Generally speaking people are under the impression that French carp do not feed off the surface.
Or do they?
When this angler booked a week on Kingfisher and asked for some floating pellets to be sent to us we were interested to see how he would get on.
Chris first came to Carp France in 2016, having read about the famous carp angler, Chris Yates, who had fished here many years ago and written about his experience fishing here. He was interested to see if he could follow in his idol’s footsteps and catch some French carp off the surface. He told us that on his first visit here he had tried his luck in Lac Lucie but with no joy and was then shown Kingfisher by the previous owners and successfully caught a few carp in this manner on several successive years. Having not visited the lake since 2020 he returned this week with his girlfriend, Alyshia, who also enjoys a spot of fishing, with the intention of targeting one particular fish, a mirror known to him as the Baby Whale.
The weather for the week was looking hopeful with temperatures predicted to be mid twenties and some long awaited rain also in the forecast.
Chris appears to be highly organised and incredibly patient, throwing pellets in to spots where he had seen carp feeding, on an hourly basis and then every few hours during the daytime taking a stalking rod with him, baited with another pellet and dropping his rod into the margins. The week started at the deeper end of the lake, along the far bank, where our regular anglers usually fish to. As the couple did not arrive until late afternoon on the Saturday the rods did not go in the water until Sunday and it was during the evening when we received a message to say that he had caught a 45lb mirror earlier in the day but it had slipped the sling before he was able to get a photo. But he ended the day with this mid-20s mirror
It was Monday before Alyshia caught her first carp of the session, and a new PB for her at 21lb
On Tuesday Chris had a further two fish, at either end of the day. Firstly a nice upper 30lb mirror first thing in the morning and at the other end of the day a 50lb 6oz mirror, almost a new PB for him. This was caught from under the trees in front of the first swim. Chris said that he remembered catching this fish before in 2019 and it weighed 41lb then so it has shown some good weight gain over the years.
There was nothing to show on Wednesday apart from a trip to the supermarket for the couple to restock on provisions. It had rained quite heavily during the day so Chris was sure that there would be some more activity as the week went on and the couple were quite happy chilling in the chalet making the most of their time together without the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
With a change in the weather, Chris decided to move down to the shallow end and went through putting some bait in every hour or so and fishing a few times during the day as before. Most of our carp anglers cast their rods out and sit for a few hours, just waiting for those bite alarms to go off but Chris was on his feet all the time, hiding in the trees and bushes and watching the fish come up to the surface and eat his bait with the hope that one would take it from his line too.
Thursday afternoon we saw Chris stalking right near to where Chris Yates likes to stalk and he had just lost one but not long after we left Chris messaged to say he had just had this lovely mirror at just over 40lb which had come out from the shallower waters,
Followed by a 33lb common just before the rain hit again on Thursday evening.
When we dropped some shopping round to them on Friday morning, neither of the couple were to be seen so we assumed they were doing a bit of stalking or baiting up again. It was great to see this 38lb mirror come through on the messages just after we had been round.
With Friday evening looming and going home day ahead Chris thought that the one fish he had come for had evaded him. He knew it was still in there as he had seen photos of it recently but thought he would have to wait until another trip. He had one last stalk mid evening, using the very last of his pellets up and he saw it, feeding off his pellets, at the end of a tree that went into the water. He managed to get a video of it taking his pellets off of the surface and he tried to reach it with his rod, pushing it out gently into the water but it was too far off the end of the tree, so he climbed onto the tree and crept along the trunk, supporting himself against a branch. He knew that he would not be able to stay in the position for long but he hung in there and his patience bought him exactly what he had come for. A stunning 46lb 7oz mirror. His prize for the week.
This has been a fascinating week for us and a rewarding week for Chris who’s final tally was 2 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+, 3 at 40lb+ and 1 at 50lb+
We hope that him and Alyshia will return to have another go one day but until then bonne journée et à bientôt…