Andy and Tracy have not fished on a lake exclusive in France before although they fish a lot on different lakes in the South East of England and have also fished on the rivers and public lakes in France. They booked Lac Lucie as a last minute discounted rate and factored it in on their 3-4 weeks trip visiting France in their camper van.
Their intention when they arrived was to do a bit of fishing in the morning, go off out on their bikes in the afternoon and fish a bit more into the evening. They managed to do all of this, apart from getting out on their bikes. In fact they managed to not leave the premises all week, not even for any extra bits of shopping although we did top up their wine supply for them!
Arriving on the Saturday afternoon after a short trip down from the Loire they spent the afternoon getting their camper unpacked and walking round the lake with Nigel who showed them the key features of the lake and suggested where to be fishing. Andy had been hoping to catch some river carp on the Loire but had only managed to land a few chub so he was hoping for some great things from the lake.
Each day the couple headed down to the lake around 7.30am and were set up on the main bank, with both of them fishing to the left and in the middle of the lake, where fish are regularly caught. The couple do not use a bait boat, preferring to use a spod rod and they fished with both our spicy fish and maple syrup boilies over a bed of hemp. They had only been out there for a few hours on Sunday when Andy caught a 27lb 9oz mirror at lunchtime and a new PB 34lb 2oz common in the early evening.
They generally stopped fishing for a few hours around 3pm, came up to the chalet and had something to eat and went back down for an evening session from 5pm til around 10pm when they would enjoy a few glasses of wine on the decking.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it was Tracy’s turn with one fish out each day, all down to the yellow pop ups that Nigel gave her, she reckoned. A 27lb mirror on Monday evening, a 25lb 8oz common on Tuesday afternoon and a 34lb 2oz mirror on Wednesday morning which was a new PB for Tracy.
By this point Andy was getting worried as he had not had a fish for 3 days and wondered if he would end up with nothing more for the week but then his rods switched on again and on Thursday he landed 4 more carp, a 22lb 4oz common at lunchtime and then a 35lb 1oz mirror (another new PB), a 28lb 7oz common and a 24lb 8oz common all within 2 hours of each other. Andy had a further 23lb 9oz mirror on Friday morning taking his final total up to 7 carp and Tracy was lagging way behind with only 3.
Tracy had already written everything down in our folder on Friday afternoon as she was really not expecting to have any more fish out but she had the final shout with a double take on Friday afternoon with two commons weighing 35lb 12oz and 30lb. Two great fish here and a great end to a lovely week for this couple.
The weather had been fairly kind to them all week, starting with high temperatures on the Saturday and no rain, dropping to below 20°C on Wednesday and Thursday with over 20mm of rain on these days and then a nice sunny day on Friday, perfect for drying their kit out before packing back up their van on Saturday morning. The pair were planning on heading down to the Bordeaux region in their camper van next, before travelling up the west coast, weather permitting, and then heading home.
The final scores for the week were 12 carp with Andy catching 7 and Tracy 5. They consisted of zero babies, 0 at 10lb+, 8 at 20lb+, and 4 at 30lb+. Not a bad week for this pair and we have thoroughly enjoyed their company and hope to see them again one day. Until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt……