Catch Report – 17 September 2017

A fantastic holiday for Angie and Barry Cottrell this week with 9 big carp to 57lb.  An average weight of over 35lb with his smallest being 26lb

Barry shattered his PB on several occasions throughout the week, and Angie, who never fishes, had little choice other than to help out when Barry had a double take on Wednesday.  Barry was doing battle with a lovely 44lb Mirror when his second rod screamed off, that resulted in Angie’s first big carp and an initial PB for her of 33lb, well done Angie.

The weather has continued with it’s changeover to Autumn, daylight hours are slipping away, mornings are definitely getting a touch chilly and regular showers are routinely breaking up the warm sunny afternoons, but, the lake is still lovely and warm, the bloodworm beds are still active, and the fish are in to their pre-winter feed up.

Barry was only intending to fish days, and casual days at that, he did say that he only ever saw 8.30am once throughout the week.  The second time was Saturday morning when they needed to be on the road by 6am.

He started his session on Sunday on swim 4 and it started very slowly, he spent a lot of time watching the action to his left in swim 6 and to his right in swims 2 and 3.  His patience was rewarded though when his first and only fish from swim 4 pushed the scales around to 57lb.

To say that he was VERY VERY VERY HAPPY would still have been the understatement of the week !!!!

The fish were fizzing away everywhere in swims 5 and 6, central lake, quite obviously feeding away in the silt.  Barry couldn’t resist the potential of more action so he made the decision to move up to swim 6.

Unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong decision and the fish were having none of it, he could not get them away from the naturals.  He did try for a couple of days though and at the same time the fish activity continued in swims 2 and 3 with fish boshing out on a regular basis.

By Wednesday morning he was set up in swim 2 and finally he had found the fish !!!

4 fish in 4 hours with a 53, a 41, Angie’s 33 and then ending the session with a 44 pounder.  Happy days.

I did say to Barry that they might not be there again in the morning as you do have to feed them plenty to get them to stay in one place.  He loaded up with a pile of bait and luckily when he got down to the lake on Thursday they were still around and he had another 4 fish session.

But by Friday they were on the move in to swims 3 and 4 and that was it for the week.

Barry persisted just in case and sat there enjoying the quiet and the surroundings, and Angie was sat out enjoying the afternoon sun.  Happy days again.

Their final tally was:

Zero Babies, Zero Doubles,  2 @ 26lb,   1 @ 33lb,   1 @ 35lb,   1 @ 38lb,   1 @ 41lb,   1 @ 44lb,   1 @ 53lb and Barry’s new PB at 57lb.

You are going to have to go some to beat that Barry.

A lovely couple and a pleasure to have around the place, Helen and I are looking forward to hosting them again next year when they will be back for another go, hopefully Angie will be up for having a proper go and catching her second Big Carp.

PS.  Sorry about the gas !!

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Availability Update

It is that time of year again when lots of people are trying to find somewhere for their next fishing trip on the hunt for big carp in France.  Unfortunately I am having to turn everyone down, my availability as of today is :

2017

October the 14th only

2018

Fully Booked

2019

June the 29th

October the 19th and the 26th

2020

The calendar for 2020 will open on the 1st of December 2017, please book early to avoid disappointment.

Please share this information with anyone who you think may be interested in any of the above dates.

 

Catch Report – 10 September 2017

Clive and the lads last fished here in 2015 and their catch report headline then was :  57 big carp to 51lb, could they do it again ?

Well, guess what ?  They only went and bettered it, 68 big carp to 54lb was the tally for this session and they must have dropped at least 20 between them.

6 lads, all from the Coventry area and they flew in on my all-inclusive package, actually there were 6 bodies but in practice that amounted to about 4 and a half anglers.

The boys didn’t try anything fancy either, they used my kit, my bait, and simple rigs, it was all about finding the fish, consistent baiting, and good presentation.

Martin confesses quite happily that he is not a Carper so he really comes along for a nice relaxing week with his mates.  He did give it a go though and spent a couple of hours each day down on the lake, he hooked in to one big-un which ran him ragged for 5 minutes before he got it snagged up and lost it.  He hooked in to another which he managed to control and land which was a nice little Mirror at 25lb.

Clive was the trip organiser and I said to him on several occasions that he spoils the other guys, he organises the trip, he does the shopping, most of the cooking, he delivers food to their swims,  I nick-named him  “Head Chef and Bottle Washer”.

