French Carp Fishing at Lake Albert - Day One

I have to admit I have been pretty lazy in writing up the blog entries of our French fishing adventures but since I've been home I've been back working in the house trying to get everything finished so that I can make the most of the summer or should I just say July and August as the weather outside is far from summery.

Day 1 - After just over twelve hours of traveling we found the place relatively easy with the satnav making the UK side of the trip pretty simple and with the step by step guide I'd printed off from Google maps making French part of the journey much easier we only made two wrong in the whole journey, one of the little detours almost made us unpack the rods and get a line wet as we pulled up and took a look and nice wide slow flowing French river but god only knows what laws we would have been breaking if we did.

We arrived at the lake still fully fueled from the expensive full English breakfast on the ferry, we met Rod and Pat and had a chat where we learned that the lake was fishing very slow and also learned the disappointing news that surface baits are completely useless in France as unlike in the UK carp just wont take surface baits, so it looks like the 9 kilo bag of mixer biscuits would be staying in the car.

Tuck in son.

At just under £8 for a breakfast on the ferry I nearly kept the cutlery.

Once the introductions were over we took a walk round the lake and decided to set up in one of the corner swims this choice was made due to us seeing a Mirror Carp break the surface right in just front of the swim.

Undeterred by lack of sleep we set up and thus began a small chain of disasters, firstly when I was setting up my bivvy I noticed a small crack in one of the poles which as you might guess snapped as soon as I tried to erect it, luckily we managed to prop it up so that I had a place to sleep for the four nights we were there, then as I unpacked the mirror I'd brought with me not for vanity but for my contact lenses I found it in pieces in the bottom of my bag, with those two minor set backs out the way we finally had all the rods out and laid back to catch some rays.

About an hour later we heard a bite alarm go off from the other side of lake followed by a second set of beeps when I looked across I could see the two boys who were fishing there were both in, I shouted across to see if they needed a hand and they did as they only had one net between them and they were both into fairly sizable fish, we made our way over and I was just in time to net the first fish while Steve picked up their net and netted the second fish.

The two fish were more than enough for us to see what this lake could produce with the biggest of the pair kicking the scales round to 17kg on the dot which translates to a bit over 34lb, in fact I think this is the biggest fish I've physically seen on the bank. It was now up to us to actually get one of these leviathans on the bank.

Rod the owner with his grandson and his new PB.

Nice to see a fish this size being caught.

And the smaller of the two we helped land hitting the 10kg mark (22lb and a bit).

We returned back to our swim full of confidence, and it wasn't long until the zig rigged Pineapple pop-up Steve had cast out into the middle of the lake had a savage take, the line was being ripped off the reel and the bite alarm was going mad, Steve picked up the rod and connected with nothing. I still fail to see how a fish can pick up a bait run with it and even with the tension from the weight and the reel still not be hooked.

With our first bit of excitement over Steve crashed out on his bed laying himself open to attack from mosquitoues while I made a coffee and lied down in the bivvy eagerlly awaiting a wake up call from one of the bite alarms.

We were called on once more to help land another fish during the night another big mirror.

Batice with another mirror of around 25lb.

By the time it was dark the lack of sleep was starting to take its toll and we both ended up getting our heads down not stirring until morning. Sadly all our baits remained untouched through the night but this was only the first night and we still had another three to go.

Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Well, by car not Jet plane, as I'm writing this the timer on the blog is currently showing 3 days 10 hours and 1 minute until our journey begins, a 1000 mile round trip to the North East of France and I think we are finally ready.

We've stocked up for well over the five days we are fishing but its better to take something with you and not use it than spend the whole week cursing about a single forgotten item, but that's not to say we wont forgot anything and anyway when have I ever had to go home to pick forgotten things..............oh, forget I said that.

To be fair I think were got all our bases covered, Steve has invested in a pair of new Carp rods and reels while I have graced my reels with new line, I managed to get a mountain of new leads, inline and bombs at proper bargain prices from frank's leads, as well loads of end tackle and other bits and pieces from eBay and local tackle shops, we've also got ourselves a massive new Carp net, big Carp weigh sling and a giant beanie unhooking mat.

If I lose one I'll just tie another and another and another, if I lose forty I think its time to go home.

