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CATFISH VIRGINS 

TONY BALFOUR 

3 

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P 

lease don’t think that by 

reading this article, your 

skills as a catfish angler 

are going to improve. This is 

just a tale of a first trip to the 

River Ebro in pursuit of the 

huge catfish that dwell in the 

Ebro/Segre system. 

With European and even 

worldwide fishing destinations 

becoming more and more 

accessible the decision to head 

abroad was an easy one. Once a 

willing fishing companion had 

been found in the form of 

Doncaster boy Pete ‘Webbo’ 

Webster, preparations were soon 

underway and a plan was being 

formed. A couple or three guiding 

services were shortlisted thanks 

to that new fangled gadget the 

Interwebnet. The big English firms 

that we wanted were all fully 

booked for the week (in hindsight 

this was a bit of a godsend), but 

eventually the one man band of 

Gareth Edwards and his guiding 

service under the name of Catfish 

Tours was contacted and we were 

booked. I think it must be said that 

Gareth is a catfish/carp-mad 

Brummie and not the Gareth 

Edwards of Welsh rugby fame 

and once British pike record 

holder, but of course that didn’t 

stop us ripping the mickey out of 

him all week. 

We were informed by the 

ever-helpful members of the Pike 

and Predators forum that early 

May could be a hit or miss affair 

with the fish having spawning in 

mind rather than feeding, but as I 

was going to catch nowt sitting in 

Wigan, 2nd to 9th May were the 

dates allocated for our attack. As 

always at my age the days 

passed all too soon and, two 

hours after leaving Liverpool John 

Lennon Airport, I was in 

Barcelona. Twenty minutes after 

this the hire car was sorted, 

followed by a quick brew, and 

Pete was with me after flying in 

from Doncaster’s Robin Hood 

Airport... no, I never knew 

Doncaster had an airport either. 

WRONG SIDE! 

Sat Nav set and away we went – 

or we would have done but for 

one unforeseen problem we 

hadn’t thought of: being Spain not 

only do they drive on the wrong 

side of the road but the steering 

wheel, gearstick and pedals of the 

hire cars are also in the wrong 

place! After a quick spin round the 

Airport car park we were off and 

the two-hour drive was pretty 

much straightforward. Follow the 

motorway out of Barcelona, turn 

left at Llieda and you are in 

Mequinenza, so literally four and 

half hours from leaving Liverpool 

we were in Mequi’s catfish 

country. A quick phone call for 

directions and a flash of the 

headlights found us meeting Gaz, 

and another 10 minutes saw us in 

the apartment with brew in hand. 

I was up early the following 

morning and while Pete slept on 

sounding like a baby hippo, I was 

in the shower thanking my lucky 

stars we had separate rooms. The 

apartment was fine for what we 

wanted and could not have been 

any closer to the riverbank. 

Gareth was with us for 7am and 

the plan for the week’s fishing 

took all of two minutes to sort out, 

with Gaz having one task, to 

catch us some fish, simple’s. 

Both Pete and I had discussed 

targets for the week and agreed 

that a fish over the ton was not 

too much to ask, so with this in 

mind we set to our task with 

gusto. If I’m honest, though, 

neither of us had caught a catfish 

before so any fish we caught 

would be a bonus. 

ON THE MOVE 

A spot was chosen opposite 

where the coloured waters of the 

Segre meet the clear Rio Ebro. 

From the off we knew it was 

going to be a struggle as the 

Segre was flowing at a fair rate of 

knots, and the first four or five 

hours of the trip were taken up 

reeling lines back in to clear the 


Tony ‘Pieater’ Balfour tells of a first trip to the Ebro. 

Tony and Pete 

with Tony’s 

150-pounder 

Set up on the Top Lake 

In the water with 

the 150lb cat 

Tony’s 

first ever 

cat at 54lb 

3 

Ebro/Segre system. 

