Fishing report from: Gary & Luan

A wonderful fishing holiday with carp to 46lbs!

This week we welcomed Gary and Luan to the venue for the first time. Luan had booked the holiday as a surprise for Gary’s birthday along with 1 ½ days tuition. Gary has recently retired and for the last 3 years, has been transitioning from coarse angling to carp fishing. On arrival, they were both beaming with joy to meet us and gazed open-mouthed at how beautiful the lake looks at this time of year.

From the amazing warm welcome, we knew this was going to be special. Instant connection with yourselves, leading to the best fishing experience ever. Matt has transformed my abilities and given me skills from the science of a lake to methods and rigs and what to change when things aren’t working. What is also evident is the true partnership Matt & Irène have which, with their combined love for what they do, have made a truly remarkable experience. Thank you. I can’t tell you how much we both needed Beausoleil ❤️

Tuition (day 1)

Each tuition session is customised to meet the exact needs of the angler(s) and this session was no exception. Gary absolutely loved the “carp fishing science” section then it was onto rigs which is where Gary was a little lost. By the end of the rig section, Gary reckoned he could sell/bin 90% of the contents of his tackle box. Once you understand what you need, you really don’t need much! Casting was an area where Gary needed some more focused support. The casting style we use in carp fishing is completely different to coarse fishing as the rods and reels are very different.

The fishing style at Beausoleil is quite different to what most anglers are used to. Here, knowing how to successfully row out and drop rigs can make a massive difference and this is an area that was particularly useful to Gary.

At the end of a long, busy but very enjoyable day Gary was armed with a clear, executable plan that I had absolute confidence was going to work. It wasn’t a question of if, it was only a question of when.

Starting with a PB

I leave at least a day in between my multi day tuition sessions to give the angler time on the bank. When I returned on Tuesday, I hadn’t had any news but I needn’t have worried as when I met Luan I could tell by her smile that all was well. Gary had caught his PB and they were both delighted ☺️

The morning flew by as we covered a lot more ground and as we approached lunch, Garys’ RH rod pulled up tight, pinged out of the clip and he was into a fish. After a really good fight, Gary drew a nice mirror over the cord. As the air temperature hit well over 30°C on most days, I was grateful that Gary was able to take all the photos in the water to minimise any stress to the fish. As the air temperature rises, so does the water temperature and the carp get extremely lively. Doing the photography in the water is much safer for them. 

🚨 During hot weather, follow these steps to make sure you minimise the thermal shock and stress to your capture. 

We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

Although Luan didn’t actually fish this week, she was fully involved. I’m not sure she’d planned on getting quite so close to the action though when a very large and powerful fish picked up Gary’s island point rod and proceeded to head the wrong side of the island. Fair play though she jumped in the boat with Gary and between them they did all they could to try and land the fish but, unfortunately, the mainline failed as Gary was trying to free the line. They were gutted but sometimes there’s just not much you can do.

Hot, Hot, Hot

It was a warm one for sure this week with temps hitting mid thirties for most of the week. The temperature didn’t really calm down until Friday. Despite the high temperatures, Gary caught a carp a day which was great… but we weren’t prepared for what happened next.

Can you really have your cake and eat it?

On Thursday morning we received our 3rd delivery of live bacteria and armed with a new application method (full story coming to a YouTube video near you 😜), we were able to apply the treatment quicker and with less effort. 

Luan and Gary went out to enjoy one of the local markets. When they got back, Gary had the rods out by 5pm and it didn’t take long for the first rod to bust off. The result: another hard fighting mid thirty. Now that was a good result, nice day out, lunch, strolling about the streets of one of the many beautiful towns nearby. Then back to the lake, set the traps, catch a carp, nice bankside dinner. I mean, who could ask for more right? Well sometimes you never know what the lake has in store for you…

Fill your boots!

Once you’ve got all the basics nailed down, carp fishing comes down to baiting and timing and if those two elements come into alignment, carp fishing can look very easy from the outside.

Gary stuck religiously to the plan that we’d set and then, as if by magic, he went from catching a carp a day to receiving six takes in just 12 hrs… and he didn’t change anything. Just reset and repeat. What a wonderful thing to experience and big congrats to Gary, great angling 👊

During this epic 12 hrs, Gary met the amazing Perla at 46lbs and a mint looking Clint at 35lbs. Unfortunately, things got a bit hectic and not all of the carp wanted to hang around for a photo. One of them broke through the net of Gary’s landing net while he was getting his scales sorted! Thankfully he had a spare 🤣

All told, Gary banked 5 carp from 6 takes, as one dropped off at the net. Luck has absolutely nothing to do with the result. Gary experienced what can happen when you do the right thing at the right time, in the right place.

Bait & rigs

On the technical front Gary went with my ever faithful blowback multi rig. To begin with he used the Scopex Squid carp food pack to set some small traps which did work but later in the week he moved over to my particle approach and switched to a multi trap baiting strategy. The approach requires plenty of the Nash particles (six large jars) and a small jar of tigers but once he’d switched them onto this approach he had an absolute field day and avoided the kittens.

What a week

Every so often there’s real chemistry between our guests and the fishery. It’s a wonderful thing for us to see and it’s why we do all we can to make this special lake, even better. It was such a pleasure to share our little piece of paradise with them and to help Gary along his journey into carp fishing. It was wonderful to meet them and we look forward to their return visit next year. Thanks guys, it was an absolute pleasure.