Margot, Lake of Dreams

65lb 8oz

I have been to Margot several times & thoroughly recommend the place to anyone looking for big carp but with runs too. To me it is a lake of Dreams.

This April trip was my seventh trip to the lake and it just keeps getting better and better and has never let me down. I organised the trip with a group of 7 friends all eager to fish the lake I keep talking about. So in a way pressure was on me for the lake to deliver.

This time round the fishing got off to a great start, normally we wait 36 + hours to bank a fish…. but Craig Holt was quick to get his rods out first and managed to bank a 47lb common before any other person in the group had even put their rods out.  That’s when I knew we was in for a good week, it was a slower start for me like always, but that was soon to change.

My aim was to bank a 50lb this time round as I have had plenty of 40s here before but never a 50lb or a 60lb so that was my aim…. but I was soon into something that sure felt like a 50lb and couldn’t wait to get it into the net. The fish was soon netted and weighed, a big  mirror that weighed in at 65.8oz. I was over the moon I had to weigh the fish several times because I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had jumped from the 40s straight to a 60 but I wasn’t complaining. Soon to follow was a stunning 52lb mirror…. so you can see why I said the place fulfills your dreams.

My tactics are always the same, running lead system with a 6in dacron braid fishing a pink 14mm pop up, must be pink, popped up 2in with a stick of pellet mixed with halibut stick mix. Feed the fish plenty but not all at once coz they won’t bother at all. Feed them half a kg every time you get a take to keep them there, but only do this when fish are there and until that your stick alone is fine.

My personal tally for the week was - 52 carp, made up of 1 x60, 1 x50, 11 x 40s, 24x 30s and the rest 20s and only 3 carp under 20.  I also banked my 3rd 30lb koi in the last 5 years.

Amazingly our group banked 143 fish with a total weight of 4,736lb.

I have to say I love the new bakers delivery service, which was eagerly awaited at 10am each day. Gorgeous!!

Follow my tactics and I’m sure you won’t go wrong, tight lines.

Rob Allen

Carp fishing in France at Margot

Trip to Boux – Nan’s Parting Gift

53lb 10oz

Derek Ryley, from Liverpool, took his three sons (Joshua 19, Liam 17 and Louis 13) to Boux at the wish of his Nan, Sally Latimer, who gifted them money for the trip prior to her passing away.

The  family group, had a fantastic result taking 63 carp which included, 4 x 50’s, 14 x 40’s, 39 x 30’s and 4 x 20’s. Sure to say, their Nan had blessed the trip in more ways than one, and surely couldn’t have given them anything better.

“All the carp we caught we dedicated to my Nan . Each of us caught a fifty, so it really was a great trip and a memory of someone and somewhere very special.”  Derek Ryley

Carp fishing in France at Boux

Old Oaks – New Lake Record Common

57lb common

Only the week after the lake mirror record was smashed with a 57lb carp the next group of anglers have managed to break the Lake record for a Common Carp with Gary Gordons capture at 51lb 06oz.

This is an amazing start to the season for Old Oaks with this being the fifth 50lb carp caught of the 2012 season, we can’t say weather conditions have been too helpful either and it’s only mid April! Not only that but when you check the feedbacks the forties out are starting to outnumber the thirties! and there are relatively few 20′s  caught by comparison.

This lake is just amazing! I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks hold.

Carp France at Old Oaks

Genets – New Lake Record Carp

56lb 2oz

We woke to frantic knocking on our window at around 1am this morning to find Tony Tubby with an ear to ear grin on his face.  His brother-in-law, Dan Johnson, had a new lake record Mirror in the net.  Larry promptly threw clothes on & went round to see an ecstatic Dan.

The Carp was retrieved from the water and weighed again, witnessed by Larry, the scales read a whopping  56lb 2oz which is indeed a new lake record for Genets.

This is a known Carp which came out in May 2011 at its record weight of 53lb 12oz.

Not only is it the new lake record but also Dan’s first French Carp & new PB beating his UK PB of 16lb by over 40lb !!