With European and even 

worldwide fishing destinations 

becoming more and more 

accessible the decision to head 

abroad was an easy one. Once a 

willing fishing companion had 


Interwebnet. The big English firms 

that we wanted were all fully 

booked for the week (in hindsight 

this was a bit of a godsend), but 

eventually the one man band of 

Gareth Edwards and his guiding 

service under the name of Catfish 


him all week. 

We were informed by the 

ever-helpful members of the Pike 

and Predators forum that early 

May could be a hit or miss affair 



Barcelona. Twenty minutes after 

this the hire car was sorted, 

followed by a quick brew, and 

Pete was with me after flying in 

from Doncaster’s Robin Hood 

Airport... no, I never knew 


we were in Mequi’s catfish 

country. A quick phone call for 

directions and a flash of the 

headlights found us meeting Gaz, 

and another 10 minutes saw us in 

before so any fish we caught 

would be a bonus. 

ON THE MOVE 

N THE MOVE 

N THE MOV 

A spot was chosen opposite 

where the coloured waters of the 

Segre meet the clear Rio Ebro. 

From the off we knew it was 

going to be a struggle as the 

Segre was flowing at a fair rate of 

knots, and the first four or five 

hours of the trip were taken up 

reeling lines back in to clear the 







CATFISHING IN THE UK 

DAVE MUTTON 

3 




B 

y the time you get to 

read this, the frosty days 

of winter will be just a 

memory; a memory that 

hopefully is full of fat pike that 

have graced the bank or boat. 

So what are you going to do? 

Some of you may continue to 

fish for pike through the 

warmer months, whilst many of 

you, as soon as the days 

lengthened and the suns rays 

started to have some warmth in 

them, give a sigh tinged with a 

touch of sadness as the 

deadbait rods are put away 

again to sit there untouched 

until October. Some of you may 

be after tench, bream or other 

species, whilst others may be 

targeting carp. I also fish for 

those species on occasion, but 

I never seem to be able to gain 

the same level of enthusiasm 

for non-predatory fish as I do 

for predators. That is why my 

summers are usually spent 

targeting that other apex 

predator, the wels catfish. 

The wels catfish can be 

described as a predatory 

scavenger, in that it will eat a 

huge variety of meat or fish baits, 

both alive and dead. Its natural 

diet consists of fish, amphibians, 

worms, waterfowl and small 

mammals. It will eat pretty much 

anything that it can fit into its very 

large mouth. However, like most 

predators its feeding spells are 

infrequent and, as the catfish 

possesses a proper stomach, it 

will gorge on food and then lie up 

to digest it. The catfish finds food 

by combining its sense of smell, 

taste and by sensing vibration in 

the water. The catfish has two 

sets of nostrils and has an 

excellent sense of smell – in 

Britain only the eels’ is keener. In 

fish, smell is very closely linked to 

taste and the catfish has a highly 

developed array of taste buds 

which are located along its 

barbules as well as in and around 

its mouth. This means that if it did 

not like the taste of a bait, it could 

reject it, even without the hook 

being anywhere near it’s mouth. 

This is worth thinking about if you 

are going to target them using 

artificially flavoured baits. 

The catfish will actively hunt 

for prey, particularly in warmer 

months, and can often be found in 

the upper layers of the water 

hunting for fish. This is when it 

employs a third sense, that of 

vibration. The catfish is very adept 

at sensing particle displacement 

in the water using its highly 

developed lateral line. The catfish 

can sense vibrations in the water 

such as a fish in distress, and 

move towards them. As it nears its 

prey, receptors in its barbules will 

pick up the vibrations and the cat 

starts to fine tune its approach. As 

the catfish nears its victim, the two 

long whiskers will point straight 

ahead almost like a divining rod, 

and when it gets within range it 

suddenly opens its cavernous 

mouth and simply engulf its prey. 

Unlike pike or zander, the 

catfish does not possess rows of 

proper teeth. Instead the wels has 

pads in its upper and lower palate 

which consist of hundreds of tiny 

Velcro-like teeth. It uses these 

pads to grip its prey which it then 

passes back to four crushing 

pads, two top and two bottom, at 

the back of its throat. 

