Sean, Sally and Lola joined us from Peterborough this week for a few days of peace and quiet, away from the busy lives they lead in the UK. Sean and Lola go fishing a fair bit back home and Sean was hoping that Lola would join him for a bit of night fishing too, although she did not seem very keen to sleep amongst the wildlife when she arrived! Sally had never fished before so was looking forward to learning a new hobby.
They arrived on the Saturday afternoon to temperatures of 26°C but the forecast for their week was poor to say the least with rain forecast every day and temperatures plummeting to single figures, even during the day sometimes.
They had a quick tour of the chalet whilst we were waiting for Nigel to get back from the airport and Jo left them to get set up on the main bank. Sean had bought a new mega bivvy, big enough to sleep all three of them in and shelter from the rain. When Nigel got back he gave Sean a bit of a hand and then talked to him about the lake and what was worth trying.
We had quite a bit of rain over night on Saturday and Sunday morning was showery on and off. It was a very quiet day as far as the fish were concerned though and by teatime when we went down they had caught nothing. Rather than being too despondent they carried on fishing and the patience paid off in the evening with Sean having 3 carp on the bank by midnight. A 22lb mirror, a 32lb mirror and a 34lb common and they were all happy that Sean was off the mark.
Monday morning was another wet day and temperatures did not get much over 15°C. The trio had a trip to Decathlon in Angoulême in the morning to pick up some new indicators and we went down to see them at about 5.30pm just as Sean was weighing his 4th fish, a lovely 31lb 13oz common.
We had a dry morning here on Tuesday but it rained on and off most of the afternoon and the temperatures dropped even further to 11°C so they wrapped up warm down by the lake. Again it was around 7.30pm when they caught their next fish, one for Sally, a 14lb common.
Wednesday was still wet and rainy and was no warmer but for some reason there was a flurry of activity in the early evening with 3 carp out for Sally and another one for Sean, all in the space of 2 hours. A 30lb mirror for Sally at 7.30pm, closely followed by a 22lb mirror for Sean at 7.40pm, then the biggest fish of the week for Sally at 9.15pm, a 41lb 3oz common (and a new PB) and then the smallest fish of the week, a pretty little mirror weighing about 4lb.
Sean had the final carp of the week on Thursday teatime with this 32lb mirror and as the family were heading off in the early hours of Friday morning due to work commitments this rounded their week off nicely with 10 carp on the bank in total. Sean had 6 carp on the bank in total but Sally had the biggest…and the smallest!
Although Lola did not fish very much she enjoyed having the space in the chalet and using the WiFi and they all enjoyed using the hot tub to warm themselves up with a drink or two. They also tried to go bowling one day but something went wrong at the alley so that was not meant to be.
All fish were caught on our spicy fish boilies using a light coloured dumbbell and from the left hand bank…..but don’t let that put you off fishing the right hand side, or the top end or the silt in the middle if you are fishing this lake. They do like to move around and keep you on your toes.
Final summary for this cold wet week was 1 baby, 1 at 10lb+, 2 at 20lb+, 5 at 30lb+ and 1 at 40lb+. Not a bad week considering the very sudden change in the temperatures. Thank you for such a lovely write up in our folder and we hope to see you again someday. Until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt……