Preparing for A French Carp Session - Video Diary

How Much Bait Will I Need For My French Carp Session?

Via this video diary Paul Cooper will take you through his preparation routine for a trip to Blue Lake.

Carp Fishing Offers at Oakwood

Oakwood in its summer glory!

Oakwood are offering some great bargain breaks between 25th February 2012 and 30th March 2012;

.

Special March Offer… lake, bait, ferry and food!

• Based on 3 anglers
• Lake exclusive
• 10kg of pellet free per angler
• Breakfast and evening meal included
• Ferry included….

EITHER;

Dover to Calais (5hr drive)

£775 total = £258 per angler

OR;

Outward; Portsmouth to St Malo (1½hr drive) Return; Caen to Portsmouth (2½hr drive)

£925 total = £308 per angler

Fishing France at Oakwood

Carp Fishing in France? You Must Carry a Breathalyser

From July 1st 2012 it is compulsory to carry a breathalyser kit in the car in France.

Two kits per car are advised (so if you use one you’re still able to stay legal) &  15 euro fines for non-compliance will be levied from November 1st 2012.  We have placed an order for 100 which we’ll be happy to sell at no profit (around £1) but we’re still waiting for delivery – demand will obviously be high!

France has strict drink driving laws with blood alcohol levels being stricter than in the UK (0.5 mg/ml rather than 0.8).  This equates to 2 x 12cl glasses of wine for a man weighing 75kg (11½ stones).

France also has a no tolerance position if you are stopped and prove positive for any drug substance, including cannabis.  The penalty for this is the loss of your driving licence.

More information here - http://www.thelocal.fr/2487/20120206/

ADDITIONAL ITEMS OBLIGATORY FOR PRIVATE CARS;

REFLECTIVE JACKETS AND TRIANGLE

The driver must have a CE marked reflective jacket inside the vehicle and it must be easily accessible before getting out of the vehicle. Triangle must have the mark E27 R and must be placed at a distance of at least 30 meters from the vehicle or obstacle being warned against.

The jacket and/or the triangle must be used in cases of emergency stops. Warning lights must be switched on. NOTE – placing the triangle is not obligatory if doing so would put the driver’s life in danger.

LIGHTS AND SPARE BULBS

Every vehicle must have external lights in working order and the driver must therefore have spare bulbs for the external lights (the headlights, the rear lights and stop lights).

Carp Fishing Holidays at 35 French Lakes

Food Self-Sufficiency, Here We Come!

My first attempt at Pate!

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder carplakes in France. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Here at Les Fragnes, home to Notaire’s and Alder Carp Lakes, we’re taking our drive for self-sufficiency in meat and veg seriously. Chris has been busy butchering over the last few days and I had a liver to use, so I had my first stab at homemade liver paté. I chose an ultra simple recipe. It involved frying a chopped onion in butter, adding the chopped liver, pepper, nutmeg and herbs, and I threw in some walnuts for luck. Once the liver was cooked I added some cream and whizzed everything in the food blender and voilà, suprisingly good paté. In future I’ll store up all the livers from the poultry. We’d previously been giving them to the cats. No longer!

Monsieur le Président of the local hunting club turned up yesterday with three large lumps of venison for us, so we now have a very well-stocked freezer meat wise. Our supply of frozen pumpkins never seems to get any less, so today I was trying out apple and pumpkin crumble. It’s interesting, shall we say. I don’t think it will catch on. Actually, I think the problem may be that I used raw pumpkin with stewed apple. I vaguely remember reaching the ‘s*d-it, I-hate-pumpkin’ stage when I was processing the citrouilles last year, and lobbing a few bags of uncooked chunks into the freezer instead of cooking them first. I’m not a high ranking domestic goddess. And my laziness has caught up with me.

Hoping for more success in the polytunnel this time...

The cold killed off all my seedlings in the polytunnel sadly, but we’ll start again. We’re in the process of preparing a raised bed in there. We put the wooden frame in place yesterday and put down a layer of geotex (our builder got the wrong stuff in for our fosse septique, which was responsible for it being failed the first time – it took five goes to get it approved.) On top of that we’ve put cardboard as an extra weed suppressing barrier.

Today we’ve been transporting lots of compost in my brand new wheelbarrow (an early 50th birthday present I’ve been told!) to the bed. It will take several more sessions to fill it, but we’re on the way. The plan is to grow tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, radishes, cucumbers and other salad and delicate veg in there and keep ourselves fully provided for. We have a kiwi tree in there too.

