Our family of seven from Dover rejoined us again this year, choosing to spend two weeks with us to make the drive worth while. Having fished Lac Lucie for a week the last two years this time they decided to up their game and spend a week on each of our lakes. With Martin, Ronnie and Jamie fishing this left Wendy, Tracy, Charlie and Jess doing the running around, cooking and chilling with a bottle of Malibu or wine always at the ready.
These are their catch reports from the last 2 years with 9 fish on the bank in 2023 and 11 fish caught in 2024 from Lac Lucie (including new PBs for Jamie and Ronnie) and this year they were hoping for even more and bigger.
Arriving with roof boxes, trailers and the two cars packed to the hilt they soon made themselves at home and got their tackle all set up. We had a bit of a catch up and heard about Charlie’s and Jamie’s new jobs, Wendy’s retirement and Jess’ paramedic training and left them all to it for a couple of hours. Martin set up at the swim on the right hand bank and fished to the top end of the lake, with Ronnie and Jamie on the main bank with Ronnie fishing to the middle and left hand bank and Jamie to the middle and the right bank. We had spent a few hours clearing the fallen tree before they got here so that they had good access all around the lake. They all had chosen our maple syrup bait packages to use on Lac Lucie, believing that the carp prefer this to the spicy fish flavour.
Having had a bit of rain the week before and temperatures forecast to be in the mid 20s all week we were hopeful that they would have more fish out than the previous two years.
Ronnie was first off the mark at 5am Sunday morning with a 25lb 8oz mirror, followed Sunday afternoon with a 24lb 9oz mirror and a 28lb 8oz mirror at midnight. He then finished his one man streak with a 21lb mirror at teatime on Monday.
Martin was next off the mark with two carp on the bank straight after each other between midnight and 1am on Tuesday morning. Two mirrors of 22lb 8oz and 34lb 12oz.
Jamie wasn’t going to start messing about with the little ones like his dad and uncle though and he hit into his first fish around 4am on Tuesday morning and landed a new PB straight off with a 45lb 10oz common and a very happy face.
At around 8.30am Tuesday morning we looked out the window and saw both Ronnie and Jamie with fish on so we went down to watch, and help if needed. Maisie loves being part of the action, even if she doesn’t get her ball thrown for her! Jamie got top trumps again this time with a 35lb 5oz common, which took a good while to bring in, as Ronnie’s fish weighed around 3lb so has gone to join it’s mates in the nursery lake. Martin had another mirror later that morning and Ronnie landed a 37lb 8oz in the afternoon and had a double take in the evening with a 17lb mirror and an 18lb common.
On Wednesdays they traditionally have a family day with a visit to the market at Piegut Pluviers followed by lunch and a few goes round the track at Circuit du Perigord, a great go-karting track nearby. This is Charlie’s buzz but you can tell the two cousins are very competitive and all love it. Martin and Ronnie both managed a few fish before they packed up for the day out though with Martin having two commons at 21lb and 23lb and 2 mirrors at 26lb 8oz and 23lb 8oz in the early hours of Wednesday morning and Ronnie also having a 25lb mirror.
Thursday saw a further 8 fish on the bank with Ronnie catching 3, Martin 3, including a 23lb 6oz common which he caught off the top using some dog biscuits and 2 for Jamie including a 18lb mirror he had from stalking under the trees in the shallow end.
Their final day arrived on Lac Lucie and they had decided to go and visit the historic town of Oradour-sur-Glane for the day so they only fished first thing and that night before they packed up and moved to Kingfisher. They did well in their last 24 hours though with Jamie having a lovely 37lb 6oz common at first light, Martin a 24lb 8oz common just before they went out and Ronnie finishing their stint on Lac Lucie with a 34lb 10oz common and another tiddler for the nursery pond.
Over the week Martin had 12 carp on the bank from the top end, Ronnie 13 from the left hand of the main bank and Jamie 6 from the right (but he did have the biggest fish of the week) The total number of fish caught in Lac Lucie by the trio was 31 comprising of 3 babies, 5 at 10lb+, 15 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 1 at 40lb+.
There will be more to follow in their Kingfisher report so watch this space…