22 October 2017 – Catch report from Nik and Jo

A great two-week session for Nik and Jo with plenty of fish and plenty of quality time together.

This week we had the pleasure of welcoming Nik and Jo for the first time. Nik and Jo have fished in France for many years and with a busy work life, they were really looking forward to 2 weeks from it all.

Nik and I had exchanged plenty of information ahead of the trip so he was fully prepared for the water when he arrived. After a good tour and chat, Nik decided to start in the Big Double and see how things developed from there. For the previous few weeks, the fishing has been tough so we were keen to see how an experienced angler like Nik would get on.

On Monday, Nik was grinning from ear to ear as he’d had 5 fish from 5 bites in just a few hours on his first fishing evening Sunday night, including one of our sought after 30lb+ commons. What a start!

Nik had spent plenty of hours watching the fish and leading around to find what type of ground they were showing over. It was then just a case of walking out the lines and clipping up to get them on the money.

Nik fished small traps over a light scattering of bait to get the pickups and it worked well for him. While I was there, I did a quick hook sharpening demonstration which he was really happy with. By Wednesday, he’d added 2 more nice carp to the score sheet along with some C3s and some kittens.

Welcome to your Beausoleil cat experience…

Nik was keen to get among the large cats so he upped the levels of pellet over the spots. It took a while to get them going but at the start of the second week, he hooked an absolute monster which towed him round the lake for 1h and a half! Fishing for these big cats as a solo angler is a massive challenge and Nik could have really done with another pair of hands! Nik managed to get out of the boat onto land and just as he was about to regain control of the fish, the hook pulled… Nik was absolutely gutted, “I just looked for a tree to hang myself!”. Fortunately, patience paid off, he had another take from a cat the following day which came in a 78lbs. Triumph after disaster!

The fish were crashing heavily in the shallows so Nik decided to target them from Home swim during the days. The plan worked a charm and he added some more nice carp to 36lbs. Again, Nik carefully chose some specific marks in open water and along the island to fish to and laid the perfect traps to intercept them.

It was great to see Nik’s approach to the water. He worked for every bite and the rewards kept coming. Nik didn’t fish every night, or even every day, but when he was fishing, he fished well and accurately and loved every minute of the trip.

Sharing it with someone special

What made this holiday special for Nik was to be able to share these precious times with his wife. They had day trips out and the fishing was just one part of their overall holiday. Jo loved the house, loved the wildlife and even managed a bit of retail therapy!