Josh, his brother, Matt and 7 year old son, Vinny travelled overnight from Milton Keynes to join us on Kingfisher lake last week and by the time they got here were shattered but excited to be here. Josh has fished in France before but his brother was quite new to carp fishing and Vinny goes fishing with his dad, Josh, a lot at weekends at their local lakes. They have had plenty of carp out of there and some catfish too up to about 40lb so were hoping that they could get some big fish on the bank. Josh’s wife and other two children were also meant to be coming but as they had just got a new puppy they decided that it would be kinder to stay at home rather than use the kennels.
We walked the three of them around the lake on their arrival and they were keen to get set up and sorted. The plan was for Josh and Vinny to fish through the night but Matt was still undecided about 24/7 fishing. Father and son quickly got set up on swim 1 and settled in for the week.
Saturday night delivered some much needed rain and a massive storm could be heard right over us with some amazing bolts of lightening. Josh decided it was probably not a wise idea to be sleeping under canvas so quickly got Vinny up to the chalet and reeled his rods in around midnight.
When we called round on Sunday morning they had not long been down by the lake but Vinny had his float rod out and was doing some amazing casting for a lad his age, putting the bits of corn on the hook himself and really enthusiastic. Josh said that they had had a couple of small, 10lb catfish during the night but nothing major.
On Monday it was Vinny who was a happy boy as he had smashed his PB with a 36lb common. Matt had also had a 32lb common and Josh had caught another 12lb catfish as well as a 26lb carp.
Vinny was delighted to tell us on Tuesday that he had caught a catfish weighing 21lb and had had a 18lb mirror so they were catching well.
Matt had obviously decided that night fishing was not for him and not being a morning person was not often seen when we went round to see them but Josh and Vinny were always up and about with Josh cooking breakfast for them both and Vinny always keen to show us the bucket of crayfish he had managed to hunt down which increased in numbers each day. He appeared quite happy to pick them up to put in the bucket so a brave lad as they always look quite scary on the bank when they are up on their back legs. He also managed to get some frogs in a bucket too so a proper little wildlife hunter.
Early on Wednesday morning we had a message from Josh saying that he had skipped the 30lb club and joined the 40lb club instead with this 46lb mirror – a lovely new PB for him and finally with the biggest fish of the week.
Wednesday evening saw the eclipse and it is a shame it was not a totality as the view across the meadow would have been stunning. As it was unless you had some special glasses it was a bit of an anti-climax. We were lucky enough to be out at a friends who had the glasses so did get to see some of it
With temperatures over 30°C all week and for two days over 40°C the swimming pool was well used this week and Jo had found an inflatable and some bits for Vinny to use in there. We were stood chatting to them one afternoon when Josh and Vinny were cooling off and Vinny decided to jump off of the steps, splashing us a little. As we stood for longer and longer the splashes got bigger and bigger and we were glad that we had been cooled off walking back round to home.
We have not got any details of what was caught on Thursday as Jo was not very good at keeping track of the catches this week and as this is being written we are waiting for more information and hopefully some photographs. We do know that on Friday they reported that they had had a 25lb mirror and a 30lb common.
Maisie is going to miss Vinny and his great ball throwing. In fact one morning when we were round there they had just pulled their rods in ready to go to the supermarket and Maisie spent about 15 minutes in and out the water chasing her ball that Vinny had thrown for her. What a great life she leads.
From what we know they had zero babies, 1 at 10lb+, 2 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+, 1 at 40lb+ and 4 catfish to 21lb. We have loved seeing such a young, keen angler here with his dad and uncle this week and hopefully will see them all again some day. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….