'The Creature'

Carl Sharp was out at Laroussi this month, here are his  comments on the lake...

"It is very much an 'english style' lake, it's not your general overly stocked french water full of hungry pigs so you really need to work at your angling as opposed to just 'chucking and chancing'. It is a gorgeous place and Medhi is a true gent, very knowledgeable so do listen to his advice."

Carl Sharp and 'The Creature' at a new PB of 57lb 8oz

For more information on Laroussi follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

The Importance of Having a European Health Insurance Card

Anthony Brown fishing the week of 6^th July here at Genets discovered just how important it is to have a current European Health Insurance Card (EHIC ) with you when fishing in France.

On Wednesday morning while threading a dumbbell boilie with a long barbed baiting needle the needle went into the end of his finger, try as he might to remove it there was no way it would budge & his finger just started to swell. It was off to the “Urgences” dept at Fougeres hospital we went armed with his EHIC & passport.  On arrival he was dealt with very swiftly, copies of his EHIC & passport were taken followed by an x-ray & a blood test to check if he needed a tetanus jab, the needle was then removed, the finger cleaned & dressed & within a couple of hours he was back at the lake putting his rods back out.

Do please always remember to get your European Health Insurance Card before travelling to France, they are free & very easy to apply for online or by telephone & can save you from receiving a hefty bill to pay once you return home.

On a lighter note Anthony also celebrated his 26th Birthday here & achieved a new PB Carp of 34lb 9oz!

 For more information on Genets follow the link - Carp Fishing France

Lords Produces

Mark Barrett took his family to Lords this July, coming away with 4 new PB's in a week during a scorcher of a week!

Mark, Tina and baby Harley

Details of your catches: 4 x pb's in one week!. Pb cat/mirror/common and ghost carp. 9 fish total including: 1 x 40 at 42-13, 6 x 30's to 37-03, 1 x ghost at 13-13 and 1 x cat at 67-09.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Far bank pop-ups, snowmen. Also right hand margin. (get your rods out early 8am to 12.30pm prime time)

General comments: Lovely venue, stunning fish. Slow fishing due to temp 30+ deg.c every day. Fish still coming out. Bread mans cakes are a must!!!

42.13

For more information and feedback from Lords follow the link - French Carp

The Catfish of Vaumigny

Frank, the lake's bailiff, estimates that there are at least 20 fair size cats in Vaumigny. One of the larger specimens came out on the 8th of this month and you can see the impressive photo below!

The beast is 2.1m (nearly 7 foot) long and weighs over 140lbs! It was taken from Swim 1 on a fish-based boilie.

A beast at 140lb+

For more information on Vaumigny follow the link - Fishing France

Barbel Rigs and Bait

Following on from our recent barbel fishing posts (see here) this is a recent Q&A courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog...

I have recently retired and returning to coarse fishing. Always enjoy chub and barbel fishing. Luckily I live on the River Wye. I’m a bit mesmerised by all the different tackle used etc. 

Which barbel rod would you recommend I buy - budget £100. bracket. What's a good everyday bait? What basic bolt and feeder rig?

Hope you can advise me.

Thanks 
Paul

Hi Paul,
Personally I have used Free Spirit Fishing rods for almost all of my angling since their launch and can not fault them. The Tamer X-Wrap should fall within your budget. The site the link takes you to will also show your nearest stockist. I would opt for the Big River if you are limiting yourself to one rod so as to cope with feeders in high water as well.

Summertime Baiting

Here's a useful article on how to tackle baiting during the warmer months courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog…

The long hot days of summer often mean relatively short feeding spells for the carp (and for many other species come to that) between hours of simply basking in the upper layers of water enjoying the warmth of the sun on their backs.

The carp might be in the weed during the daylight hours but they are more likely to be away from it after dark.

For this reason I bait sparingly during the warmest period of the year and pay particular attention to the times I introduce bait. If the carp are only going to be feeding for a short period I certainly don’t want to be baiting and risking spooking them at this time. I generally find the heaviest feeding will take place sometime between midnight and the first couple of hours of daylight when the temperatures are at their coolest. Because of this I will generally create my baited area around lunch time during the hottest part of the day. This gives the swim plenty of time to settle down again ready for the carp moving in to feed during the cooler parts of the day.

Bait placement is also very important at this time of the year and seeing the carp basking in weed beds during the daylight hours can be very misleading as those oxygen giving plants do the total opposite in the dark and the fish will usually move away from them. So, even if the carp appear to be spending all of their time in the weed I would definitely advise you bait one area away from weed – you may be surprised how many more fish will slip up away from where you think they are going to be feeding.