We’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first lambs and we’re in the process of tracking down some pigs, preferably Gloucester Old Spots or Berkshires. We also have our eye on some Limousin Cul-Noirs (black-bottomed pigs). They’re very slow growing so they’ll be a long term project. We need some other weaners to fatten up quickly for this autumn. However, there seem to be a lot of time wasters out there who advertise pigs for sale, but when you make contact, it turns out they haven’t actually got any. A few people have also told us we need to be registered to keep pigs before they can sell us any. That’s nonsense, and all the pig-keeping forums say as much. Anyone can buy a few pigs to fatten up and eat. It’s only if you start supplying meat into the food chain that any sort of agricultural rules and regulations have to be obeyed.

Chris fell in love with pigs on his pig experience course so we’re very frustrated at finding it so hard to get our hands on some. But we’ll keep trying.

Carp Fishing in France at Alder

Fishing Holidays at Notaires

Stocking Carp in a French Lake – 10 Things You Must Consider

John London

If you run a commercial carp lake in France stocking it with carp is likely to be one of the biggest money outlays you make.  Here’s the things I have learnt;

1. Before you even start to think about buying a lake and running your own carp fishery sit down and work out your finances, as the bigger the lake the more fish you will need.  They don’t come cheap, prices are rising and big fish are getting harder to buy.

2. Does the lake fill up easily and does it stay full of water throughout the year?  This may sound obvious, but it’s vital.  With the drier and hotter weather we are having lake levels can soon drop. If a lake relies on rain only to fill it up the levels can drop significantly during the summer and this can cause problems with the fish and water quality, in that the oxygen levels can drop to dangerous levels.  A lake that is spring or stream fed are good as you are less likely to suffer with levels dropping too much.  Our lake, Bletiere, is spring fed underground and even over a long summer the level only drops by inches, consequently oxygen levels have never been a problem.  Think about what will you do if we get another long hot summer and your carp start to suffer due to dropping oxygen levels.  It’s  too late when it’s happening so do you need to have ready a means to aeriate the water.  You can find on the internet. We are lucky and have never needed to do this but I still have pumps ready in the barn just in case.  It can be something very simple – just as long as it forces oxygen into the water.  Obviously in a big lake it will take more effort.

3. Have the lake netted – this is very important.  You get to see what is in the lake, both species and size, and more importantly if the fish are disease free and in good health.  What’s the point in paying out thousands of euro’s and putting healthy fish into a lake that may have disease problems with its existing residents? No point at all!  You can also take the chance to look at the bottom of the lake to see if it needs dredging.  This would be the time to have this work done – before you stock.  It’s not cheap but deffinitely worth it in the long run.

Water report - well worth the money!

4. For a very small cost (considering how much the carp are going to cost you) I would strongly advise you have the water tested.  Most big towns have a municipal laboratory and it’s a great way to ensure there are no water quality problems before your fish start to die.

5. Before you go out and buy the fish try to assess what natural food is in the lake – will it be sufficient to feed all your fish.  In most cases the answer is probably no and once you add even more carp there will probably not be enough food to sustain growth rates.  So now is the time you need to source a fish feed supplier.  There are several large ones in France and it’s down to your budget and what you wish to feed, but cheap is not always good.  Don’t forget you will not have anglers there all the time putting bait in. I have covered feeding carp in another article and added ways to save money but still ensure good growth rates.

6. Spend time looking in your area for the fish farm that you intend to buy your carp from.  We originally purchased our fish from a farm over 2 hours drive away and this entailed a lot of stress to the fish on the way to us. We now use a farm that is only 30 minutes away from us.  So we select the fish and within 1 to 2 hours they are safely in the lake.  It’s a sad fact that on average 10% of the carp you buy will die from the stress of moving and settling into their new environment – so try and keep the transportation time as low as possible.

7. Speak to the fish farmer and seek his advice about stocking levels.  They are always helpful and they don’t want you to have problems.  If they suggest 2 or 3 stockings then agree as it’s all about what’s best for your carp.  Also on the day you go to pick your fish be prepared for a long visit as you get to see and choose every fish you buy.  They will never argue if you say “no” to a fish, but be careful it’s easy to get carried away and end up with a big invoice… I did!

8. When the fish are delivered don’t forget to weigh and photograph all or some of them as it’s a great way to check future growth rates when they get caught plus generate excellent publicity for your venue.

9. Check your stocking license (issued by the local Gard de Peche) before you buy anything other than carp to ensure you are allowed to stock them.  For example, here at Bletiere, we have some constraints as to what we are allowed to put in the lake due to a trout stream running alongside the lake, as they are concerned as to what could get into the stream e.g. pike and perch.

