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Monster Catfish

Hunting a 30kg Catfish: What Happened and What I'm Changing

I went after a 30kg catfish and didn't get one. The trip still taught me more than a lucky fish would have.

In my last post I laid out the plan: heavy gear, big bait, deep water, a boat, and a day-and-night session. Here's how it went.

The Result

No 30kg. We landed 17 catfish, mostly between 6 and 10kg. It wasn't the monster I was after, but it was a solid session, and it showed me what the fish actually wanted.

The Spot: Shallower Than I Hoped

I'd planned on drop-offs of 8 to 10 metres, but the spot I found had a drop-off of 6 to 7 metres. It's hard to find a big catfish in shallow water, and I think that was part of the problem. Big fish like deep holes.

The Bait: They Wanted Chunks

I used moggel — the heads, the chunks and the rest. The catfish took the chunks almost every time. The heads were mostly ignored. These fish were after chunks, and nothing else would do.

The Gear: The Heavy Rods Barely Fished

I fished two 7-foot rods built for monsters, with one big reel and one normal reel, 100lb line and a 120lb shock leader. One of them caught a small catfish on a big moggel head. The other never had a bite.

So we took those two out and put in two lighter rods instead. Those were the rods that caught the 17 catfish.

The heavy setup is for monsters, and it makes sense only when a monster is actually there. If the big fish aren't around, you'll catch more with a setup that suits the fish that are.

What I'm Changing

This Wednesday and Thursday we're trying a new spot with deeper water. The lesson from this trip is that depth probably matters more than anything else for big fish, so I'm moving to where they're more likely to be. I'll also keep chunks as my main bait, since that's what they were taking, and see whether the bigger catfish want the same thing.

The Takeaway

You can have the best gear and a good plan and still not land the fish you're after. Pay attention to what the fish are telling you: which bait they take, which rods get bites, and how deep they sit. Then change something and go again.