You may remember us writing a catch report last June for three of Nigel’s friends form The Oliver Twist in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire…..https://carpfrance.com/01-06-2024-kingfisher-only-fools-and-carp/. Well they returned last week and bought another member of the GAGAs with them, John, who loves his fishing and match fishes regularly. It was a week of fun and laughter and seventeen fish on the bank.
The fun started before they had even left the UK with confusion over boarding passes and who had downloaded whose, Dave being questioned over his Voltarol gel (it was Marmite and a bat detector last year), and Bob volunteering to be a dummy for a Border Control dog but they made it to Limoges and Nigel took them to the supermarket for the obligatory trolley full of beer on their way home.
By the time they got here and settled on Saturday there was really only time for some tea and a catch up over a few beers. We were slightly worried that John might not be able to sit still all week as match fishing is very much on the go all the time, so Nigel talked him through it and we caught up on the gossip from back home. As they couldn’t decide between them who was going to fish each swim we did a draw using some beer tops and they ended up with Danny in swim 1 nearest to the chalet, Dave in swim 2, John in swim 3 and Bob in swim 4.
After breakfast on Sunday they cracked on with getting the bivvies up and their rods out. The usual bait boat sagas ensued with trying to remember how to drive it and getting the boilies and lines in the hoppers correctly but by 1pm the first carp had been landed. A new PB for John straight away at 38lb 8oz with this lovely common which meant that he would win the prize that Danny’s wife had sent with them for whoever caught the first fish of the trip.
By teatime Danny had also had his first fish, a 32lb mirror and before they bought their rods in for the evening Dave had caught his first catfish. Just Bob to go, the complete novice angler.
Despite them being four tough guys they were not brave enough to spend the nights in the bivvies, preferring the comfort of the chalet instead. Some of them were not snake lovers and as they had already spotted a grass snake during the day there was no way they were sleeping outside! Instead some of them fished a bit before breakfast and then all day until tea time on most days and then again for a few hours after tea.
It was a really hot week, starting with 38°C when they arrived on the Saturday and only dropping by 10 degrees during the day after a storm passed us on Wednesday night. We were not expecting a great number of fish on the bank with the weather as it was and the guys were glad of the dip pool to cool off in the afternoons and the shade of the social area between swims 2 and 3. Nigel spent some afternoons and evenings with them, on hand for advice and support and a beer or two although claiming he was getting a few jobs done round there!
John was first off the mark on Monday as well with a lovely 13lb wild French common late morning and just after lunch, Dave had another catfish, weighing 7lb 4oz, closely followed by Bob’s first fish of the trip, a 26lb 8oz mirror, held for him by Nigel.
We have to admit that we were not expecting a great number of carp out during the heat of the day, knowing that they do not feed as much when the weather is hot so we pleased that we were seeing some carp on the bank. Danny finished the day off later in the evening when temperatures had dropped to a cooler 24°C with a couple of mirrors weighing 31lb and 21lb 12oz.
John was first off on Tuesday morning and shouted for some help at 8.30am as he managed to land a 24lb 4oz mirror. Nigel and Jo decided to leave them for a few hours and go to the tackle shop and supermarket and get Bob a hat as he had forgotten his. Not much happened whilst we were out apart from another cat for ‘Catman’ Dave weighing 23lb 6oz.
In the afternoon we took them and Maisie to the beach for a quick swim before having a meal at the lovely 16 Beach bar. Maisie loved Bob throwing the ball in to Nigel and Danny and John wandered off to see what an angler on the lake was doing.
The evening was spent in Nigel’s mancave playing a bit of pool, with Danny winning most of the games.
By Wednesday the temperatures were back up to mid 30s and there were no fish on the bank. Dave did hook into one before breakfast but it lead him a merry dance all over Danny’s swim and ended up under the willow where it managed to unhook itself, meaning that Nigel got in the lake to rescue the line and end tackle. A good effort from Dave but the cat won this time.
We had all hoped that the forecasted storms would bring some cooler temperatures and some much needed rain as there was barely anything going into the lakes. But as is quite typical of Pouméroux they skirted around us and we listened to the thunder rolling and watched the lightening flashing in the distance but had very little rain, 1.3mm to be precise! But the temperatures dropped by nearly 10 degrees and Thursday morning saw a bit more rain so most of them stayed in the bivvies, especially as Jo had sent them a message to say a python had escaped from someone’s home! It was a couple of hours away and was soon found but didn’t stop them wondering! The photo below is of a grass snake commonly seen swimming across the lake.
It was not until after 2pm on Thursday that the lads started catching again and a further five fish were landed before the day was over. Danny had a 15lb 8oz common, and a 33lb 10oz and a 23lb mirror, Dave caught his first carp of the week weighing 29lb and Bob landed a 35lb 8oz mirror.
And so Friday came round again and the conversations went back to going home. Nigel spent most of the afternoon chilling with them, and Ollie the Oliver Twist gonk had a ride on the bait boat and we thought that was it as temperatures were climbing again to the mid 30s but early evening Danny caught a small kitten.
As they were not leaving here until lunchtime on Saturday they decided to have one more go before breakfast whilst they were packing all the kit away. You don’t catch a fish unless your rod is in the water do you? Around 7.30am Danny caught his last fish taking his total up to 8, just under half the total caught over the week. A lovely 33lb 6oz common.
Final catch summary 17 fish landed – zero babies, 2 at 10lb+, 5 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 4 catfish up to 24lb
Thanks for a great week, guys and we are missing you already. See you when we are next back over in the UK later in the year and until then bonne journée et à bientôt…..