Wednesday 30 January 2013

New Carp Stocked at Holly Pools Carp Lake


Carp Stocked at Holly Pools in France
Since deciding to use Angling Lines to represent Holly Pools from 2013 onwards, we have had many discussions about all aspects of the business with the Angling Lines team. What has become clear is that, having represented tens of fisheries all over France, there are certain directions that almost always give positive results. Stocking fish from the Michele Bigot fish farm seemed to be one thing that ALL the Angling Lines venues agreed was a positive thing. Strong young fish, with good shapes, and great genetics for strong growth rates are the trademarks of Bigot carp.
At Holly Pools we have some fantastically strong fighting commons that go up to upper 30’s (42lb when about to spawn!) but very few mirrors. We decided that we could improve the genetics in the lake, increase the variety of the fish and potentially add some fish with the capability to go on towards 50lb in the next couple of years. If you look at the pictures you can see that here are some fish any angler would be delighted to catch!
Carp Fishing at Holly Pools, France

    Winter Feeding Regime for a Carp Lake


    We’ve just added 3 new videos for Bletiere ;
    • Winter Lake Tour
    • Swim Update
    • Winter Feeding Regime
    Here’s the Winter Feeding regime video…
    Fishing holidays in France at Bletiere

    Monday 28 January 2013

    Winter Wonderland at Molyneux French Carp Lake


    Molyneux French Carp Lake in Winter
    Like most of you in the UK, we have had our share of chilly snowy weather here at Molyneux over the last few days.  Thankfully we’ve not had the amounts of snow that seem to have covered large parts of Blighty, but it has certainly made life around the lake a little more difficult.
    The water has been switched off at the mains for over a week now, in the hope we will not have the problems in the shower block that we suffered last spring.
    The lake is frozen so the feeding program has had to be curtailed for the time being. Prior to the freeze the fish had remained active, especially after they have been fed.
    Despite all the problems it brings, who can help but love the way that a blanket of snow transforms the landscape. It was also Rudie’s first sight of snow, and it was hilarious to watch him rolling and playing in the snow……
    Dog in Snow at Carp Lake in France
    French carp lakes – Molyneux

    Roseau Carpers Hoodies


    Carp Fishing Hoodie
    For this season we’re glad to offer any angler who has been, or is coming to see us at Roseau,  the opportunity to buy these great hoodies.  They come in the standard carpy colour of Olive Green and are excellent quality and great value for money.
    The fishery name is on the chest & you can select your own number (unless it’s already been taken) for the back, plus add your name or nickname. See the images below for some of our customer’s orders – aren’t they great!
    Order yours for those chilly, beer drinking social evenings around the lakes – a great reminder of the fun times we shared at Roseau.

    Wednesday 23 January 2013

    Thursday 17 January 2013

    A Very Happy Carp Lake Owner


    41lb French Carp
    41.12 – John’s new Pb!
    As any of my regular guest here at Bletiere will know, I have never been blessed with a 40lb’er out of the venue.  Well I’m afraid the day has now come when I’ll no longer have to listen to the usual ribbing when another 40lb’er comes out!
    Having been working around the lake for the last few days I could see the carp feeding in the spots where I fed them, and not just a few odd fish but several in one area.  So with a cold snap forecast I thought it was time I had a go myself at catching something.
    I set up in the middle swim and thought I would try 3 different baits to see what, if anything worked.  Once all was sorted I sat back with the dogs and waited, but I have to be honest with the air temperature only 6 degrees and the water 8 degrees I was not expecting a lot of action.
    After about 90 minutes the left hand rod slowly tightened and the alarm started a slow but steady signal.  I tightened up into the carp and immediately I knew it was going to be a good fish as it plodded down towards the end of the lake and just hugged the bottom.
    After what seemed an age I had the fish in the net and what a beauty – not a mark on her and very solid, so looked like she had been feeding well.  As I bent to pick the net out the water that’s when I knew it was going to be big and close to my first 40lb’er.
    As I put the weigh sling on the scales I was well pleased to see it settle at 41lb 12oz, smashing my previous Pb here of 39lb 14oz.  The only unlucky thing was that there was no one here to take a photo of me holding it.  So after a quick check over and a big thank you I slipped her back into her home.
    I am now determined to get the self take gear out and practice with the camera for the next time as I would hate to get a bigger fish out and not have another decent photo.  Never the less I am a very happy lake owner.
    Tight lines, John
    Fishing Holidays at Bletiere

