Jethro had booked a week on Kingfisher for himself, his brother, Barney and his friend, Will. Unfortunately right at the last minute Jethro was unable to come so with everything packed up in their Mercedes van Barney and Will made the long journey from the south west of England over to Roscoff and then drove down to us, arriving mid afternoon on the Saturday.
You can never quite work out how the week is going to start. Some anglers arrive and are unpacked and have everything set up before tea time and others take it nice and slow and steady, spending time watching the water, having a few beers and recovering from the journey.
Barney and Will were the latter and when we walked round with Maisie on the Sunday morning the only angling we came across was Barney on the dam wall with a single rod, just chucking it in and seeing what was about. There was loads of activity on the lake with bubbles coming up all over the place. Barney was convinced that the fish were feeding and he told us that they had put some bait in the night before, along the dam wall and in the margins on the far bank so that they could fish from the house swim and the 2nd swim along.
By Sunday evening they were properly set up, well Barney had put his bed up in the van on the house swim and Will had his bivvie up next to him. They were keeping it social by camping out together but had their rods spread across the two swims so they were easily got to but close enough to give each other a hand.
On Sunday night they landed the first carp of the week, a 33lb common for Barney. A great looking fish and obviously the water was warm enough still to get in the lake for a great photo.
The weather at the start of the week was amazing for the start of October and the lads made the most of temperatures in the mid 20s and loved throwing the ball for Maisie when we walked round, knowing that it was set to turn mid week with showers rolling in.
By Tuesday afternoon Will had had a 50lb+ catfish and Barney had caught a new PB and was thrilled with this one – 46lb 2oz mirror in great condition and some nice scale patterns on its tail and back.
The weather remained good for Wednesday morning but by the afternoon torrential rain was coming down and they were glad of the van parked by the lake to take shelter. The pair had not needed to leave the lake much, just to pick up a few things from the Spar in Montamboeuf as we went out most days as Jo’s mum was staying so we always got any beers or anything that they had run low on.
Midweek saw Will catch a 47lb 3oz mirror. A stunning fish and well landed.
Fishing continued at a steady pace over the rest of the week and luckily the rain stopped on Friday afternoon giving them some hope that their gear might dry out by the time they had to pack things up. Barney sent us some further photos on Saturday morning when we went round, two commons weighing 17lb 5oz and 30lb 8oz.
Both of them managed to land 5 carp each over the week and Will had a couple of catfish up to 50lb+. Here are a couple more of Will’s fish
This is our final guest catch report of the season but we will keep you updated over the closed period with anything we are doing on or around the lakes. We have quite a lot we would like to do, and some things that we have to do, such as finishing the compliance works on Kingfisher. We are hoping for a drier winter than last year so we can spend more time outside than in. So keep checking back and until the next time à bientôt…