Congratulations & well done Dan.

Heather @ Genets.

Carp fishing France

Boux-tiful start to the season

Boux has kicked off to a great start, the lake has produced over 60 carp in its first week.

Derek Ryley who took Josh (19 yrs), Liam (17 yrs) and Louis (13 yrs) with him to the lake says that each of them has caught a 50lb+ carp. Josh also had 7 x 40′s inc 2 x 49lb’ers. Had 15 forties and 62 carp altogether.

I guess Derek is in the good books now. The bait? Well Derek makes his own boilies, so you’ll have to ask him!

A cracking start on a lake that just gets better!

Pictures to follow later next week.

Carp fishing in France

Pandas in France – Huang Huang and Yuang Zi at Zooparc Beauval

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder carp lakes in France. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

France now has a pair of pandas at the Zooparc Beauval. We visited there last summer and at the time we commented on how OTT the Chinese section of the park seemed to be, with statues, pagodas, lanterns but very few animals. Little did we know Beauval was gearing up for pandas. Certainly there was no mention of them at the zoo. But then they don’t sell batteries so they’re fairly clueless. A bit of advance publicity ‘sur place’ wouldn’t have come amiss.

Anyway, Huang Huang and Yuang Zi arrived on 15th January to great excitement. They were the first pandas to set paw in France for eleven years. They were transported by FedEx in a specially painted aeroplane, and then by road in specially painted vans with a police escort from the airport to Beauval. Yes, you read that right – police escort. Your guess is as good as mine as to why! Whether it was to keep the pandas in, or panda-nappers out, who knows. But it was successful and the pandas arrived safely and probably very puzzled at their new home. The public will be let loose on the pandas on 11th February. They need a few weeks to settle in.

Huang Huang and Yuang Zi are here for 10 years at a cost of around €750,000. Beauval is remaining tightlipped about the exact sum. So expect a hike in the already fairly hefty entry charge. The money is apparently going towards protecting pandas in the wild in China. And heaven knows they need it since they are the world’s dopiest animals.

I saw Edward Heath’s pandas, Chia Chia and Ching Ching, at London Zoo in the 1970s. They just sat and ate bamboo, as you’d expect, and were generally the most boring animal in the zoo. I have been completely underwhelmed by pandas for a long time.

Whilst there is no doubt that they are very striking and harmless animals, let’s face it they’re hopeless. The female comes into heat for between 3 and 7 days once a year. So if either she or the male has a headache during that brief space of time, that’s it, the chance for making a baby panda has gone for another year. I saw a TV programme about pandas in an American zoo. The zookeepers were desperate for the pandas to breed and were monitoring Mrs Panda constantly for the telltale signs of her arousing herself from her usual semi-comatose, bamboo-munching state to being hormonal. The second they reckoned she was ready, they unleashed Mr Panda. He made a couple of extremely feeble attempts to mount her then gave up. Mrs P went all huffy and then the pair of them sat and sulked in opposite sides of the cage. (I hope this doesn’t remind you of anything!)

So the scientists swooped. They first knocked out Mr P and got busy with rubber gloves and syringes and extracted some semen, and then knocked out Mrs P and gave her AI. What a palaver. But it worked and a miniscule baby panda appeared 5 months later. It weighed 5 ounces. Baby pandas are 1/900th the size of their mama. I mean, come on. How pathetic is that!

Human babies are around 1/15th to 1/20th of their mum’s size. Admittedly, delivering one of them hurts like blooming heck and traumatises you for life but it’s possible. Llama cria are roughly 1/8th to 1/10th of their mother’s weight, and you don’t hear them complaining. And what’s more, if a panda has  more than one cub, she has a breakdown. She is incapable of looking after two at the same time, so just leaves one to die. Pandas are severely survivally challenged. They really need to get their act together.

Blessing the clocher in Nouzerines

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Last Saturday morning Chris and I went to a rather nice ceremony at St Clair’s church in Nouzerines. It was a little service to bless the new clocher (bell tower). The weather was foul but at least it was dry inside the church, although it certainly wasn’t warmer than outside! We did wonder slightly why the powers that be had decided to celebrate in the middle of winter. The tower was actually finished last summer!

