Kierron’s 40lb’er from Lotus Lake

French carping at Mas Bas
The hotel Trianon
The Journey
Thank you to all the staff at Angling lines for the help given in arranging hotel stops. It’s a long journey to do in one day especially if you have children. We broke our journey and made it part of the holiday. On the way down we stopped at La Rochelle http://www.hoteltrianon.com  Thanks Bridget the hotel was lovely, close to the beach and harbour. This was a great start to the holiday.
The next day we travelled down through France to Mas Bas. We arrive refreshed and ready to fish. We stopped in Lotus cottage which was very clean Lotus cottage overlooks on one side Lotus lake and in front of lotus Cottage is the main lake.  We fished the main lake.
The Fishing
All I will say on the fishing front is, “ listen to Giles”.  The lakes are beautiful and there is a lot of wildlife on the lakes.
We have added captures to our own site www.fishcaptures.com and each capture links to a dedicatedMas Bas page
We had a very enjoyable few weeks with a plethora of very nice fish! Giles and Lesley were very helpful and friendly hosts, nothing was too much trouble for them.
The fish love the Rahja!
All fish on Rahja Spice, simple rigs (long hook links, 3oz lead on safety clip etc) and light bating as instructed by Giles. I say light baiting (10-20 baits per fish), we did use 20Kg of boilies but simply because we caught so many fish! Baiting with particles etc definitely brings in smaller fish. Best fish came to a nice stick mix (CC Moore GLM, Soluble fish protein, rock salt, crumbed Rahja Spice) with single hookbait.
Leave Your Concerns Behind (and your fancy baits): If you fish Lotus cottage, no need to worry about lack of water as I did beforehand – plenty of water and options. There are always fish to be caught from the island, far bank, margins etc. Also forget any concerns about bait – the Rahja Spice sold on site may be shelf life, but don’t worry about it in the slightest – THE FISH ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I am no stranger to French carping and I would fish exactly the same again.
Here are a few highlights from the fish we had…
40lb’er from Lotus
3 x 20’s at once for Dan Tim and Kie
A nice 29lb 11 oz mirror for Tim
A nice 27lb 4oz mirror for Tim
An ‘average’ 23lb 12oz mirror that looks like a ‘hand drawn’ peace of art
Out & About
Lesley suggested a great evening out, the food market at St. Maurice. It’s about 15minutes away. The village square has the tables and chairs set out in long rows and around the outside are different food and drink merchants.  The boys had roasted chicken. Others in the party had duck salad, chicken salad, French bread, red wine, water and crepes. While you are sitting socailising there was a French band playing music. This was a great taste of France, thank you Lesley.
Great fun!
Lesley also gave us a booklet with local attractions in. From this book we choose a day out at Castlemoron sur Lot.  Giles booked us the hydroplanes on the River Lot. This was great fun.www.nautilius.fr
Also close to Mas Bas approx. 20minutes way at Agen is Walibi.  http://www.walibi.com/rhone-alpes/fr-en/offer-revisit-0. It is like a Drayton Manor or a smaller version of Alton Towers (theme park) great family day out for the children.
We also found a water park about 1 ½ hours away at Gordon. We never made it to the water park we will next time we visit Mas Bas. Parc De Loisirs De Gondrin. The slides look amazing.http://www.gondrin.fr/loisirs.html
The local shops are about 15minutes away in the car.
Agen is a lovely town with a great market and has a couple of large supermarkets.
We all have enjoyed the holiday – shame we never caught a 30lb carp but we had one 40lb carp during our stay.
0n the way back we stopped off for the afternoon/night in Le Mans we stopped at it was very clean and nice hotel right on the side of the 24hour circuit.  http://mulsanne.three-star-hotels.com/hotel/hotel-arbor-auberge-de-mulsanne-le-mans-sud-hotel.html.The boys loved it.
Thank you Giles & Lesley for a lovely two weeks we all can’t wait to return again.
 Kierron Axten, August ’12
Fishing Holidays at Mas Bas