Unfortunately all of that is to the detriment of the amount of time that Clive manages to have on his rods, but having said that I think he actually enjoys keeping the lads organised, he still had a fantastic time and managed 7 lovely carp to 35lb:

Bill also helped out with the day to day chores and he shared swim 5 with Clive so when one of them was away from the swim the other could man the rods.  Bill’s tally for the session was 6 carp to 46lb:

Joe fished swim 6 and that is where most of the action has been this week, unfortunately, with the exception of Thursday night Joe was only fishing day shifts, but despite this he still managed to find 15 nice carp with his best going over 43lb :

Paul (or Tat to his mates) started of the week on swim 3 and from the off he was adamant that he would not move swims, I never move swims he claimed on more than 1 occasion.

Unfortunately, Tat was putting in the hours on the bank but swim 3 was just not producing the goods this week.  He also had to sit and watch Joe bashing fish out of swim 6 with half the man hours that he was committing to swim 3.

By Thursday he had only managed 3 fish from swim 3 so on Thursday afternoon he broke his golden rule and he moved swims to accompany Joe on swim 6.  He had his first fish in the bag at around 1700hrs and went on to catch another 13 over the next 48 hours, giving him a total of 17 big carp.

Tat went on to smash his PB with a 44 and a 46 but then smashed it again when he landed the biggest carp of the session at 54lb.

Will he move swims in the future ?  Only time will tell, but if nothing else it proves that if the fish are not in front of you then you can’t catch them so you should always study the fish and the water and be prepared to move if necessary.

Finally, Marcus, he was Top Rod last visit and took that honour again this year.  He started off in swim 4 where he was last time and he stayed there all week just chipping away at his chosen spots.  Despite having a couple of very quiet periods, and dropping several fish, his persistence paid off in the end and he finished his week with a very impressive 21 big carp to 45lb.

Well done once again Marcus:

I am sure that if Paul had started off on swim 6 with Joe and Joe was able to fish nights the Lads would have gone over the 100 barrier, but Hey-Ho, maybe next time.  Their final tally for this session was :

Zero Babies,  2 Doubles at 14lb 12oz and 19lb 08oz,   3 @ 20lb,   1 @ 22lb,   2 @ 23lb,   7 @ 24lb,   3 @ 25lb,   2 @ 26lb,   7 @ 27lb,   2 @ 28lb,   2 @ 29lb,   2 @ 30lb,   3 @ 31lb,   2 @ 32lb,   8 @ 33lb,   1 @ 34lb,   4 @ 35lb,   1 @ 36lb,   2 @ 37lb,   2 @ 38lb,   3 @ 39lb,   2 @ 40lb,   1 @ 41lb,   1 @ 43lb,   1 @ 44lb,   1 @ 45lb,   2 @ 46lb and 1 at 54lb.

All-in-all a fantastic week and we are looking forward to hosting them again in 2020.

I still have that unexpected vacancy for the 14th – 21st of October this year just in case this has got your juices flowing and you fancy a session before the Winter sets in.  If so give me a call or send me a message.

Unexpected Availability – 14 Oct 2017

Due to unfortunate circumstances the week of the 14th to the 21st of October 2017 has suddenly become available.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity please contact me at your earliest convenience.  Contact number is 0033 555 48 69 74.

If you are not able to take advantage but you know of someone who would like to please pass this information on.

Catch Report – 03 September 2017

A much better session for Charlie and Elaine this week, 13 lovely big carp to 45lb.

The weather has been on the change this week and the fishing pattern changed with it.

The mornings and nights are drawing in at a rapid rate and although the hot weather continued at the start of the week by the end of the week Autumn had most definitely arrived, Thursday morning at 0730hrs it was a very chilly +10C, brrrrrgh!!

I took Charlie for a walk around on Saturday afternoon when he arrived, it was very hot and sunny, and the fish were everywhere.  There was a large shoal ripping up the shallows of swims 1 and 2,  there were fish feeding and showing throughout the silty areas of swims 3 and 4, and there were dozens of them sunbathing in swims 5 and 6.

There were so many fish showing across the whole lake that I must confess that I would have been hard-pushed to decide where to fish myself.  It was very reassuring for me to see them all though as sometimes I forget just how many big carp are in my lake.

Charlie has a tendency to move around a lot from swim to swim and ordinarily he does not fish nights, so if the fish continued to feed around the same timings that I reported on last week he was going to struggle to put together a decent catch.

He elected to fish swim 4, giving himself a central point to start from, he got himself organised on Saturday evening with a view to having an early start on Sunday morning.