Père Arnaud Favard is the priest for this parish. He has a wonderful singing voice and is very strict about the musical standards of his flock.

We always have to rehearse beforehand! He took us through the various chants and hymns and only when we were good enough, could we proceed to the ceremony proper. (He does the same thing every year at the St Francis Day animal ceremony.)

The Président of Patrimoine Nouzerines, the fundraising body that has been the driving force behind the church renovations, opened the service and then there was one of the now perfect hymns and a prayer. Fellow English expat Christopher (not my Chris) played his piano accordion to liven things up. Then the priest gave a short sermon, explaining the different symbols that are usually to be found on top of every church’s bell tower in the form of the weather vane. There’s always a cock, as opposed to a pig, cow, sheep, carp etc, since this creature is the symbol of rejuvenation and new life. By crowing at dawn, the cock celebrates that night is over. Symbolically this represents him heralding the end of any period of physical or moral darkness. He always stands atop a globe to represent the world. Most church weather vanes also feaure a girouette – the wind indicator itself. Père Favard told us how important that was in the past, a real indication of what weather was heading our way. The Maire gave a short speech too.

One of the hymns had been about people coming to church from all four points of the horizon. These aren’t the points of the compass as you’d expect, but in fact east, west, up and down. Churches are on an east-west axis. The alter is at the eastern end so that the congregation sits and looks towards the rising daylight and life. In contrast the priest looks west, facing death. In Limousin statues of Christ always face west for this reason. The up and down represent heaven and hell. The weather vane draws eyes upwards towards heaven. He didn’t go into the hell thing in much detail!

After more expert singing, we finished the ceremony outside with the physical blessing of the clocher. The rain briefly held off while the priest read out the benediction (see below) and we sang the refrain beautifully. Then he threw holy water towards the bell tower before rushing back into the church to start ringing the bells.

We’d said the Lord’s prayer along the way. For the first time I saw the words of it in French, but I stuck to saying the English version. It occurred to me that our heathen youngest son doesn’t know that cornerstone of the Christian faith in either language! I guess that’s a bit of a giveaway that we don’t go to church all that often. I remember how Benj blurted out loudly once, when we were at a service, I forget for what reason: “Gosh we’re in Church. Is it Christmas!” Don’t you just love kids!

Famous French Cheeses - Cantal

The ever popular Cantal

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Cantal (15) is one of the three départements that make up the Auvergne (the other two are Allier (03) and Puy de Dôme (63)). It’s one of my favourite parts of France. We had a great holiday near St Flour when Rors was a toddler, and the other two about 9 and 11 or so. We were staying in the most spartan gîte we’d ever come across. It had electricity and running water but those were pretty much the only modern conveniences!

There wasn’t a kettle or a tin opener or any cups bigger than thimbles. We hit the hypermarché to put that to rights. It was a rather gloomy old house with a menacing stuffed squirrel on a shelf as you went upstairs.

We met some great people. The Cantalais are very friendly. Chris and Benj had gone fishing so I took the two little ones for a bike ride. It was blazing sunshine when we set out but a thunderstorm loomed out of nowhere so we took shelter in a village shop, since we were in flimsy cotton clothes and it was lashing. I asked the assistant if it was OK for us to hang around there until the deluge stopped. But it went on and on and on, so the shopkeeper offered to run us home and said we could put our bikes in the storeroom to keep them safe till we came back for them. And she was as good as her word.

There was an elderly farming couple in the tiny hamlet of Farges, where the gîte was. They made cheese and invited us down to watch the process one afternoon. Then another time Madam la Fermière arrived on the doorstep with all the ingredients to show me how to make the perfect truffade, Cantal style without ham but with extra cholesterol. It was delicious. So although the landscape is bleak and rugged, I always think of Cantal as a warm place.

Anyway, to the cheese.

