ASK THE EXPERTS
This month's winning question:

Dear Panel

I am going on a fishing holiday soon to a venue that holds lots of carp and a few catfish. I’m wondering whether there is a hooklink I can use to catch the catfish and not get broken off, but with which I can also catch carp, which is what I would prefer.
The last time I went I was snapped up between five and six times, which can be very frustrating.
Can you help me?

Simon Searle
Cheshire

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Hi Simon

This is a problem that many carp anglers encounter whilst fishing on foreign waters that now hold some massive cats. Specialists who fish for these cats tend to use heavy braided hooklinks between 100lb-200lb, but these are far too thick in diameter for use in our carp fishing. I, personally, have fished many waters with big cats present whilst fishing for carp and on occasions I have managed to land some of these big cats. I normally use a coated hooklink with a breaking strain of around 20-25lb, either Korda’s 20lb Hybrid Stiff or 25lb Kryston Mantis Gold, and I can totally vouch for both. I have been using these for a few years now and they are much more abrasion-resistant than braided or nylon hooklinks, which are excellent for big foreign carp.

For the most extreme fishing conditions

This excellent, very tough hooklink will cope with most fishing situations.

I’ve just used these as a hooklink on a recent trip abroad and was very impressed.

They will give you a chance of landing a big cat as well. I have also fished some very snaggy waters with both seen and unseen snags, such as houses, pylons, cars, trees, sunken boats, and even an apple orchard! For these situations I have used the specialist leader material, Kryston Quicksilver, which is primarily a shockleader or snagleader. It is extremely strong and very abrasion-resistant. However, I have also used it as a hooklink material and have found it to be excellent in these extreme situations, either in 25lb, 35lb or 45lb, and I have also used the coated version. Just recently I have been using Korda’s Arma-Kord in 30lb and 50lb as a shockleader and, on a recent foreign trip, as a hooklink material, and I was very impressed, so I can also recommend this material.

With total confidence in your hooklink you can show the cats who is boss.

All the aforementioned could be used to get around your catfish problem, but personally I would start with the first two options.

This 115lb cat was caught whilst fishing for carp in Spain; 25lb Super Mantis tamed the beast.

I hope this has helped, and if you do hook a cat I hope you manage to land it.

Good luck.

Rob Marsh