On Sunday I made sure that Charlie was aware of the catch timings from last week and as a consequence both He and Elaine decided to get adventurous and fish through the night.   Charlie spent all day on Sunday feeding up his spots in front of swim 4 and at 0600hrs on Monday morning he was in to his first fish, a very nice Mirror at 44lb.

What did Charlie do next ?  he moved swims to swim 3 !

Charlie then spent all day feeding up new spots in front of swim 3 and at 0200hrs on Tuesday morning he was in to his second fish, another lovely Mirror at 36lb.

What did Charlie do next ? he moved swims to swim 6 !

By this point Charlie was rapidly running out of mornings and if he continued at this rate he was destined to end up with around 5 fish for the week, he was using loads of bait but not staying anywhere long enough to benefit from it.  Both Elaine and myself managed to persuade him to make a stand in swim 6.

He spent all day on Tuesday feeding up his new spots on swim 6 and on Wednesday morning it all paid off, 3 lovely fish, but look at the timings:  0635, 0640, 0725.

No more fish for the rest of the day but he stayed put and continued to feed his spots, once again come Thursday morning he reaped the reward with a fish at 0150hrs and another at 0850hrs.

What was very noticeable was the change in the weather, it had been cooling down from Tuesday and we had already seen a few showers.  But on Thursday morning it was cold, or at least it felt very cold when compared to the weather we have been enjoying for so long.

The sun stayed behind the clouds all day, the breeze increased enough to put a ripple on the water, Charlie continued to feed his spots, and at 2015hrs he had his 3rd fish of the day, a very pleasant surprise.

The cooler weather continued and on Friday morning it was down to +6C, but what a change it had made to the fish feeding habits.  Charlie’s first fish of the day was at 3am, the next at 1215pm, then 1250pm, 3.40pm and the last one for the week arrived at 5pm.

That was the way to finish a session.

In between the carp action Elaine had been doing some sprat bashing which included a little chub which I can only imagine has come out of the stream, and Charlie had had an argument with a pike, so the final tally was:

Loads of roach, rudd and a chub, nearly 1 pike,  Zero babies,  Zero doubles,  2 @ 24lb,   3 @ 25lb,   1 @ 26lb,   1 @ 30lb,   1 @ 32lb,   1 @ 34lb,   1 @ 36lb,   1 @ 39lb,   1 @ 44lb and 1 at 45lb.

A very respectable result and everyone enjoyed themselves, even Elaine enjoyed a bit of life under the stars.

Charlie and Elaine are back for another session in 2019, and I am sure that the night skies are very lovely in June Elaine.

 

 

 

Catch Report – 27 August 2017

A fantastic family holiday with some great fishing and what a result:

50 big carp up to 56lb.

The weather has continued to be perfect for a family holiday combined with fishing for big carp, and these guys are serious carpers, very well organised, and they come well prepared for every eventuality:

That is granddad Richard in his normally relaxed position and little Ana giving us all the thumbs up for what has been a great holiday.

Richard took  a slightly more relaxed attitude than everyone else and settled for swim 3 throughout this session.  He lost a lot of fish due to the stone bars but he did manage to land 8 with his best being a lovely Common at 51lb.

These guys get the balance just right, mornings are reserved for family admin such as shopping if required, well done Natasha, hot afternoons are reserved for swimming in the pool or trips out to local events and tourist sites, but once the heat of the day starts to subside they are back down on to the lake for their next session, and don’t be mistaken, they are all down there, every night, including the girls.

Ana is still a bit young for fishing so she just entertains herself and everyone else.

Isabelle on the other hand is taking after Mum and Dad, she might be only 9 years old and she might only fish with small sized kit but believe me “She Can Do It”, and she takes her fishing seriously.  Her new PB is now 47lb

It won’t be long before she is pushing Chris and Natasha for the family PB, which after this session now stands at 56lb.

Chris and Natasha are very competitive between themselves, albeit in a very lighthearted way,  their drive to out perform each other and hold the family PB ensures that they catch fish, and plenty of them.

Natasha reclaimed the family PB when she landed a beautiful Mirror at 52lb:

Unfortunately her victory was short lived as Chris pushed the boundary a little higher on Wednesday and increased the family PB to 56lb.