Now a quick test. Can you remember from last Tuesday which family of cheeses Cantal falls into? It’s group 4, pressed cheeses or fromages à pâte pressée. Cantal is a very old cheese and dates back to the Gauls.

Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre, a marshall from the Auvergne, introduced the cheese to Louis XIV, or possibly the other way round, and that’s what made it famous. There are two types – Cantal fermier which is made from raw milk, lait cru, and Cantal laitier, the mass market version made from pasteurised milk. The milk in either form comes from Salers cows, but only when they’re being fed on hay. When the cows are grazing on grass in the summer months, then their milk is turned into Salers cheese. Now I bet you didn’t know that, did you! And Salers cows really know how to do horns.

The hard cheese is made into one foot wide cyclinders and aged for anything between 1 to 6 months. It gets a different label according to how long it has aged, namely: Cantal jeune (aged 1-2 months), Cantal entre-deux or Cantal doré (aged 2-6 months), and Cantal vieux (aged more than 6 months). Apparently a lump of Cantal vieux will keep for eighteen months!

Tastewise it reminds me very much of Cheddar. It gets stronger as it gets older, so the Cantal jeune is very milky and creamy, whereas the indestructible Cantal vieux is described as ‘vigorous’. I’m not one for strong cheese so I’ve tended to steer clear of it, but plenty of people do enjoy it. It has a 45% fat content and makes good fondues and gratins.

But I love a chunk with baguette and chutney, and it goes very nicely with fruit cake too.

So another interesting and tasty cheese to try.

Famous French Cheeses - Camembert

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Camembert is one of the family of fromages à pâte molle et à croûte fleurie (soft cheeses with a floury crust). It’s less fatty than its pressed cheese cousins since it contains more water. It contains around 320 calories per 100g which is pretty good for cheese.

A typical 250g Camembert is made from two litres of milk, so lots of healthy calcium in every slice, and also a good dollop of phosphorus too.

There are vitamins A and B2 as well.

Generally, the longer you keep Camembert, the better it gets provided you don’t go past the eat by date on the packet and don’t leave it to shrivel up in the back of your frigo like we sometimes do, only rediscovering it the next time a full-scale fridge clean out is called for due to there being a funny smell. Which is usually the Camembert! If you eat it affiné, ie about 3 weeks after it’s been made, it’s light and delicate. When it becomes à point about a fortnight later, it’s altogether a more determined cheese. But wash it down with a swig of good strong red wine and it’s extremely palatable.

You can eat it in many different ways. Straight out of the packet on baguette is always nice. But slices rolled in breadcrumbs and then deep fried are my favourites. I once had these with a redcurrant sauce as a starter many years ago, and I can still remember how lovely it was.

I’ve never done it, but apparently it’s delicious if you cook the camembert in a moderate oven in its wooden box (assuming you buy the posher varieties) until the wood is starting to blacken. You then take the crust off with a knife and dip bits of bread into the melty cheese underneath. Something to try but keep a fire extinguisher handy.

I’ve read that Camembert chocolates and camembert sorbet are highly acclaimed gastronomic delights but I can’t say they sound very appealing.

Onto the cheese’s history. Legend has it that it all began with Marie Harel, a farmer in the village of Pays d’Auge at the end of the 18th century. She kindly sheltered a refractory priest, Abbé Charles-Jean Bonvoust, when he was on the run from the guillotine-obsessed authorities during the Revolution. He was from Brie originally, and to show his gratitude to Marie, he gave her the recipe for his native cheese. She combined this with the cheese she traditionally made and voilà, Camembert was born. Except this isn’t true. Camembert already existed. There are references to it that date back to 16th century. Nice try Marie!

The railway helped Camembert become famous since it could now be easily transported to markets in Paris. Once Napoléon said he liked it and officially called it Camembert, its success was assured. The famous round wooden boxes for Camembert were invented in 1890 by Ridel. These allowed the cheese within to breathe and thus be transported further afield to conquer foreign markets.