10. Think about any tools or implements that you may need to catch or release any trapped or injured fish.  For example chest waders, heavy duty nets and a small work boat.  Just stop and think what’s the worst that can happen and then prepare as a little pre-planning and thought can save a lot of stress and heartache.

I hope this has been of interest and use – just a few things I have learnt along the way over the last five years.  If you are careful and think about what you are doing nothing much goes wrong – but it pays to be prepared.

Tight lines, John, La Bletiere.

Fishing Holidays at Bletiere

How Much Bait Will I Need For My French Carp Session?

Are you preparing for a carp fishing trip to France in 2012?

Via a series of Blog posts & a video diary Paul Cooper will take you through his preparation routine.

Blue Lake(Part 2)

Jim with a Quality Baits 39lb 2oz fish caught in the throws of winter

Bait

• It is now the beginning of February and I’m already thinking about what bait I will be using for the Blue Lake trip and what quantities I will require.  This to me is the most important aspect to a successful fishing trip.  By April the temperatures should be around 20°C and a good fishmeal based boilie should be all that is needed to put those extra few fish on the bank.

• It’s important to check on the Website, or with one of the Angling Lines team, what freezer and fridge facilities are in place at your chosen venue.

• Unfortunately Blue Lake it has all other amenities, but no freezer or fridge.

41.02 - a stunning common caught on HG42 boilies

Early autumn last year, Jim and I approached Simon of Quality Baits to see if he could successfully produce a bait for us.  With a bit of tweaking and test trials, within a few weeks we had the perfect bait which which we gave the name of HG42.

I first tested the bait on my local syndicate water with some amazing results which included the lake record of a 41.1o Common, which for our region is the record carp.

In October I had 2 opportunities for trips carp fishing in France at Boux, and on both occasions, I took Quality Baits HG42, 18mil boilies.

A mirror caught at Domiane De Boux on HG42 in 2011

The results again were amazing, on both occasions landing over 27 carp per visit and putting some of its biggest resident carp on the bank.  By the end of November I had accounted for over 75 carp on Quality Baits HG42, all caught in a 2 month period.

Quality Baits HG42 Shelf Life Boilies

Up until now, the boilies that we had used were all fresh baits that needed to be kept in a freezer. With Blue Lake, we have no freezer or any way of keeping the bait fresh for a week, so I approached Simon to see if he could produce our bait in a shelf life version.  I was aware that he was producing his famous Patshull Park boilies in both frozen and shelf life, so why not the HG42?

We are in the process of developing a new boilie which we will be calling HG47. This is based on the same ingredients of the HG42 but with alternative flavours and additives giving a rich savoury smell and a dark red colouring.

Simon has now produced both the HG42 and HG47 in a shelf boilie. As soon as the weather improves I will be putting them through there paces leading up to our Blue Lake trip on first impressions the product looks really impressive.

What quantity will I need?

It’s well publicised that Blue Lake has received 2 large stockings of big carp over this winter period.  By April the fish will be hungry and I think that a reasonable amount of bait will be required to hold them in a swim.  Below is a full list of the bait that I will be taking on this particular trip;

• 10 kilo of HG42 and 10 kilo of HG47, both in 18mils.

The reason that I use 18mil baits is that they are easier to put out with a throwing stick than smaller baits, and also bigger baits do seem to deter smaller nuisance fish.

• A 20 kilo sack of carp pellet(shared between the 2 of us)
• A 20 kilo sack of hempseed(again shared between Jim and I)
• An assortment of various pop ups in sizes from 10mil to 18mil.
• A kilo of Tiger nuts (ready prepared in preservative from QB)

I already made my enquiries about prices and availability so all the bait will be in my possession at least a week before the trip.

As with all of the Quality Baits boilie products, they average around £6 per kilo and are freshly made to order so if you are interested check out the web site atwww.qualitybaits.co.uk

Paul Cooper

Fishing France at Blue Lake

Carp Fishing in France Webcast – February 2012

In this edition we bring you up to date with lake stockings, review new videos from Paul Cooper bringing you carping tips, plus a catch report from Lac du Val were carp to 30lb+ were landed in the snow.  Finally we finish off with some stunning footage of our carp lakes in their winter clothes;

Water Temperature Log at Bletiere Carp Lake

John's famous thermometer duck!

Just to remind our visitors (and probably of interest to any one else thinking of coming over to France for an early trip) that every Saturday I will be posting on our Forum pages the air and water temperatures here at Bletiere.  This will obviously only be a reading from our lake and it will probably be different in the bigger lakes around.

