Another group of new Boys on the lake this week and they have been up against it, the headline result is not a bad one but they had to graft for it:
23 Big Carp to 44lb 08oz
From left to right meet Andy, Martin and Dave:
As is becoming the norm this season the weather is causing problems. Last week it was cool and overcast, and we recorded the coldest ever August day on the Tuesday, but it was warming up nicely towards the end of the week.
Well by the time our new guests arrived on Saturday afternoon it was baking hot and it just got hotter as the week went on and as a consequence we have recorded the highest ever temperatures for September.
It is not just the fish that are confused, the grass, the trees, everything is confused as one minute they all think it is the height of Summer and then the next it is more like late Autumn.
I took The Boys for their guided tour on Saturday and there were fish everywhere, a large shoal in swims 2 and 3, and an equally large shoal fizzing away up in swims 5 and 6. The Boys settled for Dave in swim 4 fishing the right side of the lake and Martin and Andy sharing swim 5 to fish the left side of the lake.
Well, Dave must have thought that all his Xmas’s had come at once as he was straight in to fish without having to do too much work, the big shoal that was in swims 2 and 3 at the end of the last session were still there and they were hungry, Dave slipped the net under his first fish before 7pm on Saturday, that must be almost a record.
Dave went on to land another 7 on Sunday while Martin and Andy could do nothing other than watch.
By Monday the sun was burning and things were getting hotter and Dave’s shoal was starting to move about. Dave found what was going to be his last 3 from that spot, Martin had found his first fish from swim 6 and Andy had already made the move to swim 2 where he found 4 lovely fish.
Everyone was off the mark but it was around this time that I could not keep up with who was fishing where so I gave up, every time I went down to the lake there were different rods in different swims.
On Tuesday I found rods in 1, rods in 2, rods in 4, rods in 5, and rods in 6. Dave had 1 fish out of 2, Martin had 1 fish out of 2 and 2 fish out of 6, and Andy had 1 fish out of 6 and 1 fish out of 2.
By Wednesday the sun was burning and the fish were sunbathing and all the action just stopped, despite plenty of fizzing up in the deep swims the fish were having nothing of what The Boys had on offer.
The remainder of the week was the same story with the one exception when Martin found the last fish of the session on swim 6 during the late afternoon on Thursday.
The Boys spent the last 3 days of their session just watching sunbathing fish but I still cannot figure out why there was nothing doing from dusk until dawn, which is normally the case at this time of year.
Dave took the Top Rod award with a total of 12 big carp with his best going to 44lb 08oz:
Andy slipped in to second place with 6 lovely carp to 41lb 15oz:
And Martin had to settle for 3rd with 5 fish and his best only going to 31lb 08oz:
Somewhere in amongst all that it got a bit exciting when both Andy and Martin showed that being together is best :
All in all this has been a session of 2 absolutely different halves, and their final tally was :
Zero Babies, zero Doubles, 1 @ 21lb, 1 @ 26lb, 3 @ 27lb, 2 @ 30lb, 3 @ 31lb, 2 @ 32lb, 2 @ 33lb, 1 @ 40lb, 4 @ 41lb, 2 @ 43lb and 2 at 44lb.
The Boys took it all on the chin and word has it that they are already planning a return visit in 2026, Helen and I look forward to that.
We have one of our regulars on the bank this week but the weather is already forecast to be challenging, when they arrived yesterday the temperature was over 38C and it will be again today but we are forecast a major storm overnight on Monday and all day on Tuesday, that will be followed by a cooler week for the remainder of the session.
Watch this space and I will let you know how they get on next weekend.
Till then, take care.
Le Moulin de Graffeuil 