Amy and Luke arrived in France at the beginning of August for their long summer break. The first two weeks were spent in a couple of eurocamps for the two children, aged 13 and 12, to enjoy everything it had to offer but their last week in the country was for Luke and Amy to enjoy what they love doing together. A nice week carp fishing on Lac Lucie. They have busy lives in the UK, working hard for their kitchen business and running round after Lexi, who loves dancing and Louis who plays a lot of football.
Having travelled the three hours from the west coast of France, via the supermarket to stock up for the week, they could soon got themselves unpacked and set up on the main bank. With Lexi and Louis happy in the chalet and the pool they could focus most of their attention on the fishing, coming up at various points in the day to provide food and drinks for the children.
On Saturday evening they managed to get a few hours fishing under their belt and it wasn’t long before the fish were reaching the nets. Luke started them off with a 26lb common and 23lb 8oz mirror by 8pm and then Amy had a 14lb 7oz common at 8.45pm. 2-1 to Luke
They were down by the lake early on Sunday morning and Amy was first off the mark with a 22lb 7oz common. Luke had a 24lb 4oz mirror at 11.05am whilst we were down there and then there were two mirrors around 18lb for Amy within 10 minutes of each other at around 11.45am. The afternoon session saw two in the cradle for Luke – first 30lber of the session with a 30lb mirror and then a 21lb 7oz mirror an hour later at 3.40pm. There was only one in the evening for Amy, a mirror weighing 26lb 2oz. 4-3 to Amy so all square at this point.
Their routine quickly fell into place, heading down to the lake most days by around 9am, stopping around 1ish for some breakfast/lunch and then an afternoon session before tea and going back down about 6.30pm for an evening period until about 9pm. The evening was spent with the children, in the hot tub watching the stars and up until Monday lunchtime, when there were a few showers, they had some nice warm weather. There was a little bit more rain during the week but not nearly as much as we had been forecast and most of that fell overnight. And the temperatures were over 30°C some days so nice enough for everyone.
During the Monday morning session Luke had another 32lb 8oz mirror at 10am, Amy caught a common weighing 36lb 3oz and then Luke had a double take. A common at 30lb 8oz closely followed 5 minutes later by a 20lb 6oz mirror. Amy then had another common at 17lb 6oz an hour later at around 12.40pm and a 21lb 6oz common an hour after that. It certainly wasn’t restful and they both got involved in every fish. With the water levels low it has been necessary to get into the water to net them.
There was nothing further then until the evening when Amy a 27lb common at 7.30pm, closely followed by a 26lb 7oz mirror at 8.15pm for Luke and then Amy 5 minutes later with a 32lb 2oz common. Luke finished the evening with a 30lb 3oz common around 20 minutes after that. Monday finished at a 5-5 draw.
When we saw them on Tuesday lunchtime they had had another four that morning and were up to 24 fish in total between the two of them which was pretty good going. Our average catch per angler for a week is only 8 and they had smashed this by midway through the week. But all of the carp today were caught within the space of an hour mid morning. Amy had a 18lb mirror at 10.30am, followed by a 26lb 1oz mirror for Luke at 11.00, then a 35lb 2oz common for Luke at 11.20 and a 18lb 2oz mirror for Amy at 11.30. The lake had gone quiet and Tuesday ended with a 2-2 draw.
It was a draw again on Wednesday with 3 fish in the net for each of them. Amy started with a 16lb 3oz mirror at 10am and then a 24lb 4oz common at 12.30pm, Luke had a 26lb 7oz mirror at 4.45pm and 2 hours later a 29lb 7oz mirror. Amy landed a 22lb 5oz common at 7.30pm and then Luke finished the day with a 21lb 14oz mirror at 8.18pm. So by the end of Wednesday Amy had had 15 carp and Luke had had 15 carp. What great teamwork.
We hardly heard Lexi and Louis at all and they amused themselves throughout the day keeping up their exercising by running laps around the lake several times a day and having ball control exercises on the lawn. Nigel was very tempted to join in a few times!
On Thursday they decided to move along to the side swim as they had seen plenty of splashing in the shallow end under the willow tree. We saw Amy at lunchtime and she told us that Luke had hooked into a really big fish that morning and they had reckoned it was a good high 40, if not a 50. But when it got to the bank and Amy went to net it, it slipped away. It’s always the biggest one of the week that does this but Luke had forgiven her by lunchtime.
Thursday was their last full day fishing as the family were leaving to catch the overnight ferry on Friday afternoon so they made the most of it. Around 12.30pm Amy caught a 26lb 4oz mirror but there was then nothing more until 6pm when she had a 36lb 2oz common. Luke’s only carp of the day was a 32lb 6oz common at 7.50pm, and then ten minutes later Amy landed a 31lb 12oz common and then a 20lb 5oz mirror at 8.50pm. They had been neck and neck right up until Thursday when Amy suddenly went 3 ahead with a score of 19-16.
There was lots to do on Friday, getting their stuff packed up and the roof box and the car loaded up ready for their five hour drive to Caen but they did manage to fish for a little while in the morning but there was nothing wanting to be caught.
So no new PBs for this lovely couple but they had an amazing week with 35 on the bank in total. The final summary was zero babies, 7 at 10lb+, 18 at 20lb+ and 10 at 30lb+. We hope that they all enjoyed their week here and hopefully we will see them on Kingfisher next August as part of their French vacances. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….