A tricky week with one big catfish and three carp to 31lbs
This week we had the pleasure of welcoming back Paul, his son Jordan on his first French carp angling adventure and Joe and Mick who’d also been a couple of times before. As the guys had been before, I pretty much left them to get on with things as I’d already shared a few tricks with them on previous visits.
I was surprised to learn that nothing had been banked by Monday. A quick row round the lake told me that oxygen was good. On further investigation, Paul had been snapped up twice by massive catfish. One was at the end of a nocturnal boat battle which lasted through till dawn! Paul was gutted of course but in all honesty with only him and his son getting towed round the lake with no one else lakeside at the time, his chances were reduced. Paul was determined to have one though and set about working the problem.
Mick was the first to catch a mid twenty on Wednesday morning. Paul then got his revenge on the catfish when he hooked another powerful fish off the rocks near the bridge. This isn’t exactly the place you want to hook a big catfish but, with the benefit of his previous experience, he sent Jordan round onto the bridge to scare the catfish back to him. It was a great team effort by father and son and after a good 20 minutes tussle, they banked an 86lb specimen complete with his rig from 2 days before! The catfish was none the worse for wear and Paul was one very happy chappy…. Skills guys!
A low pressure system blew through on Tuesday and although this can be great conditions, it can unfortunately impact the oxygen levels. It was not dire but enough in my opinion to negatively affect the fishing in certain swims for a while.
The normally productive Big Double hadn’t done a bite for Jordan so I gave him a few pointers and suggested a move to the Home swim. With the surface aerator running 24/7, the water in this area remains richly oxygenated and I could tell that the fish had been crashing heavily in this area which was verified by Jordan. In fact he’d already been for a dabble down here when he found some carp waving flags at him! It wasn’t until Friday that Jordan got to bank his first French fish and at 27lbs it nearly doubled his PB so he was one very happy man!
I had to call round Friday and noticed something wasn’t quite right with his approach. After the success of the common he’d banked from a little corner spot I’d shown him, he tried to capitalize further and stick three rods on it… all with what I felt were tight lines. This is an excellent way of killing off any chances so after a quick chat he wound two in and I showed him what a slack line looked like.
Two hours later he’d upped his PB again to 31lbs! It was a great learning trip for Jordan, learning to sharpen his hooks and good rig mechanics. Beausoleil may as well be on Mars, it’s so alien compared to the fishing for singles and doubles he’s familiar with but by working the problem, the regular catching of carp is totally possible, as many of our guests know.
It was nice to see the guys again, tough that the conditions made the bites rarer, and I hope they have more luck next time.
Catch report & Feedback from:
Joe, Mick, Paul and JordanDates at Beausoleil: 3rd to 10th August 2019
Number of anglers: 4
Brief details of your catches:
2 x Mirror Carp: 31lbs 12oz, 27lbs1 x Common Carp: 27lbs
1 x Catfish: 88lbs
