Ray, Jenny, Louis and Benny were our guests on Kingfisher last October as a last minute booking and for that time of year had a lovely week in the sunshine, although the nights were pretty cold. They managed to land 9 fish between the three of them https://carpfrance.com/04-10-25-kingfisher-team-hornby/ . This year they had decided to change things up a bit, with the time of year and the lake, choosing Lac Lucie instead. Arriving on the Friday (as the lake was not booked the week before), they were straight down to the lake whilst Jenny got all of the food and cases unpacked.
Louis was first down and saw a few crashing on the left hand bank near the shallows so he decided he was going to have that spot with his 3 rods, with Ray in the middle fishing up the left bank at the far end and in the middle with his 2 rods and Benny having the right hand side and middle with his 2 rods. Ray had decided that he probably wouldn’t fish the nights and generally headed back up to the chalet around midnight and came back down first thing in the morning.
With temperatures forecasted to be in the 30s all week the three anglers were not hoping for great things as we all know that the fish can go off the food when it gets too hot. This was not to be the case this week though and they had pre-ordered our bait package each, with two of them having the maple syrup flavour and one with the spicy fish and had a top of of pellets and parti-blend during the week as the fish were evidently hungry. They all had a pot of matching hookers as well, as these are nice and hard and prove more of a challenge for the crayfish.
Ray was the first to catch, within 5 minutes of getting his rods out he had had a 41lb 5oz mirror on the bank, just 3oz under his PB which he had achieved on Kingfisher last year.
By the time we got down to the lake on Saturday to see how they were getting on, Louis had had 5 on the bank, proving that his spots were definitely the most lucrative. Four were in the 20lb bracket, with a special 25lb common first in the net (it’s first time out this week), and one smaller fish weighing just 13lb – we think that must have grown in there. Benny had not properly got his rods out yet but there was plenty of time for him to catch up.
Ray spent a good time down on the main bank with Louis and Benny telling jokes and ghost stories into the night. It’s always amusing for us to hear how people spend their time when fishing. Benny had a 18lb mirror late in the evening and we were also delighted to hear that Louis had caught a new PB at around 2am – a lovely 42lb common from underneath a very starry sky (see post photo)
Benny had a 22lb mirror on Sunday evening and on Monday Ray decided he was going to go down to the side swim, rather him than us as there is not a lot of shade down there. Monday afternoon Louis caught one of the only named fish in the lake, Nemo, who is called this as he has a fin missing.
Later on Monday, Nigel was down on our neighbour’s lake and heard some excitement and shout of 33lb – this was from Benny who had landed a new PB – a lovely common.
The early hours of Tuesday morning saw the first appearance of this mirror on the bank, only 21lb but the sort of fish that Louis had always wanted to catch (with a big belly) – and on Thursday he caught it again for his last carp of the session.
Also on Tuesday morning at around 4am Benny also beat his PB again with a 35lb mirror and then had a 2nd 35lb mirror around 10am
On Wednesday morning Louis caught a 36lb common and in the afternoon Benny landed the same 25lb common that Louis had caught on the first night
Thursday was a quiet day and with temperatures up to 37°C the anglers were just trying to find the shade. Louis took his rod up to the shallows with a little pop up maize on a spinner and landed a 18lb mirror, another lovely looking fish.
Ray had a further few fish out down the far end over the few days he was down there.
The last fish of the holiday was a common that had already been out of the lake twice, with Louis catching it on the first Friday night, Benny landing it on Wednesday afternoon and Ray making the hat trick on Thursday, the last fish of the week.
Whilst the lads were fishing, Jenny had a lovely time, enjoying the hot tub and swimming pool as well as looking after everyone! A nice relaxing break for her too.
What a week with temperatures at 29.5°C when they arrived and creeping up the following Thursday to 37°C and night time temperatures ranging from 11°C to 21°C. But the oxygen levels of the lake have stayed stable and the fish have been happy taking the bait. There is now no one on the lake for 2 weeks and with the forecast to reach over 40°C for the next few days we will be keeping a close eye on the water and make sure the aerators are on.
Over the week Louis landed an impressive 15 carp, Ray had 11 on the bank and Benny caught 7 in total. With 34 fish between them the final summary is zero babies, 5 at 10lb+, 19 at 20lb+, 7 at 30lb+ and 2 at 40lb+. A great week for all of us and it was lovely having this family back here. We hope to see them again next year. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt,,,,