Paul, Michael, Oliver and Thomas had fished Kingfisher in 2023 and gone away with several PBs and plenty of soakings. This year they left Kiona at home and bought Dave with them, a family friend who had not done much carp fishing for several years but was obviously very fond of the lads and the banter was nearly as good as when Paul had fished here in June with two other friends, commonly known as ‘The Calendar Boys’.
We were hoping that with 5 experienced, albeit young, anglers on the lake the fish would have nowhere to hide, especially as the previous few weeks there had only been one or two people fishing. As last year, Paul and Thomas took the house swim, closest to the chalet and Michael and Oliver went down onto swims 2 and 3. Dave set himself up on the dam wall, exactly where Nigel had fished for a couple of nights the week before
Oliver arrived with a bit of an ear infection so couldn’t hear (or ignored) most of the others but was first to catch on the first night with a 62lb catfish which ended up being the biggest of the week.
Oliver also caught a 43lb and a 36lb mirror in the first few days but then he had nothing for the rest of the week but kept hoping and enjoyed being involved when the others were catching and helping them out.
Dave was second off the mark with a 22lb catfish and got his rods quickly back out for more but ended up with some big issues with his reels which kept braking, even though they were new. He persevered though and finally landed a 56lb catfish with a lot of support and cheering from the others as well as a 43lb mirror.
Michael consistently caught throughout the week with a good mixture of commons, mirrors and cats and 7 fish on the bank in total. he even did a bit of stalking down the far end of the lake and caught a roach. These were his biggest three
Paul took some time to get started, because he was helping everyone else, probably….but finally on Tuesday he had his first fish out, an 18lb cat. Funnily enough it was Tuesday that he caught his first one when he came in June, as Thomas reminded us. Later in the week Paul had a go at stalking down in the shallows and landed a lovely 31lb common.
And finally Thomas, who knew exactly who had caught what, how much each fished weighed and what time it had been caught. As well as about 24 little roach which he caught down at the shallow end stalking spots he also had 3 carp, two commons weighing 30lb and 33lb and a mirror at 27lb. The biggest common was one of the last fish of the trip and a new PB for him so he got a soaking, just before they were about to pack the truck back up to go home.
So why the title? At tea one evening, Thomas was telling us that he had found a bank stick on the far side of the lake. Nigel suggested that it was one he used to mark where the crayfish traps are and asked what it was made of. Thomas told him it was wood which confused us all. Paul explained what a bank stick was and Thomas said he hadn’t known that and his ‘bank stick’ was just a stick he had found on the bank. Never will we look at them in the same light again!
So, fishing was not as good as it had been last year but they all had some great fish out and some fun times and they all slept well on the way home. All fish were caught on our house boilies (maple syrup and spicy fish flavours) with a bed of pellets and parti-blend and using our hookers and glug in matching flavours.
The final report of the week was 0 babies, 1 at 10lb+, 3 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 2 at 40lb+ as well as 6 cats up to 62lb and oh….and about 24 roach.
We will look forward to seeing you all again next year, especially as Chris from Paul’s June trip will be on Lac Lucie at the same time so à bientôt….