    Work on the New Swims at Holly Pools


    Carp Fishing at Holly Pools
    The 2 sticks in the water give an idea where the water level part of the swim will be constructed.
    For the last 2 months I have been wielding a chainsaw in the woods around the lake here at Holly Pools.  The result is 13 trees removed from around, and in some cases IN, the lake. These trees had either fallen in the lake, were in danger of doing so, or were storm damaged. No nice trees were harmed in the making of this post!
    Having cleared a large section of bank that previously held a stalking swim (just room to flick a margin rod into a tree shaded area the carp liked to hole up in away from the action), it seemed like a good idea to improve the “fishability” of the lake.
    Discussions with David and Martin at Angling Lines, as well as with friends who have owned and run French carp lakes for many years, resulted in the following plan;
    • turn the cleared bank where the stalking swim used to be into a really nice water-level pitch with room on the bank for a bivvy
    • make a new stalking swim towards the shallow end of the lake
    It will then be possible to cast to the whole lake, with just a few areas under trees perhaps needing a bait-boat. This also has the effect that 2 anglers can fish with no possibility of interfering with each other, and with some care (and perhaps winding in lines during a run) 3 anglers on the lake.
    If we feel the fish are missing the shelter of a no-pressure area, we can add a buoyed off area in front of the stalking swim (which will then become a really frustrating “large carp viewing platform”!).
    For those of you who think Carp Fishery owners spend the winter in bed or the Caribbean – here is where 2 months work has got us so far. More pictures to follow of the swims being completed.
    Nik and Holly
    Carp Fishing at Holly Pools

    Your Best Guide to Carp Fishing in France


    Carp Fishing in FranceOakview in its summer glory!
    This summary of the highlights from last year is your quickest way to find out about carp fishing at Oakview. Find out when the hits come, what size carp you are likely to catch and the latest stats on your chances of catching them.
    You can also use this article to go straight to the videos you want to watch without having to search these pages. See the best tips, the bagging-up tactics, the runs and the records. It’s your latest and best guide to carp fishing here in 2013.
    January saw a small but strategic stocking:
    In February we released the first of the year’s videos on tactics. 3 Oakview regulars show how they bag up from 3 different sides of the lake. You’ll find two more tactics videos for the 4th bank later in this article but this is the one to watch for general tactics at Oakview:
    The first week in March saw the first anglers of the season. They got straight on the fish and we got a video of a brilliant carp fishing tip. In fact, as 2012 was the wettest year on record, this turned out to be the simplest and best carp fishing tip of the year:
    April brought with it a great catch, which included a 40 and 5 x 30s. The guys’ approach was to keep the lodge swims quiet and fish back towards these areas from further up the lake. The tactics paid off when the first 40 pounder of the year came from 3 yards in front of the right-hand lodge swim. You can see the catch here:
    May’s highlight came mid-month, when the 6 x 30s out that week took the average catch weight up to 29lbs.
    In June, an angler smashes his PB with a 38lb common and then predicts a big hit in the bowl the following week. The next week, the bowl produces 20 carp to over 40lbs. You can see the anglers and and their story here:
    In July an unusual approach and set-up saw 20 carp to 38lb taken in short day sessions at the back of the island. A brilliant demonstration of the set-up and great run sequences has made this video a must-see and our most popular carp video in 2012.
    The video is called ‘How to catch carp in France – slack lines and running rigs’ and it’s the first of a series we will be releasing. If you are not amongst the thousands who have already watched it, you can go straight to it here:
    In August great catches add to the long list of records already smashed during the year. Another angler takes 20 fish to over 40lb and later in the month, the biggest fish of the year comes out at 42lb 7oz.
    During September an Oakview regular has another storming session at his favourite lodge swim, bagging 19 carp, including 8 x 30s and the biggest common of the year at 39lb 10oz. Average catch size for this week was 29lb 12oz.
    In October we released Part 2 of our popular series on How to catch carp in France. This time it’s tight lines and shocker rigs. The same swim and the same weather conditions as Part 1, but a different angler with a different approach.
    Between them the two anglers chalked up 40 carp, topped by a 42lb mirror and a 38lb common. This 2nd video shows a fascinating blow-by-blow comparison of two very different set-ups and compares the results. You can go straight to Part 2 here:
    In December this fantastic year at Oakview was rounded off by the launch of our updated venue video. Take a look round the lake, see inside the accommodation, watch the fishing and hear what the anglers have to say:
    End of year catch stats
    Thanks to anglers sharing their knowledge on video, it’s now easier than ever to discover lots of detail about the fish and the tactics at Oakview.
    But it’s no good just looking at a few of the highlights to find out what sort of fish you can expect to catch. To answer that fairly we’ve taken the catch reports from every angler for the whole year and averaged them out. Here are the results:
    On average, a 30lb (or 40lb) carp was landed every 5 runs and one run in 10 resulted in a carp between 16lb and 20lbs. So 9 runs in every 10 is a carp bigger than 20lb.
    So there you have it… pre-season, this is your best guide to carp fishing at Oakview in 2013.