The lake has now thawed out totally and with the very warm sun this week it should start to warm up very quickly.  Encouraged by a sunny day yesterday I’ve started to feed the carp again and within an hour of the food going in they could be seen fizzing on top of it.  The only trouble for me is that I can stand watching them for ages and no work gets done!

So every Saturday I will post the information and as things start to really warm up I will also post on a Wednesday as a mid-week reading.

Tight lines, John

Fishing Holidays in France at Bletiere

Pandas in France – Huang Huang and Yuang Zi at Zooparc Beauval

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder carp lakes in France. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

France now has a pair of pandas at the Zooparc Beauval. We visited there last summer and at the time we commented on how OTT the Chinese section of the park seemed to be, with statues, pagodas, lanterns but very few animals. Little did we know Beauval was gearing up for pandas. Certainly there was no mention of them at the zoo. But then they don’t sell batteries so they’re fairly clueless. A bit of advance publicity ‘sur place’ wouldn’t have come amiss.

Anyway, Huang Huang and Yuang Zi arrived on 15th January to great excitement. They were the first pandas to set paw in France for eleven years. They were transported by FedEx in a specially painted aeroplane, and then by road in specially painted vans with a police escort from the airport to Beauval. Yes, you read that right – police escort. Your guess is as good as mine as to why! Whether it was to keep the pandas in, or panda-nappers out, who knows. But it was successful and the pandas arrived safely and probably very puzzled at their new home. The public will be let loose on the pandas on 11th February. They need a few weeks to settle in.

Huang Huang and Yuang Zi are here for 10 years at a cost of around €750,000. Beauval is remaining tightlipped about the exact sum. So expect a hike in the already fairly hefty entry charge. The money is apparently going towards protecting pandas in the wild in China. And heaven knows they need it since they are the world’s dopiest animals.

I saw Edward Heath’s pandas, Chia Chia and Ching Ching, at London Zoo in the 1970s. They just sat and ate bamboo, as you’d expect, and were generally the most boring animal in the zoo. I have been completely underwhelmed by pandas for a long time.

Whilst there is no doubt that they are very striking and harmless animals, let’s face it they’re hopeless. The female comes into heat for between 3 and 7 days once a year. So if either she or the male has a headache during that brief space of time, that’s it, the chance for making a baby panda has gone for another year. I saw a TV programme about pandas in an American zoo. The zookeepers were desperate for the pandas to breed and were monitoring Mrs Panda constantly for the telltale signs of her arousing herself from her usual semi-comatose, bamboo-munching state to being hormonal. The second they reckoned she was ready, they unleashed Mr Panda. He made a couple of extremely feeble attempts to mount her then gave up. Mrs P went all huffy and then the pair of them sat and sulked in opposite sides of the cage. (I hope this doesn’t remind you of anything!)

So the scientists swooped. They first knocked out Mr P and got busy with rubber gloves and syringes and extracted some semen, and then knocked out Mrs P and gave her AI. What a palaver. But it worked and a miniscule baby panda appeared 5 months later. It weighed 5 ounces. Baby pandas are 1/900th the size of their mama. I mean, come on. How pathetic is that!

Human babies are around 1/15th to 1/20th of their mum’s size. Admittedly, delivering one of them hurts like blooming heck and traumatises you for life but it’s possible. Llama cria are roughly 1/8th to 1/10th of their mother’s weight, and you don’t hear them complaining. And what’s more, if a panda has  more than one cub, she has a breakdown. She is incapable of looking after two at the same time, so just leaves one to die. Pandas are severely survivally challenged. They really need to get their act together.

Setting Up Your Own Fishing Business in Spain

This post is longer than usual! If you have twenty minutes to spare then sit back and read all about my last year in Spain. I won’t lie to you – it is a promotional article about my business and the trials I went through in setting everything up. Go and get yourself a coffee, return, sit comfortably, and read all about how I have created my dream – Sierra Brava Dreams!

Sierra Brava Dreams.

I have now been living in Spain for over a year. As year’s go it has flown by, it has certainly had its ups and downs, but fortunately it does look like the steep mountain I have climbed, to get where I am, has been worth it. I can now see myself staying in Spain for a long time to come.

I arrived in September of 2010 and apart from doing some fishing, I wasn’t quite sure what else I would do. I had got to the stage where I needed to start earning some money fast or I would be heading back to the UK; therefore I was on the lookout for a business opportunity. As it turned out I didn’t have to look far at all.

