Michael, Emma and their two daughters, Freyja and Eryn arrived on Kingfisher on the Saturday afternoon ready for a family holiday with some fishing for Michael and Freyja. Michael has done a lot of carp fishing in France before and has managed to persuade Freyja to take up the hobby alongside him.
We have had several single or pairs of anglers on Kingfisher the last few weeks and we were a bit concerned that if they fished on the first swim near the chalet they would not land a lot of fish but with some heavy baiting in that area the week before there was a chance that the fish were still feeding in that area. With Michael using his van to sleep in rather than putting his bivvy up he decided that that was where they wanted to be, with the plan for Freyja to sleep in the chalet ready to leap into action should her rods go off.
Michael had bought a variety of different baits with him, things that had bought him luck in the past and was confident that these would work for him here. And so it was to be with his first fish out on the Saturday evening, a 29lb 8oz mirror.
This was closely followed by two other mirrors on the Sunday weighing 29lb and 26lb and another mirror at 25lb on Monday.
The weather at the start of the week was glorious with temperatures up to 30+ degrees and the girls were loving the pool and the space to explore, walking up onto the meadow to pick blackberries and generally just enjoying being outdoors. Emma was enjoying the peace and quiet to read her books, knowing that the girls were safe and everyone was happy.
On Monday evening Michael caught a nice catfish at 51lb and you can see that the girls had mixed feelings about this!
Every morning when we walked round Freyja and Eryn ran out of the chalet, not to see us but to have their morning fix of Maisie who absolutely loved their attention, chasing the ball for as long as they would throw it for her and sometimes even following their training and staying sat until they gave her the command to go and fetch her ball. On Tuesday Eryn celebrated her 7th birthday with a big pink badge to prove it and all she wanted was for Maisie to visit her on her birthday!
On Tuesday afternoon, despite the fact that he had landed six fish already, including a 34lb 8oz common at 7am that morning, Michael rested the lake for the afternoon and went out with the others to do a bit of supermarket shopping and to have a pizza at Le 16 Beach on the Plage La Guerlie and they even managed to bring some left overs back for lunch the next day.
At 10.30pm on Tuesday evening Michael had his best fish of the week, a 45lb 8oz mirror. Freyja had had very little action on her rods which were fishing to the right of the swim on the dam wall and into the aerator stream but at 6am on Wednesday morning she was woken up by her dad calling her as her rods were going off so it was a good job she was going to bed with her clothes on ready. After a bit of a battle she managed to land this lovely 27lb 11oz common.
During the afternoon on Wednesday as the temperatures hit their peak for the week and Michael needed a bit of shade he went stalking on the far bank, under the trees where the fish like to hide. He used a few bits of dog biscuit as bait and just dropped his rod in with the hope that they would fancy an afternoon snack. And they did just that as he landed a 25lb common and a 23lb mirror. Freyja meanwhile had caught a few roach which she decided to put on her rigs just to try something a bit different, and it paid off with a 65lb catfish which she took ages to get in the net but it was well worth it. At the age of 11 this is some going and she should be very proud of herself.
Michael had a further two catfish out that evening and the following morning as the weather changed. It had been a very hot sticky night on Wednesday and then the pressure dropped along with the temperature and it rained most of Thursday. The family had planned to go back to the beach and hire some paddle boards and were wondering whether to still do this because of the weather but they decided they would be wet doing it whether it was sunshine or showers so off they went, and had the whole lake pretty much to themselves with no rush to get the paddle boards back for other people. They all had a go on the solo paddle board doing the parcours course and also shared a larger one so they could all jump off it. They had a great afternoon there, along with another trip to Le 16 Beach.
Friday saw one more mirror on the bank, caught by Michael and weighing 31lb and then it was time to get the gear packed up ready for an early start for the drive back home on Saturday.
Catch summary: zero babies, zero at 10lb+, 7 at 20lb+, 2 at 30lb+ and 1 at 40lb+ along with 4 catfish up to 65lb with this being caught by 11 year old Freyja.
We have really enjoyed getting to know you all and Maisie has had one of the best weeks of the season playing with the girls, she has been so excited to get her ball and walk round every morning and she will miss you I am sure. Thank you for the lovely drawing you did of you throwing the ball for her (we love the waggy tail) and she has put it on the fridge to remind her of the fun times you had. We hope to see you all again one day so hopefully à bientôt…
