We have now started our third season here and for the most part our guests have all come from the United Kingdom, so we were thrilled to receive a booking from Germany last year. Peter, Stefan, Marco and Mathias drove for over 12 hours and more than 1000km (over 600 miles) from the Bavaria region to get here. With a van and a car both packed to the brim with tackle, bait, plenty of food and equipment to make them totally self sufficient for the week they also managed to squeeze in a few gifts for us, including Maisie who was thrilled with her first new ball of the season.
The four have been fishing together for some time and Stefan and Peter also hunt together and Marco and Mathias are cousins. They decided to set up around the social area, bringing with them a gazebo to provide shelter if needed, with Stefan and Peter on swim 2 and Marco and Mathias sharing a bivvy on swim 3. This meant that they could use the entire lake and catch up with each other whilst also being close enough to the rods.
They were all unpacked and set up by early evening and just waiting for the first fish and at 7pm Mathias struck in with what they described as a ‘super healthy, in great condition’ common weighing 17kg+ (around 38lb). But Mathias was really here for the catfish so was pleased when he landed one a few hours later measuring 1.31m (around 50lb). He said that it had put up a great fight.
Mathias was totally focused on the catfish and spent most of the week hunting them down and catching some of the smaller non-carp to use as bait. He rarely sat still, always trying to come up with a new plan and spent Thursday night on the dam wall with just his bedchair hoping to catch one from there as they did seem to be lurking underneath the trees near to the metal bridge. But unfortunately it was not to be; it is maybe still a little cold for them yet.
Sunday morning was very cold and the lads woke up to frost on their bivvies. Our weather station said the temperature had dropped to 0.6°C overnight. Stefan had been up in the night at around 4am landing this 18kg+ (around 40lb) common which he said felt very powerful. This not only turned out to be the biggest carp of the week for the group but also Stefan’s only one over 10kg.
Stefan went on to have 4 more commons through the week, 2 at 5kg+ (around 11lb 8oz) and 2 at 6kg+ (around 13lb 8oz). It is amazing how big you can make a fish look if you stretch your arms out and get the camera angle right!
On Sunday afternoon we were called over to the lake as the guys had some concerns about a sore on the mouth of one of the fish that Peter had caught. The common weighed about 16kg+ (around 35lb 8oz) and funnily enough was caught again during the week by Marco on the Tuesday. The sore was treated with some propolis and the fish appeared to be very healthy apart from the sore. Peter was the only angler to catch a mirror, in fact apart from this common he had three other carp which were all mirrors, weighing 17kg+ (around 38lb), 7kg+ (around 15lb 8oz) and 15kg (around) 33lb 8oz)
Peter and Stefan managed to have a triple run in the early hours of Tuesday morning during the rain and gusty winds. The other two managed to sleep through the drama and unfortunately they managed to lose one.
Marco was the last to catch but did not have to wait too long after the others and by Sunday evening they had all landed something. Marco had 4 commons in total weighing 13kg+ (around 29lb), 16kg+ (around 35lb 8oz), 8.5kg+ (around 19lb) and 17kg+ (around 38lb). He also successfully managed to tangle up two other rods when he was landing the smallest of his fish, one of his own and one of Peter’s. All the lines were successfully bought in though with the end tackle intact so there was no risk to any other fish in the lake.
Final totals 6 less than 10kg and 8 over 10-20kg or in imperial weights 0 babies, 6 at 10lb+, 1 at 20lb+, 6 at 30lb+ and 1 at 40lb+ and 1 catfish measuring 1.51m weighing approximately 50lb.
The weather was variable over the week with temperatures up to just over 20 degrees during the day and dropping to 0.6 degrees at night, wind speeds were up to 23km/h with gusts of 35km/h and the pressure was between 975hPa and 994hPa.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our first week of the season, these lovely people came bearing gifts for us all and cooked for us a few times, introducing us to a variety of German cuisine. Anyone who knows Nigel will be aware that he is not always great at trying new things but everything was superb and so tasty. A big thank you to you all and thank you for a great week’s fishing and we hope to see you all again one day.
Until then bonne journée et à bientôt