When we bought the property last May, Jo’s sister, Julianne was talking to Nic, a colleague/friend about it as her husband, Gary and son, Oscar did a bit of fishing in North Wales where they live. Not carp fishing but young Oscar was learning all about different types of fishing and they had a friend at football who had just got into carp fishing. So they booked last July and arrived without any gear and to be honest very little idea!
Luckily Julianne has fished lots in the past and gave them a few pearls of wisdom before they came out and lent them her tackle which has been here since last September. She also came out with them, partly to see Jo and Nigel and to be on hand if they needed any help. They flew in from Manchester and Julianne hired a car for them so they could get out and about if they wanted to.
Gary and Oscar didn’t plan on fishing nights but we set them up a bivvy and a couple of chairs so at least they could all relax down by the lake as and when they wanted to. Julianne spent some time showing them how to tie rigs and they bought some of our Pallatrax ready made rigs along with some Pallatrax Stonze to try on some of the rods where Julianne had not set them up. Both of them were pretty good at casting.
Sunday came and went with no fish caught and Nigel was beginning to think it was going to be a very difficult week. On Monday morning Jo went to get some shopping done and Julianne went to the supermarket with Nic and Nigel took his son and daughter and the grandchildren to the lake to go on the pedalos. At just gone 2pm we were all pleasantly surprised when we got a message that Gary had caught the first fish, a 39lb mirror and without any of us on hand to assist, not that Jo would have been much help anyway but moral support is always helpful!
This was followed at 5pm by Oscar when we were called down to the lake to show our support. Nigel was impressed by how he bought the fish in nice and gently and gave Oscar some guidance as to how to bring it into the net and get it into the sling. A great result with a 35lb common – a new PB
So they were both off the mark and Oscar ended up with another common at about 7pm, and 10lb heavier at 45lb this obviously called for another soaking by Julianne.
With Oscar being a normal teenager, mornings were not really his sort of thing in the school holidays so we were surprised to hear that he was up at 7.30am on Tuesday morning, ready to go and catch some more fish. Gary and Oscar spent most of the day by the lake, trying the spots they had used the day before and putting some more bait out, or own boilies, parti-blend and pellets, and Nigel took his bait boat down to help them to get a more accurate presentation in the lake. Unfortunately there were no fish bought to the bank all day.
On Wednesday they did not fish until late afternoon, having spent the morning at Piegut-Pluviers market and the afternoon visiting the memorial village at Oradour-sur-Glane and again they did not catch anything.
With additional stocks of parti-blend and pellets they were hopeful that Thursday would bring them some more fish out and it certainly did that. Despite the temperatures getting up to just under 30 degrees they managed to have 5 runs land 3 fish between them, the first by Gary with a 27lb mirror at 2 pm, followed by Oscar losing 2 fish by 3pm and then landing a 37lb mirror at around tea time and a 25lb mirror at 9pm. Oscar’s last fish put up a good fight in the lake trying to get it in but got it’s own back when Oscar was trying to lift it by giving him a good tail slap!
Nic, Gary and Oscar made good use of the chalet and facilities each evening, enjoying the pool, catering facilities in the chalet and the hot tub until well into the evening looking at the stars and spotting the shooting stars, things that are not nearly as good on the outskirts of Wrexham where they come from.
Friday saw them start late morning and they made the most of their last day on the lake staying out there until the early evening. Oscar landed another 3 fish and Gary caught his last one of the session. Nigel was there again to see Oscar land the 44lb common and got a drenching when they were putting the fish back into the lake.
Gary got a soaking for his new PB common as he had missed out on it for the heaviest carp he had caught in the week as we were all out!
What a great week they all had, having come to France with no experience of catching carp they all thoroughly enjoyed it. Oscar asked if he could come back after his dad had caught the first fish and was keen and eager to get his rods back out every time he caught one. We sense he is going to have a long Christmas wish list but sure he will continue fishing the rivers and waters near him for tench and pike etc in the meantime. Nigel has been thrilled to see someone catch their first carp and show such enthusiasm to learn and we really hope that they will all be back one day (and they can always be escorted by Julianne who is always welcome).
The summary of their week is 0 babies, 0 at 10lb+, 4 at 20lb+, 4 at 30lb+ and 2 at 40lb+. A great week considering they did not fish every day, did no nights and often did not start until late in the morning. Well done and until next time à bientôt…