10 May 2019

Sixty Pound Plus Catfish

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

PB CATFISH FOR MATTHEW!

Matthew Colegate joined us for his annual holiday and decided to have a session on the Specimen Cat Lake at our day ticket venue Nirvana. As he was not having much luck on the main complex, he spoke to our head baliff Ashley Bunning who told him where best to fish for a bite and he ended up with a massive bite!! His move definitely paid off, as he only went and caught his personal best at a whopping 60lb 8oz!

Matthew caught the Wels Catfish on a A2 baits 16mm fruity fish wafter topped with a bit of pink fake corn, attached a small pva bag of boilie crumb and another small bag of boilie halves and cast it into where Ashley said the bowl was.

Matthew shared –

“20 minutes in I had a savage liner which I almost hit but didn’t, then another 20 minutes past and the rod rattled off! And what can only be described as a tense 20 minutes I finally got her in the net, which was a struggle by myself. Zeroed the sling etc and she tipped the scales round to 60lb 8oz, beating my original UK PB by 15lb 8oz! I’ve been lucky enough to have cats to almost 120lb in France but to get one that big in England and even better at anglers paradise is ace! Can safely say I won’t catch a cat that big for a long time! and it just goes to show, if the bailiffs are willing to give you advice then make the most of it!”

WELL DONE MATTHEW AND CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW PB!
**For future big Cats all, we’re trying to encourage Anglers to lie beside/have the tail between your legs on an unhooking mat with the head at the fore front of the camera better for the fish, makes it look bigger.

24 Apr 2019

Catfish in Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar, Young At Heart | 0

Congratulations to Charlie Grant, 12, who whilst on his annual Family holiday with us at Anglers Paradise caught his biggest ever fish, a personal best 29lb Wels Catfish!!

Charlie caught the Catfish on Luncheon Meat soaked in spotted fin smokey jack over spray from the Easy Access Lake.

**Take note ‘all’ on how he is presenting the Catfish – Superb pictures Charlie, showing us how not to hold Catfish!!**

22 Apr 2019

Big cats and carp in Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

Congratulations to Richard Mason who caught a 58lb 5oz Catfish and also 4 Carp from Day Ticket Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake!

Richard shared –

“Caught in peg 3 next to the drain, using pallatrax jungle squabs and glugs and stonze free running rig
Took be round the drain and snagged me solid!! The original run was at 5.30 am but after over 2 hours of being snagged she was still on so had to go for a wade/swim to free the line –
Epic battle!!”

PERSONAL BEST CAT FROM ELDORADO!

Well done to Josh Bartley, 27 from Plymouth who joined us for a session on the popular Day Ticket Venue Anglers Eldorado and caught a personal best 18lb 5oz Catfish and then caught another smashing that with a 36lb 5oz Cat both from the Bottom Cat and Carp Lake 2!

Josh shared –

“I arrived on the Carp/Cat Lake 2 at Anglers Eldorado early Friday morning, at about 9am, I caught a new pb cat of 18lb 5oz but unfortunately my camera decided to not work!

But fortunately later that day around 7pm I caught another new pb of 36lb 5oz, also followed up with one around 10lb early Saturday morning, they were all caught using simple hair rigs, fished with 2-3 21mm halibut pellets.
Thank you!”

CONGRATULATIONS JOSH – ALWAYS GREAT TO SEE AND HEAR OF OUR DAY TICKET CATCHES AND TO SEE ANGLERS GETTING IN THE WATER – GOOD ON YOU!!

(Above) Jacob Johnson with a 36lb Mirror Carp from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Lake – The Kracking Carp

13 Apr 2019

Cats on the prowl at Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

Congratulations to Tony Trenerry who caught a 55lb 3oz Catfish from Day Ticket Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake. The fish was tempted using good old luncheon meat.

Zenia at Anglers Paradise advises anglers that they should avoid holding the fish off the ground. “There’s no need to hold Cats but much better to position them like this or lying beside them on a unhooking mat.”

10 Oct 2018

Big Cats on the prowl as autumn descends

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

Above) Paul Baker recently took his son to Anglers Eldorado to show him what a real Catfish looked like up close and they caught this 30lb Wels Catfish from the Bottom Cat and Carp Lake 2 caught on double halibut pellets.

Lovely to see Families on the bank sharing their passion of fishing with siblings – what it’s all about!

