Andy and Tracy stayed with us in September 2025 on their campervan tour around France. They were keen to get here last year after a few days sleeping in the van and were pleased to be able to use the beds. They had a great week with 12 carp to 35lb 12oz between the two of them and what Tracy affectionately referred to as her ‘twins’, a double take of two 30lb+ commons on the Friday afternoon. You can read their last years catch report here.
It was less than a week before they came that Andy messaged us to see if we had any short notice weeks available. We luckily had this week and so they packed their new van up with everything they would need for a month on the road in France and away they came, stopping for a night or so on the way here. When they arrived we were pleased to see that they upgraded their van to a slightly bigger one, with a proper bed in it too. They still seemed to have managed to fill every gap, bringing with them their bikes and paddle boards so they could enjoy the outdoors on their travels.
After a quick catch up on the Saturday afternoon we left them to get unpacked and sorted out. As last year the plan was to both fish during the day and enjoy the comfort of the chalet overnight.
Although it was only for a brief stint, they managed to get their rods in on Saturday afternoon, following Nigel’s suggestion of going down onto the side swim. The water level is still quite low and even though we have built the jetty the water beside it is still very shallow. Andy was rewarded with the first fish of the session at around 5.45pm with a 29lb mirror.
There was rain forecast for the week, well we are always hopeful we will get something, so Andy and Tracy set their bivvy up for somewhere to shelter during the week and enjoyed their pastries from the bakery down there mid morning each day.
When we went to see them on Sunday morning Andy had had another two on the bank, a 21lb 9oz common and a little while later a 25lb 6oz common. Tracy was yet to catch anything but was loving sitting by the lake, reading her kindle and was in no rush. The afternoon was spent in the bivvy and we managed to accumulate 10mm of rain around teatime. There had been another 3mm of rain first thing in the morning but the temperatures were climbing again, reaching 26.3°C by the end of the afternoon.
The couple fish a lot in the UK, mainly fisheries in Kent and have recently been spending a lot of time at The Hop Farm at Paddock Wood more recently, getting up early and coming back happy with their days there.
Having looked in the book they noticed that, where the Visitor’s Logs have been completed, people were generally catching them mid morning rather than too early, so they were not in any rush to get down there each day. Andy would usually head down by 8am with Tracy taking more time to get up and tidied but normally down by 10am at the latest.
Monday was their most lucrative day of the week with Andy getting a 23lb 2oz mirror just before 11am, followed by a 23lb 10oz mirror for Tracy just after lunch, a 27lb 8oz for Andy at 8.20pm and 20 minutes later a 25lb 10oz mirror for Tracy.
On Tuesday Tracy decided to have a day off and rest her back but Andy stuck with it and was rewarded with a couple of fish, a 29lb 4oz common and a 33lb 11oz mirror – the first 30lb+ of the week. There was none of the forecasted rain and the temperatures continued to rise in the afternoon.
Tracy was again down and in the water by 10am on Wednesday and withing half hour of casting she had landed a 19lb 12oz mirror. Andy ended the day with no fish but they said that you could see the fish swimming up and down on the far bank.
They spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on Wednesday on the main bank as Tracy fancied a change but it is quite shady there in the afternoon and Tracy loves sitting in the sun with her kindle.
Andy blanked again on Thursday but Tracy managed to land three mirrors over the day, two of them in the morning within ten minutes of each other weighing 33lb 10oz and 30lb 8oz and the third around 3.15pm weighing 20lb 2oz.
There had been very little of the 50mm of rain that had been forecast and by Thursday the temperatures were back up to 30°C. The Fishing Points App showed fish activity as very low on Friday and this was proven with just one mirror in the net for Andy, weighing 25lb
And another week for this lovely couple came to an end but not before Andy had a little wander round to Kingfisher to have a look and a chat with the anglers there who were just finishing their two weeks stay on the lake. Maybe they will be back to give this a try next year….
Jo’s Fishing Points App had said it was going to be average to low fish activity all week and it was certainly not as productive as the week before but still a couple of fish more than last year and the couple went on from us to St Emilion, near Bordeaux for a few days cycling, fishing and visiting vineyards. All the fish were caught on our maple syrup boilies using the couple’s own tackle, including some lovely looking telescopic rods) and hook baits.
The final summary of their week was zero babies, 1 at 10lb+, 10 at 20lb+ and 3 at 30lb+. We hope that this lovely couple will be back to see us again someday, maybe to fish on Kingfisher. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt….
These are some of the fish caught
