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RECORDS

History Made at TopCats

Guided by Ben Species 14 in one stay Record Record Equalled

For six years, one number stood at TopCats: 14 species in a single stay, set by Danny Bowkiss. This year, Dan Brindley matched it.

Dan arrived with a plan rather than a wish list — a swim-by-swim strategy built around what tends to feed where and when, worked out with guide Ben before a line even went in. Over the course of the stay the pair worked steadily through the lake’s roll call: carp, catfish species, the smaller predators that often get overlooked in the chase for something bigger.

The 14th species arrived with the stay’s headline fish — a 300lb-plus Arapaima that took the tally level with the record and put Dan’s name alongside Danny Bowkiss’s in TopCats’ own history. Forty-five fish landed in total across the visit, a number that speaks to consistency as much as the record itself.

TopCats marked the result with a free three-night return stay — an invitation Dan has already said he intends to use, this time chasing the outright record rather than matching it.