TO THE LIMIT 

So what tackle are you going to 

need to tackle this large and very 

hard fighting species? The key to 

all catfishing tackle is reliability 

and strength. The wels catfish is 

very powerful and will test all of 

your gear to its limit. When 

hooked they will either surge off 

on a seemingly unstoppable run 

that will have your reel screaming, 

or hug the bottom refusing to 

move and the rod will be hooped 

over to the butt as you apply more 

and more pressure trying to get 

CATFISHING 

IN THE UK 

Thinking of having a go for wels catfish? Dave 

Mutton begins a two-part feature to tell you how. 

Above: Powerful 

rods and sturdy 

reels are required 

Main: The sensor 

array of a catfish 

This 43-pounder is 

clearly capable of 

taking very large 

baits 




TONY BALFOUR 

TONY BALFOUR 

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Tony and Pete 

Tony and Pete 

with Tony’s 

150-pounder 


AMAZONIAN GIANTS 

ARNOUT TERLOUW 

3 




I 

t is estimated that over 2500 

species of fish occur in the 

Amazon. The order 

Siluriformes (catfish) is the 

second most diverse and 

probably the most spectacular 

group of Amazon species. With 

14 families, including more than 

1000 species, the Amazon 

accounts for almost half of all 

the catfish species in the world! 

They range in size from the 

diabolical candirú, a tiny parasitic 

catfish that lodges itself in the 

urethral openings of other fish, 

animals or occasionally even 

humans(!), to the monstrous 

piraiba, which has been reported 

to grow over nine feet long and 

weigh in excess of 150kg. Many of 

the larger species of Amazonian 

catfish are migratory, extremely 

active and aggressive predators 

that live mainly in fast water. 

Pound for pound, these catfish are 

as strong – if not stronger – than 

any freshwater fish you will ever 

encounter on rod and line! 

The piraiba is the largest 

catfish in the Brachyplatystoma 

genus, and is notorious for its 

voracious eating and solitary 

lifestyle. This is the true giant of 

the Amazon with many stories of 

fish weighing over 500lb! Locals 

call the juvenile fish (those 

weighing under 100lb) filhote. 

Once they are over 50kg, locals 

call them piraiba. 

I 

t is estimated that over 2500 catfish that lodges itself in the any freshwater fish you will ever 

With this issue being a catfish special we thought 

we would throw this one into the mix. Arnout 

Terlouw encounters some really big catfish! 













































BIGCATSOF 

THEAMAZON 

Longe, slim and acrobatic, they 

have been known to jump and roll 

in the surface splashing with their 

big tails; a very un-catfish-like 

behaviour. In Bolivia this fish is 

known as saltador, which means 

jumper. Piraiba sometimes has a 

mysterious ‘milk’ gland at the 

anterior upper part of its pectoral 

fins. Its function is unknown, but in 

Colombia this fish is therefore 

known as lechero, which means 

milkman. 

BIG APPETITE 

Piraiba look for food as far down 

as 50 metres. They will scavenge 

but also actively hunt for prey like 

small catfish, characins and 

piranhas. Piraiba, like other big 

Amazonian catfish such as the 

redtail catfish, dourada and jau, 

do not worry about the sharp and 

pungent dorsal and pectoral fin 

spines of small catfish. Examined 

dourada and piraiba specimens 

revealed perforated and/or 

scarred stomachs most likely 

caused by catfish spines. The 

slicing teeth of piranha are no 

problem either, even though they 

inhabit the same waters where 

hundreds of piranha school. 

These giants have extremely thick 

tough leathery skin that resists 

such attacks. By the time they are 

five feet in length, piraiba can 

move freely in the deepest 

Amazon waters without fear of 

predators. 

When they’re juveniles, 

piraiba are light to dark grey with 

small spots on their dorsal and 

lateral sides. As they get older, 

they turn dark grey on the top and 

light grey/white on the bottom. 