And for bait we have a true medley for things to try. I managed to get my hands on a few catering sized cans of sweetcorn and luncheon meat, while Steve scored with a bag of pedigree chum mixers the size of a coal sack and we have a ton of the nations preferred Carp bait, boilies. these have been made locally and should give us the edge against the average run of the mill shop bought boilie.

A pile of bait I threw together for a quick photo.

With the very limited budget we have for fishing I'm starting to wonder if we'll have enough cash left to cover the fuel cost so if you hear of two idiots on the news who are pushing a car down the M4 towards Dover that just maybe us.

Euro-tastic, I had to put this photo in as it looks like I'm minted.

Let hope all things go according to plan and in just over a weeks time videos and photo of our continental take over will start to appear on this blog.

So until then.

The Specimen Lake at Hazel Court Ponds.

Early in the week I mentioned to Steve that I wouldn't mind trying out the Koi lake at Hazel Court Ponds and he was well up for it and somehow two days later we were traveling up the M4. I'm not even sure how I even managed to get the day off work.

When we got there it was quite busy especially for a week day. On my last trip to Hazel Court I had only seen the Catfish lake and I wasn't sure what else was there. Unfortunately the Koi lake was already being fished but it didn't really matter as we didn't really mind what lake we fished it was just nice to get out.

A video of the day.

With a brief run down of the fishery from the lady in the kiosk we opted for a day on the surprisingly small specimen lake, It seemed a bit unreal to learn that there were fish around and over the twenty pound mark as to look at it the lake seemed too small but any doubts were quashed during our initial walk round the lake when a few fish were seen breaking the surface and judging by what I could see these fish had to be upper teens at least.

Old smiley setting up his new pod.

After seeing the surface activity I couldn't wait to to get a bait out, I started off by throwing out a few handfuls of mixer biscuits and then broke up two slices of bread into quarters and frisbee'd them out into the gaps in the lilies, this worked well with the odd fish slowly picking at the bread progressing to a few fish confidently starting to clear up the biscuits, but then what I thought was going to be easy turned into an absolute nightmare as the resident bird life, several mallards coots and moorhens decided that they wanted any surface baits and proceeded wreaked the opportunity of taking any of the feeding fish, once the ducks had cleared all the free offering their number slowly fell but that's not to say they weren't far away ready to pounce if they thought I may be trying to put a surface bait out.

Just when I thought that bottom baits were going to be the only option I heard a familiar slurping sound, quickly scanning the weeds then the margins I spotted ghost Carp tucked right in the margins only just visible through the over hanging reeds and as my eyes focused in I could see another ghostie and a fair sized common Carp, I managed flick a single mixer biscuit along the margins then dragged it back pulling it under the bank weed, then watched as all three fish took their turns approaching the bait then backing off, then the two ghosties came back and both of they started to try and suck the bait down, I watched as they both edged closer to the bait then the smaller of the two moved that little bit closer and sucked down the bait, resisting the urge to strike I paused and waited until it had closed its mouth before I set the hook.

It wasn't a terrific fight with me only being a few feet away from the fish, I just guided the fish back and forth until Steve was able to net it for me. Result! my first fish from Hazel Court and whats move I went there wanting to fish the Koi lake and ended up taking a Ghost Koi out of the Specimen lake, what a start.

My first fish from Hazel Court Ponds, a 12lb 1oz Ghostie.

It was a long time before I got into my second fish but not for the want of trying I had had several close calls, I had pulled baits away from fish and spooked fish approaching my bait this was mainly down to the ducks relentlessly pursuing my bait.

My second fish was also taken close in much to Steve's disgust as he had tried to take a koi from the same spot about an hour earlier, this time it was only a small one and was no match for the set-up I was using but looking at its scale patterns I can imagine this fish in a few years time being a stunning example of how a mirror Carp should look.
About half way through the day Steve finally hooked into a fish, and almost straight away he said 'I think its an Eel' and after a proper scrap a nice sized Eel popped it head out of the water, I netted it with the camera in one hand and the net in the other and with the fish trying its hardest to swim backwards as soon as it hit the surface it wasn't an easy job.