I work at simply trying to tempt a fish into having a little feed rather than pile the bait in hoping for a big hit. Once the bait is in you can’t take it out again and certainly during scratching times I would rather have just a few tempter baits in the swim than kilos of bait and small baits are always my choice when I don’t think the carp are going to be feeding heavily. Over the years I have found that particle baits really come into their own during the hot weather.

Quest Baits Garlic Feast

I prefer to blend my particles combining seeds, beans and peas along with broken bits of boilie. The Quest Baits Garlic Feast blend that I originally put together for the Mangrove carp contains 20 different particles. This gives a different sort of visual stimulation for those fish that have ‘seen it all’. Carp are like many other animals in as much as if you can encourage them to eat just one morsel of food they will often carry on feeding. The trick is to get them to sample something in the first place and the more varied the presentation the greater the chance of achieving this.

If the nuisance species are a problem with particles then I bait lightly with broken boilies and present a boilie which I cut bits away from (apple cored) on the hair. Quantity wise I am more than happy with whatever I can hold in one hand.

Roll on the low air pressure and slightly cooler weather when the carp feed for longer periods of the day and I can start baiting more heavily.

Best fishes,
Shaun Harrison

Patience Pays Off at Laroussi

Here's some feedback from Royston Butler after a trip to Laroussi this month...

Details of your catches: 57lb 8oz mirror, 40lb 6oz mirror, 55lb 2oz sturgeon, 37lb mirror, 46lb 08oz mirror (3rd fish out on a zig ever), 17lb common, 18lb common.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Zigs, little and often approach, fish would not respond to larger beds of bait and were very riggy. Monster squid, cell, in fact most boilies should work well, be aware too much pellet will attract the big cats and sturgeon.

Royston Butwell

General comments: Its was a very hard week, with the weather changing to very hot the day we arrived and was 35+deg most days.

All 8 anglers were good experienced carp fishermen, we tried every trick in the book and some to try and temp the fish but they had more on their minds with the grass carp spawning the main head of the fish where congregating around the spawning area and not interested in feeding. They are very riggy fish, so dont expect it to be a runs water! Listen to medhi, he is a fantastic guy, very helpful and will explain what the best areas are on your swim. Don't pile the bait in, fish little and often. Too much pellet will attract the cats and sturgeon.

The village is quite close to the lake (5 min away) and has an 8 till late store, Le Mans is not too far either (15 min) and has plenty of large shopping facilities, fuel etc.

All in all a brilliant venue, very clean english looking lake but with some mahoosive fish, i will definitely be going back. Thank you Medhi, thank you Angling Lines!

Carl Sharp

For more information and feedback from Laroussi follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

Clean Commons

Adrian, Nick, Timmy and Adam sent in some cracking photos from their trip to Commons Lake this month. Take a look at the photos and their feedback round-up below...

33.04 - Adrian Hall

Details of your catches: 23 total including 5 x 30's to 34lb, 16 x 20's to 28-04 (including 2 linears), 1 x albino catfish at 70lb+ and 1 grass carp at 36-08.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Tiger nuts to far bank at night, middle in day.

33 - Timmy Johnson

Would you recommend the venue to a friend? Yes
General comments: Great holiday but fishing was quite slow, left hand of caravan produced most fish. Great social.

For more information, feedback and photos from Commons follow the link - Fishing France

Jenny Jumps for Joy!

Jenny Handley fishing at Glehias for the week with husband Ted, was not content with over 196lbs of fish between them in the first 24 hours, nor was she happy with another 365lb+ fish over the next couple of days!

Presenting the Prize!

Texacom PCB Inspector Jenny from Rossendale Lancashire wasn’t going to be happy until she’d broken the Ladies Lake Record Common…and so she did! The record was broken at 08:30 on the Wednesday, coming out from under the Gorse directly opposite the boat, the gorgeous 36lb 12oz is also Jen’s personal best Mirror; bringing the total captures weight, as of Wednesday, to 599lbs.

Ladies Record - 36.12

Ted has also smashed both his Common and Mirror PBs; now standing at 35lb 8oz and 32lb 8oz respectively.

Jen confirmed that Garlic turned out to be the seasoning of the week as all fish bar one came in on Kent Particles Garlic Boilies (a special order) on a background of Mainlines New Grange, Kent Particles Crab and Spicy Sausage boilies.

Well done Jenny!