      Villefonds New Carp Bait Range


      42lb carp from Villefond in France
      42lb mirror falls to the new Villefond 2013 bait
      The 2012 season saw the Villefond bait range really excel and it definitely landed more fish than any other bait.
      Every winter I feed the fish with a new flavour boilie and ever improving quality bait. I choose new flavours because over the year the fish get caught on the same popular choices and eventually start to become cautious of those baits. So over the quiet winter periods I choose my new bait after extensive field testing then I put lots of bait in so the fish can feed without fear of being caught.
      This gets the fish keying into the smell of the house bait and then, once found, they know it’s a good food source. By the beginning of the 2013 season the bait will the best bait to use on the lake.
      We are constantly looking to improve our bait firstly for the benefit of our fish and secondly to help anglers catch them. So I spend a long time field testing the flavours and using the knowledge of what has worked best in the past, I have come up with my main two flavours;
      • Supreme Blood Worm
      • Plum Nut
      The ingredients I use are the absolute best because cutting corners will ultimate only effect our fish growth. Last year saw our fish continue to grow really healthy and put on great weight gains and this new bait is even better.
      I will be able to offer different flavours if you contact me in advance… but these two will be the ones I will for the most part feed the fish with.
      Please contact me via the Forum with any questions regarding bait or anything else.
      The above picture is  just one of the carp caught during the start of my field testing of these new baits.
      Happy Fishing!
      Mark (fisheries manager)
      Carp fishing in France at Villefond

        Holly Pools Joins Angling Lines


        Carp Fishing at Holly Pools
        We’re delighted to welcome Holly Pools onto the Angling Lines books.
        Holly Pools is a totally private complex of 3 shady lakes surrounding a fabulous gite which provides exceptional accommodation.  There’s an intimate carp and cat lake plus a specimen coarse lake and a match coarse lake perfectly suited to children and beginners.
        This is an ideal venue for a couple of mates who want to take their wives along.
        The swimming pool at Holly Pools carp lake
        The accommodation at Holly Pools carp lake
        Carp fishing at Holly Pools

        Winter Wonderland @ Golden Oak Carp Lake in France

        Golden Oak Carp Lake
        Hi folks, we just couldn’t resist taking these photos… just to show you that its not always warm & sunny here at Golden Oak .
        For those of you who have enjoyed our warmer months, take a look below, can you recognise your swims?
        And, yes, the fish are still feeding!
        Golden Oak Carp Lake

