This week saw the return of Paul, his son’s Oliver and Thomas and his friend Dave on their fourth visit to us and Paul decided that this spring they would give Lac Lucie a try. Generally we recommend only 3 anglers on Lac Lucie but with them all being very experienced anglers we were happy to make an exception but it was a bit of a squeeze for all of the lines in the water and they were lucky that over the week none of them had any tangles, especially with 35 fish ending up on the bank.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon in the rain which was disappointing for them after we had just had a week of glorious sunshine it was chilly and the forecast was for a cooler, rainy week. Oliver had just turned 16 the day before and bought with him some practice papers so he could revise for his GCSEs this summer and Thomas had had his 13th birthday the previous week. The boys all live for fishing and fish a lot on their lake in the UK. Rather than squeezing everything into and onto the roof of their truck, this time they came with a trailer, which was also packed to the brim, including a guitar and a ukulele, both firsts for us here. Paul has been experimenting with building some big power banks and had bought 4 of the 7 prototypes he had made to give them a test run.
Dave and Paul set up their superb bivvies on the main bank with Oliver and Thomas on the side swim. The two younger lads were set up and fishing by 8pm, with the others following a little later. They all had motion sensor floodlights on the outside of their bivvies so were completely set up for the nights fishing.
On Sunday morning we went down to the lake early as the chasse were very close, just to check that they were all ok. Dave was still asleep, even with all of the noise from the horn and the dogs and we were surprised to learn that Oliver and Thomas had had 6 (or was it 7, we will never know) fish out over night, including a new PB for Thomas, a 50lb common, our first 50lb of the season.
Thomas had a massive smile on his face all day, thinking he had thrashed his PB and had got the biggest fish of the week, but this was short lived as we spotted that Dave was landing a fish at lunchtime and went down to see him landing this 51lb common.
And so the challenge was on for Oliver and Paul to also get a 50lber and as soon as fish were landed the rods were straight back out. There was barely time for them to eat all of the goodies they had brought at the supermarket, or the baguettes, cakes and pain au chocolat we fetched for them from the bakery each morning.
By Monday teatime they had caught 12 carp between them and Dave was in the lead with five fish on the bank, including two 40lbers to add to his 50lb common with Paul just having the one 29lb 8oz mirror. It rained a bit on Monday night and when Nigel went down to see them on Tuesday Dave’s rod went screaming off so he woke up quickly and as a 26lb common was being landed, Thomas came over the walkie talkie saying he also had a fish which ended up being a 21lb mirror. Oliver had a few bites on Tuesday but nothing came of them and Paul managed to catch a swan mussel as well as a 25lb common.
They all had a good nights sleep on Tuesday as their alarms were all silent. The night was cold but they woke up to a day of sunshine and showers. Dave had 2 more fish on Wednesday morning and Thomas had a 34lb 10oz common just before teatime.
The group decided to have breakfast on Thursday and contemplate their strategies. Oliver loves a catfish and the one that was put back into Lac Lucie after we netted it in March 2024 had not been seen. With no one on Kingfisher this week Ollie decided he was going to move over onto the dam wall for the last 2 days. With the walkie talkies this meant that they could still keep in contact with him and he could shout for help if needs be. Paul spent the whole of breakfast analysing what he was doing wrong. All of the others had their opinions and felt he was changing his tactics too often. The fish were certainly being seen down the left hand side of the lake where he was fishing and well into the shallow corner where the stream enters the lake.
When we went to see him Thursday afternoon he had caught three carp up to 33lb 8oz and reckoned his new strategy was working. He had decided to shave a bit off of his hook baits so they looked more like the free bait he was putting out with his bait boat. Oliver had also had a 37lb 8oz common from Kingfisher.
With dinner done and tidied up we were settled in for the night when at about 9pm Paul came knocking on the door, out of breath and wanting to see Nigel. He had caught a 51lb common, funnily enough the same fish as Dave had caught on Monday. He was just desperate to tell us and we were as thrilled for him as he was.
Oliver ended up with another common from Kingfisher on Thursday night and Paul had three fish weighing over 30lbs. Dave had a 46lb 8oz common and Thomas a lovely mirror to finish.
Towards the end of the week they were contemplating staying for an extra few days as it was Easter weekend and we had no new guests arriving. However with work, exams and school as well as wives calling them they decided they would leave on Saturday morning as planned. They will be glad that they did as Sunday saw 85mm of rain fall in the day, flooding both of our lakes and the streams.
The final summary was 35 fish in total with 2 at 10lb+, 15 at 20lb+, 11 at 30lb+, 4 at 40lb+ and 3 at 50lb+. And if you count a tiny sun bass and the swan mussel there were 37!
Considering the forecast before they came the weather was not too bad in the end with only 15.5mm of rain over the week. Temperatures were up to just over 21.5°C during the day and dropping to 1.7°C at night with a bit of frost one morning. Wind speeds were up to 25.9km/h with gusts of 38.5km/h and the pressure was between 967hPa and 985hPa.
Thank you all for a great week, full of laughter and banter. We wish Oliver all the best in his GCSE’s and we will look forward to seeing you all again in August on Kingfisher with other friends on Lac Lucie on the same week.
Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….