Paul, a member of the Calendar Boys, visited Lac Lucie in the spring with his friend, Dave and his sons, Oliver and Thomas. He returned this week for his fourth go at Kingfisher and bought Michael, his nephew who fishes and Kiona, his wife with him for a summer break too. Michael and Kiona have been here before too so it was good to catch up with them all. They like to come in the summer as although they are aware the fishing is not great, they like the hot weather. And boy has it been hot.
If you have read our catch report for Lac Lucie this week you will know that we have had some real problems on there in the last 7 days and we were worried that Kingfisher could be heading in the same direction with low oxygen levels and fish in distress but we had seen no signs and in fact 13 fish had been caught the week before.
With temperatures forecast to be higher still this week we were not sure what was going to happen. We have had no significant rainfall since April so the stream that runs behind the lake has been dry and only the wild boar and deer have been in it. We trusted Paul implicitly to look after the lake and our fish as he is a very experienced angler and has his own lake in the UK so understands the pressures on the fish. Michael, Oliver and Thomas all live, breathe and eat fishing and unlike their friends on Lac Lucie did not want to leave the lake at all, barely pulling their rods in to go up to the chalet or to eat.
After having to change a tyre on their way down it was late in the day when they arrived on the Saturday but they soon unpacked their trailer and got set up with Paul on swim 1, Oliver on 2, Michael on 3 and Thomas and Dave on the dam wall, with Thomas closest to the metal overflow bridge. Oliver really wanted to get a catfish as he had tried, and failed, on Kingfisher for a couple of nights when they came in April so he did spend a couple of stalking sessions by Thomas on a few occasions.
It was Michael who caught first with a 20lb 9oz common, closely followed by a 20lb 5oz mirror.
On Sunday afternoon Thomas managed to land this 47lb 5oz mirror. Not a new PB as he had had one of the 50lb commons from Lac Lucie in April but still what turned out to be the biggest fish of the week. He was happy with that!
We were threatened with rainstorms on Tuesday evening and we were all praying for the rain, but apart from a few drops it came to nothing apart from the distant thunder and lightening. Dave said he sneezes more fluid. Flooding was reported in a town about 10 miles away but there was nothing here to help with the difficulties we were experiencing.
Wednesday saw a fish out for Paul, who always seems to be the last to catch usually. He had a 35lb mirror which turned out to be his only fish of the week and Michael had a 31lb common.
On Tuesday the family kindly let Liam come to join them on swim 4 so as to help rest the fish on Lac Lucie and he caught a 36lb 6oz mirror on Thursday morning which was a new PB for him.
Thomas also had another couple of carp out over the rest of the week, a 22lb mirror and a 27lb common (no photo).
Oliver and Dave had the worse fishing of the week with 8 small cats between them (and a tiny roach for Dave)
Michael finished the week off with this lovely 18lb 12oz mirror which performed beautifully for the camera
Kiona managed to enjoy sitting in the sun in between trying to sort out a new spare tyre for their journey home, not an easy thing to do in France in August as a lot of places close for a summer break but we hope it got them home safely.
Final summary of the week zero babies, 1 at 10lb+, 4 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+, 1 at 40lb+ and 8 small catfish.
We hope that you will all return for another visit to us and until then bonne journée et à bientôt…
