Lee and Lisa have previously owned land on the bank of the river Ebro for a number of years and used to organise fishing trips for people on there, frequently landing catfish over 200lb (ebroxperience). They returned to the UK to have their twins who are now 7 and wanted a family fishing holiday, away from city life and had been recommended Kingfisher lake by previous customers of theirs.
As you may have read from Lac Lucie’s catch report last week, the weather in France this summer has been very very hot and we have had no substantial rain since April. The dissolved oxygen levels had dropped suddenly in Lac Lucie and we sensed that Kingfisher was not far behind so had some new aerators on order to reduce the risk of losing fish in Kingfisher too. We managed to get the first one that arrived, some bottom diffusers, into Kingfisher on the Saturday that the family arrived and Lee set himself up on the 2nd swim, out of the direct heat.
The family love camping and regularly spend their weekends outside and love walking and picnicking so were happy to be here and Rio and Reeva were in the swimming pool before Lee had got his rods in the water, leaving Lisa to get the suitcases and food unpacked.
The lake was very still for the first part of the week, with algae blooms growing by the day. Nigel was testing the water regularly and the 2 aerators that we have had on 24/7 since June were working over time. With the new diffusers in the deep end as well we hoped that the algae would soon disperse but by Monday we were not seeing a great deal of difference. Lee managed one fish weighing 24lb from the 3rd swim on Monday morning but there were little signs of other fish feeding across the lake and all were swimming around the aerators at the deep end.
Nigel decided to move the bottom diffusers down to the shallower end after going out to get 100m of cable to power them and Jo went to see our lovely neighbouring farmers to see if they had any advice. Despite them also needing water for their crops and livestock, they kindly agreed to allow us to pump some water from the lake they own just above us. With another neighbour lending us a large pump we set it up on Tuesday morning, with the farmer’s help and finally got the water pumping into the stream so that some went off into Kingfisher and some into Lac Lucie too.
On Tuesday evening Lee caught a couple more smaller fish but nothing like what he had come for so was feeling very despondent. We did have storms forecast for Wednesday but as often happens here they pretty much passed us by, and despite seeing other people having huge downpours of rain, we had only 3.5mm. The pressure did drop quite a bit though as did the air temperatures and we were hopeful that the heatwave was over. The family enjoyed some walks around the lake and up into the woodland, hunting out little animals and enjoying the nature and peace and quiet, and of course the pool.
Having moved back to swim 1 a couple of days before, on Thursday morning Lee had some more bait as he was feeling hopeful and told us that he caught a 13lber almost as soon as he got his rods back out. We all had our fingers crossed for the night and Lee kept the bait going in with maize down under the willow tree and our maple syrup boilies under the trees on the far bank.
We went round to see them on Friday morning, just hoping that he had had a better night but didn’t believe him when he said that he had had 19 fish over night, but Lisa had the photos to prove it. He said that he had had no sleep and they were just coming out one after another. He also had lost a big one which he went out on the boat to try and net, just like he used to on the Ebro. We were all so pleased and relieved that the fish had started feeding again.
On Friday evening he called round for some more maple syrup boilies and wafters (and a few more beers) and said he had just landed a 48lb 6oz mirror and was hoping for another good night. With a lunchtime flight Lee made the most of his last night on the lake and ended up landing a further 7 fish and was then wishing they could stay another week!
Lee and his family had 35 fish in total zero babies, 11 at 10lb+, 15 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 3 at 40lb+ and no catfish.
We hope to see you all again some day. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt…..