Until 1910 Camembert actually had a bluish mould on it. This ended with the discovery of penicillium candidum which produced a more attractive white mould. And it’s said that the cheese became the unofficial symbol of France when it was included in the daily rations of soldiers in the Great War.

So, rather an interesting cheese all round.

All ready for the 2012 carp season at Bletiere

John London, owner of Bletiere carp lake, gives us a quick tour of the swims, all ready in preparation for the 2012 season.

The Carp Hunters Session at Molyneux

A video of photo stills created by the Mr Sansford party (AKA The Carp Hunters) who fished Molyneux in 2010…

The First Snow of 2012 at Bletiere carp Lake

The first snow of 2012 at Bletiere...

Carp Fishing Tips for French Lake Oakview

Oakview regulars give you all the insider tips on how to bag up at this prolific French carp lake.

Carp of the Month at Villefond – Mick’s Mirror

Mick’s Mirror at 43.04

Quick Review

During January Villefond owner John Lambert, Lake Manager Mark Lambert and a friend Gavin Rose have spent a few short sessions on Lac Du Villefond field testing the range of baits that are available to our customers. Despite the cold winter weather the Villefond fish have been feeding well and on there first 24hr session eight fish were banked all over 30lb and four of these over 40lb. The next session was a day only session and the guys still managed four fish, two 40’s to 44lb one 30 and one 20+ common.

This is good fishing for any time of year but especially during the winter months and really shows the quality of the bait and how much the fish like to eat it. With 50% of the fish caught being over 40lb in these first short sessions of the year, Villefond is looking like having another good year with fish reaching even higher weights. And with the lakes real biggun’s yet to make an appearance and so many fish still never to have graced the bank anything is possible in 2012… so watch this space!

Fish of the month

This fish of the month sector will be a regular segment from now on and my choice will not just be decided by size. For me fish of the month does not equate to biggest fish banked that month. I will take into account many factors for example fish that are rare visitors to the bank, fish that are particularly stunning, fish of the month maybe one of the lakes real unique characters, it maybe a fish that has shown massive weight gains or simply a fish caught in bizarre circumstances.

Despite only a few sessions being fished on the lake through January my choice for this month has been a tough one as some of the lakes character fish such as Pink Flash and Nemo have already been banked. Also several fish have topped the 40lb barrier for the first time and one of our 2011 stockies that was stocked at 24lb has been banked over 30lb for the first time… a huge growth in just one short year.

The carp I have chosen as my fish of the month for January 2012 is a fish known as Mick’s Mirror - to call this fish elusive is an understatement. Mick’s Mirror did not grace the bank for several years after stocking and when it did it already weighed a hefty 36lb, it seemed to be a fish destined for big weight gains. But strangely the fish just disappeared.

She went the best part of two years before slipping up again in the beginning of March 2011. The strange thing about the capture was her weight had stayed around the same, in fact she weighed a little less at 34lb 5oz, so it appeared she may have peaked. Nearly a full year has passed since that capture and this tricky fish has made yet another winter mistake.

There is one thing about this capture that is glaringly different however, instead of Mick’s Mirror remaining at a steady weight, in the long time between captures this time its weight has rocketed weighing in at an awesome 43lb 4oz. This is a weight gain of nearly 10lb in less than a year.

Although it once seemed that she was avoiding angler’s baits and therefore avoiding capture it would now seem she is just getting away with it. Like many of the big Villefond fish she has become quite clever. What a lot of the big fish seem to be doing is once hooked instead of running for freedom they sit put and try to shed the hook. That was certainly the case for this capture and the only indication given was one beep and several violent knocks on the rod tip. Some may easily have dismissed this as nothing more than a line bite.

Chas’s Big Carp Euro Rig – A Safe Carp Rig

The component parts of Chas’s safe carp rig

A disturbing aspect of owning Vaux French carp lake is that I find numbers of my carp each year dragging leaders and leads because the tackle used by some anglers does not allow the leads to drop off the clips.  The reasons can be;

• leaders cannot pass freely through the tail rubbers to safety clips
• that rubbers are pushed onto clips too tightly
• that the wrong tail rubbers to safety clips are used
• tail rubbers are superglued on
• leads are tied to clips because anglers don’t want to lose their leads
• the use of leaders incorporating tungsten putty.