This coloration aids in 

camouflaging their massive 

bodies as they hunt in midwater or 

shallow places. Most people think 

of catfish as true bottom dwellers, 

but the opposite is the case for 

piraiba, dourada and the shovel- 

nosed catfish species. Piraiba 

search for food throughout the 

entire water column and at night 

they can be caught at or just 

below the surface. 

Piraiba have an appetite to 

match their massive bodies. 

Fishermen who’ve caught these 

massive giants have found small 

monkeys, birds and cats inside. 

While they don’t hunt for monkeys 

or birds, piraibas have no problem 

scavenging on already deceased 

Commercial 

fishing is 

beginning to 

take its toll 

on catfish 

populations in 

the Amazon 

Fishing deep pools in 

daytime – will they 

bite or will you have 

to wait until dusk? 

Catfish heaven: deep pools below a set of 

rapids in an isolated area with no commercial 

fishing, mining or other human impact 


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BIG APPETITE 

Piraiba look for food as far down 

as 50 metres. They will scavenge 

but also actively hunt for prey like 

small catfish, characins and 

piranhas. Piraiba, like other big 

Amazonian catfish such as the 

redtail catfish, dourada and jau, 

do not worry about the sharp and 

When they’re juveniles, 

piraiba are light to dark grey with 

small spots on their dorsal and 

lateral sides. As they get older, 

they turn dark grey on the top and 

light grey/white on the bottom. 

This coloration aids in 

camouflaging their massive 

bodies as they hunt in midwater or 

catfIsh 

specIal 

3 

The wels catfish 

described as a predatory 

scavenger, in that it will eat a 

huge variety of meat or fish baits, 

dead. Its natural 

and strength. The wels catfish 

very powerful and will test all of 

your gear to its limit. When 

hooked they will either surge off 

on a seemingly unstoppable run 

that will have your reel screaming, 

refusing to 


CATFISH CAPERS IN BRITAIN 

GRAEME PULLEN 

3 




ANGLERPROFILE 

Name: Graeme 

Pullen. 

Age: 59 

Hometown: 

Hook, Hampshire. 

Favourite Venue: 

Royalty Fishery, Hampshire 

Avon. 

Favourite Species: Barbel and 

pike. 

Most Memorable Catch: None, 

they are all totally awesome! 

W 

hile I like my floater 

fishing for carp, I can 

see the attraction of 

avoiding Gerty the Thirty of the 

overcrowded carp world, in 

favour of Ton-up Tessie of the 

wels catfish world. It was while 

filming with Phil Williams in 

deepest Devon that I began to 

realise just how much of a cult 

fish the catfish has become. We 

were at Zyg Gregorek’s Angler’s 

Paradise, which I had never 

ANGLERPRO 

Name: Graeme 

Pullen. 

Age: 59 

Hometown: 

Hook, Hampshire. 

Favourite Venue: 

Royalty Fishery, Hampshire 

Avon. 

Favourite Species: Barbel and 

pike. 

Most Memorable Catch: 

they are all totally awesome! 

CATFISH CAPERS 

IN BRITAIN 

After many years of not really paying attention, 

Graeme Pullen discovers catfishing is a viable 

alternative summer species for UK predator anglers. 

fished before but we dropped in 

with a couple of cameras on the 

way back from a fruitless 

session hoping to break the 

British porbeagle shark record. 

Zyg has a very large head of 

catfish at the complex, running 

from five-pounders up to over 

50lb, which I certainly consider 

well worth catching. While filming 

and catching everything from 

golden tench to grass carp and 

ornamental koi I noticed that, 

rather than being full of carp 

anglers, around half of the big fish 

guys were after catfish. 

Supposedly night feeders, the 

catfish at Zyg’s complex didn’t 

seem to have read the books and 

many were coming out in broad 

daylight – blazing sun and blue 

sky. 

