When four policeman turned up on our doorstep last Saturday they thought our pig (affectionately known as George Michael) had been deliberately put on the decking for them, but we were not to know that our new guests on Kingfisher for the week were all a part of the British constabulary. The four colleagues have been fishing together for years and have a trip to France every September, to a new venue each time. Jim and Andy had fairly low PBs and Scott had had a 50lb+ but never had a 40lber, but Rob had fished in Thailand the year before and told us some great tales about the huge fish he had caught there. None of them had ever had a catfish though and we all knew there was a high chance of that happening.
After our meet and greet the lads were shown around the lake and chalet and left to get themselves set up before their tea. The first thing they had to decide on was who was going into which swim and to do this they had to pick a card from the 4 dealt, with the highest picking the first swim etc. Scott was first to pick and had decided which card he didn’t want as it was giving him bad vibes. Eventually he chose, with Andy swiftly picking his next, then Jim and then Rob, who had the card with the ‘bad vibes’. Little were they to know at this point that those vibes were not the bad ones at all. Scott selected swim 1, with Rob on 2, Jim on 3 and Andy getting Nigel’s favourite swim 4.
They all fished on Saturday night except for Jim who had decided to get a good nights sleep in his bivvy after not feeling great from the journey on Saturday. Rob was first off the mark on Saturday night with a 52lb catfish and a 30lb+ common and set the tone for the week generally.
Monday morning Rob had continued with his lead, landing a 14lb 3oz kitten, a 24lb 2oz mirror, a 41lb 9oz mirror and a 26lb 8oz common, as well as losing another fish at the net, which weighed approx 20lbs. Andy also had a 20lb common but there was nothing to report for Scott or Jim.
Scott eventually had his first mirror on Monday afternoon weighing 34lb 7oz and Andy had another common weighing 29lb 8oz.
Monday night saw Rob with another 5 on the bank including 3 kittens and 2 commons weighing 25lb 2oz and 33lb 14oz and Scott with a 16lb 7oz common. And nothing for Jim or Andy.
It was quiet during the day on Tuesday but on Wednesday morning Rob told us that he had had 5 more carp over night, 4 commons over 30lb and a 28lb 1oz mirror. Scott had also caught a 10lb common on a yellow pop up (as advised by Nigel)
Nigel was round at the lake on Wednesday afternoon, changing the bait boat batteries for them and dropping off yet more bait for Rob and discovered that he had just landed a further 30+lber. His other rod went off whilst Nigel was there and he landed another PB catfish weighing 71lb 12oz. Then whilst he was having his photo taken with that one the 3rd rod screamed off, and Rob asked Jim to play it for him as he had still not caught anything and Jim managed to land a 42lb 1oz catfish. There are some discussions as to whether that was Rob’s fish or Jim’s but whatever it was Jim got a bucket of water as he has also never had a catfish.
Thursday again was a quiet day and very wet so the guys pretty much stayed in their bivvies all day and watched the water on the lake. Rain can make the fish either turn on or turn off and this time it seemed to turn off. Scott, Andy and Jim were completely baffled as to why they were not catching much, particularly as Scott and Jim were starting to move their lines more and more into Rob’s swim and we could not understand what the attraction was in that one section of the lake. The lads had had so many discussions on rigs, bait, how they were presenting the food and every single possible variation but it seemed to be making no difference. Even Nigel was baffled!
On Friday morning Rob reported that he had had another couple of small commons, in their teens and Scott had had another 30lb 7oz mirror – a stunning fish
And then Saturday came around again and they got themselves all packed up ready to head home on the evening ferry from Caen. The only catch they reported at their last breakfast was a new PB for Scott, and the biggest catch of the week, a 74lb 1oz catfish. Not easy to hold at that weight on your own.
The weather had been fairly kind to them all week, starting with high temperatures on the Saturday and no rain, dropping to below 20°C on Wednesday and Thursday with over 20mm of rain on these days and then a nice sunny day on Friday, perfect for drying their kit out before packing back up on Saturday morning. With some amazing photos of the sunrise viewed from swim 4 some mornings and the sunset on their first day when there was a lunar eclipse they had great conditions for their holiday with us.
Final summary went something like zero babies, 4 at 10lb+, 7 at 20lb+, 8 at 30lb+, 1 at 40lb+ and 7 catfish up to 74lb 1oz
With Rob selecting Scott’s ‘bad vibes’ card at the start of the week they were certainly not expecting him to have around 19 fish on the bank in total so swim 2 turned out to be the best place to be for the week. We understand that these guys prefer somewhere new every year but they would always be very welcome here again any time. Until the next time bonne journée et à bientôt…..