A good week’s fishing with carp to 40 lbs and cats to 110 lbs!
After a week of rest, we welcomed Sam and his 4 young boys along with friend Jason for their first visit to us. They hadn’t had long to plan this trip as this was a cancellation opportunity but when they saw it, they leapt at the chance to visit us and were really excited to be here. As they’d opted for the tuition package, we had a quick walk round and then we left them to get settled.
Loved every minute of it! l would like to thank Matt and is wife for making the week so special for me and Sam and the boys, we will be back 😊
Jason has been to France a couple of times before but Sam hasn’t fished since he was a boy so this was going to be a whole new experience! He’s not the first angler I’ve met that’s never actually done carp fishing before, but he is the second. The bulk of Jason’s experience is in match fishing. Carp fishing is still relatively new to him and he’s only been doing it for about a year.
It was great to show Sam how to tie his very first carp rig and they loved learning more about how to target the carp, their behaviour and habitat and finding all those hidden features that are impossible to find without a guide. As always, the day passed by in a flash so all I could do then was cross my fingers and hope the magic would happen.
Sammy the sturgeon didn’t take long to show up. In fact he made an appearance before the tuition session! Jason only lowered one single hookbait in the margin but Sammy found it and caused havoc from the off. Sammy is quite fun to catch once, maybe twice but by the third capture the thrill was starting to diminish. In the end, Jason caught Sammy six times! Well that’s certainly a new record.
When Sammy is on it, it is actually a good sign that the water quality is good so I wasn’t actually sorry to see him so keen. We are still battling the green algae a bit but the oxygen levels are very good at the minute. If it wasn’t for the green I wouldn’t need to aerate at all but the aerators help to keep the green moving and stop it getting out of control.
Luckily it wasn’t just Sammy hit the spreader block. The guys also banked some nice carp to 40 lbs. After hooking into and losing two, Sam’s confidence took a bit of a dent so he let Jason play the rest in. There’s an awful lot of skills in playing a carp. I’m sure Sam will get there but our lake is one hell of a challenge if you’ve never carp fished before.
Jason was quite keen on meeting one of our catfish. Unfortunately, he got snapped up on his first opportunity when his knot failed. After that, he paid extra attention to his knots and his knot testing and chance number two was safely landed after an epic 30 minute battle. I’m not sure that Daiwa designed the Basia air ZT45 for catfishing… the spool was literally smoking from the heat generated as the line was ripped from a very tight clutch!
Sam and Jason are strong lads and it took all their strength to lift the fish onto the mat. They said it was weighing 86 lbs but this thing was 2m long tip to tail and closer to 110 lbs… if not more! It turns out that the 86 lbs was a guess as they didn’t know we had a set of 120 lb scales… not that I’m guaranteeing they they would have been big enough! Big congrats guys, that was great angling 👊 And what a result for your first ever catfish!
Jason also had a mid sixty towards the end of the week which was a walk in the park compared to the big un.
Bait & Rigs
On the bait front the lads used a mixture of Nash Monster Shrimp and some yellow boilies they found down the tackle shop. Jason’s normal approach is a solid PVA bag presented in a parachute so he wasn’t really used to using much in the way of bait. Because the oxygen levels were good and I knew what they were smashing through thanks to my bait and feed tests the previous week, Jason ended up using a lot of bait. Certainly more bait that he could ever imagine the carp could eat. But eat it they did and after a while they really dialled into the spots and it was only ever a matter of time before one of the rods ripped off.
On the rig front, they moved away from the rigs that they knew at the start and fell in love with my mega simple multi rig tied using some 25 lbs Skinlink. They did do some rig experiments of their own along the way but they didn’t prove to be as effective so they went back to the rigs I showed them.
It wasn’t just Jason and Sam doing the fishing either. As soon as they knew we had some roach for the boys to catch, they headed up the tackle shop and returned with a couple of roach whip and a few floats and some maggots. This proved to be the best €12 Sam has ever spent!
The boys loved it and they spent hours catching roach and rudd which was great to see. The boys also loved the pool table and they even brought their own travelling dartboard rig. I mean, how much more entertainment could 4 young boys have on holiday?
Needless to say, everyone had an amazing time. The big boys became small boys once more and the young boys got to play whatever they wanted for a whole week. It was a joy to watch. All they want now is a week next year that works with the kids’ holidays and if that doesn’t work, hopefully we’ll see them again in 2027. It was a real pleasure to meet them and we are delighted that everyone had such an amazing holiday. Love it!
