Two couples on the lake this week, Keith and Jayne and Malcolm and Karen, they have all been before and were hoping for a re-run of their last session, alas it was not to be, but despite all of the challenges the end result was not bad at all:
16 Big Carp to 72lb
Another week with no 20s on the catch sheet which is great to see, in fact those 16 big carp weighed in at over 710lb with an average weight of 44lb 6oz, nice.
The weird weather patterns have continued throughout the week and once again that has disturbed the fish, the water temperature has not exceeded 12 degrees all week and the fish are still shoaled up together.
When the Guys arrived on Saturday the weather was quite balmy, warm and sunny, one could have been forgiven for thinking that summer had arrived early, unfortunately the clear skies overnight resulted in a serious frost on Sunday and as the day progressed the wind turned around to the north and it got cold, freezing cold, again!!
Monday and Tuesday saw much of the same but by Wednesday the weather changed again, the wind turned to southerlies, the cloud started to gather and the rain made its first appearance. At best it could be described as an unpleasant week, for The Girls it was a disaster, no hanging around the swimming pool this year.
The Boys had a simple plan they were going to do it the same as last time. the only difference was they swopped swims, so Keith was in swim 4 taking on the right-hand half of the lake and Malcolm was in swim 5 taking on the left-hand side of the lake.
It transpired that Malcolm had the better half of the deal, the weather forced the fish up into the deeper water and as a consequence he had a very consistent catch. Not masses but enough to keep him occupied, he ended up taking the Top Rod award with 9 big carp and he also took the Big Fish award when he hooked in to Odin who pushed the scales to 72lb:
It could have been a better result for Malcolm as he also dropped at least 4 more.
Keith looked as though he was going to be OK but then he wasn’t, he had found a very nice 43lb Mirror out of swim 4 on Sunday but as the cold weather settled in and the wind turned to the north the fish decided that deeper water was the place to be.
He sat on swim 4 for the next 2 days freezing his **** off but eventually he had to accept defeat and he decided to go for a dabble in swim 6, and what a dabble, 4 big carp in 24 hours.
Strangely, after having found the fish he decided to return to swim 4, and guess what ? Yes, you got it!!!
Having sat on swim 4 for another 36 hours he decided, on Friday morning, to have one final dabble in swim 6 before packing up on Friday afternoon, and guess what ? Yes, you got it again !!
2 gorgeous Mirrors to end his session, that gave him a total of 7 with his best going to 54lb 04oz:
Once again it truly demonstrates my first rule “find the fish”, if the fish are not there you ain’t catching them, it doesn’t matter who you are, what bait you use, if the fish ain’t there they ain’t there. All in all though it was quite a good session and their final tally was :
Zero Babies, zero Doubles, zero Twenties, 1 @ 33, 2 @ 34lb, 1 @ 35lb, 1 @ 37lb, 1 @ 38lb, 1 @ 43lb, 2 @ 45lb, 3 @ 46lb, 1 @ 49lb, 1 @ 50lb, 1 @ 54lb, 1 @ 72lb
The Boys packed up on Friday afternoon and we managed to get all of their kit packed away or at least under cover before the real rain started. They were all away nice and early on Saturday morning to reach their ferry crossings and that left Me and Helen waiting for the proper rain.
Half of France was on storm alert and it was going to be of biblical proportions, proper launching The Ark stuff. And guess when it arrived ? Yes, just as the next group arrived !!! More of that next week.
Till then, take care.
Le Moulin de Graffeuil 