There were different 

techniques, different rigs and 

some clonking great baits in use 

– the mouth on even a 20lb 

catfish is like a B&Q bucket, so no 

worries about whether they can 

eat it or not! Livebaiting at the 

fishery is not allowed, but 

deadbaits are okay if you get 

them from Zyg. So, what do the 

anglers catch on? Top selling bait 

in the site’s tackle shop was the 

giant sized halibut feed pellets. In 

fact many of the anglers threaded 

them on a hair rig as doubles to 

make even bigger hookbaits. I 

fished a couple of hours for a cat 

one evening on a smaller lake and 

watched a guy walk down to a 

corner, lob out what I thought was 

an enormous bait dropper, then 

walk back to his swim, feeding out 

line as he went. I sent Phil off on a 

mission to find out. It turned out 

he was using a half tin of pork 

luncheon meat as a monstrous 

hair rigged cube. Now that’s what 

I call fishing! Phil got a 

15-pounder, so he’s off the mark 

with a new PB, and although I 

didn’t get my first cat I was 

suitably impressed with the 

enthusiasm level, and as soon as 

I got back I decided I needed to 

learn more. 

SIMON SAYS 

As fortune would have it my local 

Tackle Up fishing shop is owned 

and run by Simon Clarke, who is 

chairman of the Catfish 

Conservation Group and has a 

personal tally of several hundred 

catfish... 

Graeme Pullen: Give us 

introduction on the history of the 

British catfish. I seem to recall the 

first time I read of them was many 

years ago at a place called 

Woburn Abbey”. 

Simon Clarke: Yes, they were 

introduced as a folly of the 

aristocracy in the late 1800s into 

Woburn Abbey Lakes by the Duke 

of Bedford at the time. It wasn’t 

until the 1950s that their 

distribution expanded around the 

country with some local clubs 

being given stock, and it basically 

all started from there. 

GP: What sort of sizes were they 

running back then? 

SC: Around 1970 the record was 

only some 31lb, so they started 

out small. There were supposed 

to be accounts that they reached 

up to 70lb, but there was a lack of 

photos. Now with the upsurge of 

commercial fisheries and high 

protein baits going into the waters 

there has been a rapid increase in 

growth, so 30lb is no longer an 

exceptional fish. 

GP: Now the sizes have 

increased are there many waters 

where the beginner to catfishing 

can go and have a reasonable 

chance of catching? 

SC: 20 years ago I would have 

said there were less than 50 

waters in the entire country; today 

there are over 500. I go to a lot of 

tackle shows and meet with many 

anglers who say they would love 

to catch a catfish, but they are not 

in many waters. However, that is 

not the case today. With over 500 

waters holding cats, most anglers 

are probably within striking 

distance of a suitable venue. 

GP: Is the CCS an elite club, or 

can anybody join it? 

SC: It was started back in 1984 by 

catfish enthusiasts. Basically it’s a 

club to help beginners and help 

understand the species. There are 

no real cat experts. Even though I 

have fished for them for more 

than 25 years I am still learning 

something from every session I 

do. After all, that’s the magic of 

going fishing in the first place. 

GP: Let’s start with the tackle a 

beginner to cats would need. Start 

at the sharp end with hooks. 

SC: What you need is to match 

the size of hook to the size of bait. 

Invariably you will be using big 

baits – lobworms, meat, fish, 

squid, luncheon meat – and it can 

be very easy to mask the hook if 

you are not careful. What you 

need is a hook with a nice wide 

gape, long point and long shank 

so it can sit nicely off the hook bait 

corner, or you can hair rig it. 

Catfish have big bucket mouths. 

They come in and nab the bait so 

you need plenty of hook to go into 

that large and very hard jaw. An 

adequate size for a bunch of small 

worms would be a size 2 or 4. 

