Tom, Curtis and their partners, Tia and Sophie joined us from Somerset this week for their first carp fishing trip to France. They flew from Bristol to La Rochelle, hired a car and drove the couple of hours to us, arriving at about 7.30pm.
Keen to get started the lads quickly got their bivvies and tackle set up on the main house swim and piled in a good bed of our pellets, parti-blend and crushed boilies and by the time the ladies had unpacked and got their tea ready they had their rods in the water. They had a mix of maple syrup and spicy fish boilies and were using PVA bags and some hard hookers of both flavours too.
And their baiting up seemed to work as that first night Tom had landed a 81lb 8oz catfish at about midnight and Curtis had caught a 33lb mirror around 1am and they were happy that they had got off the mark so quickly and with new PBs so went off to the chalet to sleep the night.
The weather was quite cool at the beginning of the week for them and the girls enjoyed sitting by the lake and reading and keeping the lads company. Sunday was a quiet day on the lake but they had just come back from the supermarket on Monday morning when we popped round to see them, just in time to see Curtis landing his first ever catfish at 47lb 8oz and get a photo of all the group together with it…even if the girls were not so keen!
On Monday evening the couple from the Lac Lucie went round to see them for a few beers and found out that they had people in common that they knew. Whilst they were there Curtis had another catfish weighing 71lb and Tom had a 42lb 6oz common, more new PBs.
By Tuesday the temperatures had started to rise and the lads thought they would let the lake rest for the day and went out with the girls to La Vallée des Singes, which is about an hour from us. We have not yet visited this but they were so impressed with the amount of space the monkeys have and the fact that you can walk in with some of them that we are going to take the grandchildren there in a couple of weeks time when they visit (and probably our children too!).
The other place they visited this week was the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, a village near Limoges which was completely destroyed during the Second World War. We have been here a few times and it really is a very moving experience as nearly all of the inhabitants were killed and the village left as it was on that day. It gives you an understanding of how difficult it must have been to live in occupied France at that time.
By the end of the week the temperatures reached 30 degrees and the ladies spent much of their time by the pool on the sun loungers. The lads changed to fishing more through the night as there were fewer signs during the day but all enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the lake and its surroundings.
They both went onto have 3 more carp and several more cats but not as big as they had caught in the cooler temperatures at the start of the week.
The final catch report for the week was 0 babies, 0 at 10lb+, 1 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+ and 1 at 40lb+ with 8 or 9 catfish up to 81lb 8oz. Not bad for a first trip to France.
Unfortunately their trip home was affected by airline issues but they appeared to have had a great week with us and we hope they got home safely and that we will see them again some day. Until then à bientôt….