Once it was in the net the scales confirmed a new PB for Steve, weighing in at 1lb 14oz, just by looking at it I thought that it may have been a bit bigger, but it was still big enough to set a new PB and give Steve a slime coating as an added bonus.

A new PB Eel for Steve, 1lb 14oz.

The action dried up a bit for me while Steve boosted his catch total with a few Roach, Bream and some Golden Rudd. As the evening set in the wind had dropped and I went off trying to pick another fish off the surface, I had spooked a few nice fish as well as missing one take from a small common, then my persistence paid off as I noticed what I thought was another ghostie coming out from underneath a lily pad trying to suck down one of the mixer biscuit I had thrown out, I cast a single mixer biscuit just passed the the fish then slowly pulled it back until it was virtually touching the other biscuit, this was too much temptation for the fish and I watched a big white mouth come up and take both the biscuits in one go. I struck and the fish headed straight for the lilies, I fought the fish quite hard keeping it out of the lilies or I should say trying to keep it out off the lilies as the fight set a few of the lilies adrift but once I had the in a clear patch in the weed I kept it well under control until it was time to guide it into the need.

Lovely my second Koi Carp of the day and this one was a true ornamental Koi but far bigger than you'd seen in any garden pond, I carried the fish round to the unhooking mat and Steve weighed it in at 8lb 2oz and took a few pictures for me before it powered off back into the lake.

My third Carp and second Koi of the day, well worth the trip.

By now it was almost time to pack up as the gates are locked at eight o'clock, and I didn't realise how late in the day it was, we packed up and were out of the gates, cutting it close at 7:56.

I think I can say that we both enjoyed ourselves today but I think that if there weren't so many ducks there I would have definitely had a lot more fish on the bank. If all goes well I should be able to get a few more sessions in a Hazel Court before the end of the summer.

More last minute sessions at Gowerton.

While the work in the house is slowly getting done I'm still managing to find a small bit of time to get out for the odd little session even if they are short ones. Since my last blog entry I have squeezed a total of three sessions which seems pretty poor considering the outstanding weather we are having at the moment but as with everything in life work comes before play. The sessions consisted of two being only a matter of hours and one full day thanks the the civil service still honoring the queens birthday and granting all of its unlucky employees a full day privilege leave.

The first short session was another little gem, with the sun beating down I arrived at Gowerton pretty late in the day and after tossing out a few handfuls of bread it was only a matter of minutes before small shoals of Carp were cruising in and demolishing the freebies, I picked off my first fish of the session almost straight away, a small mirror around four pounds, it always good to get a fish on the bank fairly quickly to release the anxiety of a possible blank session.
It was a while before I tempted another fish, but the second hook up of the session was a real bonus, I spotted it making its way through the now vast patch of lilies by the entrance of the lake and flick a small piece of bread out to meet it as it came out into the open water, after a nice long fight I netted what was sure to be a double but I didn't have the scales with me to confirm it but when I got home I checked the photo against the ones of the session I fished with Rachel and the scale pattern matches the one of her first ever Carp, so it was delighted to bag this fish for myself, and I could put the guesstimate weight at around eleven and a half pounds.

Two month later it cant be far off 11lb 9oz.

The same fish when Rachel caught it back in April.

I finished off the session with a bit of stalking, there were fish showing all over the lake but they are getting increasingly shy of surface baits and I spooked well over five fish before I stealthily took my third mirror Carp of about six pounds out of the margins, for three hours I had done well.
The second session was courteousy of the queen. This time things were a lot trickier with sun blazing down from the off, I contemplated trying the Fendrod or even the Carp lake in Pwll but with the sun being so bright I didn't think trying a new venue or sitting it out on the Fendrod would have been very productive.

I got to Gowerton fairly early in the day about 11am and even though Carp could be seen cruising in and out of the weeds near the island and also the the odd fish making itself visible in open water I really struggled. I missed a take early and after that I couldn't buy a take, the hours whittled by and all I had to show for my time on the bank was an increasing amount of sunburn.

Nothing was working, I had bait in the margins and was regularly feeding on the surface and apart from a line bite on the margin rod I had had no real action for hours.

