12 May 2019 – Catch report from Tony and friends

Wayne opens the batting

Beausoleil is not an easy venue and Wayne’s first trip was a bit of a baptism of fire. On his 2nd trip, he booked a day’s tuition and made a massive amount of progress with his fishing. He went on to bank some very large carp from other venues and he tells me that he still applies everything we covered during that session.

It was great to see Wayne lead the way this year. In fact he’d banked a near three figure cat and upper 30 before anyone else had had a run!

Wayne loves his carp fishing and the joy was clear to see. He did confess to handing the rod to Tony after 10 minutes of battling one of our big boys, quite frankly he’d had enough! Fortunately it was only carp after that which is much more his style. Wayne banked a 98lb catfish and four carp from 32lbs to 37lbs 10oz! Well done mate.

Getting it right in point ‘A’

It’s fair to say that point ‘A’ is not the easiest swim to fish. It’s relatively shallow, and very very spotty. You’ve also got the hazards of the bridge to contend with and the aerator. From past experience, Dean knew he’d have his work cut out to bank a few this year.

Undeterred, he’d set himself a target of three fish for the week which seemed very reasonable to me. After Wayne lead the way, it was Dean who was in next. The fish were clearly active down there and he had his first pickup from the stream mouth. By Wednesday it was job done for Dean with a nice 31lb+ common and his objective of three fish achieved. He made it to four in the end including another 30lb common and two upper twenties… very nice!

Getting smashed

Alex was in point ‘C’. After a tough time the previous year in point ’A’ he was looking forward to having a different piece of water to fish. Unfortunately, he didn’t exactly get the start he wanted… He hooked a good fish (probably a massive catfish) and after a decent tussle, it moved towards the island but before it reached there he felt a strange sensation travel up the line and it all went slack. He was gutted of course but these things happen. To make matters worse, the same thing happened the next night.

We had a good chat on Wednesday and I went through his set up which was rock solid. He was spooled up with 30lbs Big game and every knot was tested to 8kg (that’s an easy pass for 30lb Big Game but not for other so called 30lbs lines!). He’d glued the rig tubing into the silicone sleeve so there was no way it was moving. Mystified, I had nothing further to offer other than my commiserations but Alex was unfazed and was confident his luck would change.

Battling giants

Fortunately, Alex’s run of bad luck ended and he went on to bank three PB’s!

He’d never had a sturgeon before and was amazed by their speed and agility. They can come towards you so fast you think you’ve lost it then run as hard as a mid sized cat for short bursts. He also banked The Sub at a shade under 40lbs which was also a new PB. He even managed to even up the score with the catfish and had specimens of 51lbs, 75lbs and 99lbs! He was delighted of course but gutted to have missed the three figure mark by a measly pound… Unlucky mate! He banked the big cat in under 30 minutes which is pretty quick. He is well over 6ft tall and nearly half as wide mind!

A visit from Sonic

Not long after returning his monster catfish to the water, Alex’s alarm was beeping away again. Alex was very surprised he’d got a take so fast but then realised what was causing the bobbin to dance…. Poor Sonic the hedgehog was out for a midnight stroll along the swim margin and managed to get tangled up in the line and bobbin! After a bit of knit one pearl one and a good deal of grunting and snorting from Sonic, he was freed and trundled, rather disgruntled, off to the bushes.

Spot on

Round the back of the island for this year was Tony. It was actually Tony’s fourth trip as he’d been back before with his lovely wife Jo and had a dream holiday. Tony’s always done well at the venue and his hook sharpening skills are up there with some of the best work I’ve seen. Island point had seen virtually no angling pressure all year and therefore it was a bit of a surprise when it took Tony until Monday to actually catch a carp.

We had a good chat on Wednesday and I suggested he take things to the next level in terms of rig placement accuracy. The very best feature finding tool I’ve found for the shallow margins of Beausoleil is your feet! Yep, just don a pair of waders and get paddling! (always take a prodding stick or landing net pole with you when you do this as there as some massive boulders and you may well stumble… I know where most are and they still catch me out!).

Tony was amazed how quickly the depth changes. 6“ either way makes a massive difference on some spots! He worked out that the best method of getting them absolutely bang in the middle of these holes was to put the rig in the bait boat, drive it over and walk round onto the island in waders and climb in. Once the spot had been pinpointed to within a matter of inches he was able to pick the rig out the boat and lower it right on the money. This might sound like an extraordinary amount of effort to go to, but on some days, in certain areas, it can make all the difference in the world. On Thursday going the extra mile paid off big style for Tony with the elusive and utterly mint Nicky at 37lbs.

Friday night social + last chance saloon

Friday night is social night but this year Tony was going to sit this one out and go until the final whistle. The guys really do like their food and this Friday it was going to be a selection of home cooked curries washed down with a beer or three… and why not! Tony’s not anti social, far from it but he’d had a tough week on the fishing front and was utterly determined to correct this situation. With everyone else wound in, packed down and back at the lodge, it was an ideal opportunity for Tony to drop a few rigs on some more familiar spots.

As is often the case, it was very much a case of effort equals reward as at 3am the next morning he was in! After a tense battle he slid the net cord under the mighty Cut Tail! This is a brute of a mirror and he span the scales round to a new top weight of 42lbs 2oz! Tony was actually the first angler to catch Cut Tail at 40lbs last year. What a result.

What makes this a really impressive piece of angling is that they were due to roll out the door around 8am, it had been raining all afternoon and most of the night so it was a dawn packdown in the rain… not for the faint hearted I can tell you!

Bait and rigs

On the bait front, all the guys used our Beausoleil bait along with some of their own freezer baits. Many also used our cork ball popups as they’d proved highly effective both here and at other venues. This year was no exception with plenty more carp (including the 42lbs mirror) falling for them. Both Alex and Wayne bought a few rigs from me and they outwitted some wily carp and tamed some massive cats with no problems. If you’re thinking about buying some rigs for your trip, do email or message me as I’m happy to advise you.

Until next time boys, as always, it was a pleasure.