Fishing report from: Barry, Paul, Josh & Gary

A great week’s fishing for 4 anglers

Before I get on with this week’s catch report, last week Peter and his wife visited us for the first time. It was very much a holiday with a bit of fishing and Peter managed a few hours on most days. The highlight of the week was a nice mid-thirty and he was shocked by just how well old Sammy fights. He also caught a number of kittens which also gave excellent sport!

This week we welcomed back some familiar faces to the venue. Barry and Paul first visited us back in the early days and this year we also welcomed back Paul’s son Josh for his 3rd visit. It’s scary to think that we first met Josh as a ‘boy’, now he’s a dad with two beautiful daughters. The new guy for this trip is Gary who’s fished in France a few times before.

As with most customers that have done 5+ visits, the guys have had their share of high’s and low’s (that’s fishing!). On arrival it was great to be able to tell them that as far as I was concerned, all the lights were green and that if they joined up the dots, the biggest challenge they were going to have was that of sleep deprivation!

Monday visit

When I came back on Monday to check the oxygen (all still good), I got the news that everyone had caught which is great (especially as they’d only really started fishing seriously on Sunday).

Josh and Gary were catching up on some zzz’s after a busy night but Paul was up and about so I had a catch up with him. Sammy had been up to his usual tricks of knit one purl one with anglers’ lines and there had been two forties and some mid twenties banked…

That’s great work after less than 24 hrs of serious fishing and Paul was delighted with how the session was going. His main concern was running out of bait (now that’s a good problem!). Luckily I keep my cupboard well stocked and I was able to top them up with what they needed.

Paul was particularly pleased to meet one of our homegrown specials that was born here back in 2015. This chunky monkey fought like a tiger and weighed in at 27 lbs which is a great weight for a carp of this age post spawning.

Midnight battle

At around midnight on Tuesday, Josh received an absolute one toner of a take. For the next 3 hrs he bravely battled with an unseen monster that moved, then stopped and moved again. When it stopped, Josh described it as though he’d hooked the bottom. No amount of rod pressure was having an effect on this fish and when it moved it ripped the line from his clutch like it wasn’t even tight. In a word, he had no control of this fish and was running out of time and options. Josh was in Island point with the tip of the island in front and the bridge to his left and a relatively small channel to play the fish. That’s plenty of water even for a decent specimen but this thing was on another level. At some point during the small hours Gary got up to help and between them they passed the rod around the marginal trees in an attempt to change the angle and tip the odds back in their favour. The trouble is  Josh had brought a knife to a gun fight and there was only going to be one winner. After an epic 3 hrs battle, the catfish made it to the bridge as Josh held on for grim death, the mainline parted at the reel… He was gutted, obviously but there just wasn’t much else he could have done.

Thankfully Josh was having better luck with the carp and he broke his PB for common carp with ”The Parrot” and then his Mirror carp PB with “Two Tone”. Nice mate, two classic Beausoleil originals… class 👏

PB smashed twice

On Sunday, Gary had a PB mirror of 43lbs but everyone was fast asleep so he didn’t get a good photo, just a few seconds of video in the cradle. He was in a good swim and he’d mastered the art of catching Sammy… 3 times 🤣 but he was confident that more bait was the key and continued to confidently apply the Scopex Squid to his spots and boy did it pay off when he banked the mighty Mr. Angry at 53 lbs, smashing his previous new PB from Monday clean out of the park! As an extra bonus he even hooked him during daylight so everyone could share in the fun. He even got a PB bucket in the face, in the lake in waders… brilliant. It was a massive result for Gary who’d not always been that lucky on recent trips.

And the best chef award goes to…

Barry takes the organisation and running of each of their French trips very seriously. He’s pretty much in charge of everything including being the chef for the group which is not a small task! To be close to the kitchen, Barry set up in “Home Swim” and managed two nice carp. One was a mid twenty, the other a low thirty. Considering how tricky this area of the lake can be and the amount of work Barry puts into looking after everyone else, I think that’s a great result. Like me, Barry likes to keep his rigs super simple (mono D and the mono hair). He’s a master at hook sharpening which is a big advantage if you are using traditional rigs like these.

Green algae

If you’ve been keeping up to date with our progress this year, you’ll know that we have made big strides towards controlling the level of green algae and in turn the oxygen level of the lake. As we wait for the delivery of the next bacteria treatment, we have just begun to see the first signs of green algae in the upper layers on the windwards end of the lake. It’s a sign that the level of live bacteria has dropped to a low enough level for the green algae to get a foothold. The oxygen level remains high and stable but we know from experience that without another dose, this situation is not sustainable.  The good news is that the next application of the product is now just days away.