I had almost resigned myself to a blank session by the time Rachel came to pick me up, I had pack most of my gear away and giving one last try with a small piece of bread crust on the edge of a weed bed, then almost ten hours after arriving I spotted a Carp homing in on the crust, my nerves were on edge as it missed it three times before it finally hit the bait. What a relief, I could feel my sunburn glowing as I played the fish and can honestly say I hadn't wanted a fish in the net this badly for a long while.

Last chance saloon, 7lb 7oz Common.

The final short session was another hard one. I had finished early from work to get my new contact lenses fitted and after a what seemed like hours of poking myself in the eyes, I couldn't let another nice evening go to waste without a bit of bank side action.

Like my last session I couldn't get anything off the surface but I got lucky when another angler was leaving and asked if I wanted the maggots they had left over, what a bargain, I was given not far off a full pint of maggots, so I set up the match rod with a small feeder and a size 18 hook then cast it out an tightened up.

Within a few minutes I got a knock on the tip of the rod which lead to me catching my first fish of the session a slimy little bootlace Eel, undeterred by the possibility of bagging up on Eels I carried on with the feeder filling it back up and casting out to the same spot every fifteen minutes or so.

The maggots were getting plenty of interest even if I could seem to hit the bites, then after one of the tiniest of taps on the tip of the rod I struck and the match rod buckled over, I knew this could only be a Carp, I fought with an unseen fish for well over 15 minutes and I had forgot how much fun it was to play a Carp on the match rod, after a long long battle I finally got the fish to the surface but it took another few minutes before this Common Carp was ready of the net, once on the bank it weighted in at 9lb 6oz.

A nine pound reminder how much fun Carp fishing can be.

If I'd have hooked the fish on a Carp rod I would have not had nowhere near as much fun, it really reminded me how it used to be when I used to do all my surface fishing with a match rod, I'd almost forgot how much of an achievement it feels to land a Carp on light tackle.

Once the fish had gone back I went to recast the match rod but after noticing that the tiny size 18 hook had opened up I realized how lucky I was to have kept the fish on.

I packed up as it started to get dark and went home feeling fairly content with myself.

Carp fishing - Spawned off.

Breaking away from work in the house and also wanting to give my new bivvy a test run.

I arrived at the Fendrod at about 6pm, I got the rods set up and the new bivvy up fairly quickly and with the baits only being out for a few minutes I had a pretty savage line bite, the drop back shot up and and down twice then stopped back in its original position, since the beginning of the year I've been using back leads on nearly every session on the Fendrod so with the lines being pinned down I havent had a single line bite until now.

As the evening progressed I started seeing a lot more activity in the water, the Carp had started to spawn which is something I hadnt really expected to happen well not for a few weeks anyway.

As the evening progressed into night and the spawning activity seemed increase as it got dark I felt that there was probably no chance of catching a fish on the feed and retired to my sleeping bag with the hope of being awoken by the bite alarms.

Going against what I thought was going to be a quiet night at 1:30am I got the run I was hoping for, leeping into my shoes I picked up the rod and commenced battle with a fish in the dark, I must have had the fish on for a few minutes before it hit a snag and the line went solid, I contemplated what I should do and thought that giving a bit of slack might let the fish free itself from the snag and as I slowly slackened off I could still feel the fish pulling on the line I started to tighten up and was free of the snag but then disaster struck as I felt a final lunge followed by the line going slack.

I retired back into the bivvy thinking that I had missed my one chance to net a fish for the session and I was right. I spent the majoity of the night listening to the Carp spawning and without the ambient sound of day they were enough to keep me awake most of the night.

The next morning I managed to film and take a few photos of the spawning Carp which was something I havent really witnesses before. I've seen fish spawning during the years but not when with majority of the fish looked well over the 20lb mark and not the vast amount of fish that were huddled together.

Check out the video and the photos below.

All work and no play.

You may have noticed that new posts have been a little thin on the ground, this is because for the last three weekends and evening after work I have been working in my house ripping out the old coal fire, rewiring and generally tidying up the living room and I still have a lot to do.

That's not to say I haven't managed a few session evening if they were short sessions, in fact I've managed three short sessions. The first session was on the Fendrod where I fished the dam area where I sat it out in the rain for a few hour I was almost on the verge of packing up when I had a real screamer of a run, I got to the rod and held on as I battle with something very powerful, I had it on for over ten minutes and hadn't really made much progress when the hook pulled, I am still sure now that what I had hooked was set to be a new PB. Hopefully I can take something from that loss and an increasing number of fish that have thrown the recently I'm looking at changing the style of hooks I use, perhaps that will stop me losing fish due to hook pulls, only time will tell.