I suppose becoming a fishing guide was always the obvious choice and it would give me the chance to put my teaching skills to good use. There is a known saying with regards to teachers. If you teach something you’re passionate about, then you will always enjoy it more. As it so happens I love fishing, so how could I go wrong! Becoming a guide is not that simple however. Firstly you need to find a fishing location that offers good sport. Secondly you need to provide excellent equipment. Thirdly a means of feeding and accommodating your guests will be required. Finally you must provide a service that offers quality and value for money, always aiming to give your guests a ‘holiday to remember’.

Sierra Brava was a lake that struck the right chords with me from the beginning. I caught carp consistently and in my eyes the fishing was not difficult providing you had your wits about you. The carp are incredibly strong in Sierra Brava and they soon sort out the men from the boys. If you aren’t ready for their power they will smash you up or have you scratching your head, as you wonder how the fish made it to the safety of an Oak tree poking out of the water. There are thousands of these trees, in, and around the perimeter of the lake, but fortunately there are also thousands of carp. If you sadly do lose a carp then you normally don’t have to wait long for your next chance!

I now had my venue sorted for my business, and in my eyes, Sierra Brava is the perfect venue. It is the ideal lake for newcomers to big public water carp fishing. Fortunately boats are banned which means you can only cast from the bank; but at Sierra Brava, you can literally catch them from the margins, so the boat ban is a really good thing. Remote control boats are permitted, but again, they’re just not necessary. 90% of my carp have been caught within 50 yards from the bank and the other 10% were caught at longer range in the daytime when the fish seem to move further out into deeper water during this period.

Sierra Brava is a quite a barren place. The terrain can be quite savage in places and the water level drops every summer by approximately 4-5 metres. In the summer it is almost possible to drive around the entire lake, but once the higher water levels return, then access becomes much trickier. Last year I still owned my front wheel drive Renault van, so I very quickly realised that I was going to have to swap vehicles for a tough 4 x 4 that would prevent me from getting stuck in the mud. I hatched a plan and drove back to the UK, returning after Christmas with a superb Nissan Navara – the perfect tool for the job.

Whilst in the UK I also contacted some of my sponsors. I was now keen to make another change in my life; going from a consultant to a business that used their products for my clients. I returned to Spain with plenty of Trakker products, dozens of Sonik rods, and a plethora of quality fishing tackle that I had personally handpicked for Sierra Brava.

Choosing the tackle was a painstaking task in itself. After personally fishing Sierra Brava I soon realised that heavy duty tackle was not actually needed. Instead I chose rods that were more forgiving for close range combat, but were still able to cast in excess of 100 yards in the right hands. I combined these rods with suitable matched Shimano baitrunners. The rest of the tackle was chosen for the terrain. For example: Gardner Scud systems for rod rests, Kevin Nash Monster Coral unhooking mats to protect the fish, and Gold Label Tough for vital shock leaders.

One of the biggest challenges in my guide’s eyes was how to keep clients on the bank for the duration of their holiday and ensure they were happy the whole time and not wanting for anything. The fishing venue was taken care of, as was the equipment. The remaining obstacles were providing quality food and providing facilities for washing and going to the toilet. Sierra Brava is a public lake but it does not have public toilets or shower blocks; and the sheer size of the lake meant I could not be driving clients back to my house every time they needed to relieve themselves. Fortunately a fantastic plan came to me one night whilst I was lying in bed!

I needed a large trailer that not only could carry all of the equipment for my clients, but it could double up as a kitchen, and also provide other facilities such as a hot shower and a toilet. My technology skills were going to come in useful once again! Whilst in the UK I searched Ebay for second hand trailers and after losing out on some auctions at the last minute, I finally won the trailer I liked the look of. A week into January of 2011 I drove back to Spain in my new vehicle, towing my new trailer filled with brand new fishing equipment. Everything was gradually falling into place.

Once back in Spain and after moving into a new house that would sleep up to four clients, I got busy sorting out a website. An old friend from Bristol came up trumps and he soon had all my words and pictures laid out on templates and the website was starting to take shape.

Every business needs a logo, so yet again; I looked at my contacts from the past couple of years and was soon calling on the services of a graphic designer I knew. I had a clear idea in my head of what I wanted, and overnight this guy transformed my ideas onto paper. He was extremely professional and I am very proud of the end result.

Once the logo was handed over to my web guy he soon used the logo’s colours to finish off my website andwww.sierrabravadreams.com was launched on the World Wide Web. I had to shell out a thousand pounds for the website and logo but take my advice. Pay the money and beware of cowboys offering cheap websites and cheap promises.

By February I already had a booking in my diary and another two sets of clients were soon to confirm their dates. Things were looking up but I still had my ‘uber’ trailer to convert. I had ordered a lot of equipment to fit inside, including two gas fridges, a host of plumbing accessories which I hoped would produce a hot shower (!?), and various other niche gadgets. With all of my parcels waiting in my rented garage it was time to lock myself away with my tool kit and begin work on my creation.

