Steve has been coming to France carp fishing for a number of years with various members of his family and he and his dad, Dave, like to book a good long session so that they can take their time and rest the lake regularly and just enjoy being away and fishing. This year they also bought Steve’s son, Ben, for the first week. Last year they had been over here fishing in August and Dave, our eldest angler so far at 83, found it a bit warm, hence booking for the last few weeks of the season.
Steve and Dave had driven down, staying somewhere en route on the Friday night and arriving on Saturday afternoon. Steve then raced off to the airport to collect Ben and returned via the supermarket. As they were here for the long haul they waited until Sunday morning to get set up, with Ben on the far swim on the side bank and Steve and Dave on the main bank. Dave has a mobility scooter and used the side ramp to get down to the lake but most of the time managed to get to where he needed to be with it.
The fish seemed to be mainly at the top end, under the willow for the first few days, ideally located for Ben and by the end of the first day he had caught the first fish, a 27lb common.
It is always good to see someone off the mark on the very first day and with Ben only here for one of the three weeks everyone was pleased he had caught the first fish.
But so it continued and week one proved to be The Ben Show with a 47lb common out in the early hours of Monday morning, giving him a good slap on the chin whilst he was holding it. This was followed by five further fish on the same day, a 35lb 10oz common, a 24lb 8oz common, which we were there to see, a 15lb 12oz common, a 27lb mirror and a 30lb common.
We thought perhaps he would give his dad or grandad a turn on the Tuesday but it was not to be and all Steve could send us was a photo of his empty cradle although he did join in one of Ben’s photos just to prove he was here too. Ben went onto catch a further three big carp, a common weighing 25lb, and mirrors weighing 37lb and 40lb and he also had a tiny common of about 2lb and had lost three. With eleven fish out already he was aiming for a record week.
Wednesday was a repeat with a 36lb common followed by a 23lb common, both again for Ben.
To give him credit Ben was fishing fairly solidly, sleeping out in the bivvy and rarely leaving the lake whereas Steve and Dave stopped before nightfall and got down to the lake later in the morning. And the weather was quite variable with a bit of rain on the Sunday, lots of wind on Monday, heavy rain on the Wednesday and a bit of sun on the Thursday. Perfect conditions some might say but the fish definitely seemed to be staying up in Ben’s third of the lake. It was almost as if they knew that Ben was only here for the week and the others would have a chance to catch after he had gone home.
Then Thursday, Steve at last got lucky with a 28lb common, having endured the jokes and questions about what they were playing at down on the main bank. He said it was worth the wait though and he was ready for some more but it was only Ben who caught again on that day with another 27lb mirror. This made it Ben = 14 and Steve = 1 with only Dave blanking so far.
On Friday we were suffering a bit from the fall out of hurricane Helene which had battered Florida and it bought some trees down in the woods as well as numerous branches and the dreaded sweet chestnut fall. It is probably a good job that Dave and Steve were sleeping in the chalet as their bivvies would have been bombarded with them and acorns from the trees on the bank.
Ben managed another 29lb common and a lovely 27lb 12oz scaley mirror at the end of the day.
With Ben flying home on Sunday he was all out to get what he could on Saturday and ended his session with a further two 30lb+ commons before he called it a day.
So we will call this part 1 and do a quick summary of the first week. Ben had 18 carp out in total 1 baby, 1 at 10lb+, 8 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 2 at 40lb+ and Steve had 1 at 20lb+. Not a bad first week but Dave and Steve were hoping that their turn was coming.
The weather the second week was not too bad with some sunshine and some warm sunny days and Dave and Steve had a good routine for getting themselves down by the lake and setting up each morning but it wasn’t until the Tuesday that another fish made it to the bank with Steve catching a 38lb mirror off his spot on the left bank mid morning and Dave having a 46lb 2oz common at lunchtime from his middle rod which was over some of the showing fish from the morning. They were all off the mark and Dave ended up with another one before the end of the day from the right hand corner, a 26lb 8oz mirror.
They decided to have a day off on the Wednesday, mainly because of the rain which did not stop all day and was accompanied by some strong gusty winds – storm Kirk had hit us although by reading other catch reports we seem to have got off quite lightly both in catches and in damage. They were quite happy to rest the lake and get some rest themselves so they could tackle things afresh the next day.
By Thursday the winds had died down and they were ready to go again. Steve had the first fish of the day, another great mirror weighing 33lb 4oz and Dave had another two mirrors, 28lb and 26lb.
On Friday Steve had another couple of 30lb mirrors and that was it for another week. Saturday was spent going to the supermarket and relaxing in the chalet again. With the ground very wet around the lake Dave was starting to struggle a bit more with his scooter and he felt he had to give it a good wash down before they went to the shops. But the ramp down to the lake was holding up and he was still managing to get up and down ok.
The weather forecast for the beginning of their final week was pretty good with sunshine and warm temperatures and on Sunday Steve was up and down at the lake at 8am and the lake was fizzing all over but despite their best efforts they only had the one out between them, a 23lb common.
We have not had a 50lb+ caught for several months and were beginning to wonder where they all were so it was a lovely surprise to get a photo of this 50lb 2oz common from Steve who had caught it on his left hand rod again mid morning on Monday. What a great fish!
This was followed by a 22lb common from ‘Ben’s corner’ for Dave and a 36lb 8oz common for Steve, the first fish from his rod that was by the tree opposite him so all was not wasted there either.
With the forecast for the end of the week looking very wet and rainy Steve and Dave made the decision to leave us early so spent Tuesday getting their tackle up from the lake and packing their things back into the van. They left us early on Wednesday morning for the long drive back to the UK.
So the 10 days that Steve and Dave fished for after Ben had left saw zero babies, zero at 10lb+, 6 at 20lb+, 5 at 30lb+, 1 at 40lb+ and 1 at 50lb+. Steve had a further 7 fish and Dave had 5.
A total of 32 carp were caught by these anglers over the time they spent with us and we have thoroughly enjoyed their passion and enthusiasm for our last weeks of the season on Lac Lucie. Hope to see you all again some day and until then à bientôt…
