Villefonds New Carp Bait Range

Villefonds New Carp Bait Range

January 22, 2013DavidNo comments

42lb mirror falls to the new Villefond 2013 bait

The 2012 season saw the Villefond bait range really excel and it definitely landed more fish than any other bait.

Every winter I feed the fish with a new flavour boilie and ever improving quality bait. I choose new flavours because over the year the fish get caught on the same popular choices and eventually start to become cautious of those baits. So over the quiet winter periods I choose my new bait after extensive field testing then I put lots of bait in so the fish can feed without fear of being caught.

This gets the fish keying into the smell of the house bait and then, once found, they know it’s a good food source. By the beginning of the 2013 season the bait will the best bait to use on the lake.

We are constantly looking to improve our bait firstly for the benefit of our fish and secondly to help anglers catch them. So I spend a long time field testing the flavours and using the knowledge of what has worked best in the past, I have come up with my main two flavours;

• Supreme Blood Worm
• Plum Nut

The ingredients I use are the absolute best because cutting corners will ultimate only effect our fish growth. Last year saw our fish continue to grow really healthy and put on great weight gains and this new bait is even better.

I will be able to offer different flavours if you contact me in advance… but these two will be the ones I will for the most part feed the fish with.

Please contact me via the Forum with any questions regarding bait or anything else.

The above picture is  just one of the carp caught during the start of my field testing of these new baits.

Happy Fishing!

Mark (fisheries manager)

Carp fishing in France at Villefond

Holly Pools Joins Angling Lines

Holly Pools Joins Angling Lines

January 18, 2013DavidNo comments

We’re delighted to welcome Holly Pools onto the Angling Lines books.

Holly Pools is a totally private complex of 3 shady lakes surrounding a fabulous gite which provides exceptional accommodation.  There’s an intimate carp and cat lake plus a specimen coarse lake and a match coarse lake perfectly suited to children and beginners.

This is an ideal venue for a couple of mates who want to take their wives along.

Take a look

Carp fishing at Holly Pools

Winter Wonderland @ Golden Oak Carp Lake in France

Winter Wonderland @ Golden Oak Carp Lake in France

January 20, 2013DavidNo comments

Hi folks, we just couldn’t resist taking these photos… just to show you that its not always warm & sunny here at Golden Oak .

For those of you who have enjoyed our warmer months, take a look below, can you recognise your swims?

And, yes, the fish are still feeding!

Fishing Holidays at Golden Oak

Buying Particle Baits in France

Buying Particle Baits in France

January 16, 2013DavidNo comments

Translation to help with particle baits…

Most Angling Lines venues will be happy to prepare particles for you and then have them waiting for you when you arrive, as I do here at Bletiere.  but  if your booked venue doesn’t offer this service then this will help you buy particle baits in the shops over here.

Flocons De Mais

This is flaked maize that doesn’t take much preparation.  Just give it a quick soak  in water to make  it sink (otherwise the ducks will love you!)

Mais casse/Brisure de mais

This is crushed maize that needs little preparation, except may be a quick soak  in water to help it sink.  Sebastian, the owner of Blue Lake, just tips this straight into his lakes – in fact it’s all he feeds his fish on.

Ble

This is what I feed my fish on a lot – it’s Wheat and the carp just love it, but this does need some preparation because it needs to be soaked in boiling water for a couple of hours.  A money saving tip is to buy a cheap cool box and fill it just over half full with Ble.  Then fill with boiling water to the top of box (it will absorb a lot of water).  Put the lid on and leave overnight… it’ll be soft by morning.

Bc collant pellets

Baby corn. You will see this in most tackle shops over here and it’s used by the match anglers.  It’s compressed maize pellets that you can use straight from the  bag.. It’s great as a spod bait or for close in with a catapult.

Carp extrude-coul 9

These are pellets and the ones I feed the fish here on and sell to the anglers for feeding.  They are a great pellet, full of goodness and come in various sizes.  That’s what the coul 9 means – they are 9 mm pellets.  So coul 15 will be 15mm and so on.

I have not mentioned things like whole French mais, hemp and other baits that take more preparation.  Although they are readily available over here, the ones above are ones that most lake owners would not be happy for anglers to prepare themselves.

I hope this helps.  These are the foods I give my own fish all winter and they are readily available in France in farm feed shops and tackle shops if you wish to do your own.  But please check that your venue is happy for you to prepare your own and has the facility for you to do this.  I have made a short video showing all the above and it will be on the site in the next couple of weeks.

Tight lines, John

La Bletiere

Winter Carping Tactics – Short Hook Links

Winter Carping Tactics – Short Hook Links

January 14, 2013DavidNo comments

A cracking 28lb Linear mirror carp caught on 6th Jan ’13 proves that Paul Cooper’s strategy of using short hook links in winter works.

Carp Fishing Tips – 59 Videos

Villefond End Of Year Report for 2012

Villefond End Of Year Report for 2012

January 12, 2013DavidNo comments

Arthur @ 54.07 (Oct 2012)

2012 has once again been a great year for the lake and for meeting some great guys and great anglers.

The lake was once again pretty solidly booked and saw lots of characters on the bank breaking personal bests and enjoying their break from work, all trying to catch one of the Villefond monsters.

As for the fish unbelievably they have continued their massive weight gains pushing the average size of the fish over 40lb up from last year’s 38lb! We now have over forty 40lb+ fish and at least 4 x 50lb+ fish.

The very unpredictable weather this year meant that the carp spawned heavily twice, and over a drawn out period, so we saw weights Yo Yo and catch reports rise and fall as they fed up and then stopped feeding.

The amount of new uncaught fish has now slowed down as we slowly improve our documentation with pictures. However, we still have some really elusive fish & some of these came out during 2012 including some fish that haven’t been on the bank in over two years and some fish that have only ever been caught twice in four years! As we always say, Villefond is tricky water, the carp are very clever and some anglers this year really struggled and then there were some times they seemed to jump on the hooks.

We had the usual bloom of naturals in the lake and all the same wild life around the lake such as foxes, hares, rabbits, bird life, pine martins, hedge hogs, coypu, the list goes on.

2012 was the first full year we offered the food packages and as you can read on our feedback page we received some great feedback, so we will continue offering this service into 2013. Also the bait proved itself again to be the best fish catcher and with bait choice so important on the lake we will be offering an even better improved bait for 2013.

Work round the lake this winter will continue as always with many man hours going into clearing brambles & weeds, improving swims and access, plus a spruce up of the shower block and mobile home. We have introduced some new rules to help keep the fish in pristine condition as they get bigger and harder to handle along with more rules to help us keep the lake as clean as possible. These rules can be seen on our rules page.

To conclude the lake is still rocketing skyward on its way to becoming something really, really special & we would like to thank all the anglers this year that came to our lake for looking after the fish they caught. This meant they are still pristine for the next angler. We hope that we carry on seeing the faces that make our job a pleasure and wish everyone the best for 2013.

Best wishes,

Mark, John & Debbie Lambert

Carp Fishing in France Webcast – December 2012

Carp Fishing in France Webcast – December 2012

December 20, 2012DavidNo comments

This Christmas edition brings you a round-up on all the big carp captures from 2012, the next instalment of Billy’s Living the Dream series… plus find out which of the 50+ carp videos we’ve released this year has had the most downloads. Merry Christmas to you all!

Carp Fishing Videos – 50+ Technical Videos