Chris has been to France carp fishing for many years and used to go with some friends but in recent years his wife, Ingrid has been with him to help and support and enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with fishing, away from the hectic life of a care worker which Jo understands well. This year Ingrid’s daughter, Sarah also came along for a break from everyday life. The weather forecast before they came was not looking very hopeful but with no anglers on Kingfisher for the past few weeks we were optimistic that Chris would land some good fish.
Chris chose to set up on the first swim nearest the chalet and had chosen to have Nigel’s maple syrup boilies and using a bed of maize and parti-blend. He had bought his own bait boat with him to help with getting everything out to where he wanted it and fished over towards the aerator, in the trees over on the far bank and under the willow tree.
Nigel puts some bait in when the lakes are empty so that the carp still have something nutritious to hunt for but this is generally spread out along the far bank rather than in particular spots and Sunday saw nothing until the evening when Chris landed a 51lb catfish. Chris was obviously not a big fan of the ‘slugs’. It was not what he had come here for but it was a start.
Monday was dry but cloudy and Chris was down by the lake early ready to go again. He was rewarded with two mirrors by the end of the day weighing 47lb 7oz and 31lb 5oz and had Ingrid and Sarah on hand to gilly for him.
The weather was not great on Tuesday with rain all day but it wasn’t cold and the fish were evidently enjoying the piles of bait. Chris had a 20lb 4oz common at 10.15 but that was it for the day. It looked like it might be one of those weeks where one fish a day got to the net.
The weather was drier on Wednesday and the sun even appeared from time to time and Chris a baby common at 9lb at around 11ish which he told us about so that we could move it into our stock pond. This was followed by 3 more over the course of the day, a 38lb 6oz, a 15lb 3ozand a 39lb 8oz to finish the day off. The fish were obviously finding Chris’s piles of bait.
Thursday saw a drier day again and a further two carp weighing 34lb 7oz and 48lb 5oz and on Friday Chris caught three more, 14lb, 18lb 2oz and 30lb 4oz. Chris reckoned that the fish have specific feeding times as he was regularly getting bites at similar times during the day! Most of his fish were caught on the rod near to the aerator and although he did try to move up a swim on one day he found that most of the action was where he had fished from the first swim so moved back there.
Over the course of the week Nigel enjoyed spending time with Chris, who has a wealth of knowledge about tree management and they discussed the different trees we have here and the best way of looking after them, as well as the best time to prune rhododendrons etc.
Chris had booked the lake for ten days as he likes to make sure he has unwound properly after a long drive from mid Wales and have some good time fishing before heading back across the Channel. This meant that when Saturday came around again he did not have to worry about packing everything up but still had a good three days fishing left.
Chris only fished during the day and a few hours into darkness, preferring the comfort of the chalet for the night. The three of them enjoyed a few meals out including a visit to Camping de l’etang at Le Lindois about 5 minutes away, where they had a lovely French meal
Saturday saw a further two mirrors, a 31lb 7oz and a 28lb 8oz landed and on Sunday just the one, a 19lb common which will grow on to be a stunning fish in the future.
And Monday came around, Chris’ final day fishing and we just happened to be there when this lovely 26lb 8oz common was caught.
And Chris followed that up with a 46lb 7oz, a 36lb 4oz and a 17lb 1oz, so a great day to finish up with.
So the final summary for not a bad ten days fishing was 1 baby, 3 at 10lb+, 5 at 20lb+, 7 at 30lb+, 3 at 40lb+ and 1 catfish at 51lb. We hope that Chris, Ingrid and Sarah enjoyed their time with us and that we will see them again one day. Until the next time à bientôt….