For more information on Glehias follow the link - French Carp Fishing

Maximising Your Catch at Villefond

I have decided to write a piece to try and help people to get the best of their week fishing our lake, Villefond. As the fish grow on in leaps and bounds and with the lake average now pushing over 40lb the carp are becoming ever more wise and wary.

I have explained in previous articles about why I believe the fish feed in such a unique way so I won’t go into that again, what I will start with is common mistakes made and how to avoid them. When you arrive at our lake you have just a week in which to catch as many carp as possible so if I can share the knowledge I have gained over the years walking the banks every day and fishing the lake myself I can hopefully help stop the common mistakes and get more fish on the bank. So here they are:

1) Not doing homework on the lake; if you study our catch reports nearly all of the people who do well, learn as much about the lake as they can before they come out. Our lake and how the fish feed is very unique and I am on site to give advice but a lot of the time only towards the end of the week will people after either blanking or struggling then begin to switch to what is advised. People who have studied the feed back, read the articles, and spoke to me have the advantage of knowing what to expect and can hit the ground running, catching fish from the start.

2) Prepare to change and work for the fish; A lot of people will do there homework like find which swim is doing the best the week before they arrive then fish the same spot. Every week is totally different and although doing your home work is vital being rigid in the follow through can be flawed. For example the fish always move away from noise or lines or even over powering baits and you will find they are constantly moved around the lake. If the week before the fishermen were well spread out but the guy in swim 1 for example had the best bait and rigs and caught the most, this doesn’t mean the following week everyone should be in swims 1, 2, and 3 for example. So its especially important when only a couple of guys are fishing the lake to spread out or get up and go stalking to keep the fish moving around. This preparing to change applies to everything including rigs, baits, every tactic in fact as our fish are extremely cunning and will test your fishing in everyway and again those fishermen that have been quick to adapt to the situation have done the best.

A Round-Up of Koi

We often see photos popping up from our venues of some stunning Koi, here's a round up of the best we've seen so far...

15.10 - Morgane - Glenn Lack

16.04 - Margot - Peter Noakes

Jonchery

Boomerang

Jonchery

30lb - Jonchery - Adrian

18.09 - Morgane - Phillip English

31 - Margot - Mick Marriot

Brocard

And to finish, the largest we have seen to date residing in Margot...

36.06 - Margot - Manfred Luschen

For more information on the lakes above follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

92 For One, Not Out!

Neil Morgan landed 92 carp to 38lbs in the angling week at Alder commencing 1^st June. He did pass the 100 mark and finished at 114 after his van was towed away for repairs, allowing him a couple of extra fishing days!

Neil started catching within 1 hour of setting up on the dam wall at Alder and continued throughout the week. The fish were biting 24 hours a day but the tended to feed more during the day.

Neil used plenty of high quality home rolled boilies over a bed of house maize/pellet and hemp. One of the key factors was to keep a steady trickle of bait going in. Boilies in flavours such as garlic and black pepper were notable for incorporating a colour twist similar to the Carp Balls specials seen in the venue video.

Neil

Neil kept the rigs simple but made sure that his size 4 to 6 hooks were sharp, Neil said: “You will not find harder fighting carp anywhere. I’ve been to around 25 French lakes and this is the best.”

The weather for the week was very hot and the pressure was high but the two streams feeding the lake kept the fish active. Since we’ve set up an online weather station we were able to give Neil a graph of the atmospheric pressure for the week to correlate against the catches. There will be more about this in a follow up article soon...

Air Pressure Chart

Congratulations to Neil for setting  a new individual catch record for Alder. Now, do you have the mettle to challenge it?

For more information on Alder follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

High Average at Old Oaks

Andy Wilmott and Gary Reynolds had a catch of 29 carp at Old Oaks this month, 22 of which were over 30lb! Nice work guys. Read their feedback below...

Details of your catches: 29 carp for the week. 10 x 40's 12x 30's. Best 3 were 45, 46 and 49lb. Fish were still interested in spawning but came steadily through the week.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Fished to the far bank. Boilies over a bed of pellet/boilie. Most fish v tight in due to high water but some fish a rod length out from far bank.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend? Mehdi made us most welcome and was the perfect host. He introduced us to the water and the rules and then left us to it. We could speak to him during the week and kept up to date with our progress. If we had needed help he would have been more than happy to come over and give advice. First class.

General comments: Some of there swims are a bit boggy due to the high water level. We understand this is unusual but if it continues there will need to be some work to keep the swims drier. But overall no complaints. We have been to france for the last 5 years and this was the stand out week.