(Above)

*PB CATFISH FROM NIRVANA**

David Poolman fished Nirvana’s Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake and managed to catch a personal best 56lb 8oz Catfish in the early hours.

David caught his PB on a soaked halibut pellet/squid pop up combination.

(Above)Angling Guide Julian Chidgey organised a Cat and Carp Camp weekend at Nirvana. The conditions were tough to say the least, they lost a few but Morgan Lloyd from Oxfordshire saved the weekend by catching his 1st ever Catfish at a whopping 60lbs 3oz and a 15lb Common both from the Specimen Cat Lake.

Julian shared –

‘Well what a weekend that was! Winds that threatened to launch bivvies into the lake, and rain that had me contemplating building an ark! The anglers who attended the Carp and Cat Camp stuck at it despite the weather, knowing that it would only take 1 bite to make the session a success. Morgan Lloyd had the first breakthrough after we spotted a 30-40lb carp top between the waves and a single hookbait cast close by soon gave a bite. Unfortunately the fish dropped off before we got to see it.

Richard and Tony also both had big fish top in front of them and the tension was clear as it felt a bite was on the cards. Morgan was the lucky one again as a single hookbait (Tor baits Squido pop up) produced a bite as darkness fell. A modest mid double common was the result but with the temperature falling and the wind having turned to a bitter North-Easterly it was good to see a fish on the bank. As first light came this morning the keen anglers stood over the rods counting down the final minutes of the session. An alarm sounded and Morgan was again the lucky angler, from the outset it was clear this was a special fish and I soon paddling out with my landing net to scoop up a very long catfish.

It was great to see the teamwork and camaraderie as we weighed and photographed the 60lb 3oz monster. As we packed away our wet gear and headed our separate ways it was great to think of the new friendships formed through a great weekend. I will definitely be organising another event for next Spring so please get in touch to reserve your place for a shot at the fish of a lifetime.’

10 Sep 2018

11 YEAR OLD LAD CATCHES A 60LB CATFISH!!

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

11 YEAR OLD LAD CATCHES A 60LB CATFISH!!

Ben Moore 11 from Dorchester, fished Nirvana’s Day Ticket Specimen Catfish Lake with his Dad and caught a massive Wels Catfish of 60lbs beating his previous PB by 30lbs!!! The Fish was longer than him!! It took him 15 minutes to land it in wet and windy conditions, but that didn’t faze Ben!!

Ben caught the Monster Cat using 3 x 25 mm glugged Halibut pellets, long hair rig, popped up 12 inches using a size 2, debarbed eagle claw catfish hook on a 3lb test curve ‘Free Spirit Pike Tamer’ rod, 18lb monofilament line with 24 inches of 40lb ‘shock leader’ monofilament end tackle.

28 Aug 2018

Catfish from Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

Simon Phillips 36, from Exeter fished Anglers Eldorado for the 1st time and caught his Personal Best Catfish at 35lbs 7oz within just 10 minutes of fishing!!

Simon caught the Cat on Meat.

20 Jul 2018

Carp and cats in Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

(Below)Michael Smith from Basildon won our Fish Of The Week Competition catching an amazing 3 personal bests!! Michael caught a PB 31lb Mirror, then a 32lb Mirror topped by catching Parrot at 46lbs 3oz!!! All caught from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Kracking Carp Lake. Michael’s said – “I’ve fished Anglers Paradise for over 12 years now and fished the Kracking Karp for the last 6 years without a bite until this year where I had 3 new personal bests of 31lbs, 32lbs topped off with a 46lb 3oz Mirror that is Parrot!! What a Fish it is, I’m over the moon!

As always, I caught them on a cog system with an Essex Bait firm called Baitlocker Baits SX. The 32lb Mirror was caught on 3 fake balanced Corns with a small PVA Bag. The 31lb and Parrot were caught on a bottom sx bait with 20 freebies on both.
What a session once again at Anglers Paradise, as always a top week!”

(Below)Sam Lancaster, 26 from Stevenage had a very productive week of fishing catching two 20lb Commons from Nirvana’s Xanadu Lake, a PB 43lb Cat from the Specimen Cat Lake, four Catfish from Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake weighing 33lb, 29lb, 24lb, and 19lb and a stunning 14lb Mirror. Sam caught the 20lb 4oz Common on a 10mm bucha berry pop up, and the 20lb Common on a 10mm milky toffee pop up on a kd rig. Sam caught the 43lb Catfish and 24lb Cat using a Sticky Baits the Krill bottom bait. The 33lb Catfish fell for a CC Moore Pacific Tuna 18mm. And lastly, the 29lb Catfish was caught using 18mm maple and cream boilies snowman with 10mm milky toffee pop up.

