibut Pellets.
The netting report from Zyg and Rose at Anglers Paradise
Our annual Netting revealed our biggest ever Catfish weighing in at a record weight of 90lbs 11oz, we also weighed in two 60’s to 68lbs and four 70’s to 78lbs from the Main Carp Lake, which is the largest of our holiday lakes and home to the biggest head of carp and the largest predators on the complex. The fish were safely re-located to stock ponds while works are carried out on the lake and will be re-homed following completion.
The record for Wels Catfish was discontinued in the late eighties at 60lbs, this was due to fish being introduced at 100lbs or more from the Continent. It took me 4 years to get official planning permission from MAFF. I am particularly proud as our Catfish were introduced as small Catfish spawned in this country, the biggest about 10 inches, well under 1 lb. We are the only venue with proper provenance to have stocked Catfish and also bred them on our fish farm.
In addition to the physical work of netting the lakes, we take the opportunity to raise funds for local charities, some of this year’s nominated charities are Air Ambulance, local food banks, defibrillator for Ashwater etc.
The nutty netters come from far and wide to help in the netting, raising funds through such activities as Race Night, Bingo, Fishing Match, Archery, Quizzes and Disco culminating in a Bonfire and Fireworks spectacular on Friday 3rd November.
A particular thank you to Phillip Warren Butchers and graziers of Launceston for their generous donation of hot dogs and beef burgers.
The annual netting has been taking place at Anglers Paradise and the weights of the venues biggest cats should be revealed later this week!! Something for those catfish anglers to dream about over the cold winter months as they wait for next summer when the catfish will once again go on the prowl.
Fishing Friends Scott Brown, Damien Hicks, Colin, Chris Jones and Girlfriend Leslie came down from different parts of the Country to Fish our Day Ticket Venue Nirvana, let’s just say…there was quite a lot of heavy dew during their session but at least it also rained Cats and Carp for them too!!
Scott Shared –
“All Summer I have been counting down the days for our trip to the Nirvana Day Ticket Complex at Anglers Paradise in Devon. Myself, Chris, Leslie, Damien and Colin arrived and set our traps hoping for a similar outcome to last year’s trip.
Zyg says it never rains in Devon – well on this occasion I’m afraid he was telling porky pies, it chucked it down! But never the less the, Lakes still produced a few corkers!
I managed a 30lb 3oz catfish and a 22lb 5oz mirror as well as three smaller but chunky carp, all my fish coming to Finforce baits. Chris Jones got the biggest of the trip a 51lb 1oz Catfish all from the Specimen Cat Lake and Damien managed a 29lb Common from the Kracking Carp Lake. Leslie and Colin bagged up on Orfe and Rudd whilst trying a bit of float fishing but unfortunately didn’t manage to get amongst the bigger ones this time.
Great trip had by all and I look forward to our next adventure as a group”.
FISHING, FRIENDS AND FUN, ENJOYING THE SPORT TOGETHER – WELL DONE GUYS!
Anglers Paradise is undoubtedly North Devon’s premier venue for big catfish with numerous specimens caught every year over fifty pounds.
Zyg Gregorek sent me this report today that follows on from my initial report on the new complex record. This fish being born and bred in the UK should undoubtedly qualify as a UK record.
The record for Wels Catfish was discontinued in 1990 because the Record Committee believed monster fish were smuggled in from the continent at over 60lbs (but Carp were and still are)
I had official permission to stock Wels Catfish from MAFF (this was after 4 years of trying) and bought the Catfish from Neville Fickling in 1994. They were small Catfish born and bred or rather spawned in this country, the biggest about 10 inches, well under 1 lb. Over the years the Cats grew 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc but I was not going to claim a record until we had an 80lb plus.
As I said to them, as I have done everything by the book the Record Committee should recognize the fish. The captor was Dion Cook-Martin one of my employees who is “over the moon” about it. If I hadn’t told him to go in the water and untangle the line from around the bushes the fish would not have been landed.
It’s great for the South West and Devon to have produced a record fish.
