Fishing report from: Steve, Justin & Dave

A fantastic week’s angling with 2 x 50s, 3 x 40s, 7 x 30s and 3 x 100+ catfish!

This week we welcomed Steve, Justin & Dave to the venue. It would be the first time that we’d met them but this was in fact their 3rd trip to Beausoleil. They first came in the late 90s and then once more 13 years ago. It’s always great to meet anglers that know the place and even better to hear how happy they were with our progress over the last 12 years! 

Had a brilliant week! The fish and venue were stunning. Came here 29 years ago and hardly recognised the place as so many improvements had been made. Many thanks to Matt & Ren.

Off to a flyer

You simply cannot beat experience and that showed when by Sunday morning they all had a fish! Steve had one upper 30 a few hours after arriving, Justin banked the massive catfish he really wanted and Dave met the sturgeon. Justin goes fishing every week both at home and abroad. He’s a carp angler by nature but he wanted to beat his mate’s catfish PB of 70lb. He’d had a mid forty at another venue and was really hoping he would beat it this trip. 

In the early hours of Sunday morning, he hooked into a huge fish that took him about an hour to land. Dave was sleeping in the lodge but Steve came round to lend a hand and haul the beast from the water. On the scales it went to 120lbs which smashed his own PB and his mate’s clean out of the park!

Not content with just one big catfish, Justin banked a ‘smaller’ one just to prove the first one wasn’t a fluke. When I say smaller it’s all relative here of course, it was still 112lbs! Later in the week Justin hooked and landed another monster but rather than haul it out the water he elected to unhook it in the water and release it straight away. The big cats are definitely on at the moment!

King of the pond

When the guys arrived there was a large number of carp hanging around the shallows near the inlet stream. This is not unusual at this time of year. It seems to be a gathering place for the carp in the run up to spawning. Steve chose to set up in point ‘A’ which is not an easy swim to fish with many hazards to contend with: the obvious ones being the bridge and the aerator but there are also some massive rocks that lie in wait, ready to cut you off in an instant! Definitely not one for the novice or the faint hearted! 

This was a good choice for Steve who banked Mr. Angry in the early hours of Monday morning at an equal lake record weight of 53lbs 8oz. Result!

First of the 40s

Next up for a chunk was Dave fishing from point ‘C’. Unfortunately Dave wasn’t feeling 100% and fished days only and slept comfortably in the lodge each night. That didn’t stop him banking some quality carp mind and his first was a 40 name Helix. A new top weight for this carp. Dave went on to catch some other crackers as well and even managed to catch one for me during my mid week visit. This was his smallest of the week at 33lbs!

Queen of the pond

Now that he got the catfish bug well and truly out of his system, it was time for Justin to catch a carp or three. Justin started fairly modestly with a mirror of 37lbs, then a 40. He then achieved something that we never thought we’d see. He only went and banked Pepe (our big common) at 50lbs! 

Two 50s in a week? Now that is something to celebrate. Of course for some French waters this is not a rare event but we honestly never thought we’d be able to grow two carp over the 50lb mark over the long run. More important than the size was the fact that both of these big fish were looking in great condition, in fact Justin described Pepe as the best looking carp he’d ever seen.

Hauling

Meanwhile bank in point ‘A’ Steve continued to haul them in with more 30s and 40s falling to his rods. It’s very unusual for any angler to have a field day in point ‘A’ but if you get everything right, it’s totally possible.

Average carp weight for the week…

Well, we had to do the numbers, with the smallest carp at 33lbs and 2 fifties, the average carp weight for the week is 39lbs, wow! Congrats guys, that was a very special week.

What no kittens?

In contrast to the previous week, the guys this week had hardly any kittens. Any water that contains large catfish will contain small catfish and although we drain and net them every two years it is impossible to remove all of them. Over the years I’ve developed a range of tactics that can be employed to avoid them. 

This week’s group are super experienced anglers that have fished a wide range of mixed fisheries and they used a lot of whole boilies, spread over a wider area to keep the kittens away but still catch carp. The other approach that can work very well was tiger nuts, veggie pellets and some of the Nash particle range. 

If you are travelling to us for the first time and would like some more detailed advice on this subject before you place your bait order then do contact us and I will put together an appropriate bait package for you.