Nige and Carol have fished on Lac Lucie every year since we took over and came once before that, with Carol’s brother, Andy and a friend. This year they bought Andy back to show him the changes we have made to the lakes and with the hopes of catching more fish than he did when he came previously (which was zero). Last September when this lovely couple fished it rained all week but they were not deterred and ended up landing 20 fish between the two of them so there was high hopes when they arrived with their van loaded to the brim on Saturday afternoon.
With high pressure forecast, no rain, cold nights and warm sunny days whether the fish would be eating and whether they would be caught was anyone’s guess. But at least they would have a dry week this year and they were not planning on fishing nights anyway so the cold would not affect them.
Carol had been shopping before she came and arrived with a lovely pork pie for our Nigel, one of his favourites and some fancy ‘croc’ socks, Maisie had a new ball but she was not that impressed with it (sorry!) and Jo was given a huge bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (you can’t buy Cadbury’s here). We are really grateful and Nigel put his new socks on straight away.
Nige and Carol got themselves set up on the main bank with Andy taking his tackle round to the side swim in their fancy electric barrow. They came up for their tea and then went back down for a few hours to see what was happening in the lake.
They were all tucked up early in bed ready to get up to see the sun rise and get their rods in nice and early. Any of you who have fished on the main bank will know how it really does not get the sun so it was quite cold down there most of the day but they kept wrapped up and came up onto the lawn outside the chalet if they wanted to warm up a bit. They all enjoyed some time in the hot tub which we had kept open especially for them.
Sunday came and went, with only a few knocks on their rods. Carol tried to repair her new bite alarm and Nigel found some super glue for Andy’s spod. But no fish.
Monday and Tuesday were the same. The three of them were down by the lake early in the morning until late into the evening with some time off for food etc but there were no fish to be seen in the nets.
On Wednesday Nige and Carol decided to move over to the left hand bank by Nigel’s new bench where the sun shone for most of the day. If they weren’t catching any fish at least they would be a bit warmer and if nothing else they were enjoying the peace and quiet and the sounds of the wildlife all around them. There was nearly a fish in the net on Wednesday afternoon and they even got to see that it was a mirror but just as Carol handed the rod over to Nige it came off, managing to bend the hook in the process. She didn’t blame Nige much at all really!
On Thursday we spent quite a bit of time analysing why they were not catching anything and like all anglers you start questioning the bait, the rigs, the weather, the moon etc etc. Nige told us of this website he had found which told you the likelihood of catching a fish and the best times to do so. The couple do all kinds of other fishing too, including sea fishing as they live in the south west of the UK so he thinks it might be useful for them there too. As some of you may know, Jo loves an app and found one called Fishing Points. Here are a few screenshots from this week so far. It would appear quite accurate based on the catch reports on this lake this week but we perhaps need to look at it in more detail over the winter.
There were no fish on the bank on Thursday…..and none on Friday either. Andy packed up his kit on Friday afternoon and got it back up to the van. We were all desperate for a fish to be caught and as the app was saying a good time to fish was 22.07 – 00.37 that evening Nige and Carol decided they would stay out a bit later. They had moved their stuff back to the main bank but were not in a rush to leave on Saturday morning as they were taking the overnight ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven. With it being the last week of the season we were in no rush to wave them off either.
But it was not to be, and even when Nige and Carol fished a little bit more on Saturday morning the three of them managed to all blank for the week. Our first experience of anyone blanking on Lac Lucie since we moved here and for the whole lake to blank as well. But they are not put off and we will see them again next September. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….