        Golden Oak Carp lake
        Fishing Holidays at Golden Oak

        Tuesday 8 January 2013

        Buying Particle Baits in France


        Translation to help with particle baits…
        Most Angling Lines venues will be happy to prepare particles for you and then have them waiting for you when you arrive, as I do here at Bletiere.  but  if your booked venue doesn’t offer this service then this will help you buy particle baits in the shops over here.
        Flocons De Mais
        This is flaked maize that doesn’t take much preparation.  Just give it a quick soak  in water to make  it sink (otherwise the ducks will love you!)
        Mais casse/Brisure de mais
        This is crushed maize that needs little preparation, except may be a quick soak  in water to help it sink.  Sebastian, the owner of Blue Lake, just tips this straight into his lakes – in fact it’s all he feeds his fish on.
        Ble
        This is what I feed my fish on a lot – it’s Wheat and the carp just love it, but this does need some preparation because it needs to be soaked in boiling water for a couple of hours.  A money saving tip is to buy a cheap cool box and fill it just over half full with Ble.  Then fill with boiling water to the top of box (it will absorb a lot of water).  Put the lid on and leave overnight… it’ll be soft by morning.
        Bc collant pellets
        Baby corn. You will see this in most tackle shops over here and it’s used by the match anglers.  It’s compressed maize pellets that you can use straight from the  bag.. It’s great as a spod bait or for close in with a catapult.
        Carp extrude-coul 9
        These are pellets and the ones I feed the fish here on and sell to the anglers for feeding.  They are a great pellet, full of goodness and come in various sizes.  That’s what the coul 9 means – they are 9 mm pellets.  So coul 15 will be 15mm and so on.
        I have not mentioned things like whole French mais, hemp and other baits that take more preparation.  Although they are readily available over here, the ones above are ones that most lake owners would not be happy for anglers to prepare themselves.
        I hope this helps.  These are the foods I give my own fish all winter and they are readily available in France in farm feed shops and tackle shops if you wish to do your own.  But please check that your venue is happy for you to prepare your own and has the facility for you to do this.  I have made a short video showing all the above and it will be on the site in the next couple of weeks.
        Tight lines, John
        La Bletiere

          Monday 7 January 2013

          Winter Carping Tactics – Short Hook Links


          A cracking 28lb Linear mirror carp caught on 6th Jan ’13 proves that Paul Cooper’s strategy of using short hook links in winter works.
          Carp Fishing Tips – 59 Videos

          Thursday 3 January 2013

          Villefond End Of Year Report for 2012


          54lb Common Carp
          Arthur @ 54.07 (Oct 2012)
          2012 has once again been a great year for the lake and for meeting some great guys and great anglers.
          The lake was once again pretty solidly booked and saw lots of characters on the bank breaking personal bests and enjoying their break from work, all trying to catch one of the Villefond monsters.
          As for the fish unbelievably they have continued their massive weight gains pushing the average size of the fish over 40lb up from last year’s 38lb! We now have over forty 40lb+ fish and at least 4 x 50lb+ fish.
          The very unpredictable weather this year meant that the carp spawned heavily twice, and over a drawn out period, so we saw weights Yo Yo and catch reports rise and fall as they fed up and then stopped feeding.
          The amount of new uncaught fish has now slowed down as we slowly improve our documentation with pictures. However, we still have some really elusive fish & some of these came out during 2012 including some fish that haven’t been on the bank in over two years and some fish that have only ever been caught twice in four years! As we always say, Villefond is tricky water, the carp are very clever and some anglers this year really struggled and then there were some times they seemed to jump on the hooks.
          We had the usual bloom of naturals in the lake and all the same wild life around the lake such as foxes, hares, rabbits, bird life, pine martins, hedge hogs, coypu, the list goes on.
          2012 was the first full year we offered the food packages and as you can read on our feedback page we received some great feedback, so we will continue offering this service into 2013. Also the bait proved itself again to be the best fish catcher and with bait choice so important on the lake we will be offering an even better improved bait for 2013.
          Work round the lake this winter will continue as always with many man hours going into clearing brambles & weeds, improving swims and access, plus a spruce up of the shower block and mobile home. We have introduced some new rules to help keep the fish in pristine condition as they get bigger and harder to handle along with more rules to help us keep the lake as clean as possible. These rules can be seen on our rules page.
          To conclude the lake is still rocketing skyward on its way to becoming something really, really special & we would like to thank all the anglers this year that came to our lake for looking after the fish they caught. This meant they are still pristine for the next angler. We hope that we carry on seeing the faces that make our job a pleasure and wish everyone the best for 2013.
          Best wishes,
          Mark, John & Debbie Lambert