This week saw some new faces on Kingfisher lake with Matthew and Anthony bringing their sons Rupert, Max and Milo for their first French carp fishing experience.
They arrived Saturday afternoon in glorious sunshine and that was the way the weather was heading for the week with temperatures up to 30°C by Thursday. The fish were feeding and the frogs are starting to shout across all the lakes around us. The cuckoo has been calling, bluebells have come out in flower and the fish have been seen spawning, some roach o Lac Lucie and by the end of the week some spawning activity from the carp on Kingfisher.
The three youngsters were all very excited and keen to get going. Max and Rupert set up in swim 2, preferring to use their bivvy rather than the hut, although that did prove to be a useful place to store everything. And their bivvy had ample space for everyone. Milo and his dad spent the week between swim 1 and swim 3.
The lads got their spots baited up quickly, using our spicy fish and maple syrup boilies along with some pop ups and wafters to match. After a quick tea they got their rods out and before long were settled in for the night.
Rupert and Max are avid carp anglers and have loads of gear and gadgets and had started their own TikTok channel (@mr_fishing01). They also hoped to complete a school project whilst they were with us, making a YouTube video and had lots of cameras and lights to help them with this.
By the time we walked round to see them on Sunday morning they were already buzzing after their first couple of fish both from 14 year old Max’s rods – two mirrors weighing 28lbs and 34lbs 4oz.
Sunday saw more fish on the bank with two more mirrors, 30lbs for 13 year old Rupert and 27lbs for Max and a common for Max at 22lbs.
Milo was super excited when we walked round to see them on Monday morning. His rod had gone screaming off in the night and after a long fight and a bit of unsnagging they managed to bring in a 78lb catfish at 4am. Not bad for a 10 year old! Whilst we were round there Max was also playing a catfish and it was great to watch it coming in. Not quite as big as Milo’s at 60lb but still a good fight and a PB as none of them had had catfish before.
Rupert had a 20lb common in the afternoon and then Max hooked into another catfish about 7pm, even bigger than the last at 80lb. Max then finished the day with another common of 35lbs.
Tuesday saw another 5 fish on the bank, a 23lb 8oz mirror for Max at 6.40am, a 18lb common for Rupert at lunchtime, and the biggest fish of the week for Max at 7.30pm, a stunning 46lb 4oz mirror. You can see the excitement on all three faces.
The day wasn’t over though and Max had a 27lb common later that evening and Anthony had his first and only catch of the week, a 7lb catfish.
It was not all about the fishing for these lovely people. They had bought a couple of mountain bikes with them and Anthony and Milo enjoyed a few bike rides and went to Le Chambon Station, not a place we have visited but it looks like it has some great hiking and cycling trails as well as other activities going on https://www.lechambon.org/station/. They also spent a couple of afternoons down by the public lake near us, swimming across it and enjoying the paddle boards etc at La Base Nautique https://www.basenautiquedeslacs.fr/ and a meal at Le 16 Beach, one of our favourites.
As the temperatures rose the lake quietened down and the fish started to think of only one thing and it wasn’t food. Max managed to catch a 24lb mirror on Wednesday evening but that was it and Thursday was not much better with a mirror out for Rupert weighing 21lbs and a mirror also for Max, but that did weigh 45lb 7oz so was worth getting out of bed for.
Friday always comes round too quickly but the boys were planning on fishing until the very last minute whilst Anthony and Matthew got packed up. It was Rupert catching all day on Friday with 2 carp in the net during the day. Nigel was there when he caught the 20lb common and he also had a 39lb common – his biggest fish of the week.
We had been sat chatting to the guests on Lac Lucie on Friday evening when Nigel wandered down to the shallow end of Lac Lucie to see if there were any signs of spawning on there with water temperatures up to 19°C. He was gone ages and when Jo went to see if she could find him he was on the house swim on Kingfisher helping bring in a 60lb catfish that Rupert had struck into. What he hadn’t realised at first was the the boys were doing a TikTok live video at the same time and had a couple of thousand people watching them. He may go viral again yet!
We are still waiting for the photos to come through but these are some from their TikTok account. Why not go over and give them a follow – they certainly have the skills and the enthusiasm to take it further.
The summary of the week is as follows 16 carp in total with zero babies, 1 at 10lb+, 9 at 20lb+, 4 at 30lb+ and 2 at 40lb+. There were also 4 catfish on the bank up to 80lb. A cracking week for these families, with some glorious sunshine and spring warmth. Until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt…..