A special week’s fishing for a father and son angling team with cats to 98lbs and 5 x 30’s to 36lbs
This week we welcomed Beausoleil regular Andy who normally fishes with his best mate Dan. With a new baby to care for, Dan couldn’t make it this year so Andy’s Dad, Colin, joined him to experience his first ever French carp and cat fishing adventure. Andy’s only missed one year since he discovered the venue back in 2013 and Colin is an experienced angler but had never really done anything like this before. He really wanted a big cat and with a good head of massive specimens to go for, it’s usually a matter of when, not if.
Andy’s tried and tested method gets results again
Andy is a very competent angler who pays attention to the things that matter: hand sharpened hooks, simple yet strong bottom bait rigs, good bait and plenty of it. He likes to start off on one side of the lake and target a variety of marginal and open water marks for the first half, then relocates to the other side to prevent the fish getting too accustomed to the line angles. It’s simple stuff really but very effective. With Andy in charge of all the technical and tactical elements, Colin was always going to bank a few and that’s exactly what happened.
The first night, things kicked off for Andy with a 68lbs catfish and then a nice 33lbs mirror named Fan Tail. This lovely mirror has only been caught six times in six years and it was great to see him at his best ever weight. Next it was Colin’s turn to bank his first French carp in the shape of Batman at 27lbs, one of our newly stocked carp from this winter.
Andy is mad keen for big cats and has banked them to 190lbs on the Ebro. His next fish was a new lake caught PB for him at 98lbs which he was delighted with as landing a creature of this size within the confines of a 4 acre lake is a massive challenge. Next up was a very pretty 26lb mirror, then another newly stocked carp named Wonky tail at 29lbs made his first visit to the bank. Colin then banked Chestnut at 33lbs who’s well down on weight (probably due to old age) and then Cornflake who was on fighting form as always.
Andy really wanted his dad to experience the insane power of one of our catfish and half way through the week, Colin banked a corker which weighed in at 88lbs. A couple of nights later he upped that by 4lbs with a 92lber. Colin also banked one of our A-List mirrors known as Dink at just over 36lbs. The last carp of the session was the newly stocked Duchess at 32lbs +. This heavily scaled carp has amazing colours and is a real sight to behold in daylight. I’d say that was job done!
As always it was such a pleasure to see Andy again and it was great to meet his dad who, after hearing so many stories about the place, couldn’t resist experiencing it for himself. Dan was gutted he couldn’t make it this year but kept in daily contact with Andy on how the session was going. We very much look forward to welcoming Andy and Dan back for another great week of carp and catfishing!
Catch report & Feedback from:
Andy & his dadDates at Beausoleil: 8th to the 15th April 2017
Number of anglers: 2
Brief details of your catches:
13 fish in total9 x Mirror Carp: 36lbs, 33lbs, 33lbs, 32lbs,32lbs, 29lbs 8oz, 29lbs, 27lbs 4oz, 26lbs
4 x Catfish: 98lbs, 92lbs, 88lbs, 68lbs
What did you find were the best swims/tactics/baits?
The Big Double, Island point, point A,B,CBeausoleil bottom baits topped with a variety of high viz popups cut in two
