Fishing report from: Stephen & friends

A good week’s fishing with carp to 32lbs and catfish to 118lbs

This week we welcomed Stephen, Jamie, Gary & Darren to Beausoleil for the first time. Stephen and Gary had fished in France quite a bit over the years and this was Jamie’s first trip and Darren’s second.

The guys opted for the tuition so I spent all day with them on Sunday running through the program. Despite Stephen and Gary’s previous French experience, they were blown away by just how different my approach is. For Darren and Jamie it was also a big eye opener as they simply had never done any fishing that requires this level of precision. The day flew by and I covered as much ground as I could. 

When I called round on Wednesday, it was clear that Darren had taken to the place like a duck to water! He’d racked up 4 carp already to low 30’s and in the swim next door Jamie had also joined the fun with a low thirty. Stephen and Gary were yet to trouble the score sheet so I spent some time with Gary to review his plan.

I also had a good chat with Jamie and Darren who were keen as mustard to catch some more. A large catfish was particularly high on Jamie’s wish list so I suggested a few tweaks.

Bring on the monsters!

Late on Wednesday night all hell broke loose when Stephen banked a 104lbs beast. He was actually very lucky to land it as the top part of the reel seat that’s attached to the rod, parted ways during the fight because of the power of this fish! Luckily a friend was on hand to hold the reel into the lower part of the seat. Obviously all the load is in the opposite direction so actually winding the reel handle and gaining line was extremely difficult! Fair play though, despite this malfunction they battled through and won the day 🏆

When we say that Beausoleil will test you and your gear to the very max, we really aren’t joking 😂 

Next up it was Jamie’s turn. He smashed it out of the park with a 118lb monster.

Luckily his was a lot less dramatic but it was still an incredible fight. Creatures of this size are really at the upper limit of what’s possible to land on freshwater gear but the guys had tooled up for the job with big powerful rods and decent reels. That’s only part of the story though as without absolute attention to all the small details, these creatures wouldn’t have been banked. Congratulations boys, you done good!

Gary had a tough week this time but he took it in his stride. Luckily one of the spots produced a carp so the dreaded blank was avoided.

Well done guys, it was a pleasure to work with you and we hope that you get the chance to visit us again in the future.