INDIANANGLER

Hi Alex,

Good to have an experience carp fisherman between us. Catla is an undisputed best game fish you will ever encounter in India. I am saying this from my own personal experience.

The fighting abilities are not only second to none, but what makes it the best is the challenge in hooking one.

If you want to try your luck with catla, pls let us know.

Have a good and fishy stay in India.

Santosh

Hi Alex,

Thanks for appreciating

I have never soaked the cork in flavours. Ali does it sometime, but I believe that it hardly matters as the catla will be feeding on the particle cloud from your spring feeder and I find both the cork and synthetic pop ups up to the job. However, this has worked well with other carps like the rohu and hybrid.

We have caught some of Silver carps when the feeder was placed a couple of feet of the bottom,

Recently some huge Catlas were caught by Ali when he used the floating feeder, normally we use to get lot of Rohu on it, but a new location and some changes with the feeder has turned things around.

Proper ground baiting and spot selection are very important and. A combination of both the floating feeder and placed on the ground should increase the probability of catching a Catla .One feeder with a pop up hair rig on the ground baited area and one floating about 20 yard in the front.

Almost all catlas have been hooked on the bottom lip and one I believe was on the upper lip if I can recall it correctly.

You will love to chat with Ali, and I can see you guys having a good discussion on this here..

Cheers,

Santosh

Welcome to IA

Hi Ravi thank you for your warm greeting.

Hi Santosh, thank you for the reply - you are a veritable fountain of knowledge about Catla – Your fight with the fish that took you up and down the lake for 90 mins sounds like a great adventure, what a shame you do not get to see it / land it after 90 mins – a friend of mine had a very similar experience when we were carp fishing at a lake near Limoges in France, he hooked something v.early in the morning (we estimated about 4.30 a.m) which he could not stop this was with a 3lb TC carp rod and 20lb line, we took to the water in the dark and followed it up and down the lake but he could not get it off the bottom – the fish would stop at times sitting on the bottom and would be immoveable so we would sit in the boat above it waiting and then it would go on another run - after a long long time and just as it was getting light the line split and we never got to even see the fish – we spoke to the owner who did not know of anything big enough in the lake to meet the description of the fight we had but there was a river running alongside the lake and we thought it must have been a catfish that had either been caught and put in the lake or which had swum into the lake during a period of flooding, it was a mystery but whatever it was it was a very big fish and it was heartbreaking for my friend not to land it –

What you say about the feeding habits of the catla is very interesting – I noted what you said about gravel spots have - you found that the same fish tend to visit the same spot to feed again and again and have you caught the same fish from the same spot on more than one occasion? Quite often with big carp in the U.K. they will be caught from the same spot at the same time of year as the year before and a lot of attention is paid to past captures when targeting individual fish. Ha  I understand all too well about fish that drive you mad and want to test your patience but that is what makes the sport so wonderful and what makes catching them in the end such an achievement  It would be very boring to catch lots on every trip and Catla sound like a very good fun and challenging adversary and I would love to have a go at catching one – Thank you very much for your offer, it is very kind, I have been in contact with someone else in Mumbai and I am hoping it might be possible to fish with him on 19th May but if you are not too busy and it is not too great an inconvenience, then I would also love to join you for a day or evening fishing for Catla at Powai and to exchange ideas, experiences and enjoyment of fishing.

Tight Lines

Alex

Hi Alex,

I could have learned some of your carp techniques if i was not travelling.

Please do share some pictures of your Majorca fishing trip. When do Bluefin tuna run in the Mediterranean?

Regards,

Santosh

Dear Santosh

Thank you for your e-mail, regrettably I did not take any pictures from my trip to mallorca they were only smallish fish I was catching nothing over 5kg it was very much pleasure angling – however I will copy a pictures of some of the fish I have caught recently (last two months) the catfish are from the Uk and the carp from France. You will have to apologise for the faces I am pulling in the pictures at night - it was raining and I had been getting bites on my alarms every couple fo hours, so not much sleep, very tiring and very disorientating but well worth it to catch fish.

Ah have just tried uploading photos but it will not let me do it as iI am on work computer and it will not let me download the imageshack toolbar - is there any other way to upload pics?

Tight Lines and all ther best

Al

I meant to say Santosh, I am not sure about the tuna run as I have never been out to fish for them in the mediterranean - we did see tuna in the distance off south africa when we were fishing there but we did not manage to get amongst them as they had moved on by the time we got to where the suide thought they were - I would love to catch a big one though the fight is meant to be incredible.

Hi Alex,

Welcome to IA. Somhow skipped this thread completely. Missed some very nice discussion regarding Carp fishing. Some very interesting observations and theories from you and Santosh. Catla is really a choice fish if you are a die hard Carper.

I am sure, you will love catching this fish.. Come prepaired with some method feeders, ultrasharp size 4-6-8 hooks and 10 to 14 mm Cork Balls. About the baits and feeder mix, we will discuss when we meet here. You are most welcome to spend a day or two with me here in Powai.

Just a small pointer, Catla is a surface feeder... and almost 8% of its feed consists Insects, so dont you think that there is a beautiful possibility of catching this magnificient fish on a Fly, but for that you have to fish Powai for a year or two..

Regards

Ali..

