Problem Solving at Roseau Small

This week saw the return of the Vary party to Roseau, a group of lads from my neck of the woods, who visited us back in 2012. This year they booked the complex exclusively; with 11 anglers and both lakes to cover I was expecting them to have a great weeks angling as well as a week of socialising with the possibility of sinking a few cans or fifty…

Roseau Small Lake

Tony Vary and Jimmy were on the small lake in pegs 1&3. The small lake does fish at night and a 2 o’clock alarm is not uncommon so it’s most definitely well worth fishing the nights on here and that’s exactly what Tony planned on doing, Jimmy wasn’t going to fish peg one at night as this peg is into snags but the fish would receive free food should they frequent the area through the night.

Very good angling and basic common sense tells you that if you just can’t get out of your sleeping bag fast enough, the priority should always be fish safety so anybody fishing the small lake this season should bear this in mind, well done Jimmy boy!

A few days in and with all the lads on the large lake catching plenty of fish they were all a very happy bunch however, the small lake still hadn’t produced a single fish, Jimmy made the decision to move into peg 3 on the large lake, Tony soon jumped into Jimmy’s vacated swim in the hope that the fish would move into the snags with all the hot weather forecast for that day and the remainder of the week, he moved straight after breakfast that morning so after I cleaned up I went to see him and talk about the spots, rigs and how best to bait up, on my walk down I checked the snags but it was devoid of fish,  strange as you can always count on them not being too far away from this area.

Roseau Small – Looking over to the margins.

Tony cracked away at it for day but at dinner time it was clear that it was becoming slightly frustrated for us both, I couldn’t work it out as Tony is a very competent angler, I guess sometimes the fish are just better at not getting caught as we are at catching them!!!  I had a plan, the next morning I tied some rigs up which consisted of very heavy leads and a few little tweaks, I wandered off down into the back bay just with a single rod, net, mat and a bum bag full of essential pieces of tackle, my rod laying on the ground with plenty of slack off the tip, I sat watching both the lake and line, 25 minutes after closely examining  the water for any signs I slipped the net under a 26lb Common and lost another shortly after recasting due to cutting off on a muscle bed but the plan worked, I reported my capture to Tony and after a short time tying fresh rigs etc he headed off with a bounce in his step!

Tony made some changes and it wasn’t long before he was away, landing a 17lb Mirror, he continued in this manner for the remainder of the week and finished up with 11 fish, a couple of 30’s, 2 doubles and the rest were decent 20’s, him and I were chuffed, he persevered with the tough conditions and ended up saving his week, hopefully he put something else into his fishing too which will help him on his travels, wherever that may be…

Roy

“Our third visit to Roseau and I think I can speak for all the group in saying we have had a good time each visit. I have found that nothing is a problem for you all to sort.”   Tony Vary, May ’13. 

For weekly reports on how Roseau Small is fishing follow the link – Carp Fishing France