Anglers Paradise(Above)Previous complex record catfish of 74lb 2oz.
Well Done to Julian Winspear and Partner in Crime Caz Osborne who both had a great session on Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake catching 5 Cats to 30lb+ and 4 Carp to 20lbs, all on the popular and faithful Paradise Baits Catastrophic!
Caz caught her Personal Best and Biggest Ever Fish to date with this 25lb Wels Catfish and Julian had his Personal Best 30lb+ Cat and a 20lb Mirror to put the icing on the Cake!
Euan Mclachlan, 19 from Sunderland who caught his Biggest ever Fish, a Personal Best 41lb Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake.
Euan’s Story –
“I have never ventured much further than the Easy Access on my previous visits to Anglers Paradise, with my catfish PB being a little over 25lb, however after consulting with some of the members of staff me and my two friends decided that the Specimen Catfish Lake was throwing up the odd fish and that’s what we’d like to target. Before I came I said to my dad that I’d like to beat my Catfish PB by at least 5 pound and reach the 30lb barrier, however a 40 would be out of this world!
At the start of the week we did a night where I managed to get a 32lb 4oz from down the margins on meat, however after seeing this fish I knew I had to give it another shot for a bigger one. So Thursday came, and we hiked all of the gear back down to the Specimen Cat and I pitched up in the same corner swim (peg 3) as I did before and flicked a meat rod down the left margin. After hours upon hours of single bleeps from little Perch etc, I decided I’d try and get some sleep. I managed to zone them out until about 6am in the morning when I was awoken to about 5 or 6 continuous beeps on the alarm and then a massive drop back. I struck into it and knew I had a decent fish on, and after taking me round the back of the island and through the reeds on the far side, a 20-30min fight resulted in a new personal best catfish of exactly 41lb, Anglers Paradise really living up to its name and reputation once again.
I just want to say thank you again to you guys for making the holiday so
special, from the help in the tackle shop all the way up to the welcoming
and accommodating nature of all of you down there.
I’ll sure be back again,”
WELL DONE EUAN – ANOTHER GREAT WINNER!!
Here he is with his Winning Fish and being presented his prizes by Zyggy
(Above) Zenia Drury-Gregorek, 33, (-; I got a rare window to fish on my favourite lake, the picturesque Koi Lake and just before leaving to pick the kids up I caught this stunner, using a cocktail of maggots float fishing on the bottom. God I love fishing and it was so GREAT to be out there.I really hope to encourage more ladies to fish as it’s simply magical.
Gavin Simpson, 40 from Wellingborough caught an amazing Personal Best 6lb 12oz Golden Orfe from the Main Carp Lake which is just 1lb 9oz short of the British Record! After about 4 hours of fishing he had a great bite, and he knew this fish felt different straight away. Gavin Said – “As I played it towards the net I saw this huge orange flank and thought WOW! I put the net under it and couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the most enormous Golden Orfe I had ever seen, what an amazing fish! It weighed in at 6lb 12oz, I had to check what the British Record was as I was sure it couldn’t be a lot more. I was right, the current record is 8lb 5oz, this fish was just 1lb 9oz off of the British record!
What a great fish and what a great memory for a trip that was a present from my wife Kerry for my 40th Birthday. I am sure there is a British record to be had in that lake for someone. Get yourself to Anglers Paradise, buy yourself one of Zyggy’s magic hats or hoodies and get yourself in those record books! I’m ‘Orfe’ there again soon myself to try and catch a bigger one!”
Paul Shepperd from Southampton is now the NEW CATFISH COMPLEX RECORD HOLDER – with a 74lb 8oz Catfish from the Main Carp Lake beating Sean Tacy’s weight by exactly 1lb that was caught 2 weeks after!!!
Paul went from 8 years of trying to catch Cat with no success until last year when he caught his 1st to then catching this Monster! Paul baited his swim with 14ml pellets, soaked overnight in Korda halibut goo, using a nine inch hook link with a long hair, with a korda size 6 curved shank hook. Paul Said – “Thank you to my wife and all the lads who helped with netting and weighing this monster. Also, Joe, the estate manager, the rig clinic guru, said this cat only has to eat a 10lb carp to be 84lbs. So there’s the challenge ladies and gents, beat that!
