We first met Steve and Carl when they fished on Kingfisher with Carl’s uncle Mick in April 2024 in the cold. That year they managed 13 fish on the bank between the three of them and then last year Steve fished Lac Lucie on a family trip and had 12 from that lake. So these two know our lakes and they know what they are doing.
When they arrived on Saturday afternoon we sat and had a beer together and caught up a bit. They told us that they had been devising a plan for weeks, with information form our catch reports being put into ChatGPT and analysed. They knew where they were planning on fishing and what bait they were going to use and were going to take time to get those spots ready before they put their lines in those parts of the lake. Their goal was to net 20 fish between them and so that is what their plan set out to do.
When Steve had fished Lac Lucie last year with his family, his daughters were determined he was going to ‘get on the wall’. For those of you who don’t know, we put our biggest catches of the season in frames on the wall and unfortunately for him last year none of them were the biggest so he was under pressure to get on the wall for this session so when he comes back next year he can prove it to his children.
After taking their bait round to the lake we left them to get set up. Steve was taking swim 2, ‘The Hut’ swim and Carl in 3, ‘Nightingales’. Although these are our newly renovated swims with the huts on them, the pair chose to put their bivvies up in the social area and sleep in those. They had also brought a gazebo to put up over the picnic bench to give them somewhere dry to sit and chat in the evenings or if it rained.
On Sunday morning we were pleased to hear that the first carp of the session had reached the bank, a lovely 39lb 8oz mirror for Steve caught just before breakfast on a single wafter. He told us he had just chucked out his rods last night with solid bags and wafters whilst he baited up his selected spots under the trees.
Carl had also not fished the spots he had chosen but had started to bait up his spots and had put his rods in some random places for the night but not caught anything. He did have a big spider in his bed though which he was not too happy about.
On Sunday evening we had a phone call to say that Steve had caught a big catfish and they were concerned that the weigh sling would not be big enough so we went round to see them. There were a lot of bats over the lake and the lads had the catfish just about in the sling by the time we got there. Their tails are very bendy. They said that they had just been waiting for their pot noodles to be ready when the rod had gone off. A new PB catfish for Steve at 75lb and apparently they had lost one that had felt even bigger earlier in the evening.
On Monday afternoon Carl had still not yet fished his spots and was still baiting them up and waiting until Tuesday and sticking to the plan. He still had his rods out but had not had any fish, Steve had had three more fish on the bank, a 31lb mirror, a 55lb catfish and a 18lb long common. They were still talking to each other though!
The story continued on Tuesday morning with nearly everything coming out of Steve’s patch of water. He had had four more carp overnight from same spot including two mirrors weighing 45lb and 46lb – two new PBs one after the other. They had apparently tried to play a new board game they had brought with them but the rods kept going off and the game was complicated with just setting it up. And finally Carl was off the mark with a 15lb common. Only small but off the mark at last.
They had a bit of time away from the lake on Tuesday morning and went to the supermarket and had a quick stop off at McDonalds. Nigel was out in the afternoon at a bee course and popped round to see them on his way home, just in time to see Steve land a 35lb common. Steve had also had two more during the afternoon, a small catfish and a 20lb+ mirror.
Steve had his own method of fishing with a solid bag of our boilies or blood worm in them and this was obviously working for him. Carl was now also fishing his spots.
Carl’s plan evidently paid off as he had three fish on the bank overnight on Tuesday, a 33lb common, a small catfish weighing 12lb and an 12lb common who we have seen several times before and affectionately call Quasi.
When Steve had been here last year with Julie and his daughters they had done a few trips out away from the lake and enjoyed a trip to the market at Piegut Pluviers. Steve fancied going back there and as Carl had only flown here previously he was keen to go. So they had an early breakfast on Wednesday morning and spent a few hours with their rods out the water. The verdict was that the market was not as good as during the peak season when there are lots of tourists about but they still had a nice time and Steve bought some garlic to take home with him.
On Wednesday evening Steve had a 42lb common and Carl had a 37lb mirror overnight – with Carl beating his previous PB
When we went round to see them on Thursday morning Steve had had no more overnight and Carl had lost a couple of really big ones, with one getting off right at the net. Nothing more frustrating, especially when your mate is streets ahead of you.
Over the day on Thursday Steve landed a couple more (we are not too sure of the details and Carl had a further 30lb common overnight.
On Friday lunchtime we had a call as the pair were not convinced that their scales were working properly as Steve had another big fish in the net so whilst they kept it in the water we went round with another set of scales. We were all certain that this one was going to be over 50lb as it seemed bigger than all the others had been but unfortunately the scales were correct and it weighed 46lb 8oz. Still another new PB for Steve so he was not unhappy and it meant that he had caught 20 fish on his own. Carl was still on 6 but still thrilled for Steve.
Friday night, they said, was the quietest night they had had all week. Steve had had a couple more but just in the 20lb range and there was nothing further for Carl. They decided they were going to get an early night, keep their rods out and get everything packed away and in the van early in the morning so they could head off back to the ferry for Saturday evening. They spent the early evening watching the stars and enjoyed their last evening by the lake.
This was in retrospect a bit of a mistake as around 4am it started to rain. When they woke up at 6 they thought it was stopping a bit but it carried on and we had more rain in the space of a few hours than we had had for the whole of September. We had not seen it in the forecast so were not prepared so it was all a bit chaotic with things being thrown in the van and a bit of a rush. They put a pizza in the microwave for their journey but forgot about it when they drove round to ours for breakfast and to say goodbye. Obviously both of them keen to get on the road and back to their families. Hopefully the lads at work will sort your fishing gear out for you on Monday!
A special little baby was caught this week as well. Weighing only 2lb it has been lucky to escape the catfish and is definitely one to look out for in the future. With us not having had any babies out this year we had not given them a keep net for us to put it in the stock pond so it lives to fight another day.
We have enjoyed seeing these two anglers again and they have had a great week. Apart from the rain on Saturday morning there was a little bit on Wednesday night but other than that the daytime temperatures stayed just over 20°C all week and it was quite lovely in the sunshine. We will refer to the aerators as the airinators but we know what you meant!
With new PBs for both anglers and Steve catching a huge 22 fish and Carl with 6 on the bank the two of them had a cracking autumn week on the lake. The summary of their week was 1 baby, 2 at 10lb+, 5 at 20lb+, 9 at 30lb+, 4 at 40lb+ and 6 catfish to 75lb. A pretty good week and we will see if either of them make the wall. Until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt…..