Mark was first in on half a roach, the fish was soon brought to the bank and turned out to be an enormous Eel which looked around 4-5lb. Problem was Mark's net was resting against a tree that didn't want to give the net up, and by the time it had the fish had long gone! It was at this point that the session started becoming frustrating, as I started to receive screaming runs, which I'm sure were not eels, but on striking was met with nothing. I did connect to something in the morning though; a screamer at around 6am was met with a long hard fight; I was sure this was going to be the Cat I was after, but unfortunately it turned out to be a 22lb Mirror Carp foul hooked in the pectoral fin! I was fishing half baits of around 3 inch hooked on via a size 1 and after a night of little sleep I decided to try hair rigging the next evening to see if this improved hook-ups.

During the second day, Mark scaled his deadbait size right down, trying a head of a Rudd about 3 inches long. The bait was tiny and mounted on a size 1, which looked bigger than the bait! It paid off though, and at around 2pm Saturday Mark found himself playing his first Cat. The fight was a perfect introduction to the species, as Mark held on tight to a very angry Moggie which was desperate to snag him on near side tree roots. It wasn't long before we were soon photography Marks first Cat at dead on 20lb, a right result. When the last evening arrived I changed two rods to halibut pellets and left one a hair rigged half roach, but the deads were now producing nothing, and my only cat (kitten) fell to the halibuts. During the next morning Mark targeted the Tench, content with his Cat, he went on to land around 10 good fish to 7lb! I soon got on the band wagon but only managed a couple to 5lb 8oz before the activity stopped. We learnt a great deal about the Cats over the weekend, it certainly won't be long before we're back!