14 Jul 2018

Catches from Paradise

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

The latest news from Zenia at the prolific Anglers Paradise complex.. Don’t forget that many of the lakes are also open to day ticket anglers.

(Above)Bradley Bone from Clacton On Sea in Essex had a session on Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake in the hope of catching a big one, at 7.30pm that happened!! Bradley landed a personal best 54lb 6oz Wels Catfish on two 30mm halibut pellets fished in the margin.

FISH OF THE WEEK WINNER 6TH JULY IS… ( Above)

Caz Osborne from Stamford, Lincolnshire who after years of trying…finally beat her previous personal best 13lb Carp with a 18lb 3oz Mirror from Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake! Her partner Julian was green with envy!! She also had a 25lb Cat whilst the men had their tails between their legs!!

Caz’s Story –

“On the build up to our stay at Anglers Paradise, we had especially been looking forward to fishing the Bottom lake at Eldorado and planned to do 2 nights and days. However I have been ill with pneumonia since before Christmas, Jules (aka the King) and my friend Rob took my kit down for me and set up camp. This year I set no goals for fishing, but really hoped to better my long standing best carp weight of 13lb 13oz.

With the weather being as hot as it had been, the King set up running rigs to target the Cats and this resulted in a cat at 25lb same as my previous PB. However on Wednesday morning we had some rain and it was much cooler, so we hoped the Carp would show.

I was delighted when the alarm rang out and I caught a lovely Mirror Carp at 18lb 3ozs which broke my old PB by over 5lbs which stood for 4years!!

It was caught on my new h-gun Nash rod which was a present from Rob, using a Paradise bait Catastrophic main bait topped with a burton bait squid and octopus pop up, wrapped in the Kings magic paste all in a PVA bag with halibut pellets casted to the island.”

WELL DONE CAZ – ANOTHER FEMALE ANGLER WINNING!!!

**SPECIES & PB GALORE FOR ONE ANGLER!!**

Kevin Boxall from Grantham, Lincolnshire had a reel mixed bag of catches catching plenty of Carp including a personal best 26lb 13oz Linear from the Specimen Carp Lake, a personal best 37lb 10oz Cat from the Octopussy, a personal best 3lb 8oz Eel also from the Octopussy and a lovely Golden Tench from the Specimen Carp Lake.

Here’s his story –

“Sunday, I went to Octopussy, and caught a 37lb 10oz Catfish, using luncheon meat. This was a personal best. On Monday I went back to another area in Octopussy and caught a 18lb 10oz Catfish on halibut pellets and my biggest ever Eel at 3lb 8oz.

On Tuesday I went to the Main Carp Lake and landed a 17lb 6oz, with a number of smaller carp, using Live System boilies. I stayed overnight, but no action, however on Wednesday, after catching a number of small carp and losing two good sized ones I eventually ended the day with a 19lb 8oz Mirror Carp.

On Thursday, I decided to try Easy Access, landing 2 Catfish of 20lb 4ozs and 14lb 9ozs. On Friday I decided to try my luck on the Specimen Carp Lake, first of all I fished the split and caught many small Carp and a Golden Tench (not weighed, estimated about 2 1/2lb). I was getting fed up, so decided to move near the deeper water. After catching a few more little Carp, I eventually landed a 26lb 13oz Mirror Carp again using Live system boilies. I had fantastic week, have booked up our 4th holiday for next year before we left.”

5 Jul 2018

BIg Carp and Cats from Paradise Lakes

by Wayne Thomas | posted in: Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Sidebar | 0

PB MIRROR FROM THE SPECIMEN CAT LAKE!

Richard Mason, 35 from Newquay joined us for a session on Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake and caught this stunner of a Mirror weighing 38lb 7oz making it a new UK Personal Best for him!

Richard shared –

“I was in peg one fishing for cats down each margin, during the day baiting up to the point of the island and at about 6pm lots of carp started topping so I changed one of my rigs to pallatrax stone leads simple snow man rig with mackerel Xt 15mm and sticky baits white pop up.”