Any of these causes means that the carp cannot get rid of any of the component parts.

Often simply cutting the tail rubbers to an angle allows leaders to pass freely through them.

Here’s the component parts needed to make safe end tackle set-ups;

You can read the full article here

The Great Pig Experience

Steph Dagg, owner of Notaires carp lake in France, explains their plans to expand the non-carping side of their business.

As our previous visitors to Notaires will be aware, we are building up an old style farm with a selection of animals (ok they didn’t have llamas on an old fashioned farm but that is another story). Currently we have llamas, alpacas, sheep, turkeys and  chickens (and pets such as a dog, some cats and guinea pigs). Now we are planning to expand into old breed pigs. In preparation for this I attended a pig experience day held in Poitou-Charente by David  and Lorraine at Le Logis old breeds farm (www.lelogisfrance.com) . Prior to this course I hadn’t been closer to a pig than the supermarket meat counter.

It was an old fashioned drive across France (I say old fashioned because the centre of France has no east-west motorways, so it was a case of travelling from town to town like England in the 1960s). It took 3 ½ hours to drive 150Km west to Poitiers and then 30 minutes to drive the last 60km south on the motorway) to arrive at the pretty Charentais farm. After coffee and introductions we went out to get hands on experience,  starting with feeding and welfare. We tiptoed past one of the farrowing stalls where one of the sows had given birth to a litter the previous night. Lorraine explained how critical the first 24 hours were to the welfare of the new litter.

We first met the Berkshire pigs that Le Logis is becoming famous for and it was immediately obvious that these animals were a cut above the cows and sheep that I had met before.  The pig is rated the 4^th most intelligent in the animal kingdom, only behind chimps, dolphins and elephants. The Berkshires trotted over to greet us, vocalizing amiably (it would be an understatement to justsay grunting like in a childrens story). They tucked into their food and played around with the buckets afterwards. Lorraine explained that they loved to play with toys and that an overweight pig could be slimmed down with a toy that had some treats concealed within.

We topped up their shelters with straw and I was amazed at how clean and tidy they kept their sleeping quarters. I know some teenagers who could learn a thing or two from them (mentioning no names).

Lorraine talked us through the various breeds that they have at the farm, not just Berkshires but Gloucester old spots and the rather fetching Oxford Sandy and Black, also known as the Plum Pudding pig!

All too soon it was time to drive back to Notaire’s but with plenty of time for planning where to raise the pigs; in the wooded section below the house lake where they could have a very naturalized life or should we use them to turn over the cereal field next to house where we could spend more time with them. Watch this space and I will keep you posted on our progress.

Winter Wonderland at Oakview Carp Lake

Arctic conditions create the perfect backdrop for filming the colourful wildlife at Oakview in February 2012.

From red squirrels and roe deer to green woodpeckers and gold finches and not forgetting those glorious panoramas that this time of year can bring.

Big Freeze at Alder Carp Lake

In central and eastern France the temperatures crashed down this week, on Friday morning we faced between -13 and -15 degrees C, not exceptional by global standards but setting a new PB for us as we walked Ruadhri to school.

Alder lake had frozen over, pretty much over night but we could see motion under the ice – fish – small roach were wriggling around, they acted like they were getting ready to spawn in the mild weather a couple of weeks ago, splashing around the tree roots.

Here is a short clip of them;

49lb mirror carp stocked at Blue Lake

A short video clip showing a 49.02 mirror carp being stocked at Blue Lake on 26th Jan '12.

Anyone for Ice Skating on a Carp Lake?

A Frozen Molyneux

Well the temperature dropped to -9 overnight here at Molyneux and the cold stiff Siberian wind dropped off causing the lake to freeze up. It is currently -5 outside, although the skies are a gorgeous blue.  It really is a beautiful sight!

This is only the second time I have seen it completely frozen, the other being when we arrived in early January last year.