For more information and feedback from Old Oaks follow the link - Carp France

Introducing... Brocard Large and Small

If you are looking for serious waters that contains a large average size of carp in natural surroundings, then these could be the lakes for you...

The Brocard lakes are situated within picturesque woodlands in the Champagne region of France, created and run by the prominent fish farming Bachelier family. The complex consists of 2 lakes, Brocard Large and Brocard Small. View the quick look venue videos below to get a feel for these well established waters.





Carp Fishing France at Brocard Small
Carp Fishing France at Brocard Large

Barbel Rigs and Bait

Following on from our recent barbel fishing posts (see here) this is a recent Q&A courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog...

I have recently retired and returning to coarse fishing. Always enjoy chub and barbel fishing. Luckily I live on the River Wye. I’m a bit mesmerised by all the different tackle used etc. 

Which barbel rod would you recommend I buy - budget £100. bracket. 

What's a good everyday bait? What basic bolt and feeder rig?

Hope you can advise me.

Thanks 
Paul

Hi Paul,
Personally I have used Free Spirit Fishing rods for almost all of my angling since their launch and can not fault them. The Tamer X-Wrap should fall within your budget. The site the link takes you to will also show your nearest stockist. I would opt for the Big River if you are limiting yourself to one rod so as to cope with feeders in high water as well.

A Genets Beauty

Thomas Cleary sent us a photo of this beauty following his trip to Genets. Great shot!

For more information on Genets follow the link - Carp Fishing France

Oakview Catch Report

Recent feedback from Oakview angler Stuart King...

Details of your catches: 6 x 30's to 38lb 8oz (pb) mirrors + 37lb 11oz common. 7 x 20's to 28lb 11oz. 2 x doubles, both commons 14lb 7oz and 19lb 12oz. 1 angler fished nights (4 nights only)

General comments: Another totally enjoyable trip to Oakview. It's the whole package that keeps us coming back year after year - the fishing, accommodation, surroundings and not least Martin and Shirley who we are pleased to call our friends as well as superb hosts. We have booked our place here for next year, as we feel at home here at this excellent venue. Thanks again - mick, benny and stuart x

One of the week's thirties

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Simple double bottom hook baits on 6" hook lengths - pop-ups didn't produce a bite. All fish caught on cm60 baits.

37.11

For more information on Oakview follow the link - Carp Fishing in France with Accommodation

Big Carp Captures at Villefond

We have had some real monster fish out of Villefond recently...

First up is a new lake record Mirror at 55lb, a fish we believe to be Arnold. Bennetts the fish has been out at 54lb and we have had a new member to the 50lb club! A fish called slate grey was caught at a massive 51lb! First of many new 50’s this year we suspect.

'Slate Grey' at 51lb's - Stephen Horrocks

For more information on Villefond follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

Catfish at Morgane Lakes

James Booth left us a couple of photos and this comment after a week at Morgane carp and cat lakes...

"Make sure you've been to the gym before you try to land the catfish as they pull like a train"

45.08 - Fay Godden

62 - Leigh Booth

For more information on Morgane follow the link - Lakes in France

Lords Lake Mirrors

Cameron, Grant and Jack were out fishing Lords in June, despite a slow week they came away with new PB's to be proud of! 

Details of your catches: Cameron : 1 x 34lb, 1 x 32lb 2oz. Grant: 1 x 37lb, 1 x 32lb 2oz, 1 x 38lb.
Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Slack lines, back leads. Tight clutches fishing zigs on top. Most fish came from open water.

38 - Grant Bartlett

Jack

36.02 - Cameron Bartlett

General comments: Great venue, lovely facilities, stunning fish, wasn't fishing the best that week.

For more feedback, information and photos from Lords follow the link - French Carp

The Barbel Rig

Another short video on barbel fishing by Paul Cooper, focusing on his rig of choice...



Follow the links to watch Paul’s previous video barbel fishing on the River Dove and a short video on the essential barbel fishing tackle.

You can also watch over 60 technical fishing videos on the Angling Lines website here.

118 fish in one week at Roseau!

Tom Peach's group were out at Roseau Large Lake in June, coming away with a great catch report...

Details of your catches: 6 x 30's, 70+ x 20's, 118 fish total.
Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Scattered boilie with throwing stick and matching bottom baits tipped with plastic or pop-ups over the top.

27.03

Were you happy with the facilities at Roseau? Yes, clean and tidy. The bar provides an excellent place to socialize in between fishing .
General comments: An amazing weeks fishing. I really cant describe how good it was. Roy and tom run the place brilliantly and make you feel very welcome.

23.02

For more information on Roseau Large follow the link - Fishing France