We first met Richard in 2023, about 6 months after we had moved here. He was landscaping Jo’s sister’s garden in Northamptonshire during our autumn visit and we got chatting about carp fishing, the lakes and our new life in France.
Fast forward two years and Richard contacted us about booking two weeks on both lakes with a friend for this September. In the meantime he had set up his own bait company, Carp Chaser https://carpchaseruk.co.uk/ designing and selling his own boilies and hook baits. He had got himself a team of people together to promote it and these keen carp anglers can regularly be seen on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook promoting his products. Richard had never fished in France before and was obviously keen to get out here and see what his bait could do abroad.
Richard and Mick arrived on the Stansted flight Saturday lunchtime and Jo spent the journey to the supermarket and back to the lakes chatting about the bait, her sister’s garden and fishing in general. The pair go to the same lake fishing on a regular basis and get some decent carp out of it, as well as other species of fish. Richard’s PB was in the low 30s and Mick’s in the high 20s so we were confident that these would be beaten in the first few days. They had also never had a catfish before and although Richard was not over keen, Mick was looking forward to hooking a cat.
The weather forecast was fairly good for the week, not as hot as it had been and no rain in the forecast, although we are still desperate for the lakes to start filling up again. The Fishing Points App said that fish activity would start low, move to average by Monday and Tuesday and then getting to very high by Friday. We were hopeful that they would both leave Kingfisher at least with a good head of fish on the bank.
After a quick tour of the lake by Nigel the pair got their tackle all set up with Mick in swim 2, the ‘hut’ swim and Richard in swim 3, ‘Nightingale’s’ as Nigel likes to call it. There was much banter about what bait our carp would prefer, Carp Chaser or our own house bait and we could see that it could get quite competitive all round
Mick was first off the mark just after midday on Sunday with a 34lb 7oz common, caught on Nigel’s maple syrup boilies. A happy man, with a new PB. He had doubted if he would catch anything as he told us it was always Richard who caught the most fish when they went in the UK.
Later that evening they had the first catfish out of the session, and what a beast it was. The biggest we have had out of the lake all season so far, weighing 78lb 4oz. And Richard was also hooked, telling us he hadn’t wanted to hook a catfish but now he wanted more! As usual with the cats, it put up a great fight in the water but then was as good as gold on the bank. Caught on Carp Chaser garlic mussel flavour.
Mick followed up with another common early on Monday morning weighing 32lb 4oz and then mid afternoon it was his turn to land a catfish. At 77lb 4oz, it was not quite as big as Richard’s but still put up a great fight, and again caught on Carp Chaser garlic mussel.
The next one on the bank was a small 6lb kitten for Mick on Tuesday morning, very much a baby in comparison to the two monsters they had had out but he was still happy with it. This again was caught on Carp Chaser garlic mussel. And then at lunchtime the 4th catfish of the session was landed, this time another big one at 50lb, and again liking the garlic mussel.
Mick finished Tuesday off with another carp on maple syrup boilies, weighing 18lb. A lovely looking common.
It was certainly looking like the catfish were loving the Carp Chaser baits and so far it was 3 carp on the house maple syrup and 4 cats on the Carp Chaser garlic mussel. Richard was becoming despondent, having only landed the one catfish in the first three days. But he was thrilled for his mate and loving just sitting by the lake, watching the nature and relaxing, away from work and the busy lives they lead back in the UK.
The guys had a good routine going, coming up to the house for breakfast each morning, back down at their swims by 10.30am and then only stopping for tea at 5.30pm before getting back out for the night by 7pm. Mick had one night in the chalet, we reckon so it gave Richard a chance to catch up with him, but apart from that they fished as much as they could.
Richard moved up to swim 1, the ‘chalet’ swim on Tuesday afternoon, taking some of the deeper water for himself and Mick moved his rods slightly further to the left. But Wednesday it was still Mick who was catching and Richard photographing. Only one carp graced the bank on Wednesday, a 24lb mirror around 12.30pm. A lovely looking fish and caught on our maple syrup bait. So 4 all draw on the bait front but 7 fish for Mick against Richard’s 1.
Richard told us that back home he likes to fish close into the near margins and he had seen a lot of splashing just in front of his swim on a few of the nights so he was hopeful but he had not had much luck so far. He was only fishing with his baits though, using some pellet and parti-blend of ours but his own boilies and hook baits. It has been said that if you throw new flavours into a lake, the fish take a while to catch on. So whether it was that or just where the fish were who knows. As Nigel frequently says, he has given up trying to think like a fish.
Richard spent some time on Wednesday afternoon taking some drone footage for us of the lake and swims – some stunning stills here.
On Thursday morning we were back with Mick again who messaged us around 8am saying he had caught a funny looking fish. We knew instantly which one it was, one we affectionately know as Quasi, who although slightly deformed seems to be feeding ok and surviving in the lake full of cats, as he has been out a few times in the last couple of years.
Finally on Thursday afternoon Richard caught a carp, and he didn’t start with the smaller ones – straight in with a 41lb 7oz mirror at around 2pm. As Mick said, his persistence paid off, and it was caught on his pineapple coconut bait so a very happy Carp Chaser with a new PB.
To give the guys a break from the lake, and our cooking, we took them down to the pizza bar at le 16 beach for their tea and a couple of pints later they managed to get their rods back in and half an hour later Mick struck into an even bigger mirror, weighing 42lb 4oz, but caught on Carp Chaser garlic mussel. Another new PB for Mick and Big Fish Thursday living up to it’s name.
As the guys were only moving to Lac Lucie on Saturday they were in no rush to get their stuff packed up by the lake, although they managed to get most of their things out of the chalet on Friday afternoon. They enjoyed their last day by the lake and they managed to land four fish over the day, with Richard starting the day with a 15lb 13oz common at 8am, followed by a 33lb 8oz common at midday. 45 minutes later Mick landed a 13lb 13oz common and 10 minutes after that Richard had a small catfish weighing 12lb 8oz. All four were caught on Carp Chaser pineapple coconut.
So whilst Carp France Fishing bait started well on the carp front, by Friday the fish had got used to some new flavours and the week ended with our bait catching 5 carp and Carp Chaser bait catching 5 carp and all of the catfish. For the anglers Mick, who was willing to give our bait a fair chance, caught 10 of the total 15 fish landed.
The final summary of the week was zero babies, 4 at 10lb+, 1 at 20lb+, 3 at 30lb+, 2 at 40lb+ and 5 catfish up to 78lb 4oz. A really good first weeks fishing in France and we will see how they got on at Lac Lucie next week. Until then bonne journée et à bientôt…..
Richard also managed to catch a few stunning photos of butterflies and frogs over the week
