The following are my field notes made at the time of our return trip to our french water. It turned out to be a very tough week indeed, in more ways than one!
Sunday,17th.September
15.00
Arrived after a very long and tedious journey; it should have taken us only three and a half hours but due to stops etc. took nearly five!
We just got the bivvies up in peg 7 before the heavens opened - rain, hail, and goodness knows what else! People still arriving so it’s hard to anticipate how busy the lake will be. Cannot even pop out to fill the kettle it’s raining so hard!
18.00
Rain stopped and the sun has come out. All three rods are in play: the LH is a Cell wafter on a 12inch hooklength, the CENTRE rod is a Ronnie Rig with ‘Scent from Heaven’ pop up on a four inch Korda Boom, and the RH rod, a Monster Ice boilie with a pink Cell topper. All but the centre rod are just shy of 22 wraps aimed at the Out of Bounds swim.
[At this point, I stopped and did a swim survey and made the following map]:
Monday,18th.September
9.20
Awoke to a cold, misty dawn. No action apart from a lot of line bites. Mark thinks there is a ‘trailer’ out there somewhere as he too has suffered similarly, in fact he contacted something during the night to a dithery bite, losing it at the net. He got the impression it was a sturgeon by the way it acted and doesn’t think it was a carp. Just having breakfast. Feeling cold.
9.40
Discussions with Mark suggested exploiting the deep nature of the water in front of us. There is 15 feet at 12 wraps which obviously shallows up to the margin. The current plan is to fish at the bottom of this slope, so the next job is to find where this is.
The bottom of the slope was found at 6 wraps so this where my spot is going to be. The mark I have chosen is the double trees to the left of the Out-of-Bounds swim and I’m going to start off with 6-10 spods of Cell over the top.
10.30
I’m cold! My face, hands, and feet are cold! It feels like winter! When you put your hands in the lake it feels like bath water so there is a considerable difference in air and water temperatures. If the water is cooling it may make sense to fish the deeper water as I’m doing, than the shallower water further out.
11.00
Line Lay.
Mark and I have just been discussing Line Lay in relation to a conversation he had with some dutch guys who were on here last year. What they are doing is castig and sinking their lines, they then open the bail-arm of the reel and let line be pulled off the spool for a good five minutes. They then attach the bobbins to achieve a semi-slack status. Obviously, the heavier the bobbin, the more the line will tighten. I have done this on my own rods because I think it is more important when fishing deep water at short range - than fishing shallow water at long range because of the way the line ‘goes through mid-water’.
11.30
Mark is showing me a very interesting way of getting boilies out. Twenty-five boilies are packed into a pva sock; the loop of the line is threaded through the sock with a baiting needle and the whole lot is cast out free-line as it were. Mark is achieving 13 wraps with ease. This is a method of bait delivery I could usefully employ at my secret Essex water.
13.30
Change of plan. With some fish now showing in the middle I am now fishing at 19 wraps on one rod which has a rig I’ve just invented. It’s a way of fishing lower to the deck than the Ronnie Rig and involves the Korda Boom passing through the eye of a size 4 Krank hook, a double overhand knot, blobbed, terminating the rig. A fox sinker 1/2 inch from the eye allows the hook to rotate and stops it going up the Boom.
14.20
Tactical change. All three are now fishing at 19 wraps and I have substituted the six inch German Rig for a four inch ‘D’ rig. This still carries a 14mm. Monster Baits Monster Ice bottom bait with half a pink ‘topper’. I feel a bit more confident now we are able to get some Cell out with the throwing sticks.
17.30
Thunderstorm just blowing through - right in the middle of cooking tea. That which was dry is now soaking wet again.
20.00
Another tactical change. All rods re-cast for the night. Replaced one of the Ronnies with another of my own invention:
In this, coated braid is stripped only enough to enable a half blood knot at the eye. Shank stop and mini-swivel as standard, but an AAA shot squeezed onto the exposed braid with a 3mm. gap to the hook eye. A small length of silicone rig tube behind the shot keeps the hooklength straight, aided by a small blob of putty to stop it sliding up the hooklength.
More boilies out with the throwing-stick to back up what is already there. Sorted.