It took eight full days to get everything bolted down and working properly. The creative technology teacher inside of me did a sterling job; I even gave myself an A star! Allowing sufficient space for the fishing tackle, I self-contained everything to one side of the trailer and plumbed in the two gas fridges after fitting them into a tailor-made work/storage unit; storage for dry food products and wipe-free surfaces for preparing meals.

My biggest headache was creating a shower that not only fed water at a good pressure, but delivered hot water that could be adjusted for temperature. Armed with a 70L Fiammi water tank, a water pump, an expansion tank, and a portable boiler device, and yards of rubber hose and a showerhead, I scratched at the old grey matter until everything slowly fell into place. Providing 12v power to the water pump via a leisure battery ensured everything flowed as it should; and when combined with a powerful flame from a single gas ring that heated the boiler device, hot water suddenly ejected from the shower head. The Fiammi shower system is the same kind you might find in a posh caravan except I was going to feed the hot water outside to a large cubicle that would also double up as a space for the portable chemical toilet I had bought. The solution worked like a dream and combined with my gas fridges to keep drinks cold and food fresh, I could now confidently keep clients content for their holiday.

The majority of my fishing in Europe in the previous three years had incorporated the use of a boat. The boat was either used for dropping hook baits in position, for baiting up, for the playing of fish, or checking for features with an echo sounder. I now had a huge lake on my doorstep that offered fantastic fishing without the need for a boat. I have already mentioned that boats are banned at Sierra Brava and this never posed any problems for me whatsoever. Quite often boats can make the fishing more difficult as every angler starts fishing long range effectively pushing the carp, further and further out into the middle of the lake. Carp simply love margins and fortunately Sierra Brava is still one of those lakes where carp can be caught just a rod’s length from the bank.

I soon fine tuned my fishing style at Sierra Brava. My tackle set up always consists of a marker rod and a spod rod. The lakebed at Sierra Brava is fairly uniform in that it is hard, fairly rocky, and as I found out, the carp can easily be caught from open water. Therefore the marker rod is purely used for gauging the depth, and then the marker float is used as a guide for baiting up with the Spomb. Once the baiting up has been done, your rod, complete with hook bait, is cast so it lands to the front of your baited patch. Each rod is then clipped up and marked for distance, either using a permanent marker on the line, or the more traditional method of pole elastic. That’s it – it’s that simple, and now you sit back and wait for a take!

Incidentally I first started using the Spomb last year. I am not going to go into detail about the product except I will say this. I supply and sell them to my clients and I will never use another product for baiting up from the bank side!

I have observed many takes at Sierra Brava. One of the main things I often take note of is just how many fish other anglers seem to lose. Either they are not by their rods, or the baitrunner is set to lose, meaning the carp has taken yards of line by the time they pick up the rod. I have already mentioned the trees. Spanish Oak trees are part of Sierra Brava which is why you see one in my logo; but they can be your enemy, as well as your friend. I do occasionally fish tight to the trees but when I do, I fish locked up, and with the rod at a 90’ angle, so the bend in the rod cushions some of the take. Fishing this style means you are immediately in the side strain position once you have the rod in your hands. You will never ever stop a carp going for a snag with the rod held high in the air. It will just pull you forwards until the rod is pointing at the snagged carp. You must apply side strain, and by doing so, the fish has to eventually move left or right on a tight line, taking it away from the imminent danger. I never give an inch of line until I am sure I am winning the battle. Once the carp is in open water I will allow the fish to take line if it wants to, helping speed up the tiring process, so the carp is beat by the time its nose touches the spreader block of your landing net.

I used to play carp by back winding. The carp in Sierra Brava are a different kettle of fish and they deserve the respect they command. Sometimes it just isn’t possible to stay in contact by back winding and your knuckles end up getting rapped by the reel handle. I now use the clutch for the first 75% of the fight and when the fish is nearly beat, I quite often revert to back winding, knowing the runs from the carp can often be stopped by just using the rod tip alone.

I mentioned rods at the start of this article. I use 2.5lb t/c rods myself, but I equip clients with 2.75lb t/c rods. These are the Sonik SK3’s and they are well suited for the fishing at Brava. I have noticed that the mouths of the carp in Sierra Brava seem to be quite soft, and when combined with the speed that they take off when hooked; I observed many hook pulls from anglers using beefed up rods, especially combined with braid. Stop start runs can happen as the hook is pulled from the carp’s mouth during the run, or anglers heave into the fish with so much force, that the hook is ripped clean from the mouth resulting in another lost fish.

