Greg Sire has qualified for the France Cup at Bethune in the North of France after catching around 200 tiny catfish for a section-winning 6.34kg.

This species of catfish (poisson chat) is now extremely common in many French venues. They are an invasive species and much smaller than the Wels Catfish common in Britain. They are also notoriously tricky to handle due to their prickly spines!

“I caught catfish on the bottom at 12.5, 11.5 and five metres and fed casters and chopped worm in a heavy groundbait and leam mix,” Greg explained. “Any bream or carp type groundbait is normally good with worms, sweetcorn or two or three red maggots on a strong but fine size 14 hook. A heavy 3g to 4g pole float is also ideal to get the hook bait quickly to the bottom where the catfish live.”