The second session I got out for was a few hours down the Half Round Ponds where Steve and I fished for the silvers with the hope of a bonus Carp from a rod out to the side, well hauled in about a hundred very small Rudd as well as a few nice Roach and Perch with a combined keep net weight of just over 3lb and to top it off Steve picked up a bonus Carp on his rod out to the side making it his second ever Carp out of the ponds but it wasn't the usual stamp of Carp you'd expect from the Half Round Ponds and at 6lb 6oz is the smallest one I've ever seen caught there, none the less Steve was still pretty chuffed with it.

Steve with his second HRP Carp.

And the final session was at Gowerton, Steve and I were only there a few hours but with a folly of starter kit and bubble float anglers casting in every direction it was truly quite hard. I eventually picked up a fish on a 'Fatties Favorite' boilie just dropped in the margin but I was in the bushes having a pee when it picked up the bait, I eventually composed myself and hit the rod, the fish had taken a fair bit of line and wasn't happy that I was trying to take it back, it put up such a hard fight that I was expecting at least a double figure fish to hit the surface, I was quite surprised when I came to the surface as it only looked about five pounds when I first seen it, curiosity made me weighed it and it weighed in at 7lb 8oz it still didn't seem big enough for the fight it gave, I managed to lose the second fish that I hooked up with, another hook pull. We packed up in time for Steve to go to work.

My seven pounder, that needs to checked for steroids.

And that the summery of my total fishing for the past three week, a few lost Carp one Hard fighting Common and a bag full of silvers, now that I think about it I haven't really missed out.

A few months ago I added a countdown timer to the side of the blog this is counting down to what both Steve and I hope to be five days of awesome Carp fishing, we are going to France!, a small lake in the north east of France about four acres in size that is home to a good head of big Carp.

I'm not going to count it as a 2009 target if I do manage to bag a 25lb Carp as I want to try and achieve all my targets on local waters.

If you'd like to see where we are heading to check out this website : Lake Albert

Bagging up on Dace.

Still thinking about Bream Steve and I headed down to the Fendrod with the intentions of fishing light and hoping that with enough feeding and a bit of patience that just maybe we might get the big Bream on the feed.Starting off with a pristine little Perch.

It seems like ages since I set up my match rod and after getting used to my Carp set up the 4lb line felt super thin and fragile at the start. We both started off using maggot feeders while generously sprinkling halibut pellets over the top and I set up a Carp rod and cast it off to the side in the hope of picking up a bonus Carp. I managed my first fish on the feeder pretty quickly a little Perch then I hooked a species that I've never caught before and I was very chuffed when I realised that I'd caught my first ever Dace.

Me and my first ever Dace.

I carried on with the feeder and landed another Dace, Steve was starting to get a bit impatient and was eager to catch one as he had never caught a Dace either. Swapping the feeder for a float he certainly hit in to them, while I carried on picking off the odd one with the feeder.

About mid way through the session I had a take the bent the match rod right over and just stayed on the end like a heavy weight before the hook pulled, Steve thinks that it may have been a bigger Perch but full of optimism I'm gonna say the it was a Bream I know for one thing that it wasn't a Carp as they don't seem to hang around like this did.

It was only going to be a short session, We fish for few hours before packing up and I really did enjoy myself, we'd bagged just under 4lb pound of Dace and Perch between us which I thought was an excellent especially as the majority of the catch was Dace a species that neither of us had caught before.

My final fish of the session a Perch of about half a pound.

Unfortunately, the Carp rod stayed motionless until I packed up but you never know it might have picked me up a bonus Carp and it certainly wasn't going to catch anything from inside the rod bag.

Our haul of Dace and Perch.

And the two biggest Dace of the day,Steve caught the top one and the bottom one was mine.

I had heard that there were Dace in the Fendrod even though they have never been stocked, but to be honest I didn't expect to be able bag up on them like we did and I'm really pleased that after a short session I can add another species to my catch list.