Finding Nemo at Monument

Chris Roper and two friends were out at Monument earlier this year, coming away with a common that ended up featuring in Carp-Talk Issue 969, here's the story behind their trip...

Being northerners we'd had quite a hike down to Portsmouth for the start of our holiday but once on board the ferry with a pint in hand we were soon on our way. The crossings quite an easy one but I would recommend you pay the little extra for a cabin as the reclining chair lounge was far from ideal for a few hours shut eye.

As the ferry docked the lack of sleep was soon forgotten and we were off on the wrong side of the road. The journey from Caen to le Monument couldn't be any easier all being on motorways with no tolls and we were pulling down the track to the lake in under 2.5 hours. As we drove down the track, first impressions couldn't have been any better. What a stunning lake!

Mark the owner was already on hand to greet us, and we made the most of his in depth knowledge of the lake as he gave us a guided tour of the water. No matter how
experienced you are I can't stress how much you'll learn about the venue from Mark both on the walk round and through your stay.
Armed with what Mark had told us we'd soon decided on swims... Craig set up in 'the pads', Richard a.k.a. Reg in 'double' and myself in 'the orchard'. All the pegs around the lake are very comfortable and extremely well presented so setting up was easy and before long leads were being felt down, the lake plumbed and spots marked.

The lake bed is clay with quite a silty coating in most areas and there are also a good few gravel spots to fish to if that's your preference, there was no weed to speak of which made choice of rig and set up slightly easier. I decided to initially set up with a balanced bottom bait to the left hand tree line, a mixa snowman rig very tight to the island margin and a multi rig roving that I'd cast to showing fish until I had spots established.

My bait choice was as ever a choice of two boilies from CarpBaitUK. I've been using their bait for a couple of years now and never looked back! My main boilie was 'the form' and I had 10kg of this and also 5kg of 'Kt30' to fish over the top! As well as this I had 12kg of pellet and the usual array of glugs etc.

We did just to say get the rods out for a while and got a few handfuls of boilie onto each area but before long we decided to reel in and head off to the shops. This might sound strange after just arriving but the lake hadn't been producing many bites before around 7pm and with the disturbance of setting up and finding spots we were certain we wouldn't be missing out.

The local village is less the five minutes away in the car with a couple of tabacs (bars), a small supermarket and a restaurant. We decided to drive an extra 5 minutes further on to the next town which is where the main supermarket is and a couple more tabacs to help make the time away from the lake more bearable. With us booking the food package for the week the only supplies we needed involved our favoured drink and a few snacks.

Back at the lake we got re baited and rods out for the night around 6.30... at around 6.45 and much to my amazement the middle rod screamed off! Fish on and instantly it felt heavy using its weight to sit tight to the bottom and drag me around. It was at least 10 minutes before I got my first glimpse of the fish as the scales of a huge common broke the surface and it must have been a further five or ten minutes before it was safely in the net.

42.01

During our walk of the lake only a few hours earlier Mark had told us that it was about time the lake produced a 40+ common and this certainly looked like it was going to be it. On the scales she weighed 42lb1oz, a new pb for me and new lake record common... if I didn't catch again all week I was going home happy! I'd taken this fish on the rod tight to the island using a snowman presentation made up of the KT30 boilie and pop up.

Later that night, when Mark delivered our evening meal to the lake, he inspected the photos and revealed it was a fish known as Nemo (due to one undersized pectoral fin). Nemo had certainly been on the munch as two years prior to this she was 33lb... an impressive 9lb weight gain and once again proof of the unbelievable track record Kt30 has of attracting wary commons.

I mentioned we'd booked the food package... well that night as I sat and tucked into a huge home cooked meal of restaurant quality, I couldn't imagine being anywhere better than where I was right then! The food never ceased to amaze me, every morning we got huge bulging breakfast baguettes with various combos of bacon, sausages, tomatoes, fried eggs, poached eggs and scrambled eggs... definitely enough to well and truly set you up for the day. Just one of the evening meals we received each night would have most likely fed the three of us! From chicken and mushroom pie to my favorite dish of the week, the red thai curry, every dish was superb and left me full to bursting. The desserts would most certainly have been left had they not have been gorgeous... the food package definitely gets my thumbs up!

Back to the fishing and the rest of that night passed without event as did the next day which left us questioning our tactics but once again a chat to Mark reassured us we weren't doing anything wrong and maybe just back off the bait till the fish cleared out what was already in. When I say it passed without event this isnt strictly true as Craig had gone off stalking the match lake with Reg and caught one of the sturgeon at 13lb... not once but twice that same day. I'd spent the day stalking the main lake and seen a few fish in various areas which revealed to me one of the spots i could fish to in my swim for the rest of the week and would go on to take a few fish from.

It was through day 3 the lake seemed to switch on as I took two thirties both a mirror and another common and Craig and Reg opened their accounts with mirrors of 22lb and 29lb. On the evening of day 3 Craig decided to move swims from the pads to stonehenge. This he'd decided would give him better line lay to two of the spots he was fishing but also give him control of a greater area. It turned out to be a very wise move and get him straight into more action... although I'd say this isn't the toughest of venues it's tough enough to keep you guessing and it definitely poses enough of a challenge to keep you working all week.

In total for the week I had 11 carp - 8 x twenties, 2x thirties and a forty. Craig had 6 carp to 29lb as well as a catfish of 20lb and 3 captures of the 2 sturgeon. Reg had 11 carp to high thirties. We're all very different experience levels and fished different methods yet still all caught which is worth noting for other mixed groups thinking of booking.

If you are looking for a stunning lake which really is the complete package look no further then Le Monument... we'll be back and in all honesty we are struggling to even consider booking anywhere else!

Chris Roper

Chris featured in issue 969 Carp-Talk with 'Nemo', you can see it hereFor more information on Monument follow the link - Carp Fishing in France