Improvements at Roseau

We arrived for the opening of the Roseau 2013 season on the 9^th March to find the complex covered in snow with temperatures down to -10, straight away it was not only clear that France has had a harsh winter, but also that the work load involved to get the complex ready for our customers wasn’t going to be easy. As always we were prepared for the hard work ahead.

Repainting the Lodge

During our first week we concentrated on the lodge area. The plan was to repaint the lodge, creosote the outside of the lodge and varnish the lodge floor. Work started pretty much straight away after arriving but with the temperature being so cold our attentions soon turned to warming the lodge up, a gas bottle was purchased from the local store and installed on full power! It wasn’t long before we all started to warm up and went full steam ahead with some great results…

The Pool Table

The lodge now painted and creosoaked my attentions turned to the lads arriving for the work party who were arriving on the 16^thMarch, happy with the work carried out during our first week I was very much looking forward to the work scheduled on the lake/swims. The lads arrived nice and early and seemed even keener than I was to get started straight away. We had a walk around the lakes and returned to the lodge for a discussion on the plan of attack, this was obviously over several cups of tea and coffee but a plan was hatched…

Another major task was to get the water on and the shower block up and running however, due to the weather conditions being as cold as they were this wasn’t going to be an easy job, infact it continued throughout the week and it soon led to more work for Andy & Paul who have worked their butts off even when things looked like they wasn’t getting anywhere they continued to battle against the elements but we are so very close to finishing and all will be ready for Saturday 23^rd as planned!

We had a plan for some of the swims but decided to start with peg 3, this swim is a great peg (when fished) but it needed improving, we decided to create a bivvy area with the aid of a chainsaw and some logs, we didn’t just lay them down though, we dug 3ft of clay out then logged of a decent size bivvy area before joining the logs together with some heavy duty and very expensive decking screws. Happy with the work carried out we finished it off with some sheeting and 2 tonne of lovely gravel. The bivvy area now complete we decided to improve it further by installing a decked area at the water’s edge, we started by cutting some scaffolding tubes into 1mtr lengths , some more decking, more logs and again some more gravel to finish it off, I’m sure you’ll agree it looks great, all it needs now is to be left alone for a week or two to settle down.

Peg 3

Decked Area

Peg 3 now complete we went straight into peg 4, a similar plan was made but this proved to be much harder, with the bank rising even more clay had to be removed which was a task in itself.  We soon had the shape of the new swim all logged out and screwed down to eachother, some larger harder gravel was laid first before the top layer went down, this work is still in progress as we speak but it will be completed by the end of the week…

Our next challenge was to create a social area in pegs 2 and 3 on the small lake, this area gets fished the most but again needed improving, we have decided to create a decked area with the aid of some sleepers and decking with a steps going down to the platform with logs and our new gravel, this is in progress too but will be fishable for our guests arriving Saturday morning.

We have now finished these pegs and wanted to improve peg 10 on the large lake, we placed a sleeper to the front, dug down into the clay and brought the swim deeper into grass bank,  we finished it off with some gravel to fill it in.

Digging out the Bank

Peg 4

During the work party week the guys did manage to fish in between working and they had some great catches with lots of 20’s and 30’s too, the weather improved throughout the week, they are devastated to be leaving the complex but I’m sure they’ll be back for more Roseau Carp!

It’s been an absolute pleasure having all the guys here this week, they have worked so hard to get the venue ready for our customers and I hope you all like the work carried out. We will continue to operate work parties to make the venue better year after year!

See you all soon

Roy