Friends Jaden and Ricky joined us on Lac Lucie this week with their better halves, Eden and Beth, along with Ricky and Beth’s son Charlie. They had both fished in France before, Jaden comes over a couple of times a year and Ricky fished with him last year on a very large 17 acre lake with 10 other friends. Unfortunately he blanked then and with only a small PB before he came we were certain that he would beat it. Jaden on the other hand has a PB of 54lb.
Driving down from South Yorkshire in Ricky and Beth’s camper van, they crossed the channel overnight and were with us by late morning, just as we were finishing the Saturday jobs. It was an incredibly hot afternoon, with temperatures reaching 38°C by 4pm, so it was tough work setting their gear up on the main bank but they were soon sorted and got their rods in the water.
When we called down to see them Sunday morning Ricky had had the first fish out of the session, a nice 28lb 6oz common on Saturday evening. Beth reckons he is smiling more in this picture than he had on their wedding photos just 5 weeks ago. He was a happy man and Charlie was thrilled as well that his dad had caught a huge fish.
The pair also lost 2 in the night and Sunday morning caught a couple of small carp, probably last years fry, which we transferred into our nursery pond.
Our visit down to them on Monday saw some very tired faces. With the girls and Charlie all sleeping down by the lake every time an alarm went off they were all awake and overnight they had hooked several fish but ended up losing them. With temperatures over night barely dropping to below 20°C it was tough fishing but Jaden did manage to get a 24lb mirror in the net.
Monday saw another baby mirror caught which we quickly moved and the girls took Charlie to the public lake for a swim off the beach. Overnight Jaden landed his biggest fish of the week, a 45lb common.
Tuesday saw nothing on the bank all day but as the temperatures peaked again at 35°C it was not really surprising. Ricky enjoyed some time in the dip pool with Charlie who appears to be quite a water baby.
And the day we had been waiting for arrived and we all hoped that the forecasted storms would bring some cooler temperatures and some much needed rain as there was barely anything going into the lakes. But as is quite typical of Pouméroux they skirted around us and we listened to the thunder rolling and watched the lightening flashing but had very little rain, 1.3mm to be precise! But the temperatures dropped by nearly 10 degrees and that made a huge difference.
But the lake woke up…
When Nigel went to see them late on Thursday morning we were thrilled to hear that they had had over 10 fish on the bank. Another very tiring night but at least they had managed to land them. Here are a few we have been sent with weights.
And Ricky had another new PB that night – a 45lb common
On Friday the girls and Ricky went to Oradour-sur-Glane, a village decimated by the German soldiers in World War 2 as Beth had told us they were going to visit Auschwitz later in the year. They were very moved by it and felt that it had been a good place to visit.
The lads fished right through to them leaving on Saturday and did have a few more fish out before they headed back to Calais to get on the train. With a total of 22 fish out over the week it didn’t turn out too bad in the end.
In summary known fish were 4 babies, 0 at 10lb+, 5 at 20lb+, 2 at 30lb +, 3 at 40lb+ and a further 8 photos received with no weights recorded.
Thanks for a good weeks fishing and maybe see you again someday. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt…