Landing the Big Girl
Deryk Randall

I had made a concerted effort over the previous two months to put a large cat on the Bank from Farnham Angling Society’s Badshot Lea Big Pond and upgraded my tackle to give me the best chance of landing a fish from this outstanding venue. On this occasion, I fished two rods on the far side of a very thick band of weed that came up close to the surface and I used my Angling Technics Micro Cat bait boat to drop a double hook bait over a bed of crushed boilies and trout pellet. I had a single beep at 8:30 am and then struck into the fish when I saw the line tighten. The catfish made several runs at long range and ploughed up and down the channel beyond the weed bed, but eventually hit the surface and stayed there allowing me to
bully it on over the weed. I thought I had another fish following it in as every time it rolled on the surface I could see a fin break the surface several feet away from the head. I nearly had a heart attack when I realised it was the tail of the same fish...
 

The fish really put up a struggle once it was in the margin and made several short runs as I tried to get it ready for the net. I knew what it was by then and was becoming extremely apprehensive. Eventually though, she came in over the string and her head touched the block. At this point I tried to lift the net, but most of her massive body was still outside! Fortunately, she then obliged and turned around in the net and started heading out, I lifted the string so she went under it and the prize was mine...
 

She is a beautiful and distinctive catfish, very long and well proportioned with a broken left barbel. This appears to be broken off an inch or two from the base and a new barbel can be seem growing from the stump. I was overjoyed as this catfish easily eclipsed my previous captures of 10lb, 21lb, 29lb and 42lb from Badshot Lea and 18lb from Shatterford.

 

 

 

 

Editors Note: Unfortunately, the season following Deryk’s fabulous capture, Badshot Lea Big Pond suffered a bad fish kill including a number of catfish. The controlling club closed the water for the whole season but test fishing by club officials only resulted in more catfish deaths shortly after capture including several large fish. It remains to be seen whether there are any numbers of surviving catfish and if the water can recover from this disaster.