James and his wife, Jasmine joined us on Lac Lucie this week for their first wedding anniversary. Leaving their son and dogs in their families capable hands, they drove from Somerset, via Calais and down through France to enjoy a quiet week on our smaller lake.
James is an experienced angler who likes to travel light, bringing with him his 2 rods, a fishing chair and a few bits of bait. With them not arriving until early evening they decided to have a quiet night in, ready to get set up on the Sunday morning.
James was keen to use the tactics he used back home and just threw a few boilies in and then his rods but after a short time with his rods in the water he realised that the crayfish were nibbling away at his boilies so he took Nigel’s advice and switched to some plastic boilies and shrink wrapped some of his own and some that Nigel gave him. And they sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Choosing to just fish from early morning until just after dusk, they spent all the time down by the lake, starting on the main bank and moving down to the far end later in the week. They loved following the sunny spots and thoroughly enjoyed watching the sunrise each morning. What a great photo this is.
Monday morning they popped out to the supermarket and found a delivery van that had literally just gone off of the road a few seconds before them. They stopped to help but really needed a rope and a tow so Nigel went off to lend a hand and Jo to assist with the French. It turned out to be quite a simple job and no one was hurt and this is what happens in France – everyone helps each other out if and when they can.
On Monday everything was very quiet and we could sense James’ frustration. But we often find that tactics that work back in the UK do not work on the commercial fisheries here and Nigel suggested that James put a bit more bait in for the fish to go to and so that the crays did not just go straight for the boilie, shrink wrapped or not.
By Tuesday the only fish that James had caught was little ‘Matty’, the only named carp in the lake which was put in after we refilled the lake in March. Then he weighed only 3lb,and although James did not weigh him, we suspect he has put on at least a pound and a bit since then.
As the couple had discovered they came from the same part of the UK as our group on Kingfisher they had spent the evening with them and discussed James fishing on Kingfisher during the day on Tuesday as they were going out. This was an easy move with very little gear but unfortunately he did not catch anything on there either that day.
Nigel had decided that if James had not caught anything by Wednesday morning he would go and spend some time with him. We do not want people coming here and blanking and will do whatever we can to help people. Laden with some pellets, parti-blend and a few boilies Nigel went down and did a bit of baiting up. He especially wanted James to catch that day as we knew that he would then be in a good mood for his anniversary meal that evening which we were preparing for them. Imagine how pleased we were when we went to see them at 4pm and got this sight at the top of the steps. A lovely 32lb mirror. And James and Jasmine were thrilled too!
In the evening we served their meal on the picnic bench and decorated it with bunting from our own wedding as well as the customary flowers and a bottle of fizz. Who wouldn’t want a romantic meal sat here?
On Thursday the weather got hotter, up to 30 degrees in the shade and they decided to move up to the far end of the lake which is in the sun all day. At about 9pm we got a message as he had landed a common and he wasn’t sure that his scales were recording properly as he felt that it was bigger than the 37lb his were reading. But Nigel took some of our scales down and they were right. He said that he had put a double pellet bait on his rig and within 10 minutes he had it.
We all thought that might be it but on Friday evening, just as they were thinking of packing up ready for the drive home the next day, James managed to land another 37lb common.
So the week ended much better than it had started and the summary is 1 baby, 0 at 10lb+, 0 at 20lb+ and 3 at 30lb+
We hope that James and Jasmine enjoyed their week with us and had a safe journey home. We are sure that their little boy and the dogs were pleased to see them and we would welcome them to come back any time they choose. Until then à bientôt….