Ed & Richard spend an eventful week river carping with us and bank some lovely hard fighting specimens along the way.
Ed & Richard have been visiting Beausoleil for a few years now and had a cracking fishing session at the start of the season. After a year of planning, they finally got to try their hand at wild river carping and I was their guide for the week.
River carping is very different to regular carping. I blanked for an entire year before I caught my first one! Each swim requires a slightly different approach and it took months for the guys to gear up for the adventure, just to give them a shout of tackling a range of different scenarios. Only the very strongest of gear will do and even then, we could have done with something stronger. Tactics are also very different. The foundation of my approach is large boilies and lots of them! I used 15 kg during my pre-trip prep work and the guys got through another 34kg during their stay. Catapult knuckle and throwing stick arm are all part of the package!
With guests booked at Beausoleil, we rented another gite for them to stay in which put them within 2 minutes of the river in an area I know well. I’d spent the last two weeks hunting the carp and had finally tracked them down and got them going on our bait.
Richard was the first to make contact when he banked a very spirited upper twenty. This really lit the fire and following this success they fished really hard all week.
Ed wanted to up the ante even more by fishing an unprepared swim so I set him up in one of the most challenging swims I know! It took about six kilos of bait and a couple of days of graft to get it going, but when the first rod smacked round, the buzz was incredible.
The guys really did get the full experience with plenty of friendly exchanges with the locals (most of which don’t speak a word of English!). Both Ed and Richard have a bit of French but it’s not so easy trying to communicate with the locals for real.
Ed had an exchange with some passing cyclists that thought he wanted to eat the carp he’d caught. He just wanted some help with the photo but they didn’t know how to use an iPhone! Richard also managed to persuade some locals to put his sim card in their phone as his battery was dead!
They fished afternoons and evenings in two different day sectors. Richard had 7 commons, 2 mirrors and 2 chub. Average size was low twenties but the best was a breathtaking 37lbs 12oz mirror which he described as “an unforgettable fight”. Ed had 3 commons and a mirror. All low/mid twenties. He did lose a few from this beast of a swim.
When you get cut off on 30lb amnesia and 35lb kevlar skinlink, you know you are fishing in big boy territory.
The guys had an awesome week and loved the un-filtered, double shot expresso carp fishing experience.
They are now officially hooked on river carping and have vowed to return for another crack!
