Historically we have been on carp fishing holidays in France the first two weeks in September, when the children have gone back to school and the summer is on its way out in the UK but last year we decided that we would like to do it in June, when the weather in France is more predictable and the fish have spawned.
Maybe we jinxed the fortnight this year as it rained the whole of May and the temperatures did not rise as we had hoped and therefore the fish have not all spawned yet. But as we frequently say, it is what it is and we cannot change the weather. Generally the weather for the first week was good with temperatures in the mid twenties and dry days…..until Friday when it poured hard.
For those of you who have not read about us before the Divvies in the Bivvies comprise of us, Nigel and Jo, and Jo’s sister, Julianne and her partner, Dean. For the first few years that we went fishing Julianne used to fish too but after going to a lake where there were a large number of rats wanting to get in her bivvy, Julianne decided to just enjoy the fortnight with her sister and let the boys fish. Lots of sightseeing, wine, cheese and shopping instead. Far more civilised!
Julianne and Dean arrived from the UK, via Calais on the Sunday evening, along with their dog, Floyd, who is Maisie’s big brother (about an extra 15kg big). Sunday evening was spent catching up and wandering around Lac Lucie to show them the changes we had made, as well as having a few beers and letting Floyd settle in.
Monday Nigel and Dean were up bright and early, not quite as early as the very first time we came to France, where their feet were crunching across the gravel at 5am, but they are not as young as they were! They set themselves up on the top bank with Dean fishing to the left and Nigel to the right. Bait was put in, rods were set up and they were ready. Dean decided he could only cope with 2 rods but chose a couple of popular spots and then sat back in his chair to watch. Nigel had seen some topping by the new bridge so decided he would put one in there and the others nearer the bottom of the lake.
Although the fish were showing in various places over the lake none of them were caught until Tuesday morning when Dean had the first run around 11am and landed a 17lb mirror. We popped out for something to eat at Le 16 Beach overlooking the lake before they set themselves up for the night. Dean got lucky Tuesday night around midnight with a 28lb 8oz mirror and then around 9.30am Wednesday morning with a 28lb mirror.
On Wednesday, as Nigel was getting frustrated that Dean was beating him (unusual for these two), he decided to move down to the other end of the lake near the dead tree, which actually has some new growth on it. A wise move as whilst Dean ended up with another mirror on Wednesday night at 45lb by the second tree, Nigel then caught one first thing on Thursday morning, another mirror at 23lb. Nigel has a great app on his phone which when he whistles takes his photo (as long as he has his phone set up on the bank stick properly. This time it wasn’t brilliant but it is a great picture of the mist rising from the lake.
Nothing else happened during the day on Thursday until after tea and a few beers and Nigel had a 21lb common. And then the rain came and Friday was a very wet day but as is often the case when the weather changes and cool rain is added to the lake the fish started mooching around more. Dean ended up with 3 commons during the day at 47lb, 37lb 4oz and 33lb 8oz and and a mirror weighing 17lb that evening and Nigel had a 23lb 8oz common, 47lb common and 23lb 8oz mirror.
Jo and Julianne thought that they would give up on Friday night and come and sleep in the house but they stuck it out and Dean ended up with the final fish of the week, a lovely 39lb mirror, so whilst he did not have the biggest fish from Lac Lucie on their first week he did have the most, catching 7 out of the 12 in total.
As always Saturday came around and Nigel was up early to say goodbye to the lads from Kingfisher and then they got everything packed up in the wet and moved over to Kingfisher ready for another week of mud, beers and laughter.
The final tally for their week on Lac Lucie were 0 babies, 1 at 10lb+, 6 at 20lb+, 2 at 30lb+ and 3 at 40lb+.