With a great bunch of lobworms 

then a 1 or 1/0 would match the 

Young anglers are quickly 

zoning in on the catfish, 

like Andrew Pillings who 

took this 40lb-plus from 

the lakes at Angler’s 

Paradise 

A sustainable food source exists in Devon, 

where Zyg Gregorek provides shoals of rudd 

that the cats crash into at night 

SIMON SAYS 

As fortune would have it my local 

Tackle Up fishing shop is owned 

and run by Simon Clarke, who is 

chairman of the Catfish 

Conservation Group and has a 

Cats are long so 

make sure you 

have a good sized 

unhooking mat 

– watch out for 

them snaking 

about 

Chairman of 

the Catfish 

Conservation 

Group, Simon 

Clarke, with 

his recent UK 

PB cat of 56lb 

predator anglers. 

fished before but we dropped in 

with a couple of cameras on the 

way back from a fruitless 

session hoping to break the 

British porbeagle shark record. 

Zyg has a very large head of 

catfish at the complex, running 

from five-pounders up to over 

50lb, which I certainly consider 

well worth catching. While filming 

and catching everything from 

golden tench to grass carp and 

ornamental koi I noticed that, 

rather than being full of carp 

anglers, around half of the big fish 

catfish is like a B&Q bucket, so n 

up to 70lb, but there was a lack of 

photos. Now with the upsurge of 

commercial fisheries and high 

protein baits going into the waters 

the size of hook to the size of bait. 

Invariably you will be using big 

baits – lobworms, meat, fish, 

Group, Simon 

Clarke, with 

Clarke, with 

Clarke, with 

Clarke, with 

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Clarke, with 

Clarke, with 

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Clarke, with 

Clarke, with 

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his recent UK 

his recent UK 

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CAT CRAZY 

DAN WILLIAMS 

3 




T 

he wels catfish is one the 

most impressive fish 

swimming and it deserves 

every bit of respect after it’s 

given us the pleasure of 

catching it. 

LANDING THE FISH 

A very large landing net is a must 

when cat fishing. It is one of very 

few species of fish that can swim 

backwards and they often do this 

when nearing the net in the final 

stages of the fight. If there are 

shallow margins then boots or 

waders should be used to ensure 

the catfish is landed properly. 

Fishing with someone else is an 

advantage as it can be a big task 

just getting a catfish into the 

landing net – a helping hand is 

always welcome. Be sure to 

check all fins are flat against its 

body and the hook is not in a 

position that will tear its mouth 

when lifted (slacken off). 

ON THE BANK 

Catfish are big so once the fish 

has been landed it should be 

place on a large, wet unhooking 

mat (multiple unhooking mats can 

be used). As a rough guide, a 10lb 

catfish is around 3ft long and a 

60lb specimen can be around 5ft 

long so you can see why you 

need large unhooking areas and 

mats. A weigh sling should be 

wetted and zeroed on a set of 

scales which should be at the 

ready to ensure the catfish is out 

of the water for the minimum 

amount of time. The hook will 

most likely be set in the soft 

corner of the mouth. If you are 

wary of catfish then wearing 

gloves will help protect you 

against Velcro-like teeth – though 

these very rarely hurt the angler. 

Strong forceps or pliers can also 

be a good idea to help remove the 

hook if it is held firm. 

Catfish can feed in hot 

conditions so it is wise to unhook 

and photograph in a shady area, 

and a bucket or two of water 

should be at hand to keep the 

catfish moist. One of the most 

important features of the catfish is 

its whiskers so take extra care to 

not damage them as they help the 

catfish survive. Ensure camera 

equipment is at the ready if you 

want a photograph. Some people 

can be frightened by catfish but 

they are docile and easy to handle 

on the bank if cared for correctly. 

However, they recover quickly if 

retained for a few hours for 

photographing in daylight, and can 

become a proper handful. If your 

catch is particularly lively on the 

bank then covering its eyes will 

help it keep calm. 

RETURNING THE FISH 

The catfish are very powerful 

fighters and will need a short rest 

before being returned. Catfish can 

also become very stressed during a 

capture and a sign of this can be 

seen by them changing colour 

and becoming lighter. If this 

happens then it is paramount to 

return them to the water straight 

away. Because the wels catfish 

has no scales they can get line 

marks during the fight, but these 

are not a long-term damage and 

do fade. Once it is time to return 

the fish, hold it upright in the water 

and allow it to breathe, regain its 

strength and swim off strongly. Do 

not leave a fish unattended and 

take the time to ensure it swims 

off safely. You may need to hold 

and support them in some cases. 

