Another Alien fishing

[szopen]

Went out to a dam in the mountains yesterday afternoon.
It is a nice place inside a huge park are on one of the holy mountains.

Nice place but:

Looking left.

[szopen]

Looking right.

[szopen]

As you can see not what you would call solitary fishing.

Anyway.

It was not my first time there and I have enough experience there to do well.

Dam has mostly tilapia, some differenet types of carp, good catfish and a few other fish.

Anyway.

I had my dough bait well prepared. Used a long 5.4m pole rod with a really sensitive float.

Had a bite at every cast (honestly).
Not so easy to actually hook the fish with dough bait.

Got a few small ones and broke off the line (1.2kg) several times.

Tied a thicker ( 2.0kg) leader and they kept biting.

Caught over 30 fish.

Guys on the left and right kept coming and asking to give them some of my bait.

No problem there. From previous experiences I had mixed enough.
Even then they were not getting the same results.
I was getting pretty big ones and outfishing people left and right not only in numbers but in size as well.

Feels good.

Funny thing is when the people sitting around you think that there is no way thet you can understand what are they talkin about and say what they really think.

Anyway.

This is the bag at around 4pm, later got a another couple of big ones, a very good eel (another rod, running sinker and a prawn for bait, catfish setup), released smaller ones.

Went home feeling pretty good.

[Local_Guy]

good thing no one knows about the place. hehehehe

[szopen]

Good thing indeed.

[raefpud]

doesnt it feel great to be a foreigner doing it better than the locals :o :o ;D
Top report mate

[NeMo84]

sorry but what exactly is a GOOD catfish? ;D

[DICER]

nice catch there... now I'm getting a little more anxious to catch a carp in the canal near our house.... pity it will be catch and release. Most canals have something - like bikes to floating lounges :P

[szopen]

It does feel great ;D

[szopen]

NeMo,

Not everybody lives by the sea.

In some parts of the world freshwater catfish is considered a good catch and if the water is clean it is also good eating.

Where I come from in Poland they do grow big, I think that the (rod) record in Poland is around 80kg, I have seen pictures of fish way over 100kg caught with net.

DICER,

Good luck with the carp, it might be not that easy to get a big one but they do put up a very good fight.

[Hutcho]

5.4m rod??? Struth. You musn't have to strike very hard! What kind of fish are they you've got in your bag there?

Cheers,
Hutcho

[szopen]

Hutcho,
These are mozambique tilapia.

5.4m rod is just about right length, this is a pole type rod (telescopic, 70cm folded), line tied to the tip, no reel, rod is doing all the amortization, rod is very light so no problem using only one hand. Chinese are pretty innovative people so they sell also a very smart rod holders/frames where you put it after the cast so yo do not have to hold it all the time.
You can actually see my rod and the set up in a lower right corner of the second photo.

Next time I will take pics of some of the locally used gear.
Some interesting stuff they have.

[Angha]

A Carp from UK ... got a copy of the photo from another fella

[NeMo84]

im sorry szopen but if you only knew how much i dislike catfish than you'd understand, i have caught more than anyone i know due to fishing alot in the brisbane river and to be honest i hate the bastards, i know they're ok to eat from clean water but i wouldnt eat one out the river here, i try my best to avoid them as much as possible. I release all i catch, i don't kill em by the way. Enjoy your catfish ;)

[tetra]

Great catch!

[bidkev]

sorry but what exactly is a GOOD catfish? ;D

You talkin' to me? ;D

The Verminator

[bidkev]

A Carp from UK ... got a copy of the photo from another fella

Caught a lot of 'em in my time Angha. Best method is to pre burley the swim for days in advance with one particular food (luncheon meat and sweet corn's the go) and then use that as hook bait. The only problem in a place like you just showed is that some other bugger could be sat where you prebaited when you actually went to fish. If they weren't using what you pre burleyed with it would be unlikely that they would catch anything anyway.

cheers

kev

[szopen]

NeMo,
No problem.

I would also think that the catfish you get in your river are different fish from the ones you get in Europe or Asia (not the spiky ones :))
In the US they also have some different species and there it it also regarded as a good eating fish.

But in the end it is a matter of what you have available to catch where you are and your personal preference.

Here in southern China the most prized catch are turtles and a type of small fish (up to a kilo, Carassius Carassius I think, fish from which all the gold fish originated). The same fish back in Europe is considered at best a good bait for European pike (top rated fish, different from your pike as well).

[szopen]

Photo of catfish from Europe

[szopen]

And one from the states.