Hi Ali

Thanks for the message. I had read elsewhere you had some success with zig rigs and that makes a lot of sense if Catla’s are also surface feeders / feed in the upper layers – zigs are a tactic which has proved incredibly successful over here for me in the last few years. I had been intending to take a rig I use quite often over here to fish in the upper layers just to give it a try out of interest to see if it works over there, it is a variable zig rig which uses a sunken float and allows you to fish at different levels either on the surface or just under the surface in virtually any depth of water using a far shorter hooklink than would otherwise be necessary if fishing the conventional zig rig with the hooklink coming straight up from the lead – I am aware that there is a ban on promoting companies products on this website and will not copy a link here for that reason – but effectively the lead is on a running rig with a large ring – the sunken float when the line is tightened will come back down to the lead and as you release line off will go up to the level you want it at – the hooklink with the floating bait is attached to the other end of the sunken float and is usually fished maybe 6 feet above it – the hooklink is folded back and the hook secured to the sunken float with pva foam, this then shortens the hooklink from 6ft to 3ft for casting and cuts out the problems of tangling that one often encounters with zig rigs – the pva melts when the rig hits the water and it is tangle free – you can then fish at any depth you want from 6ft off the bottom to on the surface in 50ft of water without having to reel in to adjust the depth – it has been a very successful set up which allows you to try different layers off the water for fish without disturbing fish by recasting – I am guessing from the impressive manner by which you developed the feeder rig that you might also have come up with your own twist on the zig rig?

I imagine a Catla on a fly rod would be an amazing experience, we do get people over here who fly fish for carp with a lot of success, like catla the bulk of a carps diet is going to come from natural food sources in the water and a significant portion of that is insects in the upper layers – there are also companies who have started making specially designed “zig bugs” which have accounted for some big fish – effectively they are much like flies but they are purpose made for zig fishing, they are made to look like insects found in the upper layers and obviously float very well – maybe I will try to acquire a couple to take with me if catla like insects– do you have any idea if there is a main floating insect that Catla prefer because if so I could look for the replica that most closely resembles it?

I will also make sure to bring some method feeders with me and will make sure to bring some very sharp hooks – it is always a pleasure to meet new anglers who are passionate about angling and to discuss ideas, especially anglers who are as evidently talented as you and who know the waters the fish as well as you know Powai and it would be a great privilege to join you for a day, it is really very kind of you to extend an invitation to me.

I was also wondering what sort of distance you fish at Ali – because from what Santosh has told me effective groundbaiting is essential to attracting Catla and I have a couple of tools we use over here to put a lot of groundbait out at distance relatively quickly – both require a stiff rod, one is a groundbait sling which can fire balls of groundbait up to 100+ yards and the other is called a spomb which is like a spod but more accurate but again will put bait out to 100+ yards if coupled with the right rod, is it worth me taking these with me or is the fishing at a range where these tools are not necessary?

I really cannot wait to have a go at the fishing in India – unfortunately, I have a long three and a bit weeks stuck in the office doing work until then, hopefully it will pass quickly.

Kind regards

Alex

Hi Alex,
I have used Zig Rig in its origonal form and as you rightly guessed, I have my own version of Zig Rig to match the requirment of Powai. Zig Rig with one Boily on will not work in Powai... You have to modify it by adding a feeder insted of simple float.

I am not sure about the type of insect Catla Feeds so can not help you here.

Spodding is not neceserry here. In case you want to play far, I have spods and you can use them.

Here is a small writeup on the habits and Habitat of Catla and I think it may help you to formulate your plan.

Catla:


One of the most difficult fish to catch, and the hardest fighting Indian Carp, Catla (Catla catla) is the only member of genus Catla, from the carp family Cyprinidae. This fish is commonly present in rivers, lakes and ponds throughout India. Mainly a surface feeder, this fish feeds on plankton, Zooplankton, Insects, crustaceans and plant material (Ref. Site http://arccjournals.com/pdf/Animal/41-4 ... -4-006.pdf). Crustaceans consists major part of the food but the interesting part being the high percent of insects (8.082%) in its food chain, opening up the possibility of targeting this magnificent fish on a fly rod also. As evident by its large protruding lower jaw, it is evident that this fish feeds by filtering a lot of water through its mouth and as we will discuss later, using fast dissolving bait and a critically balanced open hook is best bet to target this fish.
Many studies have established that the feeding intensity of this fish remained high during non spawning and post spawning period of winter and monsoons but reduces during spawning period of summer. The fish feeds voraciously just after spawning to recover lost weight during spawning period.
The IGFA world record for this fish is only 15.4 Kg. but catches as high as 36 kg. have been reported (From Powai Lake, Maharashtra). There is no authentic record of Catla growing over 38.6 Kg. but unauthentic reports suggest that this fish can grow much more than that.
The other common name of this fish are Bhakur, Chepti, Boassa and Katla in Hindi, Karaka, Karacatla and Katla in Malayalam, Catla, Katla, Kendai, Theppu Meenu, Kanavi, Yamaneri endai and Karavai in Tamil, Botchee, Botchi, Botcha and Krishnabotcha in Telugu, Katla, Pla Kra Ho in Bengali, : Tambra, Katala, Pla Kra Ho in Marathi, Bawas, Tambra, Thambra in Gujrati, Theil ,Theila, Thaila in Punjabi, Bahkur, Barkur, Bhakur in Oriya (Ref. Site http://www.knowmyindia.in/?p=90 )

For Common Names of this fish Please Refer : http://www.fishbase.org/comnames/Common ... kCode=4637
For further detalis or Identification please refer: http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Catla-catla.html

Further I would like you to pondor on the best rig for a floating setup. A good rig coupled with a feeder can give you lot of sucess here..

Regards,

Ali..