A Pioneer’s Dream Lake – Field Testing Tales

Paul Cooper and Jim Kelly were out again on a field testing trip to a brand new Angling Lines venue, Nautica. Having thoroughly tested this venue twice now with great results, below is Paul's report on his time there...

The Lake

Nautica is a 17 acre wild and natural French lake set deep in rural France, around 150 miles South of Paris. With around two thirds of the lake being totally reed-lined this surely is a carp anglers dream come true.

Our target for the week. The big male at 62lb 4oz

The owner, Guillaume Rousselet, a well known big French carp angler, took control of the lake last year. He has tried to keep the lake wild and as natural as possible, and yet create a fishery that will attract keen big carp anglers to its precious shores.

River Carp Fishing Tips - Part 1

Rob Inns delivers part one of his 'River Carp Fishing Tips' series...

One element of carp fishing I have found myself increasingly involved in in recent years is river carp fishing. I think what attracts me to river carp is their wild and nomadic life style. But their ability to travel where ever they wish, coupled with the fact that most rivers do not benefit from stocking programs other than that put in place by mother nature herself, can make catching them tricky at times. I hope this piece can give you some tips that I have learned and implemented personally on rivers not just in the UK but also in France and Spain.

A group of carp around the Riba Roja dam

Features

So how do you go about finding a relatively low stock of fish that have miles of river system to explore at will?  The trick is to find yourself some kind of feature; these can be anything as large and obvious as an island or a bridge, to something as subtle as a bush overhanging into the water. What you are looking for is something that makes your swim different to the miles of river either side of it, something that may stop the course of drifting food creating natural larders on the river bed.

Bletiere Catch Record Smashed!

We have for the last week had regular guests Glen and his wife Clare here and what a week Glen has had! By the end of it he has smashed the single angler weight record.

With the weather just right for fishing and with the week ahead looking good Glen started off on the saturday and steadily caught fish every day, even while having time out with Clare.  Glen baited up steadily and kept a regulated amount of boilies and particles going in and this certainly helped to keep the fish hungry and searching for food.

37.02

By the end of the week Glen had 55 carp out for a total weight of 1182 pounds, this consisted of;
1 x 40lb, 12 x 30s, 17 x 20s, 20 x doubles and 5 x singles.

Its always pleasing seeing a lot of the carp coming out and the good thing is that most of the 20s were 25lb plus and most of the doubles were over 15lb which I believe shows the heavy feeding we do in the winter is paying off. Well done Glen on a great week's angling, look forward to your return next year and lets hope for another record week.

37.04

Tight Lines,
John and Lesley
Owners at Bletiere

For more information on Bletiere follow the link - Fishing Holidays

A Family Fishing Holiday at Oakview

Big fish angler Dave Callow takes a family fishing holiday at Oakview. The family has a day-fishing bonanza with 1 x 40, 11 x 30s, 10 x 20s and 2 teens.

6 year old Jessie is the star though. She can tie a rig, net a 30lb'er and out fishes Mum and Dad with her float fishing tally of 25.

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

Black Country Carpers visit Laroussi

Back in August, Carl Sharp spent a week at Laroussi, the highlight being his capture of 'The Creature' at 57lbs.

You can watch the week unfold below...

For more information, videos and catch reports from Laroussi follow the link - Carp Fishing in France 

Lake William Island is Completed

Continuing the hard work from last weekend, the island is now complete at Glehias!

Following on from the blog post earlier this week entitled 'Winter Season Chores Begin at Glehias', the island is finally finished. It measures around 25 feet by 9 feet and stands in about 3 feet of water, it has 2 bays on the front edge and each of these has a gully dug down to 4 feet deep in front of them.

Piling on more reeds to build the height.

The fish seem to approve, I hadn't even finished piling clay and reeds up on it and curious Carp were cruising around to inspect my work, I can tell this is going to be an absolute fish haven! The water level is down by 14 inches at the moment and will look even better after the lake refills.

The new Island is immediately visible from the top of Blackberry Hill.

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

67lb Mirror Banked at Laroussi

Angler Steve Gaunt smashed his previous PB of 56lb 5oz this week with this Laroussi monster...

Here's what Steve had to say;

'Fish fought really hard , bite happened at 3:30AM at 65 Yards along the margin from L'Anse peg on a spot that Mehdi suggested to me the previous day!  I'm over the moon! Great place, we'll be back!'

They had a few other really decent sized carp during the week including a 51lb and a 48lb.

67lb

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