October ends well with some lovely carp to 38lbs
For our penultimate week we welcomed Tony to the venue for his first visit. Tony had booked me for a two day tuition but in the end I ended up working with him for 3 days as there was a lot of material that he wanted to delve deeply into.
This trip was not about catching, it was all about learning. It was also a recce for future visits. The style of fishing we practise here was quite different to what he knew and so there were a lot of firsts this week. Tony didn’t actually begin fishing until late on Tuesday and caught his first Beausoleil carp on Thursday. Despite being an experienced angler, Tony learned an awful lot in a very short period of time and has already re-booked for next year.
To finish off our 14th season we welcomed back Eric for his 2nd visit to us this year. Like Tony, Eric was also travelling solo as his partner couldn’t make it this time. Eric did the tuition with me a few years ago and apart from one very challenging visit, he’s always done well here. The first 24hrs were a little quiet and he definitely got done on one of his rods.
Rather than see that as a negative, Eric focussed on the positives, reset the traps and hoped for a better result next time. It didn’t take long on the 2nd attempt as Sunday afternoon his efforts were rewarded with a nice mirror. By Monday morning, he’d added a 2nd mirror. This one was slightly smaller but gave a good account of itself.
Eric loves his night fishing and he fishes every night of the holiday. Rods are generally left in until late morning and then wound in to allow time for domestics. He re-sets the traps late afternoon and then settles in again to see what the night has to offer. Eric managed at least one carp or more per night and caught ten in total which is excellent going this late in the season. His best carp was estimated at 38lbs. When fishing solo, Eric prefers to keep the carp in the landing net and doesn’t weigh or photograph the fish so there’s nothing to share on the catch pics front but we thank Eric for his care and attention for the carp that he catches.
It was wonderful to welcome Eric back to the venue and we hope to see him again soon.
Thank you bacteria
The move towards introducing live bacteria at key points during the season has made a big difference to the water quality this year. Oxygen levels have been high and stable with only two dips below the 5 mg/l which only lasted a couple of days.
This has definitely had a positive impact on the fishing with some spectacular catches being made by those anglers that have joined up the dots. That’s not to say that it’s become a runs water. Beausoleil remains a significant test of angling ability and it will punish you if you get it wrong.
The venue has been an even more pleasant place to be as the amount of splash aeration that we needed to use was reduced massively. In total the large surface aerators were only switched on for 5 days in total as opposed to 4 months last year. Better for your ears, better for the carp and better for the planet.
If you haven’t seen them, here are the videos showing what improvements we’ve made to the venue this year:
Carp angling tuition
I had the pleasure to coach a wide variety of anglers again this year. For the first time I coached an angler on his very first fishing trip and at the other end of the scale I worked with very good anglers that had done the tuition before but wanted to continue to build their knowledge and skills.
The tuition is optional but everyone that decided to participate got a huge amount of benefit from them. They helped make their holiday truly special and when they got home, they were different anglers.
Winter work program
This November we will perform another partial drain down and netting of the lake in order to re-balance the biomass. We’ll do some filming and will continue to explore how the lake bed has evolved since the last drain down. There’s also some more trees to remove and we’ll be getting a small excavator in to continue cleaning up the excess build up of silt around some of the margins.
Come join the party!
We’ve been working very hard at growing our social media channels this year so look us up on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as we have significantly increased the number of videos we are publishing. We’ve attracted many thousands of followers to these channels and they can be a rich source of information with thousands of questions answered as well in the comments that you might find useful no matter where you fish.
2025 coming soon
We are already looking forward to 2025, our 15th season! If you haven’t yet managed to grab yourself a week, don’t think about it for too long as there are very few weeks left. If none of the available dates suit you, we’ve opened the calendar for 2026 and there are still some top weeks to be had.
