A friend of mine had been making regular trips to Suriname, on the East coast of South America, in pursuit of lau lau catfish, also known as piraiba, which grow to well in excess of 200 lb and possibly much bigger.

He described screaming takes followed by a race to get the anchor up quickly enough on the boat before this giant catfish spooled you as it tore off downstream.

I knew that to have a chance of landing one of these monsters that I’d need to have tackle that was up to the job, and that it also needed to be stuff that I could easily transport with me to Suriname.

Richard Griffiths at Shimano suggested that I give the Exage 30-50 lb stand-up rods a go and as they are in the travel range they folded down into a case that fitted into my suitcase.

For reels, the TLD25 multipliers were the obvious choice as they hold lots of line and are virtually indestructible. These were loaded with my favourite braid, Power Pro, in 75 kg breaking strain to give me a chance with all the rocks that the river was full of.

We were fishing two different rivers, both set in absolutely stunning, unspoilt rain forest where it was rare to see another person, and we’d be camping on the bank and moving from spot to spot.

The first river we fished was the Copaname, which was an unknown quantity as far as the lau went and we only had a couple of days to find some.

Luckily the spot we chose at the confluence of two rivers where there was a deep hole produced the goods, and after several of my friends had caught fish it was my turn as my TLD25 went into meltdown. And even after striking the fish was taking line so far I wondered if I’d set the lever drag wrong, but the bend in the rod confirmed it was set tight still.

This fish put up a terrific battle and once over it in the boat I really had to use the power of the rod to get it off of the bottom and up to the surface. When it did surface I could see that it was a good one and after we’d lassoed it around the tail – they have jaws that would crush your hand – we went back to shore and weighed it at 162 lb.

A few days later we moved onto the Corantyne River and despite fishing hard for the next ten days I only managed to land one more fish, and although small at 35 lb it was still very welcome as this species is fairly rare and hard to find.

I did manage to lose several fish, to a combination of snags, hookpulls and sharp rocks, but some of my friends fared better, with the best fish being a monster of 199 lb, the second biggest they have caught on their trips.

It was an amazing experience and I hope to go back soon, and when I do I’ll be taking the same tackle as it stood up to everything thrown at it.