20 September 2020: Carp fishing report from Rob and Aga’s holiday

Again your advice on tactics, hook sharpening and your stunning venue turn a great holiday into lifetime memories.

Thanks to you and Ren for the opportunity to be part of something completely magical during these difficult times.

New lake record catfish!

When I rocked up on monday morning to do my oxygen check, there seemed to be a level of focused activity in the Big Double swim. As I got closer, I noticed a very large object suspended from the tripod in the catfish weigh sling… Turns out that my timing was perfect as Rob had just banked a mahoossive catfish!

The weight on the scales read 126lbs 2oz but that included the weight of the sling. Now that is very heavy! How the hell he and Aga lifted it onto the scales between them I’ll never know! I nearly did myself a mischief when I helped Rob lower it down to the mat for some photos! I’ve seen a few big catfish over the years but this was just huge and easily the largest fish I’d ever seen. The photos are good but they still don’t convey just how big this creature was.

Once he was safely returned, we popped the sling back onto the scales which settled at 5lbs so this gave us a number of 121lbs 2oz which is a new lake record by 3lbs 2oz, and yes, every ounce matters, it is a lake record after all ? If I remember rightly Rob’s previous catfish PB was 78lbs so he’d just beaten that by 43lbs 2oz…. now that’s crazy!

Rob had the pickup from an open water spot and it took just under an hour to land. On the rig front it was all down the classic supple braided 2 x 20mm bottom bait rig fished using the Beausoleil lead system. This rig continues to remain very popular and successful with anglers for both carp and cats, here and on many other waters.

It was fabulous to be able to share the moment with Rob. It’s fair to say he was in bits afterwards. Before I left that morning, Rob had another take on the only rod left fishing. This one was much smaller… still 68lbs !

Finally in the 40’s club

It’s been a long held ambition of Rob to catch one of our ‘A’ team over 40lbs. He’s had the grass carp at 40lbs+ before but a grass carp isn’t a king carp so it didn’t really count for Rob. Last year, Simon caught a 40lbs mirror and the big common at 43lbs which was a fabulous piece of angling. If I remember correctly Rob had carp to 39lbs but narrowly missed out on the big milestone. By Wednesday he’d come tantalisingly close (again) with Cut Tail at 38lbs 9oz. Would he come so close and yet so far again?

Rob had to be patient but finally, on Thursday, the carping gods smiled upon him when he banked Gerrard at a new top weight of 40lbs 1oz (yes the 1oz matters!). It’s fantastic to see yet another Beausoleil original break the 40 mark. We’ve been monitoring his progress since he was 26lbs!

Despite being a little bit under the weather, Rob continued to fish on and caught several more cracking specimens during the week. It’s wonderful for us to see that even after 10 years, Beausoleil can still generate so much emotion. Rob was, as usual, very diligent in his whole  approach and very accurate with his rig placement. The Garlic Specials were the bait of choice for the week, along with our carp pellets and particles.

Now, we’ve developed our “100% Veggie” bait package specifically for targeting the carp. However, the Garlic Specials are still boilies, and our cats love boilies. If you use PVA bags of crumb and freebies (of the Garlic Specials) in the bait boat, then you may well have a catfish pickup, just like Rob did. If you’d prefer to target the carp only, don’t use boilie crumb at all. Spread whole boilies, carp pellets and particles (if you’re using them) evenly over a much wider area (6 square meters) as a rough guide. This will force the carp to spend more time grazing over the area and therefore increase the chance of a mistake and be less attractive to the big cats that like a nice tight pile of bait. Rob switched from one baiting approach to the other and went from catching 2 cats in the first 48hrs to only carp for the rest of the week.

Until next time

Rob and Simon are off to another venue next year but Rob’s still hoping to squeeze in a week at Beausoleil at some point. In his words, “two years is too long to go without a week at Beausoleil”, and I reckon there’ll be a few scores to settle ?  Big congrats to Rob on his new PBs, we’re delighted for you mate and thanks to Aga for the great photos!

PS: Next fishing report on 3 October