Tuesday, 19th.September
11.45
It seems a lot has gone on this morning although sadly, still no fish to report. Had a shower earlier and got talking to Cisse fishing in peg 12. He fishes here a lot and reckons 7 is a really good peg. Two good marks - to the right in the margins and to the left - straight at the Out-of-Bounds swim at 90 meters. This has led both me and Mark to change tactics. Mark has baited the margin to his right and I have baited my margin to the left. Very short range. An underarm lob still sees you in ten feet of water. Nevertheless, a good few handfuls of Cell have gone on this spot and I am hopeful as ever.
The other two rods are out in the pond, bang on on the Out-of-Bounds peg as Cisse has advised. I am fishing at 23 wraps which is getting close to my limit although I still have three-and-a-half ounce square leads on. Hopeful.
The reason for the extended range is that there are only two metres of water here. Cisse reckons that given the cold conditions, the cold water will sink, leaving the warmer water at the top. This makes sense because the lake water feels like bath water when you put your hand in it.
16.30
Next tactical change. Mark caught a crayfish on his margin rod confirming what we thought, that the steeply shelving margins harbour these crustaceans and the carp patrol the margins to seek these delicacies. This has persuaded me to fish a bit further out (at 9 wraps) because a) I don’t want to put my bait where the crayfish are, and b) I just don’t get that feeling about my margin spot. I have seen fish out to the left and there has been a lot of bubbling and I feel more confident with the bait there, rather than very close in.
18.45
Yet another change - this time a strategic change forced on us by the arrival of french anglers opposite in pegs 13 and 14. They are bait-boating here, there, and everywhere and have taken the water I have designated to be my hot-spot. Since it is nearer them than me I cannot rightly claim it as my own and thus yield it to them without prejudice. They are also bait-boating right on the limit of what can be said to be the middle of the lake. Neither Mark nor I wish to involve ourselves in a territorial dispute so we have left them to it. I have put all three of my rods on the ‘tallest tree’ mark, firing Cell boilies out with a catapult. Tactically, I have added a Ronnie Rig with a pink pop-up (Scent from Heaven) to the two ‘D’ rigs which comprise 14mm. Monster Ice bottom baits with Cell pink ‘toppers’.
9.45
Mark and I stayed up on into darkness last night and as usual there were signs of active carp on the lake. At just gone nine o’clock I had a take to my left-hand rod - a steady, unhurried progression. I hooked into the fish which didn’t do a lot, but we could see in the darkness it was one of the lake’s koi. A very pretty fish of 15:08, my first koi from any lake I have ever fished.
Out with the baits again and bedded down for what started as a pleasantly balmy evening…
At some time before three in the morning, I had another take, this time to the right-hand rod. As soon as I hooked it I could tell it was a better fish and because it was all over the place across the front of the swim we were both convinced it was one of the lake’s sturgeon. It even got down to the right of Mark’s marginal spot and I thought we were in for a right old ‘pickle’. Eventually however, a great pale flank flashed in the darkness as Mark netted a great big common!
At first I thought it must be a forty but it was just shy at 39:08, a fabulous fish, once again caught on the trusty fluorocarbon ‘D’ rig.
11.15
Because of the success of the ‘D’ rig (and my total confidence in it) I have changed the Ronnie for another presentation - The Basic Rig. This is the same as Steve Renyard’s ‘Basic Complicated Rig’ but without the complexity. It is simply 15lb. monofilament (in this case ‘Daiwa Sensor’) with a looped hair tied from the mono, the Cell Wafter positioned such that it touches the bend of the hook. Ten turns of the knotless knot make a rig about as simple as it can get. A ‘Carp R Us’ Shorty Mouthsnagger acts as an aligner and removes that sharp angle with the hook eye which I don’t like. It’s out in the pond on the right-hand rod.
14.15
These weeks away fishing certainly make you think about your own fishing at home in the UK. My experience this week has certainly made me think about placing greater faith in the ‘D’ rig and to stop messing about with other rigs! It has also made me think about bait and feeding. At home, everyone uses the spod and this produces a different pattern of feed deposition. By using a catapult, an accurate and more spread out pattern of boilies can be achieved and this may be an edge for no other reason than it is different to what everyone else employs.