Thank you to the Paradise family for making this dream come true. See you next May. Also just to add to this great weeks fishing, I also met my fishing hero’s Ali Hamidi and Dean Macey at Anglers Paradise. Certainly a Week to remember!”
The latest big fish news supplied by Zenia and Anglers Paradise.
NEW CATFISH COMPLEX RECORD…73LBS 8OZ!!
Regular Sean Tacy, had the week of fishing dreams when he landed Anglers Paradise’s NEW CATFISH RECORD!!!
Sean landed a Monster 73lb 8oz Wels Catfish from the Main Lake, and had the shock of his life when he saw it!!
The previous Record was held by Adam May for 2 years running with a 70lb 12oz Catfish also from the Main, but that has now been beaten!!
Sean caught the Monster using 15mm Robin Red Pellet topped with half a Paradise Baits Original Raspberry pop up, served over a bed of mixed sizes robin red pellets. Fixed lead clear dark matter leader, size 6 korda kurv shank hook.
Sean’s Story –
“After trying for so many years to beat my PB Catfish which I achieved many years ago here at AP and failing to do so I decided it was time to have a go on the Specimen Cat Lake and drove down a day early, after losing a fish on there, I really was gutted, so headed straight to the Octopusy as soon as the welcoming party had finished!
It started off with a not so productive time and me playing about with baits that I was happy so along come the night out. Alarms buzzing, like an angry bee I stumbled out of my bivvy losing my head torch to god knows where and no shoes! At last it felt a monster, finally I thought this has to beat my PB for sure…but it was not meant to be! *play sad music* so unable to go on the Specimen Carp Lake, I decided to go on the Main Carp Lake putting out the same combo that had worked the night before up against the island.
I decided great really confident! But the day went on and nothing to come except a cracking Blue Orfe! Then BOOM!! Off goes the alarms again, jumping out of the bivvy this time with shoes, I hit into it! It felt a monster and a monster I couldn’t control!! To start it just went, I am sure the fish was playing me more than me playing it!
Eventually I managed to get my phone, so shouting to siri to call the old man to come help net this monster that I hadn’t even seen yet! He come and eventually managed to get it in close to see it but it just didn’t want to go in the net, almost deciding to jump in the water and picking it up finally it went in!! It was a beast for sure and one that I never thought I would be seeing!!! Truly a fish of a lifetime and one I am sure will be dam hard to beat!
So again AP has been another great holiday and really cracking fishing and people!”
WOW!! HUGE CONGRATS SEAN – AMAZING FISH, AMAZING CAPTURE AND NOW YOU ARE THE CURRENT CATFISH RECORD HOLDER!!
To see kids fish and get the buzz for fishing it’s pretty special but at the other end of the scale, when you hear a 90 year old man has caught his 1st Ever Catfish – now thats VERY SPECIAL!!
Here’s John Coates, who at an amazing age of 90 Years, has just caught his 1st ever Catfish from the Easy Access at 20lbs!!
WELL DONE JOHN – THIS IS WHAT MAKES THIS SPORT SO GREAT – FISHING FOR ALL AGES!!
Chris Haydon and Kevin Dobson from On The Bank Angling, both from Exeter and have been testing out the Deeper Smart Sonar which is the world’s first wireless cast-able lake feature and fish finding device. They came back to Eldorado in search of catching their Personal Best Cats, and that they did! Chris managed to land the Biggest Cat from the Bottom Lake at 45lbs!! This Cat hasn’t been reported to come out for at least 2 years but Chris found it and landed the Beast on Popped Up Worms giving him a New PB Cat to his name! Kevin joined in on the action and also landed himself a PB 23lb Cat on a Big Chunk of Luncheon Meat.
RAINING CATS AND CARP ON THE SPECIMEN CAT LAKE!
