Dave asked me to do a write up on my week on the Etang de Janine, I have never wrote any sort of carp fishing experience so here it is, apologise in advance for my clumsy writing.
I took my mate who doesn’t carp fishing he just wanted to chill out and see what all the fuss was about in this mad world of carp fishing.
Dave let us use the cabin, which was brilliant, the lake was very weedy which wasn’t a problem as I brought my own boat, which to be honest Dave’s unhooking mat was bigger. The boat was the Fox 160 tiny but I loved easy to manoeuvre and easy to inflate.
I used my Ford ecosport 1lt to transport all our gear we where very comfortable.
Back to the fishing, I found clear spots the depths were 7 to 8 feet.
I brought 2 kilo of essential cell and used my trusted fluorocarbon hook line knotlesss knot straight through. 2 x 18 ml boilie’s, bottom baits it always work’s for me (a confidence thing). First night a couple of decent carp 28 and a 32 mirror and common, confidence was high.
The carp were not to difficult to get through the weed, I was using 15 lb mono with a 15 lb hook link in line leads.
The next few nights followed a routine of catching a couple of fish. We out went out for the day a couple of beers in the local areas of Tours, Le Mans and Vendome which I would highly recommend.
The food Dave did was well worth it, really nice choice he’s a top bloke comes for a chat and he has done a fantastic job of the lake. Its a natural lovely lake, facilities were great for us as we had the lake too ourselves. Back to the fishing, I was lucky enough to catch a couple of 40 plus, a fair few 30’s and 1 x 50 mirror which Dave filmed and a 1 x 50 common. Lost count of the fish, I did lose a huge one which was definitely a catfish, I caught 3 catfish, no size lost 3 carp. I used 7 nash claw barbless hooks my choice.
Now to the disasters we sailed from Plymouth as I live in Cornwall, it’s 50 minutes from my house as we arrived in Plymouth, I was looking for my passport and then I realised I left it on my car roof when I was sorting my stuff out. So that was it we weren’t going, the look on my mates face said it. We drove back as fast as we could in case by a miracle it was found. We came down the road right next to where I lived and it was there.
I drove back to Plymouth and obviously we made it by the skin of our teeth.
So I started fishing on the first day and my line was snagged up in the weed so I went out in Dave’s boat, I got the rod back no problem, it was caught and old line so I was pulling the line in and I heard a noise, not taking much notice I got the line in and yep my rod had gone over board. To say we searched for it was understatement. It was never found and I snapped a rod when I was beaten up by a catfish, luckily I had 2x spare rods.
I would recommend Etang de janine to anyone who wants to catch a 50 plus as there are carp up to 74 and a couple of 60.
Really really nice place with Dave to look after you what more could you want.
Ps I gave my mate one go only and he had a 44 mirror, I was more excited than him.
He won’t be taking up carp fishing but he would go back as he really enjoyed France and the days out we had.
Here are some pictures.
