2 August 2014 – Catch report from: Allan and friends

Lake record 100lb catfish and multiple 30lb specimen carp for the first fishing holiday in France for these 4 angling friends.

This week we welcomed a group from my home town of Cheltenham to our French angling paradise. Thanks to the power of social media, the website and our YouTube channel, we’d already been chatting away over many months and it was great to finally meet them. On the fishing front the guys had a slow start. I know the local venues that they are used to fishing and Beausoleil is a world away from them. It was therefore no surprise to me that they struggled at first. By Thursday morning the scorecard was still looking a bit grim with only one large catfish and some kittens banked. It’s not that the guys hadn’t had chances either as multiple carp and catfish had been lost. Much to the credit of the group, they managed to maintain a positive attitude through these setbacks and never gave up hope.

This faith was rewarded because Thursday and Friday were to be the most memorable days fishing of their lives. It was Andy that started the ball rolling with a 24lb common from the sluice bush. A small carp by our standards but it was a massive relief for the group to finally see a carp on the bank. Andy went on to bank a lovely string of fish 28, 35, 30lb over the next 14 hours. The last one came in at 4.30am and left him absolutely shattered! Next up was Allan who had a run at 3pm in the afternoon that was to temporarily render everyone utterly speechless when he banked a new lake record catfish of 100lbs!. See this blog for the full account of the capture. Allan also went on to bank a new PB carp of 36lbs and a mid twenty.

Following the successes of Allan and Andy, everyone was rooting for Tom and Lucy to get in amongst the action. They’d caught some small to medium catfish already but not the golden carp of their dreams. Tom struck first with a lovely 28lb mirror from the aerator. Allan and Andy now knew full well which spots had the very best chance of producing carp and they whisked Lucy round to the Big Double and got both her rods on the money using the rowing boat.

She banked a stunning brace of mid twenties within 20 minutes of one another just a few hours before they were all due to wind in. She couldn’t wait to message me to say that she was absolutely buzzing and quite rightly so! As further compensation for the losses that Andy had suffered earlier in the week he finally banked himself a big catfish of 72lbs. After watching me demonstrate my water born catfish wrangling technique for the 100lber, Tom took control of the situation on the water and safely guided the catfish towards Allan for gloving.

It was an incredible week’s fishing for the guys and all walked away with multiple PBs. It was a delight for me to spend time with them ensuring that they got the best from the venue. I know that they are already chomping at the bit to re-book and it will be an absolute delight to welcome them back. Cheers guys, it was epic!