Thursday, 24th.September
14.30
Nothing to report. Quite simply, the lake has died. Apart from the very occasional splash from a fish there is no sign of carp, certainly not in our vicinity.
Some belgian lads have arrived and they are fishing the two pegs to our left. This may do one of two things; either the fish will be pushed out of the corner and we will all stand a better chance, or their bait-boating will cut me off and I will stand even less chance than I did before.
All rods now an out-and-out snowman. A single Cell fluoro pop-up supports a 14mm. ‘Live System’ boily admirably, (which is what I’ve got on).
Friday, 25th.September
10.30
There was more action on the lake last night, the weather seemingly more conducive, milder, with mozzies in the air before nightfall.
There was a take at some time in the night and on hooking the fish I thought it was a small one. This proved to be not the case as Mark netted a fantastic-looking 38 pounder.
Once again I fell short of the magic forty pounds but how could I be unhappy with a fish like this?!
Later on there was another take and this felt like a really big fish. On reflection I think it may have been a sturgeon; we shall never know as the hook fell out as Mark was putting the net in the water. This morning I am keeping up the feeding of the swim with the rods out of the water. There doesn’t seem much happening at the moment so it’s a good ploy to stop angling, feed the swim, and let them come in for a munch.
16.00
Waiting, waiting, waiting. When there is naught else to do the only thing that can be done is to wait.
I had a clear out of my rig safe and threw everything out except the Ronnie Rigs and I now have spare ‘D’ rigs incorporating the new all-the-way-up-the-shank method of forming the ‘D’. With the ‘Carp R Us’ shorty brown mouthsnaggers, these look a very ‘carpy’ rig indeed and is the one I’m going to go forward with I think.
Saturday, 26th.September
05.00
Half an hour ago I was awoken from a deep sleep by the sound of a screaming buzzer! I just wasn’t ‘with it’ at all. I scrambled around in a blind panic trying to find my glasses and shoes and dived out of the bivvy only to stumble and fall on the ground on all fours. Aware that a fish was ripping yards of line off the reel, I scrambled to my feet and made a dash towards the blue light of the bite alarm! Tripping over exposed tree roots I fell to the ground once more and struggled to gain my footing, only to mis-judge where the waters edge was and fell in up to my waist! At least it wasn’t during the winter this time! Eventually I found the rod and made contact with the fish, soaked to the skin from the waist down! By now, Mark was at my side and I managed to get the fish in without incident, apart from loud squelching as I hopped from one foot to the other!
I went off for a complete change of clothes while Mark dealt with the fish, holding it in the water while I sorted myself out. On the scales it went 32:06, another very creditable thirty-pounder.
17.00
A final throw of the dice. I have persuaded Mark to fish a couple of rods over on my side of the peg - aimed at peg 15 in the far left corner and this he has agreed to do for the final night’s fishing before we pack up and leave early tomorrow.
We conclude there is nothing like the 600 fish in this water the owner claims and the fish-kill earlier in the year has reduced a population which was nothing like that claimed - even further. However, it is what it is. I am confident of a take tonight having spent the better part of the week introducing bait early and late onto the same spot.
There is one last chance…
Sunday, 27th.September.
08.00
At some time in the night I could vaguely hear scrabbling coming from Mark’s bivvy, the sound of his bite alarm going off in the dark, and the panic stations as he divested himself of his sleeping-bag, dashed through the door of his bivvy, fell on the ground, but ultimately made it safely to his rod.
“I did a you!” said Mark, as I found him at the water’s edge playing a fish. Even in the dark I could see he had a great big grin on his face as the fish he was currently playing was so well deserved. Mark had worked extremely hard for a fish during the week and it has to be said fished very well for scant reward. A good fish was less than he deserved for the effort he put in and I was hoping against hope this would be a big one.
The fish when we got it out was not as big as I was hoping for but was a carp at ‘last knockings’ right at the end of a very slow and arduous week. At 26lbs. it was on the smaller end of things for this water but was a carp nonetheless. At least Mark said he could now drive home with a smile on his face.
And so probably our last trip to the water ended on a higher note than it might have done. A tough week but with at least some reward in the form of three thirties for me including a fish only just failing to make forty. Happy days!
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