The first (paying) guests on Lac Lucie arrived in the middle of the Saturday night having had to change their travel arrangements and having to have frequent stops on route for their 4 year old rottweiler, Opal. Nigel was still up to greet them and settled them in. By breakfast Sunday morning they were full of enthusiasm to get set up and get fishing.
Rob’s cousin had stayed with us last May and gone home and spread the word so Rob booked the week for him and his wife, Lisa, his son, Harry and his dad, Bob. Rob and Harry do a bit of fishing in the UK but their PBs were in the low 20s so they had high hopes of smashing these. Lisa and Bob came to enjoy the peace and quiet of our little piece of paradise and to offer support and encouragement to the anglers. Oh and we mustn’t forget Opal who came to find a new friend in Maisie as well as have a break from the busy life she leads.
Rob and Harry were fishing in the old fashioned way, no bait boats, no spod rods, just good casting and hitting the spots they could reach. By using the whole lake at different times of day they proved that you can still catch fish this way.
They both had one of our bait packages each. These include 5kg of our spicy fish or maple syrup boilies, 5kg pellets, 5kg of parti-blend and a pot of hookers, pop-ups, wafters or glugs. The lads chose a pot of pop-ups in each flavour to match their boilies.
By Sunday afternoon they were all set up, sharing a bivvy on the main bank and Harry fishing to the left and Rob to the right. The weather was gorgeous, with temperatures reaching 24.8°C by the afternoon so we reminded them that sun cream was essential. They managed to get a good night’s sleep until about 5am when the first fish appeared and Harry was off the mark with a new PB with this 32lb mirror.
In the afternoon Harry moved to the left hand bank near the bench for a bit of stalking and Rob to the side swim. We were just heading down with Maisie when we saw Lisa and Bob heading towards the bench with the new weighing tripod and the weigh sling and Harry had another fish, one of the new mirrors, we think, weighing 24lb 6oz and a great scale pattern.
On Tuesday morning they reported two more fish, a 34lb 6oz mirror for Rob and a 36lb 4oz common for Harry. The PBs were going up.
We popped down to see them on Tuesday evening as Harry had spent 30 minutes playing a fish and not had a sighting of it. We all wondered if it might be the sole catfish we had put back in the lake when we had drained it but after another 15 minutes Harry landed this mirror, weighing 26lb which we clearly identified as one of the new stock. Opal was very interested in it but was lovely and gentle and was fascinated when it just disappeared into the water again.
We had no guests on our Kingfisher lake as the people who had booked were unable to come so Lisa, Bob and Opal made the most of it by taking a daily walkaround the bigger of our two lakes. Bob also ventured a bit further afield walking the 5km around the road a couple of times with a bit of our bamboo as his walking stick. He showed us several photos he had taken of the coypu enjoying the little streams, and of the little calves in the neighbouring fields. With the weather being very warm, we have heard the cuckoo for the first time this week and the frogs on our neighbours lake have started their ribbiting.
Wednesday saw 5 fish out of the lake for our two anglers, the first one being a 38lb 2oz common for Harry in the very early hours followed by two more in the afternoon, at 30lb 2oz mirror and a 39lb 3oz common – the biggest fish of the week.
This put Harry at 7 carp on the bank with Rob only having caught 1 and he was beginning to wonder what he was doing wrong and thinking he might try and persuade Harry to swap sides. But determined to get some more out he decided to spend the afternoon up on the left hand bank by the new bench, enjoying the sunshine if nothing else. He had only been over there for about 20 minutes when his rod went and he landed a 36lb 6oz common, followed less than an hour later by a 30lb 3oz mirror. He was trying to catch up!
With the air temperatures rising every day, the temperature of the lake was also rising, suggesting that spawning might come around soon if the weather stayed this way and Thursday was a lot quieter in the lake. Both of the anglers managed another fish out on Thursday during the day, with Harry catching a 22lb 3oz mirror and Rob a 38lb 3oz common, his biggest of the week.
The lake certainly quietened off at the end of the week and there was only one more fish to come out, at 5.45am on Friday morning, Harry finished the week with a 30lb common. But with new PBs for both of them and still the 40s to come back and play for another day, the two of them felt like they had had a good week, relaxing in the sun and enjoying the lake and the fish they had caught. Bob and Lisa also had a great time and Opal and Maisie soon made friends with each other, chasing the balls thrown for them and generally mooching around.
The final (fish) count was 4 at 20lb+ and 10 at 30lb
The weather was dry for our guests this week with temperatures up to just over 24.6°C during the day and dropping to 2°C at night, wind speeds were up to 18.7km/h with gusts of 25.6km/h and the pressure was between 976hPa and 992hPa.
Thank you all for a great week, Maisie is already missing her new playmate and we hope to see you all again someday.
Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….