The technique I use and recommend to my clients when a run occurs is to gently take the rod from the rests, whilst allowing the fish to continue taking line. Then without flicking the baitrunner off, they apply gentle pressure to the spool with their finger, slowing the carp down gradually. Only when you are sure the carp has stopped do you wind the handle, disengaging the baitrunner. The clutch, that is properly set, can then take over should the carp suddenly take off again, which at Brava is the norm!

I have perfected my fishing style at Sierra Brava over the last year and I am proud to claim that I rarely ever lose a carp. As an example during my last session I had fourteen takes and landed thirteen carp. It was a fantastic session as not only did I catch my first 40lb carp from the venue, I also pushed the weight of my best Brava mirror carp up to 38lbs.

I am also pleased to report that all my clients to date have good track records with regards to fish landed; and out of the 100 runs they have shared between them (five clients), 75 carp have been banked including four personal bests. Most of the above losses were down to hook pulls during the fight, and not snagged fish, as I don’t actually allow clients to fish tight to snags unless they really know what they are doing.

I am going to finish off this article by telling you, not why you should come to Sierra Brava for your next holiday, but why I like the place so much. You can then make your own minds up!

I have fished many lakes covering France, Italy, and Germany. There are many lakes in Spain to choose from but I always fancied Extremadura as a region to live in. Extremadura is a rural area, it is beautiful, overflowing with wildlife and nature, and I have fallen in love with the place. I grew up in North Yorkshire and I love the fact I can walk my dog in my Spanish village, and within minutes be walking in open fields, with nothing but fresh air to breathe in.

I now have a very large and impressive lake (embalsa) right on my doorstep. I can be at the lake within five minutes. Learning the access routes to other parts of the lake took time, but was well worth the effort as it allows peace and quiet away from the more popular spots, and quite often better fishing!

The carp in Sierra Brava are just a small part of why I like the place so much. Because the lake it set around mountain ranges, you get amazing views, incredible sunrises, and dreamlike sunsets. The sheer range of bird life is breathtaking. I often see vultures and red kites soaring high in the skies, and combined with the other animals, it really is a slice of heaven. The carp do grow to impressive sizes. Peter Staggs caught a sixty pound mirror a couple of years ago, and James Harrison caught Ramona, the big mirror carp who is affectionately known as ‘tubby’! And there are many others. I will not lie to anyone. I will not claim that you will get fifteen takes in a day. I will not guarantee you will catch a personal best, but I will say one important factor. If you listen to the guide, you will have a better chance than anyone else on the lake! The fishing can be incredible but it is just like any other lake. Any lake can have its off days, and timing and a bit of luck can be everything in fishing.

As with all public lakes there is always the unknown big carp factor; but all of my clients who fished last year, and have booked for the coming year, are not just coming with big carp in mind. They know they have a chance of going home with a personal best, but the majority of my client’s book for all of the above, and more. They are safe in the knowledge that they will get an experienced guide who will get up at 3am to help them land a carp. They know their meals will be cooked fresh on the bank. And they know I will do my utmost best to give them what they came for – The Sierra Brava Dreams Experience.

I fully understand in these difficult financial times that money is tight and I am genuinely not interested in just taking people’s hard earned cash. However, I am interested, and totally committed, in giving clients a proper holiday in return for their money, and I have return bookings from last year, which is always a good sign that you are doing something properly and you’re on the right track.

Please check out my website for more details about Sierra Brava Dreams and I look forward to seeing some of you on the bank in 2012 or in years to come!

Hasta Pronto!

Jake Langley-Hobbs

Taking Advantage of the Big Freeze at Notaires Carp Lake

They say it’s an ill wind that blows no good and the north wind certainly blew in with ill intent here at Notaires recently, freezing the upstairs pipes and causing havoc with the heating.  Even the drain pipes froze up overnight as the temperatures dropped below -10 each night for two weeks, even reaching as low as -19. The fix for the drainpipes was to fill a backpack sprayer with hot water and use it as a hot water drill to melt the plug of ice each morning.

On the plus side a well frozen lake meant that we could reach the overhanging willow branches that were dipping down into the house lake on the far side, this area is a great fish attracting area with both shade and rich natural pickings for the carp but with the consequence that the carp made a run for the trees when they were hooked (and as the records show there were plenty of carp caught on fishing holidays in the house lake this year, but that is for the next post).

