With only a few small catfish out last week but a distinct change in the weather conditions we were wondering how this week would go for our four anglers from Liverpool. The cold, wet weather from the week before had gone and the air pressure was rising with temperatures in the low 20s forecast all week. Perfect fishing weather and we were hopeful that this would be a better week.
Mick and Jamie did the long drive down overnight with all the gear in the back of their van, arriving at 9am on the Saturday morning, before the previous weeks guests had left so they had a good chat with them, trying to get all the info on the best spots to fish and set themselves up near the deepest part of the lake on the dam wall. When Michael and his girlfriend, Sam arrived at lunchtime from the airport they were well on their way to being sorted. Michael and Sam were both fishing and wanted to set up together so they went into swim 3, which is not technically a double swim but they squeezed in and got their bivvies up and the rods out as quickly as possible.
Whilst Mick generally preferred coarse fishing he had been to France carp fishing before about 10 years ago but for Michael and Jamie it was there first time carp fishing in France and Sam had only ever fished once before in her life so they were pretty much all beginners and very optimistic at the start of their week with us. With 25lb line on his reels Michael was hoping to get some of the big cats on the bank.
Michael’s rods were the first to go off and he managed to lose two big cats on Saturday afternoon as they headed for the tree line and snagged his line before they were bought in. Sam, the complete novice was the first off the mark with a 40lb catfish, and won the prize for the first fish in the net before 8pm on the Saturday evening.
And when we woke up on Sunday morning we were pleased to see that Michael had landed a 38lb mirror.
Mick, who was fishing to the corner and trees on the dam wall also had a catfish around 10lb on Sunday afternoon and Jamie had lost a big catfish near to the aerator. We all know that the cats know where to go and hide when they get hooked but both Michael and Jamie had enjoyed the fights and described it like nothing else they had hooked before.
On Tuesday morning they told us that they had lost yet another cat, who would have thought it on line so strong but it happens. Michael had, however managed to land this 28lb mirror.
Jamie was getting more and more frustrated where he was so on Tuesday decided to move right down to the shallow end into swim 4 and stayed there for the rest of the week. Mick had some fun catching loads of small roach and the guys tried some squid on their hooks to tempt the big cats.
Nothing further was caught on the Tuesday and Wednesday also saw everyone draw a blank. Finally on Wednesday night Jamie had his first carp on the bank, a nice 32lb common and Sam also had another small catfish weighing just 23lb that night.
Friday afternoon saw Jamie with his second fish, a lovely 30lb mirror.
Mick had had about 3 small catfish out the lake but no signs of any carp on his bait, although he did hear some amazing crashes in the night up in his corner, telling him that all the fish were there.
The final fish of the week was Michael’s, a 24lb 2oz common, destined to be a big girl one day and he waited until daylight on Saturday morning before he had his picture taken. As you can see the weather changed dramatically late on Friday night with the remnants of Storm Amy arriving and the rain with it – we ended up with about 23mm in a 24 hour period!
So the summary of their week was zero babies, 0 at 10lb+, 2 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+ and 5 catfish to 40lb. Not the best week for these lovely people with several of the larger catfish managing to get caught and get loose but we hope they enjoyed their week with us anyway and will come back again one day. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt…..