Returning to Molyneux by Kieran Lack

Kieran (36lb 2oz) and Glenn Lack (32lb)

I was looking forward to this for a long time, all through the very cold bitter winter England was having. The dates crept up and before I knew it there were 2 weeks until the trip. So the preparation began. Rigs were being tied, reels were being spooled. I was preparing for a week of action at Morgane. Joining me on this trip was my Dad Glenn, and our friend Dave; we had the lake exclusive for the first session on Morgane for 2013. We were all very excited and hopeful of a few fish being banked.

Friday night came round very quick, I finished work and I knew I had a week of fishing to look forward to. Luckily a lot of the hard work was done; the van was loaded with the majority of the gear. So the last few items went in to the van, now we just had to wait it out until 1:30 when we would leave to pick Dave up from Dagenham.

Before I knew it we were well on our way and waiting for the ferry, a quick coffee then we drove on and parked up. The ferry journey was a little rough but  over in no time, with crates of beer bought from duty free, we were back off the ferry and heading for Morgane.

We headed for Le Mans, with snow all around us, which was slightly worrying, with it being windy and bitter outside it was not looking good. But then again things began to clear up and temperatures on the van gauge began to rise slowly, the journey went quickly with me being asleep for majority of it.

Glenn Lack with a 39lb8oz Mirror

We pulled into the turning of Morgane, the van was parked and we went for a little walk around the lake to aid swim choice, early on I knew I wanted to be fishing from the caravan decking, I knew from experience that fish would explore the bay to the right of the caravan. Choices were made, I was on the decking with Dave and Dad down the left bank. We all began to put up our bivvies before a grey cloud was upon us, mine was up nice and quick. I had the rods set up ready to go so quickly assembled them and began to sort out some baited rigs. I kept the rigs simple as I knew the fish in Morganes were not too rig shy from my 2 previous trips. But the weather conditions were very different to my previous trips, so I kept bait to a minimum with either a few handfuls over the top of my rigs or a boat load boated out.

The Deck Swim at Morgane

The deck swim at Morgane

All 3 rigs were out there, one was on a solid bag, the other 2 on standard blowback rigs with critically balanced baits. The water I was fishing in was very shallow, so I was hoping the sun would come out and brighten up the day. But not long after getting the bivvy up it began to rain. This didn’t fill me with much confidence. But the 4 ‘o’ clock came and one of dads rods ripped off, he was fishing the far end of the lake, it filled me with confidence knowing that the fish were feeding even though the water was still very cold. The fish was a 39.8lb mirror, very close to 40 mark.

Time flew by again and we were in the caravan having some dinner, with no more action we all decided to get some sleep after our long day. But at 10:30 I was disturbed by a take, the delkim was roaring away, I was on it quickly, it put up a good account of itself, but was in the net. I knew it wasn’t a giant after lifting it out the water, but on the scales it went to 29.8lb, not a bad start at all. Later on that night Dave managed a 33.2lb mirror.  That was an amazing start to all our weeks, all having landed fishing within the first 24 hours.

Glenn (32lb) with son Kieran (36lb 2oz)

Sunday… Dad went on to land 3 more Sunday, 2 upper 20’s and yet another 39.8lb. I managed one myself at 8:30 Sunday night, 39lb on the dot. The days go very quickly when fishing in France, Monday was here before we knew it. As far as the fishing went, Monday was a slow day with only 2 fish being landed but 2 30’s none the less, one for dad and one for me. Tuesday came round very quickly. The weather conditions were far from perfect we had lots of rain and the days were very dull and overcast, this wasn’t helping the water to warm up at all. But we managed 4 fish, 2 falling to dad up the other end of the lake, 32 and 39.4lb mirrors, Dave managed a 30.9lb mirror and I had a 36.2lb. Dad and I even managed a double photo because we had bites one after another.

Wednesday was a better day, the sun was out and temperatures were a lot higher than they had been, this reflected in the fishing, I had 2 more 30’s 39.7lb and 35.14lb. With Dad and Dave also having a few it was looking good for the rest of the week, we kept working hard to get the bites.

By Thursday things had slowed up a bit on the carp lake. But things were kicking off the on the cat lake, we had rods out on the cat lake all week but they had just decided to wake up, Dave had 2 catfish: 30.9lb and 40lb exactly I also went on to have 43.4lb cat. We were nearing the end of the week now, Dave managed a small catfish of 21.15lb Friday. Before we knew it our last night was approaching. I made sure everything was spot on for this night, I was confident in a few takes throughout the night, at 12:30 my right hand rod ripped off resulting in a 31.12lb common. Shortly after getting that back dads catfish rod ripped off, me being closest to it I hit it, it surged and felt like a big one, he was quickly there to take over, after a long hard fight and a few attempts at netting it. It was in the net, it was definitely the biggest one of the week, it pulled the scales round to 45lb exactly.

Dave Reynolds with his 40lb Catfish

After a few pictures we were all off back to bed knowing we had a long journey home tomorrow morning. But later that night another one of my rods tore off, with yet another 30 on the end, 31lb common. That was the perfect end to the trip for me; it was the last fish of the session.

The morning came, and then it was the dreaded part of the week packing away, luckily the sun out to aid us dry out the mountain of wet gear we had. I left the rods out as long as possible hoping for that one last bite but it didn’t happen, so all the gear was loaded into the van. All fresh and showered and we were heading off for Calais, Morgane carp and cat lakes are fantastic lakes no matter what the weather or time of year.

By Kieran Lack

Footage of Kierans week at Morgane also features in our March Webcast - Click here to view
For Carp Fishing Articles, Feedback and Information on Morgane follow the link - Lakes in France