We first met Mick last April when he came with his nephew, Carl and mate, Steve on Kingfisher, https://carpfrance.com/13-04-2024-kingfisher-and-then-it-turned-cold/ but he had also previously fished Lac Lucie with Andy and bought his wife, Jeanette and Andy’s wife, Nicola that time (before we had bought the fishery). This year Mick, Jeanette, Andy and Nicola bought another friend, Ivor with them to see what they could catch from Kingfisher.
Andy, Ivor and Nicola arrived on the East Midlands flight on the Saturday and Jo took them to the supermarket on the way here. Mick had told them that he wanted to fish the shallow end as he had previously fished the dam wall swim when he had been before so Andy set up on the dam wall to fish in the corner and under the trees and Ivor on swim 1 to fish in the middle. Nicola got the food unpacked and the chalet sorted. Andy and Ivor were hoping that they would be off the mark before Mick and Jeanette arrived on Sunday but only Andy managed to land a 16lb common on Saturday evening.
They were all planning on sleeping out all night and during the night Andy heard loads of fish boshing out in the shallow end so quickly, before Mick arrived, he moved down to swim 4 and Ivor moved into swim 3. By the time Mick and Jeanette arrived after the supermarket trip they were settled in and a disgruntled Mick set himself up on the dam wall where Andy had been. Mick had rented one of our bait boats so he did have the advantage of being able to get right in under the trees. We were also aware that most of the fish had come out from the deeper part of the lake at the latter end of the previous week so we were quietly confident that Mick would still have a good week.
Sunday night saw another fish out for Andy, a 29lb 14oz mirror and a 20lb common for Mick. It was not until Monday night when Ivor got his first bite and it took ages for him to get it in, a 51lb catfish. He was not impressed by it, although it was his first ever catfish, and he did not want to hold it. Mick also had a 41lb common in the night as well as a couple of small cats.
Mick carried on where he was, sticking the bait into his preferred spots but not over feeding and his hard work paid off with a further 2 carp on the bank on Tuesday, a 30lb mirror and a 36lb common as well as 2 catfish weighing 25lb and 10lb
Jeanette and Nicola were enjoying their week too, especially as for the most part it was a nice sunny week, relaxing and reading and also doing the shopping when needed. Jo took them, along with the lady from Lac Lucie to the supermarket on Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed their company and lots of laughter. Nicola won’t mind us saying that she likes to talk and had lots of questions for us. She also had a bit of confusion at the supermarket, buying grapefruit instead of oranges and pork instead of chicken but they had a great time. Nicola also does a little bit of fishing, although prefers Andy to cast it out and help her to bring it in. She did successfully catch a roach and so her photo is worthy of showing too…..she did not however catch the common that she is holding here…that was definitely Mick’s 36lb one but good on her for holding it!
As dawn was breaking on Thursday Mick landed a new PB, only by a very small amount but every bit counts and this is a lovely 45lb 8oz common.
Ivor also caught a new PB carp on Thursday night at 1.30am – only 17lb but a new PB none the less and whilst he did not catch a lot of fish over the week he really enjoyed his first French carp fishing experience and also exploring our little hamlet.
Jeanette and Mick were on the Friday flight back to Leeds and left the others to finish off the week. Andy jumped back onto Mick’s swim on the dam wall but had no further fish out unfortunately and neither did Ivor. It rained most of the day on Friday and we were definitely pleased to see 35mm of water fall out of the sky but as all anglers will know it is never nice packing up in the rain. It has been long awaited though and as we have no control over the weather it is what it is!
Mick definitely ended up in the right swim, where all the fish were and was at an advantage having the bait boat to use and ended up with 14 of the 20 fish caught.
The final summary – zero babies, 3 at 10lb+, 5 at 20lb+, 4 at 30lb+, 2 at 40lb+ and 5 catfish to 51lb. We have had lots of fun and laughter with this lovely group of people and hope to see them again someday. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt…..