Last July we told you about 3 lads from Borehamwood who fished Lac Lucie and Darren, Danny and Sam knew they would be returning this year. With Darren and Danny having also been out in March to help us with some of the winter jobs they had already had a stab at Kingfisher, albeit that they spent some nights in the chalet due to the cold. Last week, as well as bringing Sam for his second carp fishing trip they also bought along Dan and Charlie.
It was looking like it was going to be a messy week from the start. Whilst Jo took Darren and Dan to the supermarket to stock up on food and beer for the week, Nigel was supposed to bring the other three back here to start to get the bivvies and tackle set up. They appeared to take the wrong road home and ended up at Le Soleil Couchant, a lovely English run pub on the edge of Lac Lavaud. In fact Jo got home before them and it wasn’t long before she worked out what had happened to the others.
After a leisurely walk round the lake showing the lads where the good fishing spots were we left them to it to get themselves sorted out for the night.
When we went over late Sunday morning it was very quiet, with very little signs of life, even with Maisie sniffing round the bivvies. Darren and Danny were in the third swim on the main bank, with Dan in the first swim and Charlie and Sam on the dam wall. There were a few rods in the morning but the main thing we noticed was the number of beer bottles. It looked like it had been a busy night socialising as they had not spent much time together for a long while.
By 4pm on Sunday they all had 2 rods in each and were set up for the week. With the barbecue and picnic bench down by the first swim they had a place to all get together and cook their meals and socialise whilst still being able to get to their rods if they went off. Danny had run all the way round the lake when he was here in March and had timed it at 45 seconds. With them all being young we reckon they could all do it at least five times as fast as we could!
By Sunday evening the beer supplies were running low and with no fish out they decided that Charlie and Sam would go with Jo to the supermarket on Monday morning. Thinking they had now got enough food and beer for the rest of the week fishing was the main focus.
There were no signs at all on Monday and when we went round late Tuesday morning they were all starting to feel as if they were doing something wrong. Darren, Danny and Dan were all experienced anglers and could pretty much cast to where they wanted but Sam and Charlie were less so and were struggling to hit the spot. Nigel took the bait boat round so they could target their spots more easily and it paid off with two fish out on Tuesday evening. Sam caught a 12lb common and Darren a 37lb common.
Danny also had a run in the night and Darren had to wake him up, telling him he would follow out of the bivvy with the head torch etc. Danny completely misjudged the distance between the bivvy and the swim though and ran straight into the lake, fully dressed and with his sliders on. He told us that he didn’t think he woke up until he was actually in the water and Darren was still laughing when he got back down after changing his clothes. He also sadly lost the fish.
On Wednesday night Charlie managed to land his first fish, eventually as he played it for nearly an hour. At one point they thought it had got snagged up on something on the bottom of the lake so Darren got in to relieve it only for it to swim off again. Many of you will recognise this as typical behaviour of a catfish, where they stop to rest on the bottom of the lake before swimming off again. Charlie wasn’t disappointed with his catch though and eventually they managed to land it. Weighing over 70lb it took two of them to hold it but as they were all awake anyway this was not a problem.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet. They tried some stalking up in the shallows but got nothing from there. Danny and Dan did eventually have one during the week and Darren had this lovely 27lb mirror..
They did run out of beer again on Thursday so we popped them to Montamboeuf to the Spar and a quick drink at Mamie’s bar. On Friday Charlie went with Jo to the supermarket again to get some more meat for that evening an yes, you guessed it, some more beer to have on Friday night.
They packed up on Friday, in the rain, and spent the early evening in the man cave playing pool and darts with Nigel.
Final catch summary is zero babies, 1 at 10lb+, 2 at 20lb, 2 at 30lb+ and 1 catfish weighing over 70lbs.
We have enjoyed having the lads here again and meeting Charlie and Dan for the first time and we hope they will be back again next year. Until the next time à bientôt…
