28 August 2016 – Catch report from: Anne-Marie and family

This week we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming back this lovely group from Kent for their third visit to the venue. Jon & Shaun are both experienced anglers and knew from the forecast that catching carp when the mercury hit mid thirties and stayed there for most of the week, was always going to be a big ask. On previous visits they had fished the spring and the autumn when the carp fishing is at its best and the cat fishing slower. The good news was that when the weather is hot at Beausoleil, its prime time for the big catfish! After the long journey, the guys didn’t make a proper start until Sunday night and by Monday morning had had their first taste of the action available at this time of year. Two takes a piece resulted in four losses from unstoppable unseen beasts! As usual mainline was the weak link. Shaun even managed to snap a size 4 Korda wide gape X which takes some doing as he tried to apply the brakes on a cat that made a bee line for the aerator! Even top end, brand new 20lb mono is no match for the catfish clan so I took the boys up the local tackle shop to buy the best of what was available locally.

I called back round on Wednesday and Shaun had managed to bank the sturgeon which he was happy about. Jon thought his best chance of a carp was to stalk one off the island and later that day he bagged a very nice upper twenty. Jon worked really hard at his stalking in very high temperatures and we were delighted that his efforts paid off.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t let up one bit and remained baking hot and still with pressures through the roof. The lads continued to hook and then get smashed by massive catfish on small stiff hinge rigs but Jon did managed to bank a 90lbs beast which he was delighted with.

Despite the distinctly unfavourable fishing conditions, the whole group had a wonderful holiday in glorious weather and were in high spirits when they left on Saturday. It’s great to know that they’ll be back, even better prepared and equipped next time.