Chris and Natasha had to settle for a draw at 18 each.  Natasha managed to catch the smallest Carp of the year so far, in fact it is the smallest carp for a few years, a lovely little home grown Common at 12lb.  Unfortunately there was not an award for such a catch but there was for the biggest carp of the session and here is Ana and Isabelle watching on as Daddy graciously accepts his award for the Biggest Carp from Mummy:

Chris and Natasha are used to doing this sort of thing but Isabelle is not, so for a truly remarkable performance, the like of which I know many of you would be pleased with, Isabelle was awarded Top Rod for her catch of 1 @ 25lb, 1 @ 31lb,  1 @ 32lb,  2 @ 36lb and 1 @ 47lb :

Well done indeed !!

Their final tally was:

Zero Babies,  2 Doubles at 12lb and 15lb,  1 @ 21lb,  1 @ 22lb,  1 @ 24lb,  4 @ 25lb,  2 @ 26lb,  3 @ 27lb,  4 @ 28lb,  3 @ 29lb,  1 @ 30lb,  3 @ 31lb,  5 @ 32lb,  1 @ 33lb,  1 @ 34lb,  1 @ 35lb,  3 @ 36lb,  2 @ 37lb,  1 @ 39lb,  1 @ 40lb,  2 @ 41lb,  1 @ 42lb,  2 @ 43lb,  1 @ 44lb,  1 @ 47lb,  1 @ 51lb,  1 @ 52lb and the new family PB at 56lb.

We will not be seeing these guys again until August 2019 as we could not fit them in for next year but who knows, by then Isabelle could well be holding the family PB.

STATS

For those of you who wish to carry on reading I have some more of my very interesting stats.

I know that I nag on a bit sometimes at you guys who only fish days and then moan at me because all is quiet during the afternoons so I have decided to start keeping some detailed stats.

Although I can only give you the stats if you give me accurate catch sheets, and of course I can only use the stats provided by groups who fish 24/7, and these guys certainly did.

I have broken this session down in to days as : 8am – 7pm,  and nights as : 8pm – 7am.

Days:

A total of 14 fish,   nothing at 8am, 4 fish between 9 – 11am, a spike of 3 fish at Noon, 4 between 1 – 2pm, and only 3 between 3pm and 7pm.

That is 10 rods for 2 weeks which averages out to 0.7 fish per rod per week.  Or 2.1 fish per average angler per week fishing days only with 3 rods.

During this period 100s of fish could be seen sunbathing around the lake, particularly during the afternoons.

Nights:

By comparison, a total of 36 fish.  1 at 8pm,  2 at 9pm,  1 at 10pm,  3 at 11pm,  2 at mid night,  2 at 1am,  3 at 2am,  4 at 3am,  5 at 4am,  with a spike of 7 at 6am, dropping back off to 2 at 7am and the zero at 8am.

That is 10 rods for 2 weeks which averages out as 1.8 fish per rod per week.  Or 5.5 fish per average angler per week fishing nights only with 3 rods.

Needless to say that an average angler fishing 24/7 would catch 7.6 fish per week.

Helen keeps a massive data base of all catch reports dating back for 5 years and the data shows an average catch per angler per 24 hour day/night session is 1.036 fish.  That is 7.25 fish per week.

That proves that this session of 50 fish to 56lb has been typically average,  Chris and Natasha both exceeded the average whereas granddad and little Isabelle both fell slightly short.

Make of this what you will but I feel that it is worthy of note.  Please share it with anyone who you think may find it of interest and I hope that you consider the data in time for your next session.

Interim Catch Report – 20 August 2017

As promised, an interim catch report this week as Chris and Natasha are here for 2 weeks on a family trip which includes daughters Isabelle and Ana and granddad Richard.

The weather has been great for both fishing and family outings; plenty of lovely sunshine but not too hot, an occasional shower but not too wet.  Pleasantly average is a good description.

The trip has not quite gone according to plan as Chris has been quite ill for several days which involved a trip to hospital by mid-week, but thankfully the french health system gave him a thorough going over and pumped him full of antibiotics and he is now back on form, and more importantly, back on the rods.

As usual these guys know how to balance a family holiday with a fishing holiday so it is a win win for all of them, and most importantly, everyone is catching.

Natasha has managed 4 up to 33lb, granddad Richard has managed 5 up to 51lb, Chris has managed 11 up to 44lb, little Ana is just busy catching anything and everything that she can catch with a net, but the star of the show is big sister Isabelle who managed her first big carp at 32lb.

The weather forecast is for much of the same for the remainder of their holiday with lows in the mid teens and highs in the mid 30s, a spot or 2 of rain but generally dry and sunny.

I will let you know how they get on with their final catch report next Sunday.