We had thought of using the boat to reach the branches but a boat and a chainsaw sounds like a fast trip to casualty, this only left the option of partially draining the lake and slogging around in the mud, even then each year we have been defeated by the onset of cold weather before the slow drainage had reduced the levels sufficiently, so here you can see the results as we trim back the willows and do a 360 degree pan around the banks from the center of the lake.

Coypu – A Real Danger for Carp Lakes in France

Cute but contemptible!

Constant battle with contemptible Coypu!

Here at Mas Bas we have a running battle with Coypu so here’s an update showing just what damage they can do! Every 2 years or so we have to rebuild the walkway between our beautiful carp lakes, because they have burrowed and collapsed areas the bank.

Here's an example of the damage they cause

Coypu, cute but a real bankside barbarian, were imported from South America to Europe during the 20thC by the fur trade, released after becoming commercially unviable, they proliferated during the 60’ and 70’s and happily was totally eradicated in the UK during the 80’s.

Unhappily for us, it still proliferates in the wetlands surrounding lakes and rivers in France, burrowing deep into the banks and eating huge quantities of roots and stems they are the cause of enormous environmental damage. Producing between 1 and 13 young twice each year, they are a big problem getting out of hand extremely quickly unless regularly destroyed.

Here at Mas Bas, Lotus Lake holds a particular delight to these vegetarians as they are quite partial to lotus roots (the size of a banana) and are capable of diving and burrowing deep into the silt to dig up these luscious delights.

So Gilles has to literally rebuild the banks. Wooden stakes are driven into the ground and timber fixed onto their bankside edge. The space is then filled with huge amounts of soil and compressed to recreate a stable bank.

Apart from the upset they cause us as lakeowners, coypu (often mistaken for otters) are not attracted by rubbish and therefore do not come around the houses hoping for a freebie from the bins. They are seen generally at dawn and dusk either swimming across the lake or grooming on the bank, and as I said in the beginnning, looking really quite cute.

However, despite all our efforts of one thing I am sure, just like Arnie , ‘they will be back!’

Cap Lake Owner Vs. Coypu!

Blessing the clocher in Nouzerines

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Last Saturday morning Chris and I went to a rather nice ceremony at St Clair’s church in Nouzerines. It was a little service to bless the new clocher (bell tower). The weather was foul but at least it was dry inside the church, although it certainly wasn’t warmer than outside! We did wonder slightly why the powers that be had decided to celebrate in the middle of winter. The tower was actually finished last summer!

Père Arnaud Favard is the priest for this parish. He has a wonderful singing voice and is very strict about the musical standards of his flock.

We always have to rehearse beforehand! He took us through the various chants and hymns and only when we were good enough, could we proceed to the ceremony proper. (He does the same thing every year at the St Francis Day animal ceremony.)

The Président of Patrimoine Nouzerines, the fundraising body that has been the driving force behind the church renovations, opened the service and then there was one of the now perfect hymns and a prayer. Fellow English expat Christopher (not my Chris) played his piano accordion to liven things up. Then the priest gave a short sermon, explaining the different symbols that are usually to be found on top of every church’s bell tower in the form of the weather vane. There’s always a cock, as opposed to a pig, cow, sheep, carp etc, since this creature is the symbol of rejuvenation and new life. By crowing at dawn, the cock celebrates that night is over. Symbolically this represents him heralding the end of any period of physical or moral darkness. He always stands atop a globe to represent the world. Most church weather vanes also feaure a girouette – the wind indicator itself. Père Favard told us how important that was in the past, a real indication of what weather was heading our way. The Maire gave a short speech too.

One of the hymns had been about people coming to church from all four points of the horizon. These aren’t the points of the compass as you’d expect, but in fact east, west, up and down. Churches are on an east-west axis. The alter is at the eastern end so that the congregation sits and looks towards the rising daylight and life. In contrast the priest looks west, facing death. In Limousin statues of Christ always face west for this reason. The up and down represent heaven and hell. The weather vane draws eyes upwards towards heaven. He didn’t go into the hell thing in much detail!

After more expert singing, we finished the ceremony outside with the physical blessing of the clocher. The rain briefly held off while the priest read out the benediction (see below) and we sang the refrain beautifully. Then he threw holy water towards the bell tower before rushing back into the church to start ringing the bells.

We’d said the Lord’s prayer along the way. For the first time I saw the words of it in French, but I stuck to saying the English version. It occurred to me that our heathen youngest son doesn’t know that cornerstone of the Christian faith in either language! I guess that’s a bit of a giveaway that we don’t go to church all that often. I remember how Benj blurted out loudly once, when we were at a service, I forget for what reason: “Gosh we’re in Church. Is it Christmas!” Don’t you just love kids!