It is very important to respect the 

fish you are fortunate enough to 

catch so that they can give other 

anglers the same joy you have 

experienced. 

CATFISH CARE 

This being a catfish special edition, occasional cat angler 

Dan Williams has a few tips and cat facts for other cat novices. 

More information on catfish care can be found at 

www.catfishconservationgroup.com 

It is important to 

care for all catfish 

regardless of size 

A large 

unhooking 

mat is a 

must 

A big cat is one 

of the hardest 

fighting fish you’ll 

ever encounter 

Catfish are 

usually hooked 

in the corner of 

the mouth – take 

extra care with 

their sensitive 

whiskers 

The wels can live for at 

• 

least 35 years. 

The wels has no scales. 

• 

The wels can be found all 

• 

over Europe. 

The wels is predatory and 

• 

will anything from insects, 

rats, birds to fish. 

The wels prefers to stay in 

• 

sheltered locations but 

can be found in both still 

and flowing water. 

The wels features a total 

• 

of six barbules; two long 

ones on the upper jaw and 

four shorter ones on the 

lower jaw. 

The wels can change their 

• 

colour depending on their 

environment. Dark in clear 

water and pale in turbid 

water. 

Female wels can produce 

• 

up to 30,000 eggs per 

kilogram of body weight. 

When wels spawn they 

• 

use a ‘nest’ positioned in 

tree roots or underwater 

vegetation. 

Wels eggs are around 

• 

3mm in diameter. 

Eggs can take less than 

• 

five days to hatch. 

Only 10% of fry are likely 

• 

to survive. 

Males guard the nest until 

• 

the eggs hatch. 

The average growth rate 

• 

of a UK wels is 1-2lb a 

year. 

The wels can grow to 

• 

nearly 10 feet long and 

weigh more than 330lb in 

rare cases. 

You need special 

• 

permission to stock wels 

in England from the 

Environment Agency and 

DEFRA. 

Young wels (under 30lb) 

• 

flesh can be consumed as 

food. 

Wels eggs are poisonous 

• 

and should not be 

consumed. 

WELS CATFISH FACTS 

The wels can live for at 

least 35 years. 

CATFISH FAC 

DID YOU KNOW..? 

The British record for the 

• 

wels was closed to further 

claims on 23rd October 

2000. 

The wels was introduced 

• 

into the UK more than 100 

years ago. 

The original stocking took 

• 

place at Woburn Abbey in 

Bedfordshire. 

Spain, Italy and France 

• 

have all got established 

wels stocks. 

The wels thrives in warm 

• 

temperatures where there 

is also an abundance of 

food. 

Prey is detected by both 

• 

smell and vibration. 

Although predators, wels 

• 

are also scavengers and 

will eat pretty much 

anything. 

Water temperature is a 

• 

major factor in growth 

rates. 

Wels are ideal for 

• 

controlling the numbers of 

crayfish in a water. 

The Latin name for the 

• 

wels is Silurus glanis 

The wels is one of the 

• 

biggest freshwater fish in 

the world. 

The wels is also known as 

• 

the sheath-fish, sheat-fish 

or giant European catfish. 

The wels is just one of 

• 

thousands of different 

catfish species across the 

world. 

The wels has fantastic 

• 

hearing due to a sound 

amplification system 

called the Weberian 

apparatus. 

The wels has a highly 

• 

developed sense of taste 

due to the whiskers and 

mouth/lips being covered 

in taste buds. 

Once a wels reaches 

• 

around 50lb, it has no 

natural predators. 

Despite their 

fearsome looks, 

wels are usually 

quite docile on 

the bank 

,!7HB3G5-egghfg!:k;o 

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